Young Ben Gabardi takes the first place in the BMW Performance Center Circuit Race in Greenville, SC as well as winning the overall for the weekend. This all from a 16 year old. Ben is not quite 17 and has already won a race with a fairly stacked Pro/1/2 field. He said: "Last year I couldn't finish 7 laps of the race" and this year, he stands on top of the podium. Great job to Herring's newest (and youngest ever) recruit!

Photo by: Jimmy Helms

Photo by: Eddie Helton

Over the weekend, Woody Boudreaux (Woodreaux Boudreaux) and I stopped over in Mobile to pick up Jacob Brewer for a quick weekend visit to the house of pain, the NRC Criterium series. We headed up to Anistion, AL to do the Sunny King NRC Criterium. Woody and Jacob would warm up earlier in the day by doing the cat 2 race with a possible last minute invitation into the main event with me against the PRO's starting at sun-down. Well, they did so well and were so active in the race, that their inclusion into the bar-fight that would start later in the evening was a given. From the Start, Woody was off the front with a couple of different rider, whom he quickly dropped. These riders were replaced by new horsepower bridging up to Woody. However no one would pull through at the pace Woody felt was necessary to stay away. He drifted back and this is when Jacob took over. Jacob was constantly off the front for the rest of the race. Either chasing an escapee or 2... alone, or being chased by the entirety of the field. Franky Andreau, the announcer was getting tired of speaking Jacob's name and was starting to make up stories about things other than racing. The course was lined with HDTV cameras which projected the entire lap on the JUMBO TRON at the start/finish. Franky was so exhausted from saying "here comes that guy in blue again" that I believe he started drinking. With about 8 laps to go, the Tour de France star never got the lap count right and it had the strong field of Category 2 riders completely confused. With-in a few laps, you could see the riders making a special effort to look at the lap counter. Six laps to go and Jacob attacked, gaining about 10 seconds on the field. He held this for the next 3 laps, but people were foolishly chasing him down, allowing a very fresh Chris Pic (It's hard to name a pro team he hasn't ridden for) to counter Jacob with 2 laps to go. Woody did the smart thing, expecting the not-so-smart field to chase Pic, which they never did. Woody sprinted in for 5th place, only a few seconds behind winner, Tina's husband Chris.

Later in the PRO/1 race, 99 racers lined up on the uphill Start-Finish line of the .8 mile course. This course is a perfect rectangle, lifted sharply at one end. This is to say that the entire front length of the course was uphill and the back side of the course was 38-40mph downhill. At night. Looking around at the parking area was a study in your familiarity with Velonews. All the big, U.S.-based pro teams were hanging out near their team cars, Bissel, Ouch, BMC, Kelly Benefits, Colivita... You name it. We were wondering why none of them were warming up. From the opening bell it was just plain fast. Sprinting out of the saddle from the last corner all the way up hill, past the finish line to the first, I was expecting it to slow down a bit. Glancing at my computer, we were heading uphill at 31-32mph every time. I got a good start and went into the first downhill turn in about 5th place. I held this position for the next several laps, waiting for it to slow up a bit. But it just got faster. Many laps later, I found myself in the rubber-band section, about 25 riders back. I knew this was bad because even though I tried, I couldn't move up. It was hard enough to maintain my position where I was. Trying to get out of the draft on the downhill and pass a bunch of guys was quickly becoming a bullet I couldn't shoot. But I gave it a try anyway and got my wheels into some clean air. Heading down into the very fast, dark and bumpy turn 3, I got myself a little squirrely and into the gutter. Even at the limit of adhesion, I'm fine with that. But at the next off-camber and narrow corner, if your line isn't perfect, you'll be out in the wind for a couple of hundred meters until you can muscle your way back in line. That's exactly what I did and it's exactly what did me in. I got back in line about 20 places behind where I first attempted this boneheaded move. The next lap, I was suffering so bad that I really wasn't paying attention and in my old aged dizziness, got bumped off course and into the loose stuff. I guess they caught this on camera because when I crossed the line, off the back, the officials told me that I had a free lap coming to me. Who am I to argue? I got back in once more and lasted a little more than 3 laps and I was done. I was disappointed to see pretty much every category 1 that I knew, already standing on the sideline watching. Matt Davis stayed in for a few more laps than most anyone else (of the cat 1's), but hanging at the back of a field that has competed in 8 professional criteriums in the last 14 days is an exercise in humility. That's why they weren't warming up, you race this much... warming up is for amateurs. Woody and Jacob did as well as any cat 1's in the field, but they had already fought a battle today. This was my first NRC criterium since Katrina and I have to say that the mood at the car was pure disappointment. We're better than this, but it's hard to be competitive in the NRC if you sit out for a few years. We've got a lot of work to do. Knowing that only 30 riders finished was no consolation.

