Exciting New Sponsor for 2011: Betsy Hafkin Massage !

Fuoriclasse Racing is pleased to announce Betsy Hafkin Massage as a new team sponsor for 2011.

Having spent the last year working on many Fuoriclasse team members, we are thrilled to have Betsy as an official sponsor. Betsy Hafkin is a New York State Licensed Massage Therapist with over 7 years experience. She is certified in Sports and Medical massage and recently finished all coursework for her Personal Training certification. Betsy is an avid cyclist herself and understands the common and not so common complaints that many cyclists suffer from.

Read more about Betsy at http://www.betsyhafkin.com/ or contact her at betsyhafkin@gmail.com.

Cycling Performance and Chiropratic

Fuoriclasse Racing sponsor Discover Chiropractic of Soho recently hosted a small workshop aimed at determining what practical role chiropractic care could play in improving cycling performance and efficiency.

Professional bike fitters perform a valuable service in improving cyclists comfort and efficiency but they are able only to change the relative position of the saddle, pedals and handlebars and cannot easily compensate for physical imbalances and asymmetry. The bicycle is designed to be symmetrical and it does not adapt itself to an imbalanced rider.
To facilitate the study two local racers kindly agreed to act as guinea pigs. Dr. Beth Forgosh of Discover Chiropractic performed a preliminary physical assessment and David Taylor assessed their cycling form via a few basic measurements and observations.

Initial Observations – Typical in everyday life but a hindrance on the bike
Dr. Forgosh commented that both subjects exhibited skeletal alignment issues that are commonly found in the general population but when the subjects climbed onto their bikes it was evident how some of these minor issues were compromising their cycling efficiency. Both subjects displayed irregular tracking of the knees and irregular movement in the hips. Apparent asymmetry in leg length was observed through measurement of the knee angle at the point of maximum extension.

Basic adjustments make a big difference
Following the initial evaluation Dr. Forgosh made a series of adjustments on each of the subjects working on each for around 15 minutes. The cyclists then re-mounted their bikes for re-assessment.
In both cases the apparent asymmetry in leg length that existed pre-adjustment was not evident afterwards. Both subjects also displayed better pedaling mechanics evidenced by more consistent knee tracking and looked and felt more comfortable on their bikes.

Will the adjustments hold?
Dr. Forgosh said that “The subjects will likely revert to their previous state as the body adjusts but through a series of treatments in the short term and with a program of monthly / bi-monthly maintenance the improvements could be made permanent.”
The amount of follow up treatment required usually depends on the severity of the condition and the length of time that it has gone untreated. One of the subjects has continued to receive treatment from Dr. Forgosh and six weeks after the initial session was observed to have excellent form and balance on the bike.

An unanticipated benefit
A remarkable and unexpected benefit occurred for one of the subjects treated. The person had suffered from an atypical asthmatic condition for 2 ½ years and hard efforts on the bike triggered severe breathing restrictions. Visits to several specialists had failed to resolve the problem but immediately after the adjustment the subject reported that her ability to breathe deeply improved by about 50%. A few days later on a training ride the subject saw heart rate numbers and experienced a level of performance that had been absent since the onset of her breathing problems. Six weeks later at the time of writing she appears to have found full resolution to her condition. Dr. Forgosh hypothesized that the subject was possibly holding nerve tension that was preventing the normal function of her vocal chords and when released it enabled the body to correct the issue.

Conclusions
The correction of common structural imbalances can deliver a biomechanical advantage for cyclists. The care of the human frame is essential for the purpose of optimizing physical potential. Competitive cyclists spend thousands of dollars on coaching, carbon components, nutrition and massage but often neglect this vital component.
Chiropractic is a powerful method of revitalizing the body. Dr. Forgosh has a unique set of skills within the chiropractic model to produce impressive results.

Now What?
Dr. Forgosh is offering a 50% discount on an initial visit and physical evaluation through January 2011 when you mention this article.

For an appointment contact:
Discover Chiropractic (212) 598 5995

Meet the Team!

FUORICLASSE RACING TEAM is inviting any women interested in learning more about the team or in joining a competitive racing Team to come on a coffee ride on Sunday September 26th.

Meeting point: Sunday September 26th / Grants Tomb @ 9am.
Feel free to email fuoriclasseracing@gmail.com if you have any questions.

