Upshifting a pro cycling team
The bike racers are bearing down on the finish line, riders wheezing, cranking, elbowing for a place in a pack that's moving like a freight train. The announcer yanks at the microphone and shouts: "It's all-out pandemonium on the course in Minneapolis!"
Spectators close in, screaming, jumping as riders blur by. Cowbells rattle, and the amplified voice yells out again: "Someone just hit the go button!"
It's a Friday evening in mid-June, and the Minneapolis Downtown Classic, the fourth stage of the weeklong Nature Valley Grand Prix bike race series, is almost over.
Racers tuck and pedal in a mass, whizzing through corners on blocked-off streets. Sprints on straightaways net speeds above 40 miles per hour.
Standing below the bleachers, set apart from his small group and cheering, Charles Aaron watches as the 14 athletes of Team KBS/Medifast begin to make their move. Aaron, 39, a native of St. Louis Park, is the owner of the team, a squad of 14 athletes that make up the first professional road cycling team based in Minnesota.
Managed from an office in downtown Minneapolis, KBS/Medifast operates on an annual budget of more than $1 million. Aaron and his 25 employees -- which include the racers, a team coach, mechanics and an office staff -- juggle a schedule that sees KBS/Medifast rolling to the start line at more than 75 races a season, this year from California to the Pyrenees Mountains in France.
Three years ago, maxing out credit cards and networking with old friends for support, Aaron founded Circuit Global Sports Management (CGSM), a business that connects corporations with sports teams to garner sponsorship deals. The KBS/Medifast squad, a team of U.S. and Canadian cyclists age 18 to 35, is CGSM's first professional team.
Banks initially turned Aaron away when he went in for loans. But he believed in his business plan and soon so did John Kelly, CEO of Kelly Benefit Strategies (KBS) in Hunt Valley, Md., a group insurance broker that signed on in 2005 as title sponsor.
Heading into its second season, KBS/Medifast is going strong with several key wins on the national circuit, including top spots in the Nature Valley Grand Prix series. The riders' jerseys -- dark green tops overlaid with corporate logos -- now sport Medifast, a diet and meal-plan company, as a second title sponsor. A half-dozen additional sponsors, including Minnesota companies, have bolstered the team's budget.
Within five years Aaron hopes to grow the Minnesota team to a $15 million powerhouse that can compete in the Tour de France.
"It would be a lie if I said I didn't want to be there someday," he said.
Overcoming hard times
Flash back a few years, and life was not rolling so smoothly for Aaron. A divorce in 2001 was emotionally crushing. His business at the time was bad in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Aaron, an entrepreneur who managed mountain biking teams in the 1990s, was struggling to find a new job.
"I was making money, traveling the world, and then it stopped," he said.
Living in Baltimore, down on his luck, Aaron went back to work doing what he had done in college. He got a job as a valet at the Baltimore Hyatt, parking cars at night, working for tips, barely paying the bills.
Rock bottom came one afternoon when Aaron put on a suit and tie to make a presentation at an ad agency in hopes of getting work. He walked from the agency to the Hyatt and changed clothes. Within an hour, the agency executives, who had decided to have dinner at a nice hotel, pulled up.
"It was awkward, to say the least," he said.
From a two-wheel heritage
As a teenager growing up in St. Louis Park, Aaron pedaled the suburban streets and dreamed of being part of a professional cycling team. He remembers reading magazine articles on Greg LeMond.
"I was fascinated by LeMond as an athlete but also the behind-the-scenes of what it took to run a team," he said.
In 2005, Aaron moved back to Minnesota. His mother was sick. He needed to be near his family and old friends. He needed to come home.
"I woke back up that year," he said.
He also lit the fire under his childhood dream. He sketched an outline for the company that would become CGSM. He found an office and started making calls, started the string of long days and late nights on the computer that would engage the gears, shift the cogs, finally, to a place where his wheels could coast again.
Keeping pace in the race
At the downtown event, an hourlong race in which a Team KBS/Medifast rider comes in fourth, the announcer continues to scream: "The field has turned into a frenzy!"
But Aaron is watching from the bleachers, hanging back, letting the team do its job.
"Once we're here at a race, I say, my duties are done," he said.
The riders flash past. A Team KBS/Medifast rider makes a move in the pack. Jonas Carney, performance director for the team, shouts on a radio, relaying strategy.
Aaron cups hand to brow, the pack of riders arcing a turn, 200 bike tires humming with hot rubber on the road. It is the sound of power and speed, spokes whirring, wheels buzzing with momentum on a stretch of street in downtown Minneapolis.