Here are some pictures from the really fast Cat 2 race.

See you later,

Kenny

We were on the defensive all weekend. We've decided to employ a new tactic this weekend, however when most of us are just trying to not get dropped, tactics are as useful as tits on a bull. We did have some moments of greatness, but I told Frank that I felt like we brought a knife to a gun fight. It was by far the fastest racing I've done in Mississippi since the hey-day's of the Tour le Fleur when there were 200 pros there.

Anyway, the Friday night crit was just insane. I felt like I was in Athens. We were staying near the front, but were still a long way from being at the front or off the front. I took a couple of fliers, which didn't even last a full lap (except the first one) and Bain, Tim, and Jake were about the same. I got positioned well in the final few laps but got bumped really hard with a couple of corners to go and sprinted my brains out for 14th. As hard as we were going in the pack, Michael Olheiser was off the front, towing a guy that did the tours of California and Georgia last year. The guy sat his wheel for 10 or more laps and won the sprint @ about 25 seconds in front of the pack.

The RR was an exercise in humility. We were at the limit the entire time and got ourselves handicapped pretty early due to some really unfortunate blunders. First, we took on Clark Butcher for the weekend. Clark flatted about 10 miles into the race and Scott stopped to help. The roads were wet so there were flats everywhere, so they never caught. Then at about 45 miles, there was a 6 man break that blasted past me as i was off the front. I never got on, so as the pack came up, I was screaming that we need to chase. Bain said something to me and I thought he said "go to the front." Anyway, there we were, Frank, Jake, Tim, and myself chasing our brains out to bring the crit winner back for about 10 miles. The whole time Bain was off the back with a flat with Chris A and Woody. We had no idea. Bain finally caught, but his race was basically over. Chris gave Bain his wheel and Woody was done. I never knew he flatted until the race was over. We did our very best to screw ourselves. Jake and Frank finished in the front group, but there was a small gap in front of them.

The TT was slower than this year for most people. Bain was not feeling his best and neither was Frank from the morning RR, but Jacob was the suprise of the day rolling a 8:06 for 10th place.

Then the final Crit at the Co-lin college was really epic. As they called out names it started storming. Only for about 10 minutes, but the roads were wet. However these riders were as about professional as you will find and there was a really gentle pace in the corners and an insane pace on the straights. The streets started to dry after about 40 minutes and every lap was faster than the last. Nothing would get off the front and last and Tim was really one of the strongest guys there. For a while some of us just felt like "also-rans". But with about 5 laps to go, there was a dangerous 6 man break off the front and Clark and I wnet to the front and gave some last ditch efforts. This evidently destroyed the field becuase only about 25 riders came across the line the final time (they were pulling dropped riders). One lap to go and Micheal O asked Tim to get on his wheel, making a deal, but one of those Metro VW a-holes hooked Mike hard putting Tim on his head in the gravel and mud. Hotel San Jose finished the crit 1-2-3 and Tim finished in the golf cart with a concussion. I think Tim might have pulled something off. He was riding that strong.

We didn't ride bad, but we really had no luck, no opportunities to capitalize on. It was a long drive home. And San Jose just dominated everyone except Mike O.

KB

It was ugly. Real ugly. Keeping both our top contender Bain Foote and his back-up Tim Regan in contention or at least with-in reach of the grand prize has been an ugly and expensive endeavor. With only 5 Herring riders on the start list out of an allowed 10, we thought we would have to work pretty hard to be competitive. Little did we know that we would come home with 4 crashes, lots of road rash, 1 totaled bike, a broke-down RV and a ton of expensive carbon/unobtanium parts to be replaced.

Stage 1: Individual TT, 7 miles. The Individual TT is always the time to shine for our Top GC contender Bain Foote. Early in the day, the course was reported to be super fast with a tail wind on the way home. By the time the Pro field started however, the winds had shifted and picked up considerably in strength. But Bain Foote would power through the stiff wind on the smooth, rolling course to finish in 10th place. First place went to John Murphy (Healthnet Pro Cycling), with 17 year old phenom Chris Butler (Hincapie/Barkley) in 2nd and Frank Travieso (Toshiba) 31 seconds back in 3rd place. This would set the stage for a big battle between Travieso's Toshiba team trying to take 31 seconds back from the very dominant John Murphy.

