Team Panther » Training

Ryan Knapp – Finally Getting the Ball Rolling

Kirk — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:23:08 +0000

Spring time for me normally means good, solid, solo training rides during the week and passing the long hours on the bike with friends on the weekend. This spring, I probably have more trips to doctors and to specialists than I do 4 hour bike rides in the bank, a stat that no one wants to lay claim.

I was lucky enough to go to Belgium at then end of December for three weeks of Cyclocross racing against the worlds finest, however, after my return and little break from the bike, I’ve been battling knee problems nearly ever since. Basically I had some muscle imbalance in my right leg and my knee has been taking the brunt of the abuse because of it. It has been a long process getting all of the inflammation to subside and return to pain free riding, but recently, just as all of the new equipment has been rolling in, I’ve gotten the OK to start training again. As if I wasn’t already looking forward to getting out on my bike enough, the fact that I have a shiny new Canyon to ride and some fresh kit, the motivation is through the roof.

The only issue now is keeping my head on straight while I try to build up some form. Naturally, I really want to jump out there and start cranking out the big hours on the bike, but I’ve got to be smart and only progress as quickly as my body is willing. It’s been great to see the rest of the guys out racing well early this Spring, and that only makes me want to get out there with them even more. The season is long and I’m as motivated and focused as ever, and hopefully with a slower start to my season and can be stronger than ever in the second half of the season.

Ryan Cross – West Michigan rider updates

Kirk — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:18:54 +0000

I’ve spent the last few months making the best of mother nature’s annual butt kicking. I stayed active on the mountain bike and engaged in nightly dates with my trainer and Netflix account. With a relatively light final semester at school, I was fortunate enough to have some time to make a few trips around the country to visit friends and family. I logged some long hours during my trips to Florida, Arizona and even a week long spring break trip to Northern California. I squeezed in a few training races in Florida and Arizona to boot.

Aside from just riding, I was fortunate enough to get out to Colorado to go skiing with my family and I even got the privilege of being the best man in my best friend’s wedding in Cancun. Needless to say, it was an awesome winter and I am very pleased with the hours I have put in on the bike in the last few months.

I am excited to ramp up the intensity this month and begin some hard workouts to prepare for race season. I’m incredibly motivated to start racing and beyond thrilled to have such an amazing team with outstanding riders and top-notch sponsors behind us.

Birthplace: Traverse City, MI
Hometown: Holland, MI
Current Residence: Kalamazoo, MI
School: Western Michigan University

Favorites
Race: Lake Geneva Crit (Superweek) or Elk Grove
Place to Ride: the roads around my house in Charlevoix, MI or Highway 1 in NorCal
Food: Mexican all the way
Movie: Forest Gump
TV Show: Tosh.0 or Man vs. Wild
Music: classic rock and jam bands
Non-cycling Activities: skiing/snowboarding, camping, hiking, and traveling.

Albers in SoCal

Kirk — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 22:57:34 +0000

Spring Break in SoCal has become a tradition for the Albers family with the pool, beach, hikes at Torrey Pines, zoo, and LegoLand as our top destinations.

The weather is a little bit off, showers on some days with cooler temps almost every day, but with the sun out, it is hard to complain too much about riding in the North County San Diego area. Groups rides twice a week have been on the agenda, coupled with a few longer rides – mountainous by Ohio standards – the fitness seems to be coming along at a steady rate. Riding in this area has been great, familiarity with the wide variety of roads and catching up with the many friends I’ve made during past trips make the time on the bike fly.

I’ve still never made into the ocean, that’s Swami’s break off in the distance, some day I’ll give surfing a go…

The anticipation for the race season is running quite high, all the guys are looking forward to quite the “competitive” year.

Greg Christian – Veteran Panther

Kirk — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:24:06 +0000

My winter has probably not been as exciting as many of the guys on the team, at least not cycling-wise. I have spent most of it in cold, snowy and dark Michigan, which means lots of time spent on the indoor trainer. My approach to dealing with this for the past couple of years has been to substitute volume with intensity: keep the rides short and sweet with very little downtime and hit it hard nearly every day of the week. It works pretty well as long as you aren’t planning on any stage races in early spring. Aside from that I have been dabbling in skate skiing, which I found to be a lot of fun and a good way to get some aerobic exercise outdoors when there’s two feet of snow on the ground.

Over the holidays I took a trip to Korea and Japan to visit some relatives. While over there, I met up with former Panther rider Derek Laan, who is now living in Korea, and we did some hiking together. I also got to do a couple rides in Japan on a borrowed bike, which was great: lots of tiny farm roads and climbs of all sizes. Both Korea and Japan are great places for riding, even if they aren’t traditional cycling destinations.