August 14-15 Update

Fall was in the air and the Fuoriclasse racers were on the road to Albany looking forward to another action packed day of racing. The team put in a strong performance at the Capital Region Road Race with David placing 2^nd in the 35+ field, Fabienne placing 2^nd in the Pro-3 field (winning the field sprint behind a solo break) and Colleen placing third in the women’s 40+ field. Laura Lee continued to impress. She more than held her own in a tough field, coming in 10^th overall in the Pro-3 field and was the first cat 3 over the finish line. Christophe also had a strong finish, placing 15^th out of 65 starters in his field.

Early Sunday morning, the team was at it again, racing at 6 am in the CRCA club race in Central Park. Since the women’s field was limited to cat 3 / 4 racers, Fabienne figured she’d mix it up with the men. Not surprisingly, she looked very comfortable, racing around the park with an average speed of nearly 26 mph. Meanwhile, Colleen raced aggressively in the women’s field, but had to settle for winning the field sprint for 7^th, behind the winning break.

Other weekend highlights: continued compliments on our kit design, book rec’s on the ride home, and discovering Laura Lee does, in fact, have other clothes besides her kit and pajamas.

Fabienne's Tokeneke Race Report

Bike racers should drive red cars, of course. So imagine the nice kick I got when I saw our new team mate Laura Lee landing at 5 am from Brooklyn with a red rental car! Ms. Garmin was in the co-pilot seat (without Colleen, the girls are lost). I could leisurely concentrate on other essential missions like finding a place on our way for good coffee.

And happily caffeinated we arrived in East Hartland, the Tokeneke Road Race hosting town, with enough time in hand to check the course that neither Laura Lee nor I had raced before. After the recon, we still had plenty of time to debate the bike racers' infinite and fundamental pre-race questions - did I pin that number right, where should we "hide" the car key, bathroom now or in 5 minutes, vanilla or chocolate gels, and those socks, are they good with this weather? etc. Luckily I am always very clear about the socks business - in the summer I only race in Santini socks. Yesterday my big concern was about the wheel set to use (because of the bad road condition). I shared my wheel anxiety with Laura Lee who had then her own dilemma (the car key). I decided to settle this tricky wheel situation by putting one wheel of each set I brought, for style if for no other better reason: one red tire on a Mavic wheel, one black tire on a Reynolds wheel. Classy. Later in the day, my coach seemed to raise his eyebrows when he discovered this colorful setting - I suspect he is a bit conservative with colors. With those pre-race dilemmas more or less resolved, we relaxed a bit and warmed-up on some nice little roads, motivated, among other things, by the chase of a suburban dog craving for cyclists' fresh blood.

In any case, at some point, the race did start. Alas, nothing very dramatic, no bullet fired in the air, no Mr. Prudhomme in a race car with a flag in his hand, but a nice man with a moustache, a former crit racer he confessed, who announced "30 seconds... 10... 5... now go!". And off we were on the bucolic roads of Connecticut. We started to drill it as soon as we engaged the first rise, a climb in 3 steps. On the 2nd step of the climb, Kristen (Stage5) launched a furious attack. She zipped right by me, like Wonder Woman on her skyship rocket. She sped away, chased by Beth (Anthem). The two of them got a gap that they kept over the 3rd step of the climb. Silke, Melissa (both Kenda), and I chased. We got them back before the descent. We all recovered a bit and were joined by 5-6 other riders, among them I was very happy to see Laura Lee speeding in the descent like Fangio. We started the last climb of the 1st lap at a controlled tempo. It picked up half way, and then at the 1 km mark, Kristen attacked again. She was caught shortly after the end of the climb and we lost some women in that final acceleration over the top of the climb. At this point we were 8 in the lead group I think: Kristen, 2 Kenda, 2 Anthem, 1 Wheelworks, 1 Simple Principles, 1 other girl I believe, and me. While riding with this nice group, I observed Kristen's riding style - she had amazed me by her attack and solo win on Devil’s Kitchen the previous week. Her riding is very powerful. Such a tiny woman in the big ring on 5% climbs, amazing. On the second lap, she did it again, attacking on the 2nd step of the climb. No one was there on her wheel and it was too late, she was gone. She stayed for a while at 10 seconds of us, and then 15s, and then I think we got distracted by some attacks and counter attacks from Anthem, and she was suddenly nowhere to be seen. As a group of 7 we worked ok together, but it did not feel like we were really chasing. It confused me a bit, but I thought that I had no business leading the chase when 2 teams had 2 riders in our group. In the final climb, Beth attacked at the very bottom, the tempo was very solid. I could feel the excitement and tension of the finish line approaching, the tempo went harder and harder as we passed the 1 km mark. We lost 1 girl, and then Silke and Nancy lost a bit of ground I think. We were 4 in the front as we prepared for the sprint. Beth started her sprint early, I stayed on a wheel looking for the finishing flags as we passed the top of the climb. I saw the flags, and off I went, in the saddle, and I crossed the line first of our chasing group. Kristen had arrived on her own more than 2 minutes ago.

