This one time, at Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Gear Grinder camp...

Just got in last night after a week away- spent a few days with the Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Gear Grinder team and then a few days traveling with my Georgia area sales rep- Scott Williford- visiting some area bike shops. Both parts of the trip were too short, but both were really good.

I had thankfully uneventful flights to Atlanta, Georgia and then got my rental car and headed down to Macon. Though I was tempted beyond all measure to stop at every Waffle House or BBQ joint along the way, I managed to make it into Macon fairly quickly- with only one brief tangle with Atlanta traffic... YAY!!

I got in early enough to hang out with team mechanic John Columbus and his hired help (and my Twitter buddy) Josh Boggs! I sat with the two of them as they put together team bikes- they're both smart enough to know better than to let me work on the bikes. Josh's incredibly cute daughter Sophie was there as well- she is a total doll!

The next day, was more bike building and more rider arrivals. That afternoon, I got out for a nice ride with Mario Mazza (one of the sponsors and also a rider) and Bruce Thompson (father of Chad Thompson- team owner- and legal counsel for the team). We rode for about 2-2.5hrs in the strong winds on some great country roads around Macon. It was great to get out and spin the legs after being on a plane the day before.

It was nice to be out on a ride!

More riders arrived and that night we had a nice team dinner and then the first of the nightly team meetings. Chad Thompson welcomes the riders to the camp and we all introduced ourselves. Frankie Andreu, the team's new Director, spoke to the riders as well and talked about his plans and hopes for the team. Lemme tell you- he's a straight forward guy and the team is going to benefit from his experience as one of the top American professionals ever. The fire of a competitor is still very visible in his eyes and it is not hard to see why he had such a successful professional career.

Johnny Sundt getting fit to his new team bike by rider and fitter Jim Baldesare.

Team owner Chad Thompson talking to the riders and introducing everybody on the first night as Frankie listens.

The "real" boss of any cycling team- the soigneur- Janis Burns!

The next morning was an early one and we headed out on the roads for a 3.5hr ride again. Billed as a "shakedown ride" for the riders on new bikes/ bike setups, the ride was "mellow" for the pros... though I was dragging my tongue in my spokes by the end. The highlight, as it is each year, was simply getting to ride and chat with the guys. Getting to hang out on a bike and ride with new riders like Johnny Sundt and Chad Hartley, or returning riders like Jake Rytlewski is always a thrill... and yes, I admit I had to fight off the bike geek fanboy moments while riding and chatting with Frankie. More meetings and bike fits followed- after I fell asleep and took a 3hr nap after the ride!

Frankie checking his messages during our one brief stop of the ride.

The next morning was another early one, as we drove back to the Atlanta area to take part in a group ride and Q&A with Frankie and a few of the riders at Lifetime Fitness. A few of the riders were having performance tests done, for VO2 and lactate threshold. Frankie and I rode from Lifetime Fitness to Outspokin Bicycles for a short meet and greet before heading back to Lifetime with a few other riders and joining up with the much larger group that came out to ride with the team. It was another great Georgia ride in the cold and wind... except for all them danged hills!

Frankie signing autographs at Outspokin... oddly, nobody wanted my autograph...

A whole lot of sexiness lined up at Lifetime Fitness!

Team rider Chad Hartley talking about nutrition during the Q&A session.

Frankie Andreu with some doughy looking fat guy... no wait... that's me... DAMN!

My rep, Scott, joined me at the ride and once everyhing was done with the ride and the team, I left with him to begin the dealer portion of my stay in Georgia... which will be in Part II of this trip recap!!

Stay tuned kids!

Tim

Where do I begin?

Ok, let's see...

The Kenda Pro Cycling (KPC) training camp was awesome! The weather didn't exactly cooperate, but that didn't stop the camp from being both productive and fun. Many of the guys on the team I have met before over the past 3 previous seasons, but there are a lot of other new faces too. Watching these guys ride together and get to know each other was pretty cool and exciting. All the ingredients are there for the team to succeed in races of all types this year. I think a lot of folks are going to be surprised when the pinstripes and flames of KPC step on the podium of the larger races in the country this season. I won't be surprised... but some other folks might be.