Stage 2: Street Sprints, "The Vomit Comit",  650 meters, single elimination, 3 rounds 9:00PM. This was a stage where the only person with any experience at all was Kenny Bellau. He's done 3 of these and done pretty well in all of them. But none were this long. This stage would see 8 riders starting from a standstill racing for a line about 1KM away. And it was pretty dark. The first 3 advance to the next round until there were only 9 riders left in the final. Bellau's advice to the team was to waste the competition at the start line by starting in the smallest gear possible and don't look back. Bellau, leaving the line on one wheel, immediately put about 30 meters on his field. But rolling a fairly small top gear (50X12), he was reeled in before the line at 38MPH. He was eliminated. So was Frank Moak in his heat as well as Woody Boudreaux. Moak was unfortunate enough to pull the country's best sprinter, John Murphy in his heat. But both Tim Regan (resident Herring Gas sprinter) and Bain Foote (a non sprinter) advanced into the 2nd round. Regan missed a gear change in the 2nd round and was eliminated there, but surprisingly, Foote advanced to the final. In the last sprint, Bain finished a close 4th place, but still managed to gain a total of 15 bonus seconds taken off his time from the 2 previous sprint advancements. Regan managed to get 7 taken off his time for his effort. It was too dark to see anyone vomit.

Stage 3.... 60 lap Criterium. 9:30PM start time. Gimme a flashlight. This stage was just plain fast. It started about an hour after a rain storm, in the dark on a clean and fast course in an office park outside Atlanta. The course had one small, gradual hill at the finish line with a strong tailwind. The rest of the course consisted of big sweeping turns, mostly downhill with a big 180 serving as the last turn. The course was so fast that it was impossible for any break-away attempts to succeed for any amount of time. It was a bit dark in places, but all the turns had gobs of grip. Bellau, having had better weekends, pulled out at about half way swearing off cycling for the rest of his 30's. But the duo of Foote and Regan were still fighting for the top spot. Both of these riders need back-up to shine in a field like this and it was decided that it would just be safer to finish in the pack than to risk crashing in the dark at over 40MPH. The final average for this stage was a quick 29MPH. Pretty fast for a course with a U-turn. Bain's still maintaining 9th in GC with Tim in 15th.

Stage 4: Team Time Trial. 13 miles 9:00AM. Yup that's right, less than 12 hours after finishing a lightning fast criterium with blindfolds on, the pro racers had to line up this morning for a torturous Team Time Trial in rolling hills. The Herring team was already handicapped with having only half of the allowed 10 rider team they needed. The competition, although sleep deprived as well, would be extreme. This is the most technically dependent and most scrutinized of all of cycling events. You mess up here and everyone just assumes you and your buddies are posers. And you can forget trying to recoup any of measly prize money. Herring's mission was to limit damage as much as possible. They were up against John Murphy and his composite team of stellar time trialers, Team Myogenesis who had a full roster of strong, experienced riders, Frank Travieso's super-strong TeamToshiba, and the kids over at Hincapie/Barkley. All of these teams had 10 riders. Herring had 4.5. By the end, Herring only lost about a minute and a half to the winning Toshiba team, finishing with all 4 of its top riders together, where many of the 10-man teams finished with only 3 or 4 as well. It sounds a lot worse than it was, but the objective of limiting the damage was met.