Favorites
Race: Tour di Via Italia
Season: Spring
Ride: 6-gap route in North GA, or Waimea Canyon on Kauai, HI
Pre-Race Breakfast: Corn Pancakes (made with Jiffy mix)
During-Race Food: Rice Krispie Treats
Movie Character: Lucas Jackson (Cool Hand Luke)
70’s Cop Movie: Serpico
Non-Bike Activities: Aggressive hiking, water-skiing
Quote (bike related): “Ya don’t win races by goin’ home ‘n’ eatin’ chili.”

Erik Hamilton – 1 of 2 Hoosiers

Kirk — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:10:34 +0000

My hometown is Terre Haute, IN and I have been in Bloomington for 7 years. My favorite race is Hyde Park Blast, the atmosphere at the race is incredible, and racing under the lights is always a good time. Plus, it is one of the few crits that is difficult enough to scale down the field by the finish.

I would consider myself a time trial specialist and my favorite type of race is always going to be a long grueling one. I also dabble in cyclocross, it is great for the handling skills which I can always use more work on.

I enjoy my job as a bicycle mechanic at the Bicycle Garage in Bloomington. I also enjoy tattoos as evidenced by my arms. In my free time I enjoy reading as well as keeping up with the field of psychology which is what I earned my degree in at Indiana University. I have followed the IU basketball team for as long as I can remember, although it is not as easy lately given their less than stellar play. I love spending time with my fiance, Caitlin. We are getting married in August.

I trained all winner, rough given the brutal weather we experienced, definitely spent far too much time on the trainer, but hopefully it will pay dividends. The highlight was a trip last week to Knoxville, TN and Asheville, NC where I rode in Great Smoky Mountain National – it was awesome! The roads were great and I have never done that much climbing. I rode up to Newfound Gap in the Park which is almost 6000 feet. It was 16 miles up and 16 miles down. On the last day I met up with some friends from Bloomington in Maryville, TN and we rode 4 hours, all very uneventful until I was bitten by a dog for the first time since I began riding. Luckily it got mostly sock and not calf! Overall, the trip was great with 70 degrees and sunny everyday.

I am excited to start the new year with a new team and I am looking forward to begin racing, hopefully we can have a lot of success.

Mac Brennan – in the UP.

Kirk — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:58:43 +0000

I’m currently going to school at Michigan Tech which is in Houghton, MI. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it’s on the Northern tip of the Upper Peninsula. It’s pretty much as far North as you can get in Michigan. Needless to say, the winters up here up here are pretty crazy. If I had ride my trainer all winter I would probably go insane, luckily the XC skiing up here is great. Its a nice break from a long season of cycling, but now that spring is here, I’m definitely getting anxious to start riding.

Last week was our spring break so I was looking forward to some time at home and hopefully some good riding. I’m from the Lower Peninsula so I was expecting a little less snow. Unfortunately, there was still quite a bit of snow left and it snowed about every other day. However, on the days it wasn’t snowing I was able to get some descent riding in on my dads cyclocross bike. The first day I got out some of the roads were still snow packed. It was actually pretty fun. By the end of the ride though, I had a huge icicle hanging off my bottom bracket and the gap between my wheel and the seat tube was solid ice. This weeks supposed to be in the 40’s and sunny in Houghton so hopefully I’ll be able to get in some quality riding.

Favorites
Race: Le Tour de Mt. Pleasant
Movie: The Fifth Element
Band: Nirvana
Food: Oranges
Pro Cyclist: Jens Voigt
TV Show: Farscape
Beverage: Chocolate Milk
Non-Cycling Activity: XC Skiing
Book: Fight Club

Uberti – soaking up the sun in Arizona

Kirk — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:01:37 +0000

Chris Uberti checks in with some of his favorites, photo on Mt Lemmon near Tucson, AZ

Hometown: Metro Detroit, Michigan
School: Purdue University
Favorite Race: Superweek Lakefront Road Race
Favorite Place to Ride: Maui
Favorite Food: Poptarts and Diet Coke or Ramen
Favorite Actor in a Leading Role: Paul Newman or Clint Eastwood
Favorite Kung Fu Movie: Legend of the Drunken Master
Favorite Children’s Book: Cars and Trucks and Things that Go
Favorite Dance Move: The Running Man
Favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger Movie: The Running Man
Favorite Accessory: Sunglasses…aviators

Wintertime Activities: This winter I visited former Panther team member Derek Laan in Korea for two weeks, where I enjoyed many Korean customs, all of which involved eating a ton of food. Then I moved to Tucson for a few months for some warm weather winter training. I’m getting a ton of miles in down here while tutoring in my spare time to make some cash. Can’t wait to get back to race with the team.