(c) 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
Pro cycling returns to Hogtown
After a 20-year drought, professional cycling is returning to St. Lawrence Market by way of the Toronto Criterium (French for 'competition') on May 30.
With cash prizes and new bikes up for grabs for the racers (and free admission for the general public), organizers are expecting a large crowd. The main race begins at 7:30 p.m. following an amateur heat at 5 p.m.
The start and finish line is at the corner of Front Street East and Scott Street, as the one-kilometre closed street track runs eastbound to Market Street, south to The Esplanade, west to Scott Street and north back to Front Street East. The event is being presented as part of Bike Month by the City of Toronto, the Bicycle Trade Association of Canada and ZM Cycle andFitness Ltd.
"My idea was to do bike races in Toronto... every (major) city (in the world) has races... so I wanted to do races here," said Ziggy Martuzalski, one of the event's organizers and the proprietor of ZM Cycle in York. "We wanted (to open) the race, not only (to) professionals, but (to) everyone.
"This race is just the (beginning)... We want to get this sport going and get young people involved, more sponsors... it's good for Toronto. It's a different kind of sport, pollution-free; it's good for everyone."
One could argue the former Polish national team cyclist (1970-1980) has done his sport proud. After selling his cycling shop in Kitchener-Waterloo in 2005, he moved to Toronto and founded ZM Cycle. From there, he decided to work toward re-establishing pro cycle races in Toronto after helping establish similar events in Kitchener-Waterloo.
While a huge affair in European countries and the U.S., the last time Toronto played host to pro bike races was in the late 1980s vis-a-vis the Carlsberg Light Criterium held at Queen's Park and the Labatt's Blue Light Grand Prix in St. Lawrence Market.
Joe Giuliano remembers both events well.
The North York resident was about 13 when his dad took him to see the races and he vividly recalled the well-attended events. Giuliano's hero at the time, Canadian Olympian Steve Bauer, was the winner of the 60-kilometre Labatt's Blue Light Grand Prix in 1988.
"I remember thinking back then, 'When I turn pro, I hope I get to race this race because it's an awesome race'," he said. "This is what made me want to go professional."
Though he no longer is a professional cyclist (he was for 10 years), Giuliano still competes in pro-amateur races across Ontario and he said he is particularly thrilled to be competing in the forthcoming Toronto Criterium.
"There are some quality pro teams coming and some big names there," he said. "I think it'll have a positive impact, especially for the locals in the St. Lawrence Area. I can recall (the size of the crowd) back in '88... it was packed. This race being on a Friday night I'd expect it to draw a big crowd. Hopefully, it'll help bring the sport back to its heyday."
As for Bauer, after retiring from a pro cycling career in 1996, he founded his own bike tour company in St. Catharines. He's also the director of Team RACE (Race Against Cancer Everywhere), a Canadian cycling team committed to developing cyclists for competition on the international stage, currently competing at an event in Arkansas.
"I think it's great... I only wish I could be there," Bauer told Insidetoronto.com. Bauer will be in Europe with Team RACE in late May.
"Returning to St. Lawrence Market and doing the race at night so more people could come out to watch is a fabulous idea.
"It's been very successful in the past... I don't see any reason why (Toronto) couldn't rejuvenate (its) enthusiasm for this sport. It's a fabulous sport to watch in a circuit setting."
Matthew Knight, technical director of the Ontario Cycling Association in North York, said it's exciting such a high level of competition would be on display in Toronto and in turn expose competitive cycling to a broader audience.
"A lot of our events take place in smaller communities," he said. "This event should appeal to professional race fans, people who would watch the Tour de France, to come down to St. Lawrence Market and see pro level cycling."
insidetoronto.ca
CSC heads to Bavaria
Team CSC has decided at the last minute to ride the Bayern Rundfahrt, which starts May 28, and plans to send Stuart O'Grady and Bradley McGee, both of whom broke collarbones in the third stage of the Giro d'Italia.
According to the race organisers, CSC asked if it could participate and the race management gladly accepted the Danish ProTour team.
Uwe Peschel, a former Gerolsteiner rider who is now the sports director for the Bayern Rundfahrt, explained how the two could start racing again so soon after surgery. "A plate is inserted in the shoulder for a broken collarbone. When there are no complications, then the rider can usually start racing again pretty quickly."