Stage 5. 90 mile Road Race. Just a couple of hours after the Team Time Trial. The racers were complaining of the heat. The Herring team, most who live in the armpit of America (as far as heat goes) were finding it comical that 85 degrees was being considered hot. Anyway, the race started off with a bang. Literally. Well, it was actually a lot of bangs. For once the Herring Team had a great starting position. While the official recited his normal instructions, the boys in blue gave each other a serious "Let's do it", recognizing the opportunity to be the first to dish out the pain. Out of the parking lot, the entire Herring team was on the front which allowed Tim Regan to gently roll away from the pack. He realized that he had a little bit of a gap and he could see no one behind him but his own teammates. So he threw down a little attack, which was followed by a few other riders to jump across. This was going to be good, however, one rider who's brother-in-law must surely be someone with a computer that can forge papers to get an upgrade to a category 2 decided that he would panic before we were even 500 meters from the start. The rider from the Latino team  would try to pass the field on the white line on the right. He wasn't going to make it. Bellau said, "I looked back to see him get bumped off the road slightly. Yet, he kept on the gas and hit Bain Foote from behind so hard that Bain's wheels came off the ground. Bain landed under my bike, taking me down with over 30 riders falling down on top of us."  The Latino rider landed in the grass, while Bellau's brand new Orbea Orca was destroyed under a mountain of lycra clad racers landing on it. Bellau relented, "I would have gladly taken on twice the road rash to have not lost my bike with-in sight of the start line." He wasn't alone. Woody Boudreaux immediately snapped Bain off the ground and assessed that Bain's spaghetti-heap of a bike was finished as well. He shoved his bike into Bains hands and gave him a push up the road while screaming "bring it back in one piece". Frank Moak who also hit the ground was tangled up a bit and rolled off about 2 minutes later with a few other crashers in tow. Frank chased for about 25 miles and was in sight of the pack, but after dropping all the helpers he had with him, it was obvious he would never see the pack again. Then the unexpected happened. A race official in a van drove up to Frank and said "You've had some pretty bad luck and you're working your butt off. You deserve to be back in the race. We're putting you back in. Get in the van." Now in Frank's almost 30 years of racing, this has never happened. Sure enough, they dropped Frank off in front of the pack, just in time for him to check in on Bain who was riding a bike that for him, felt like it was built for a child. And now it was raining with gale-force winds. The pack was approaching a railroad crossing that was at a diagonal to the road, the same one we were warned of at the start line when it was dry. As they hit the tracks, the rider in front of Bain dropped his wheel into the wet, slippery tracks and struck the Superman pose as he slid down the road under Bains front wheel. For the 2nd time in 30 miles, Bain was on the ground with a destroyed bike. Didn't I use the word "ugly" up there at the top?  Frank then did his best "Woody Boudreaux imitation" and shoved his bike into Bains hands and gave him a push. "Stay upright. This is getting expensive" yelled the Herring Gas Team Manager.

Hours later, back at the team car, Woody was pointing out to Frank how bad the damage was on Bellau's bike. "Man, can you believe this? Wow, Kenny, this sucks. I hope Bain is doing OK on my bike."  Which is about when Frank piped up and said, "Woody, why are you so worried about Kenny's bike? That's your bike over there", pointing to the bent up heap of carbon fibre in the grass. "Bain is on my bike", Moak continued.
Woody's face dropped. "What? Awww #$%^& *(%^&^#@%"

Bain finished the stage with the pack, on 3 different bikes, helping bring back a rider that at one point had a 6 minute lead. The pack finished as a group and Bain and Tim finished 25th and 27th place respectively. Now was that bad luck or good?

Stage 6: Gainsville, GA, 60 lap Criterium. 4 corners, narrow and very fast. With attrition taking out many of the once 120 strong field, the Tour of Atlanta was left with only the strongest.  At the line, 75 very serious, very fast and very bandaged up racers would be racing for time bonuses and glory. Herring's game plan was to initiate a break-away hopefully containing the right mixture of racers. We needed at least one Toshiba rider, one Hincapie/Barkley and either Tim or Bain to be in the break. This would allow either of them to leapfrog many people on the results sheet. If we were lucky, Toshiba would allow this thinking that John Murphy of Healthnet would be left alone to chase. The attacks by the Herring riders would prove futile as Toshiba was more content to try to keep it together and gamble on Frank Travieso in the final sprint. The Herring riders were basically forced to sit back and watch. Sure enough, it was a Toshiba train for the last 5 laps at over 30MPH. Up the final stretch, Travieso barely nipped Murphy for the win. Another stage of 29mph. One stage left.

Stage 7: Buford, GA, 60 lap Criterium. 4 corners with a sharp hill between turns 3 and 4. Open and breezy. Almost time to go home, but there's some formalities to attend to. Namely, about 80 minutes of a bar-fight on bikes. Herring's chances were over for this tour, but Tim and Bain were still wanting to mix things up. Bain's place in 9th place in the General Classification was secure as long as he didn't crash again and if Tim could make it into a break he might be able to move up into a paying spot as well. Another issue is that there are riders here that didn't start any of the previous stages. This was allowed since this if the first annual Tour of Atlanta. From the gun, the Herring duo were duking it out with some of the riders with fresh legs. After a series of vicious attacks from both Tim and Bain, a group of 7 riders were able to escape with neither Bain nor Tim along for the ride. The group of 7 gained 1 minute and 10 seconds on the field when Bain got frustrated with the complacency at the front and cruised past the pack on the hill. 2 riders bridged across to Bain, but neither would lend any assistance. The 3 were able to close within 30 seconds of the 7 riders up the road with Bain doing all the work. Toshiba amassed at the front and kept Bain in check until he finally gave in and waited up. Toshiba was content letting the break-away roll off, which forced Murphy to chase. Toshiba had a rider in the 7 man break which would have taken the overall victory if they were to maintain a 35 second lead. Not wanting to be forgotten, Tim Regan rolled up to the front and within 2 laps had closed the 7 man break-aways' lead from almost a minute, down to only 10 seconds. This was with only 2 laps to go and it also forced Toshiba to now set up Frank Travieso for the sprint if the entire field were to catch the 7 riders up the road (there were bonus seconds paid to only the top 3 riders and Frank T was really close to taking the lead from Murphy).
At the finish, Tim Henry (JitteryJoes) who had escaped from the group of 7 out sprinted Phil Gaimbon (Fiordifruita) with the other 5 right on their heels. John Murphy held onto his overall lead and the Toshiba guys were not too happy with Herring Gas. We like that.