I hopped back on the rollers this evening and began getting back into my regular routine. Last week, thanks to travel days and bad weather, I missed a few days of riding. And thanks to the good food in Greenville, I added a couple pounds and fell off the cholesterol wagon once or twice. So now it is back to obeying the rules and riding as often as I can. With the next trip to Taipei just a little over a week away, I'm trying to get as much riding and exercise in as I can before then. The legs felt pretty flat at first tonight, but they eventually warmed up and felt pretty good in the end. And, the weight update; 210.2 this morning.

Tomorrow is a medium sized big day for me- I'll elaborate and hopefully have pictures tomorrow. Until then... just keep guessing.

Since my eyelids are slamming shut on me, I guess it is time for bed. So until the next time...

Tim

Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Spinergy; More from team camp

Well, I got into Ohio at nearly 11:00AM on Wednesday after a late night flight from San Diego to Chicago. Needless to say, I was far from my "freshest" when my friend Stefano, from Kenda Tires, picked me up at the airport and we began our drives from Columbus to Greenville.

The drive went through some truly beautiful country and I was shocked to not see any snow at all. However, I did see numerous icicles hanging off of rock faces along the roads where the water was seeping through the rocky hillsides. Otherwise, the drive was pleasantly uneventful and we managed to not get lost along the way.

Camp was based in a beautiful part of Greenville's downtown area and we stayed at the Westin Poinsett, which is a wonderful hotel. When we arrived, the hotel was practically over run by the team riders, the staff, sponsors and a fleet of bikes being assembled and riders being fitted by Tom Coleman and his Wobblenaught staff. It looked a high end bike shop had exploded in the hotel as people scurried to get riders equipped with bikes and all the other sponsor products. It was pretty cool to see the riders being fitted, bikes being built and a season's worth of gear being handed out... it was like bike nerd Christmas come true.

The view of the front area of the hotel.

A bike geek's drem!

Morning came very early after such a long previous day and it came pretty cold. It was cold and grey, but we got out and rode to the Hincapie Sportswear headquarters for a visit with Rich Hincapie and then some team photos.

Team boss, Chad Thompson and I as we got ready to ride.

Hincapie HQ- those yellow jerseys were pretty cool. History.

2009 Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Spinergy- look for these guys on race podiums everywhere this year!

After the team photos, we headed out for a nice little bike ride which felt great to my legs after all that travel the day before. My legs were dead, but getting them moving felt awesome and it was a lot of fun to get out and ride with the team.

We're about to board the plane, so I have to go for now... but maybe I'll post more pics from Chicago during my layover if I can get the wifi working.

Tim

Travelin' man...

Hopping on a redeye flight tonight for Columbus, Ohio with a short layover in Chicago for a couple hours. Once in Columbus, I'll be joining forces with my friend Stefano Lumbaca of Kenda Tires. Since Kenda is the title sponsor of the pro team we also sponsor, Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Spinergy, Stefano and I will be making the drive from Columbus to Greenville, South Carolina for the team's training camp and media launch. Oh yes... I will have my bike with me!

I'll also be traveling with some cameras, my iPhone and an HD video camera, so there will hopefully be plenty of great images and interviews coming from the camp... as well as possible footage of me way off the back on the team training rides. WAY off the back. (Thank God the bikes look so good from behind.)

So, I might be a little invisible for a few days, since I don't know what the internet situation will be like in Greenville... but I do know that we will be staying at George Hincapie's resort/ residential community, so it can't exactly be all bad.

Stay tuned for updates and news along the way. Should be pretty good!

Tim

What a day... again...

Today was one helluva day. It's Tuesday and I'm already tired.

We received our copies of Road Bike Action yesterday, and I found this on page 22;

*They did get one thing wrong though, I'm the Brand Manager and not the Product Manager. The Product Manager working with me to create the Masi line is Wayne Doran. They also called the Randonneur the Raconteur... but I am not complaining at all.

When they sent me the questions for this piece, I had no idea they were gonna run all of it verbatim and that I was the only one who would be mentioned. I woulda tried to sound, you know... smart. Regardless, I'm really tickled by this and hope you'll go out and buy a copy of the magazine and support my friends there.

