Gearing up in time for Virginia

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Its been a while since I have written much of anything, but that's not because our team hasn't been busy. We just took the step up from local races to NRC races and it was a real eye opener for all of us. I was a bit unprepared for my first NRC event as a director and the riders themselves were a bit nervous for their first NRC of the year as a team.

We went down to the Jacksonville Bicycle Classic in Florida for a criterium and a road race. The field was definitely more competitive than at what we had been doing for the first part of the year and I was personally surprised by the speed in the criterium. You can see our website (www.factorydevelopmentteam.com) for a recap of the weekend if you like, as I won't spend too much time with it here because I already typed that story once! Overall, I was proud of the team.

We are getting ready to do the Tour of Virginia. This is going to be a big deal for us, and since we didn't really get any real results in Florida there is some pressure that the guys are going to have to do something good in Virginia. We come in with a man down due to illness, David Duncan has some kind of a virus that looks like strep, but isn't.

We will have a daily diary for this race starting today! I know it's early but this is when the race starts for our team. Here is a rundown of all of us folks and what we will have to face up to in order to have good event:

Director (me, Erik Saunders):

This will be my first time driving a car in the caravan, so there is pressure for me. I used to complain a lot about caravan driving because I almost died a few times in smaller stage races, so I hope I can be a shining beacon of competency, safety and respect for the riders. I have also a lot of odds and ends to wrap up to get organized…food, equipment, cars, etc.

Pat Raines:

Pat will be riding this race. He will probably struggle in the race with a lot of tough hills since he is a big guy, but he will have to be a super grunt worker and he will have to keep everyone on the same page in the race and be there in the criteriums when it counts.

Chris Monteleone:

Chris will have to keep the bar high for this one. He has placed some high expectations on himself for the general classification and hopes to figure in some stage results and get a win.

Jered Gruber:

Jered doesn't quite know where he will fit in at this race. If it were not an NRC event, he would surely be going for the win in a stage and maybe he would be confident to try something crazy to shake up the GC. I think that he is likely looking to be sneaky and opportunistic, trying his chances from a large breakaway group.

David Duncan:

Out due to illness! Life in a small team is like this. Things are great until you have riders sick or injured.

Tiago Depaula:

Tiago is a serious dark horse out there. He is brimming with confidence for this event and he knows in his head that he will do a good GC result. It is within his capabilities, but we will be riding against some guys that we have never seen before so it's hard to know what will really happen.

Shawn Forsythe:

Shawn is a guest rider. He rides normally with the CCB club from New England, but we are borrowing him through our partnership with TIME, which is also the bike sponsor for CCB.

Here is the list of tasks I had to do to prepare for the race:

• Pick up the roof rack for the car from Ken's Bike Shop
• Pick up the car magnets with our sponsors logos… we don't have a team car, only a van and an suv, so we will have to rent one… the expense of having a car all year is too great and we will save a lot of money if we just rent a car for the three times a year that we will need one
• Load up the trailer: Spare handle bars, spare tape, spare derailleur hangers, spare saddles, bike washing gear, tools, spare tires and tubes, spare wheels
• Make a list daily tasks for our two staff members
• Buy a 2 cases of yuengling lager Chris Monteleone's dad who is on the staff.

The madness begins…