It was so good to get home. Road rash, broken bikes, an Rv that only made it to Hattiesburg and the disappointment of just getting beaten up still can't get us down. A few beers to celebrate the end of a tough weekend and we're ready for the next one.

We would all like to say thanks to Sylvia Boudreaux for having to play nurse all weekend when when she's nowhere near her hospital or a time clock. And to Bruce Sanders, one of the founding members of The Herring Gas Cycling Team for opening his beautiful Atlanta home to 7 weary souls.

We'll see you later,

March 2, Albany, Georgia
Regions Bank Bike Race Weekend

Tim Regan powered his way onto the podium in the 3-stage Regions Bank Bike Race Weekend in Albany, GA, with team mate Scott Kuppersmith close behind in 5th place. It was the last stage road race where the Herring Gas duo of Regan and Kuppersmith pulled away from the strong field of 80 pro and amateur riders. Their 12 rider breakaway in this final stage grew to over 8 minutes, but was pulled back to only 4 minutes at the line. "Scott buried himself today for us to get the win," stated an elated Regan. "Two riders got away from us. Two riders that had been sitting on the break and doing no work at all. Scott pulled them back in the final miles so I could try to take the sprint," Regan continued. The line was about 10 meters too close as the two escapees stayed away with Regan out-sprinting the rest of his group to take 3rd place in the road race. Kuppersmith held on to the break, finishing 12th in the stage, but gaining over 4 minutes moved him up to 5th in the general classification and Regan into 3rd. Further back in the field, Woody Boudreaux held on for another impressive ride at 19th place. Frank Moak however suffered a horrible crash where one of Atlanta's strong Under 23 riders found himself in critical condition. "It was too disturbing for me to keep racing. I thought I was watching some kid die right there on the road," Moak explained. As of this posting, Herring Gas is unable to determine the identity and condition of the injured rider, but we wish him the very best.

The race started off with a short 3 kilometer, very technical 12 turn individual time trial. All 4 Herring riders finished in the top half of the field, with Regan taking 10th place and Kuppersmith 17th. Later in the evening, the 60-minute downtown criterium started with all of the same corners as the time trial. This stage finished fairly uneventful with a field sprint, giving the entire 80 man field the same time.

The next day in the road race and final stage, yellow jersey wearer John Murphy of Healthnet attacked across the yellow line and was relegated to the back of the field. This agitated the field and the break formed shortly after this infringement. Murphy, not wanting to be left out of the press, attacked again across the yellow line with at least 1 other pro rider in tow. Officials were not amused and both riders were ejected from the race.

Up front Kuppersmith was giving Regan the last of his water bottles, yet Kuppersmith continued to pull and do the lion's share of work in the successful breakaway. Scott's work in stage 3 greatly contributed to the success of the team for the overall GC. Congrats to another successful weekend for the entire Herring Team.

March 2, Lago Vista, TX,
LaPrimavera Road Races at Lago Vista, TX
Bunch Takes the Bunch.

Bryan Bunch of Herring Gas blasted away on the steep uphill finish in the 35+ road race in the beautiful resort area Lago Vista on Sunday. Bunch rolled away with a large breakaway of 15 riders early on in the race. The group worked well together until the final lap when riders started prepping themselves for the difficult and fast uphill finish. This uphill comes right after a very fast 45 MPH decent. You lose all momentum going up the hill and you're constantly shifting gears all the way to the finish. "It's not too easy winning a race in Texas with no teammates," said Bryan Bunch. Looking at the pictures, it looked easy. Congratulations to Bryan on his first victory of 2008!