I finished 2nd and Laura Lee finished 13th of the women 1/2/3 field.

David raced a bit later. I don't know the details of his race, but he got the second podium of the day for our team, finishing 3rd in the Masters 35+. Rockstar!

Sunday at Tokeneke was a blast. Thanks Laura Lee for sharing this beautiful time. Thanks Coach for checking on us after the race. Thanks to my friend Scott Wells for taking the picture. And as always, thanks a lot to our sponsors who support the team.

*Complete results of Tokeneke 2010*
http://www.tokenekeclassic.com/results2010.html

Weekend Race Recap - July 10 & 11

Another stellar weekend for the Fuoriclasse team.

On Saturday David won the CRCA points race in Central Park and on Sunday Laura Lee scored her first race victory in the Pawling Mountain road race in Pawling NY. This correspondent suspects that we'll be hearing a lot more from Laura Lee in the coming weeks.

David took 4th place in the Pawling Mountain race (35+ field) but he's resolved to do better next time.

The next big race for the team is the Tour of the Catskills July 30 - Aug 1 where Fabienne will return to racing after her enforced 3 month break.

Watch out.

David's Coupe des Ameriques race report

I've heard good things about this race over the years but I've always been distracted by Fitchburg, this year I decided to break habit and head to Canada excited to race against some fresh faces.

The prologue:
I find these mass start hill climbs a little chaotic, everyone is fresh, motivated and ready to die fighting for position going into the climb. About 500M into the race I discovered that the yellow line rule is merely a recommendation in Canada as I saw my stealth position usurped by about 80 guys in the left lane - a guy on my right complained that the riders from Ontario always do that - damn Ontarians. So from 110th place I moved up at the base of the climb and kept moving up until 2k to go where 2 riders a few seconds ahead of me just wouldn't be caught so I settled for 3rd.

The TT:
Rode as hard as I could for 6th place, could have been a little quicker but for the RV that almost stopped me dead in my tracks 200M into the race. Still 3rd overall so still in the game.

The Crit:
Inspired by the Roger and Troy from Westwood who almost lapped the field together in the 40+ race I threw down a few heavy attacks early without success and finished safely in the bunch - still 3rd on GC 20 seconds back.

The RR:
The legs felt a little heavy early probably from the efforts of 2 races the day before so I took it easy early on. The race stayed together thanks to the work of a couple of coalitions at the front save for a couple of optimistic breaks that lacked the numbers to survive. At the start of the final drag to the finish I missed an acceleration and had to jump across a gap to join the race leader and the prologue winner at the front. Both riders were intent on a steady pace which discouraged me from attacking from a few K out, but inside the final 2K I sensed that I could take the win with a final kick and that's what happened. My first win of the season and enough time to move into 2nd on GC - damn those 12 seconds - Maybe I'll come back next year.

Thanks to my team mates and friends for some good company and to Beth at Discover Chiropractic for fixing my wrist.

Latest News

This past weekend found Fabienne and Colleen up in Killington, Vermont for a three day stage race. Perhaps the most memorable part of the Memorial Day weekend was seeing Fabienne back on her bike, spinning away on her trainer for the first time in a month. Fabienne was also support staff extraordinaire, cooking pasta, pinning numbers, getting Colleen to eat more, and welcoming her at the finish of every race. You'll find her race report under comments on the Killington picture below.

Next weekend David and Christophe take on the Connecticut Stage Race, while Fabienne continues her steady recovery for her come back in the Catskills and Colleen ramps up training for her next round of racing. Meanwhile, Leontine is busy racing and winning Gran Fondos in Europe.