CSC becomes the sixth ProTour team in the race, along with High Road, Gerolsteiner, Milram, Credit Agricole and Bouygues Telecom.
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Petacchi loses wins
Team Milram's star sprinter Alessandro Petacchi will have 13 victories erased from his record after the Court of Arbitration for Sport's (CAS) decision to suspend him for one year on doping charges. The Team Milram sprinter tested positive for Salbutamol, an asthma medication, during the 2007 Giro d'Italia, and while he was given credit on his suspension for a two-month period in which he did not compete, he will lose credit for victories during the 2007 Giro and all 2008 results.
The CAS ruled that the Italian would have to forfeit all "competitive results" from the Giro d'Italia, as well as "any medals, points and prizes." That would include the five stage wins, which presumably would be awarded to the runner-up, as well as the the maglia ciclamino for best rider in the points competition, for which Giro winner Danilo Di Luca finished second.
Under the ruling, Petacchi may retain "all other competitive results between 23 May 2007, and 31 October, 2007," but is disqualified for any results since 31 October 2007. Therefore, he could keep his victories in Paris-Tours, October 14, as well as his win in the first stage of the Rothaus Regio Tour in August and his two stage wins in the Vuelta a España.
He will, however, lose all of his results from 2008 which include eight victories: The GP Costa degli Etruschi, three stage wins in the Ruta del Sol, one stage win each in the Volta a Valenciana and Tirreno-Adriatico, and two stages in the Tour of Turkey.
Petacchi is considering appealing the suspension, one of his attorneys told the German press agency dpa. "That is such a ridiculous ruling that we are considering whether we should appeal to the Swiss court or the Court of Human rights in Strassbourg," attorney Maira Laufa Guardamagna said. (SW)
Copyrigth Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
Songs, praise part of events for National Day of Prayer
By KENNY MAPLE/Index-Journal staff writer
Thursday, May 1, 2008 11:49 PM EDT
"Stir us, revive America," prayed an attendee of Thursday's National Day of Prayer at the Greenwood County Courthouse.
The words sum up what many were praying aloud to God, whether they were Greenwood residents, clergy members or local government leaders.
Many in Greenwood were moved to attend the prayer event at the courthouse, though a similar event was occurring at the same time, noon, at Greenwood Family YMCA.
Organizer Eleanor Litts said the idea began about 20 years ago, when Litts heard about the program taking place elsewhere. They’ve repeated the event every year on May 1, along with other National Day of Prayer events that take place across the county.
In Greenwood, the proceedings began in song.
With guitarist Tim Keeler playing lightly, those in attendance sang "Seek Ye First," before shifting into the reading of Scripture -- Psalm 146.
"Praise the Lord!" the psalm begins. "Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live."
Then the prayers really began. The crowd prayed for country and community, elders and youngsters, troops overseas and local law enforcement, missionaries in foreign lands and local congregations.
With the gathering exceeding 50 people, local government officials were given the floor, including Greenwood Mayor Floyd Nicholson, city council and county council.
County council member Gonza Bryant said National Day of Prayer is "just what we need" before leading into prayer. Keeler also offered prayer before leading into more praise songs.
"Thank you so much for gathering us here, God," he said. "It's so great to see people with hearts of prayer, Lord, and our hearts have come to you, and we come to you on our knees and our hearts, Lord, for this country."
Copyright Index Journal 2007
Legendary Cactus Cup returns
Remember the Cactus Cup? Well, it's back, but this time at a new venue at Mountain's Edge in Las Vegas, Nevada, and to a new time on the calendar from September 19 to 21, just prior to the Interbike Trade Show.
The famous event, which began in 1991 as an early season tune-up race in the Arizona desert, grew to be one of world's biggest mountain bike race festivals and traveled to Australia, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Brazil, and across the United States as the sport of mountain biking swelled in the 1990s.
Ravi Rajcoomar and his partner in their Swagger company are promoting the revitalized Cactus Cup, and in fact, it was Rajcoomar who directed the original event when his then-employer Specialized sponsored the event. "Specialized got out of it in the mid-90s. They wanted to be in production, not event promotion," said Rajcoomar to Cyclingnews.
As for the "new" Cactus Cup, Rajcoomar said, "We will have a stage race with a time trial Friday, and cross country, Super D and fat boy crit throughout the rest of the weekend. Anyone can compete in just one stage or the entire race. We'll also have a marathon, too, as a stand-alone event." The date for the marathon is still being finalized, but will likely occur one week after the stage race. The courses for the various events will be altered to suit the competition and experience level of racers in different categories.