Ryan Aitcheson – Team Panther Canada Edition

Kirk — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 01:09:25 +0000

The 2011 race season is fast approaching and the tell tale signs of this is the weather changing , new bikes and clothing arriving at your doorstep, and emails after emails of race registration information clogging up your inbox. This is my first year riding on Panther p/b Competitive Cyclist and I will bring on board a whole new perspective on racing. For one I think I’m the first Canadian to ever be on the team, so that alone says how much talent they were missing and what I will be adding to the team. And second I’m the only track rider on the team; for now…

The road season finished up for me in September, but as a track racer the off season didn’t last long. It began in October with 3 weeks in Los Angeles training on both the velodrome and road with the Canadian Team Pursuit Squad. There were 6 of us competing for 4 spots to travel the World Cup Circuit. Our training was mostly done on the track were we would ride 1,2,3,4, and 5km team time trails as fast as we could. In 1km we would ride over 40mph!

December was a busy month for me too. The first week had me traveling over to Switzerland where I raced in an amateur 6-Day Madison event. This was my first European 6-Day so I was really excited about this opportunity. I was partnered up with a 22 year old from T-Town New York. This was by far some of the hardest Madison racing that I have ever done, and by the end we finished a solid 9^th place.

In late December I flew out to British Columbia (Canada) to race the Saputo 4-Day Madison Race. I was partnered up with a junior from Ontario and was competing against some top level riders. Tyler Farrar, Swan Tuft, Zach bell, Christian Mayer and many more professionals filled out the rest of the field. The racing was fast and by the end we finish a respectable 9^th place.

January I didn’t have much going on. In the early weeks I got my wisdom teeth out so was sitting around twiddling my thumbs for a few weeks. After that got back on the track bike and was riding the velodrome at least 3 times a week. Did whatever I could to avoid riding outside in the cold and stay away from the trainer.

February got more exciting because that is when the road training started. A good 3 weeks in the sunny South Carolina were 70 degree weather brought great training and good tans. Putting in 25+ hour weeks to build up some base miles for the season.

The month of March started off with a rest week after getting home from the sunny south. After that much deserved rest it was back in the car and back down to South Carolina for yet another week and a half of good base miles.

April is when it will all come together. The interval training that I have done on the track, and the endurance that I have gotten from the road, will all start to show here when the first races of the year test your winter fitness. And I’m hoping that this test will be a walk in the park.

STS Race Report

nsinger — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 21:47:02 +0000

STS stands for Spring Training Series and I really approach these races with that in mind. I rode to the race in Ann Arbor from my parents’ house in Redford… a 2 hour spin. Tail-gunned the B race to get some extra miles/ speed and raced the A’s for real. I felt surprisingly good for my first race of the year and even took the first preme! In hindsight though, I probably raced a little too aggressive in the early part of the race to expect a decent sprint from my legs at the end. I was really playing my cards for a break, which never transpired. I had good position going into the sprint but nothing in the legs and ended up 8th of 50. I console myself with the fact that I had a ride time of 4 hours when I crossed the line… but that’s merely a cheap excuse. Rode back to my parents house for a total of 6 hours and what I imagine was well over a hundo (100 mi). Even got to stay for dinner. Nice.

-Vince Roberge

Ride, Race, Carpool

nsinger — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:47:05 +0000

I have wanted for the last few years to ride an unreasonably long distance to a spring training race, do the race, then bum a ride home. Probably not the smartest idea in the world, but whatever. In past springs, my plans have always been foiled by either bad weather or lack of the aforementioned ride home, but things finally worked themselves out, and today I was able to ride the ~65 miles from East Lansing to the training series at Waterford raceway on the east side of the state. Of course I spent all of 3 minutes planning the route and something like 50% of it turned out to be on dirt roads; luckily they were fairly high quality ones so I did not get any flat tires. Also, since I am not a member of a pro-tour team, and I also do not have a groupie or personal assistant who is willing to drive behind me when I train, the number of point-to-point rides that I have done is rather limited. As it turns out, riding is a bit harder/slower going when you have a strong headwind the entire time.

Anyway, on to the race. It’s your standard racetrack course: lots of sweeping corners and a small hill somewhere in the middle. 90 min + 2 laps format and a field of around 50. Larger than I expected given that a competing event was going on in the same state on the same day. There were many breakaway attempts throughout the day, and I tried to join every one that looked promising. However, the right combination never materialized and the finish was destined to be a sprint. I was sitting in good position on the last lap when a junior rider from Mesa cycles attacked with two others on his wheel. In retrospect I should have followed them immediately, but instead I slotted in behind another rider who led the chase. He pulled off just before the last corner and I was left to start my sprint from the front with too large of a gap to close before the finish. Got passed by a few more people and ended up 7th or 8th I believe.

-Greg Christian