Apology

over the course of one's racing career we come in contact with all sorts of characters. some of those characters we become friends with and/or teammates with. however, friendship and camaraderie on bikes can take different shapes and forms over time, even weekend to weekend. and by the end of a season friendships can be shattered, and hatred born. that hatred is often bred from misunderstandings or lack of communication. bike racers are a tough, stubborn lot, so trying to overcome the attack of misunderstanding, lack of communication, and hatred can be a difficult gap to bridge. but i will attempt to drop my pride and do so now.

early in the season i wrote a email to some our our team members about a race at wells ave that was unintentionally published on this site. some sketchy things happened in that race, and i wrote an emotional piece about it. in that email, i said some things about an old friend and teammate of mine, chris harnish, which may have gone beyond the bounds of what was called for in a race report. he has recently been nice enough to contact me about this, and he has asked me to clear the air.

chris and i have had a huge gap to bridge from events that happened during the 2005 season when we rode together for colavita, including participation in Ireland's Ras. through misunderstandings and lack of communication our friendship dissolved, the team split, and something bordering on hatred took over. now i want to publicly apologize for the things i said in that past email and try to begin to bridge that gap and try to find amicable ground.

the road is too narrow for two-wheeled warriors to not work in some sort of harmony together, and i want to bring some harmony between chris and myself. he had some great rides in the second half of the season at ninigret and norwell, where we both tried to work together to attain results. i respect him for his great rides and hope he continues to ride will in the '08 season (but not well enough to drop me!).

furthermore, by having the courage to write me personally to correct any heated statement i may have said in the past deserves him personal respect. chris, you're ok man.

hopefully this will go some way in repairing a strained relationship so we can at least work together on the road and not spew venom at eachother off it. i look forward to hearing from chris, accepting my apologies and best wishes for next season.

thad

VDFT news

a quick "what's happening":

*ryan won the County Classic two weeks ago by 1:30 with a 22 mile solo breakaway!

*adam finished 4th in stage 2 of the Oswego stage race last saturday

*i finished 5th in the Fort Fairfield road race last sunday

*ambre has had a string of top 15's, including an 11th on day 1 of Superweek in WI

*kieran and i started the workingman's stage race, both performing below par in the tt, and then staying dry by not starting stage 2 or 3 due to the horrible week of weather we're having

*the Van Dessel Elite Team has been invited to the Mt. Holly crit (formerly road race) in NJ this saturday.  This is the beggest one day race in the Northeast after Univest.  there'll be lots of pros, euros, and international riders there, including Adam, Ryan, and myself.  adam and ryan will be looking to get a top ten each to try to bring a pro contract their way, while i'll be looking to make it past mile 20 (of 62) to bring retirement more into focus.  over the last 9 years the average speeds have been 29mph +/- 1mph!!!  combined with the super strong riders from the VDFT-NJ team who are smoking hot right now, the V on our jerseys could well stand for Victory in two days.

any other news?  let's hear it...

t

Weekends Hot Box

Well The Cox crit was certainly a good time as per always. I would definatly have to confirm this as being my favorite crit next to my home town crit apart of the Green Mountain Stage Race. 15,000 dollars certainly draws a crowd, in this instance it was A handfull of pro teams and individual pros such as Rite Aid, Successfull Living, Nerac, and several this that and the others.

This race is a blast because it's long, a super fun course with a couple of fast drags, bottle necked corners, and a nice hill.

Typically the race seems to go the same every year. It's super hot and humid, or super rainy, and the race sort of turns into attrition. Starts off fast, we lose some people, then we lose some more people, a crash here, a crash there, a break forms, the field slows down, the field speeds up, we lose more people .... one more crash for good measure and the race is over. This year the field was a little more agressive and what seemed to be a little faster. When the break went off it was pretty thin missing some predominant sprinters. A good few of us figured this wasn't going to stick. However with a couple Neracs, a SL, etc. there were enough people unmotivated to chace. After some instigating from an Australian pro from AIS, and some attacks from myself and others, the pace managed to pick up and people actually started to chase. With some teams with help finally driving things along for the first time in my 3 years doing this crit we actually caught the break.

However not without a fair amount of banging around on the back section. I am convinced the road had become worse than last year as now there were several sections of nasty holes, gaps, and a full on table top. Many of us managed to get fun launches off this however I did whitness a Clnoonan young gun just about endo his rig taking his rear tire about a foot off the ground while nose diving. Interesting. Regardless, the last 10 laps were averaging over 40 miles an hour on the back stretch so that was enough to cause some serious banging around going into the swooping right, and then finally into the hairpin corner to the finish.

Long story short, we caught the bulk of the break the last two laps or so and I manged to make the front split; with whatever I had left after losing a bottle I managed 14th which I was excited about. This is the only crit however where you lust over every next spot as the prize money goes up by about a hundred dollars or more! Off to Fitchburg now for some middle season heat treatment.

Hearing some fellow Van Desslers cheer me on was also a welcomed bonus as im used to having to cheer myself on. Great job to all who raced and thankfully stayed on two wheels.

-A

p.s lets hope for kits soon, 1 jersey and 1 short is making for some very collegiate style fun.