Rajcoomar said he's gotten a good response from many of the legends of the sport who were Cactus Cup regulars, and we may well see some of them back for the race. Past participants and champions of the event include Ned Overend, John Tomac, Steve Tilford, Bart Brentjens, Tinker Juarez, Thomas Frischknecht, Travis Brown, Greg Herbold, Dave Weins, Andreas Hester, Seamus McGrath, Alison Sydor, Juliana Furtado, Paola Pezzo, Gunn Rita-Dahle, Alison Dunlap, Marla Streb, Susan DeMattei, and Tara Llanes.
Former multiple-time Cactus Cup Champion and fat tire criterium specialist Tilford said that he is "extremely excited and looking forward to racing in the epic terrain in Las Vegas".
Swagger is also responsible for promoting the USA Crits series, which will host its finals in Las Vegas in conjunction with Interbike. Swagger is bringing the Cactus Cup to a master planned community called Mountain's Edge, about 15 minutes to the west of downtown Las Vegas.
Rajcoomar said the Cactus Cup is part of his company's effort to give support to mountain biking, which has seen a recent rise in popularity across the US and locally in the Las Vegas Valley. The events will be conducted on Mountain's Edge as well as on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) trails at Cottonwood.
The last two editions of the Cactus Cup were held in Fountain Hills, Arizona, a regular site visited by the National Mountain Bike Series (NMBS). "In fact, the trail used by the NMBS was built for the former Cactus Cup race. It was the result of a public / private venture and remains a legacy from the event," said Rajcoomar.
Commenting on the new venue, he added, "Las Vegas has some of the best mountain biking terrain and trail systems in the country for riding and I am excited that the event can help showcase it."
Copyright Future Publishing (Overseas) Limited, a Future plc group company, 1995-2007. All rights reserved.
How pro-cycling are London's mayoral candidates?
By Rosee Woodland
With days to go until the London mayoral elections pro-bike campaigners are reminding voters just who's on the side of cyclists.
The London Cycling Campaign has been lobbying Mayoral and Assembly candidates to make strong commitments to cycling in London.
It says there are key differences of vision between them on issues of cycling, transport and making London a more liveable city.
And it's backing Green candidate Sian Berry and non-cyclist Ken Livingstone over high profile two-wheeler Boris Johnson.
Koy Thomson, LCC's chief executive, said: "LCC has worked hard to secure cycling commitments from mayoral candidates but pro-cycling voters need to ask whether candidates are being consistent and are also promoting policies to persuade us out of cars. A vote for cycling is a vote for a healthier, greener and people-friendly London."
LCC's analysis of the most cycle friendly candidates is based on their responses to LCC's cycling manifesto, the candidates' transport policies and a series follow-up e-mails, calls and meetings.
Sian Berry (Green) and Ken Livingstone (Labour) support removal of the huge gyratory systems which are the biggest barriers to cycling and walking; both also back 20mph as the standard speed limit in London boroughs.
Boris Johnson (Conservative) wants London to be the world's greenest city and like Livingstone wants a 'modal shift' to sustainable transport but only backs 20mph zones 'where appropriate'.
Brian Paddick (Lib Dem) agrees on 20mph limits on residential and most shopping streets.
Berry and Livingstone will not allow motorbikes in bus lanes because of the potential danger to pedestrians and cyclists. Paddick and Johnson will open up all bus lanes to motorbikes which the LCC says will increase danger for walkers and cyclists and boost the number of motorbikes on streets.
On funding Livingstone has promised 500 million gbp for cycling over ten years, Berry says she'll spend more (150million gbp a year by 2012) and Paddick says he'll match the 500million gbp. Johnson says he'll spend 2 million gbp on cycle parking and that his budget will exceed the Transport for London budget.
The measures that all candidates support include a mass bike hire scheme; better cycle parking; Ttugher action to stop bike theft; reduction of road traffic crime; cycle training for kids; completion of the London Cycle Network Plus; active travel to public events; and a Tube style bike map of key bike routes. Ken Livingstone has additionally proposed 'cycling corridors' into central and inner London, as well as 'Bike Zones' around local town centres. Sian Berry and Brian Paddick both support these measures. Johnson backs the corridors but not the zones.
You can read the full responses to LCC's cycling manifesto from the four main candidates. Other mayoral candidates' responses, including the Left List and the Christian Alliance Party, can be seen at the LCC's website.
(c)Future Publishing Limited.Reg no. 2008885 England.
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