Uruguay

Sorry I'm a little late on a Uruguay post. The race was a great experience and a great way to start the season. Results weren't so hot due to some bad luck and lack of racing form but I had a realy great time. HEre's some pictures to make up for lack of details.

David Guttenplan

So since my roommate wrote about me in his blog (http://theguttman.blogspot.com) I agreed to mention him in my next blog. Instead, I decided to one up him and make an entire blog post dedicated to The Gutt. Let's start with a list of things you should know about the Gutt.

-His nickname comes from the fact that he can eat a ridiculous amount of food, and gets quite gut for a little guy from doing it.
-He has some absolutely ridiculous chops (see photo below).

-David flatted yesterday but still hasn't changed it, and now he has 35 minutes to eat breakfast and be ready for the ride.
-He won't be ready for the ride, because despite being a nice guy, is generally frantic and running late a lot.
-He's happy because one of his coaching clients just won a race.
-He pretty much talks nonstop which is ok because most of what he says is pretty ridiculous.
-David was a world class juggler and yo-yoer in his elementary and middle school days.
-David hates time trials and climbing, but can win lots of bike races with his combination of sprint, sneakiness, and sweet chops.

It's like that yall

And bam, just like that, I've been to South America.

Curtis and I hopped in the car at 6 am Friday and drove ourselves south, south, south, all the way to Miami. There we parked at our bosses house, and were given a ride to the airport by our friend and sponsor Fernando (please check http://daniale.com/).

A nine hour flight took us to Santiago, Chile. I slept the majority of the flight, and some of the next flight too, a 2.5 hour trip from Santiago to Montevideo. All in all it was probably the smoothest travel day I've ever had.

Now we're at the Hotel in Montevideo, which is actually quite nice. The cit is beautiful and we got in a short ride along the beach. We also had some of the steak that Uruguay and Argentina are famous for, and it was excellent.

Now we have a few more days until racing starts and life goes full-gas.

SIRV

In addition to just racing our bikes this year, Chemstar p/b UHC is also participating in a number of community outreach programs to try to give back a little while racing our bikes. The community outreach branch of our team is known as SIRV-which stands for Supporting Integrity and Responsibility in Velosport. We're starting by promoting cycling and health with over 40 visits this year to various schools, with a a focus on under-served communities. We're also running a helmet donation program and running several larger events at some bigger races. In the future, we hope this program grows along with our team, and that we can make an impact as we travel to other countries to race. It'd be great if everyone with a facebook account could look up SIRV on facebook to stay up to date with what we're doing, and go to Chemstarcycling.com and click on the link to SIRV as the website gets up and running.

Some of these photos may be a double-post but they are from our first school visit to the St. Andrew's School in Nassau during the Tour of the Bahamas.

Heading South

Team Chemstar might be a brand new team, but at the beginning of March, we will start our first UCI International stage race at the Rutas de America in Uruguay. I'm really excited to be on the roster for this race, and to visit South America for the first time in my life. It looks to be a tough race with Pro-Continental teams from Europe attending as well as the top South America competition. It's a true Pro stage race held over 6 days. Myself, Shane Braley, David Guttenplan, Curtis Winsor and Coulton Hartrich will all be representing Chemstar presented by United Healthcare. So Maconites, if you see me flying down the road glued to the bumper of a car or scooter, you know why.

roll out

Team Chemstar rolled out the season at Tour of the Bahamas not too long ago. No spectacular results form yours truly but great training and some time in the sunshine. We also did a school visit as part of our community outreach program, something I'm really excited about this year. Overall we had an amazing time and I'm really excited about the coming season. At the moment I'm just building fitness and looking towards San Dimas, Redlands and Battenkill after a few more local races. Please check out chemstarcycling.com and look for us on facebook to see what we're up to this year.

2011

http://chemstarcycling.com/site/?p=102

I'm very excited to be a member of the new Chemstar presented by United Healthcare Pro Development team in 2011. I got in touch with team manager Todd Hancock late last year and he has done nothing but impress me throughout all our contact. The team is a mix of young riders and older guys who have a lot of experience to pass down. We have a great mix of sponsors, great staff and quality riders, so we are all looking forward to a big year in 2011.

Aside from that, I have just been training, although a bit of sickness and this weather is making things tough again. I think we all miss the winters of 50 and 60 degree temperatures or even getting those wonderful weeks of short-sleeve weather. Unfortunately, there's nothing to be done but bundle up and put in the miles.