Killington Stage Race - Stage 3 5-31-10

2010 Killington Stage Race stage 1 Circuit Race

May update

Colleen and Fabienne raced at COLTS NECK on May 2nd.
We both crashed. Hospital and stitches for a deep laceration in the left calf and hip for me, complicated a week later by a blood clot :-( Still on crutches after 3 weeks but I have started the PT, and I start to see the progress.

Meanwhile Colleen races CIELO and is now preparing for a hard stage race on Memorial day weekend in KILLINGTON. I will be her musette girl. On crutches. How exotic.


BEAR MOUNTAIN
Leontien had a great race with the Cat 4. She finished 5th.
She is currently in Europe training and racing with her Benelux Gran Fondo Team.

Quabbin Road Race - April 25th

In Ware, MA.
62 miles, 6 rollers, finish on a climb.

Men Field - 35+
David finishes 2nd !!
Christophe did not feel so good but he definitely had the best rainglasses!

Women Field - Open
Fabienne WINS!
Leontien finishes 13th

Quabbin RR Official Results

CRCA Park Race, April 17th

In the Women field:
Fabienne takes 2nd place in the field sprint.

In the Men A field:
David is in the winning break but gets a flat right before the finish ;-(

Race pictures

Pictures of the sprint

Battenkill, Women Cat 3: Fuoriclasse WINS!

Race Report by Fabienne

Battenkill is always hard core: it is the first long race of the season and race fitness is still hibernating under big time layers of white winter marshmallows... So no surprise, the race did feel very hard and while racing it this year, I absolutely talked myself into quitting bike racing right after the race was over, and when my chain started making some strange noise, I remember wishing that the chain would explode on the spot so that I could stop and lay on the grass... Oh well, I did finish the race. And I really needed to win that chocolate milk for my recovery! Here is the quick story of my Battenkill 2010.

We had a full field of 50 Cat 3 women. Surprisingly, I thought, there were few CRCA women. There were lots of women from all over the North East though and several from Canadian teams. Super teammate Colleen and I went to the starting line on time to get a good position for the little fancy bridge at mile 5, and also to avoid possible dramas on the first dirt roads. Who likes drama on dirt? Unexpectedly, a good number of women started to push the pace hard from mile 5 on. This was very different from last year where the race stayed pretty mellow and the group stayed together for the first half of the course. On Saturday, it was not mellow: it was fast and hard from the first hilly miles on (Perry Road). Or maybe it was just me still being in a siesta tapas goat mood after just getting home from vacation. Anyway, we kept pushing it on Juniper and during the following miles. As a result, at mile 15, the whole field was already stretched. I was in the front group with 10 other women. We had a decisive break. They kept pushing. I was thinking -- did they study the cue sheet? Do they know that we have 45 more miles to cover with the hardest climbs still to come up?? Well, we lost 3 more women on the next hilly stretch at mile 16-20 and then 1 more on Joe Bean. At mile 28, we were 7, and no one in the back to be seen. We kept going. The strong wind made it hard, but we had a nice rotating group. We lost 3 more girls on the next hilly section (Mountain Road), and we lost friend Bryna (Anthem) on that sweet last climb (Stage Road). Five miles from the finish line, we were 3 left in the front: Jennifer from Fuji Team in DC, Alejandra from CRCA/Comedy Central and I. We had been racing the 57 miles very hard; those 5 miles on the flat with a head wind felt very hard too! At that point I just put my head down, making sure I was staying in a wheel, taking my pulls, and trying to gather myself together for a focused final 200 meters. Right before the final turn, I make the point of staying in 3rd wheel. We take the final turn to the finish line; Jennifer and Alejandra seem to hesitate; I am on the other side, I gear up 2 rings and just go, in the saddle. I have no idea why they don’t catch me (Alejandra is a much better sprinter than I am), but here it is, I pass the line first and win.

Yes, a great race which started as a very cold and windy day, but that brought a big great blue sky on the finish line. And the best chocolate milk!! Thank you very much to Dieter Drake and the community of Cambridge and all the surrounding towns to organize such a fantastic and friendly race. This was also the first win for our new team, Fuoriclasse Racing - Discover Chiropractic. Thank you so much to my teammate Colleen Conway, to my coach, David Taylor, to our sponsors, and to anyone who inspires me to always race harder and smarter. IT IS SO MUCH FUN!

Podium Pictures

Battenkill 2010 Official Results

Starting the blog...

Here we are, the initial crew at the kit 2010 party.

Ready for a great and fun season 2010!