If you saw the Masi website or the Masi Facebook group, you would've seen that I also received and shipped out all of the team frames for the Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Spinergy team. I'm so thrilled to be still working with these guys as they step up to UCI Professional status this year. I really can't say enough how proud I am of the team and how happy I am for my friend Chad Thompson who runs/ owns the team. He has done SO much for this program in a very short period of time. It's been an honor to work with him and I am very happy to see his efforts pay off with this next step in the team's evolution. It's exciting to say the least.

Another really cool thing today was that I had an article published on one of the preeminent online marketing publications in the US- the Marketing Profs Daily Fix blog. I've been one of the contributors to the site for a couple years now, but as things here at Masi have really picked up and my marketing work for the brand has increased (along with the travel), I have had less and less time and ability to contribute. It is no exaggeration to say that writing for the Profs is one of the greatest of my professional highlights. Many thanks to the editor (and my friend), Ann Handley, for keeping me on the list of contributors as I've floated in and out. If you have such an inclination, go give the article a read... just be warned that it's my marketing persona and not my bike persona.

Now that it is nearly 11:00PM, I think I'm going to finally haul my carcass to bed.

Good night my fiends,

Tim

Urgent Press Release: Team Announcement

I've been itching to share this since Interbike; awesome news from our professional racing team. And yes, they're still on Masi!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Spinergy Debuts Industry-Supported, All-American UCI Team

COLUMBUS, Ohio (October 3, 2008) – A new UCI Continental Pro Team is set to debut in 2009! The team formerly known as Team Inferno has become Kenda Pro Cycling presented by Spinergy for 2009 and beyond, signing a talented roster to challenge the domestic road racing scene on all fronts.

While primarily a criterium team with international fire power in 2007 and 2008, the team’s management, cast of sponsors and financial backers have unanimously opted for something unique: a purely industry-supported and American-driven professional team. This means not only a 100% American roster, but all staff are US citizens as well.

“This has been a long and challenging road, but we could not be happier with the idea, or the final product!” said team Director, Chad Thompson. “We have spent 4 years learning, 4 years building and 4 years networking to make a truly special program. And, this was not all Inferno Racing’s design. Stefano Lumbaca of Kenda actually contacted us with the idea and it simply took off from there!”

While the program will miss its international contingent dearly, the concept is one that Inferno believes is important. Many teams have collapsed in this pained economy and as such, fewer teams will exist domestically in 2009. This means American racers will be without a home, and to have talented racers from abroad take the few openings that remain simply is not in the best interests of American cycling. This sport is experiencing resurgence in America, and Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Spinergy aims to have Americans at the helm.

With the addition of long-time sponsor Spinergy as the presenting sponsor, the team finds itself in the unique position of being the only domestic team backed entirely by bicycle industry support. “Apart from the newly announced Cervelo Test Team, which is a Pro Tour team, we are the only other professional team of its kind that I know of. And, we are a single citizenship team. This means our entire roster can line-up at our National Championship races!” stated Thompson.

While most sponsors have returned for 2009 through 2011, some new partners have joined to support the team in the domestic peloton and to adjust their sights on races such as the Tour de Georgia and the Tour of Missouri. Team assistant manager/rider, Remi McManus exclaimed, “There is no doubt in my mind that this team will turn heads in 2009 and that every team backer, fan and fellow competitor will be impressed!”

While the team’s complete sponsor and supporter details are to be released in the very near future, the roster has been finalized with all riders putting the ink to paper shortly after Interbike.

2009 Kenda Pro Cycling p/b Spinergy roster:

Professional – Chad Burdzilauskas, Jaime Gandara, Bennet van der Genugten, Remi McManus, Benjamin Renkema, Jacob Rytlewski, Tyler Stanfield, Timothy Swain, Scottie Weiss, Matthew Winstead.

Elite – Marco Aledia, James Baldesare, Jeffrey Braumberger, Ryan Gamm, Richard Harper, Ryan Rish, Russell Stevenson, Chadwick Thompson.

Team updates are available at www.kendaprocycling.com or www.infernoracing.org and in any issue of ROAD Magazine!

I'm really happy about this news and can't wait for the next season to begin!

Tim