Wow – Amy D and Richard Sachs holding firm on sponsorship for the season.  To Amy’s credit she was able to land another good independent contract, though I wonder how the race support will be for her without the Sachs guys in the pits for her.

“November 1st, 2009   Filed Under cyclocross news

Amy Dombroski completed her last race in the red and black of Richard Sachs-RGM Watches-Radix today at the Boulder Cup, finishing second.

Dombroski and the team mutually agreed to part ways after a disagreement on the mandatory use of a sponsor’s equipment. The team is sponsored by Cole Wheels, but throughout the season Dombroski could be seen riding either unlabeled or relabeled wheels not made by Cole. Although some teams often employ this practice, especially with tires, to appease sponsors but ride equipment of their choice, framebuilder Richard Sachs is particular about his equipment and expects their equipment to be used.

Dombroski was quick to credit Richard Sachs and his team for their support and equipment until now. “I am very disappointed it ultimately resulted in breaking the liaison, because Richard, his wife Deb, Matt K, Josh D, Will D, and Dan T were a wicked fun crew to spend race weekends with,” Dombroski told Cyclocross Magazine. “Richard’s bikes were great – the fit was perfect and it truly is a piece of art.  The program he has instilled over the past 13 years is one to be proud of.  He is as true to his sponsors as they are to him, and I think that is why his cyclocross program has been so successful.”

Dombroski, is a petite rider, perhaps the smallest in the Elite women’s field, was looking to save some grams by riding another company’s carbon wheels that featured lighter hubs. “In the end, it culminated with me re-decaling a non-sponsor item, with the sponsor sticker,” Dombroski confessed.  “To Richard’s credit, he did not feel I was truly representing the sponsor if I was not using the equipment.  Perhaps this loyalty is something we should all learn from.”

The rider has quickly put together a new program to be ready for the USGP weekend in New Jersey, with sponsorship from Clement, Primus Mootry, Reynolds, SRAM, Schlamm, FSA, TRP and Lazer.”

Staten Island CX just posted our tubular tutorial on their site!  Check it out!

CX Mag gave us a big plug this weekend.  Pretty awesome!

They also have a new format!  Its killer!!

Christine got a new sponsor!  Yay!  We always love when our athletes get another hand at the sport.

If Christine’s wheels ever make it through customs in Belgium, she will be rocking a lot of Echappe Classics this season on the World Cup circuit!  Now, if we could only get through customs…

While I appreciate what Lance has done for the sport (and myself – had it not been for Lance I never would have known about competitive cycling), his performance at the Tour was pretty astonishing.  After looking at guys like Basso and Floyd, who had to take years off for doping, yet kept training, we see Armstrong flying again.  We know he wasn’t training at all up until a year ago (he did the marathon, but that was a relatively short period).  I will be sorely disappointed if Lance and Co are found guilty of anything suspicious, though I can say that I know many who will love to see the giant fall.

What do you guys think?  Is Lance guilty of suspicious activities during the 09 Tour?  Or has he done this training and eaten his Wheaties?

Awesome.

This poor guy must have some serious mental illness that is either undiagnosed or ignored by his peers and family.  Poor guy should have a Flanders title under his belt, but instead he pisses his pants in Sacramento.  Sad.

It was a hard and fast weekend in Providence.  The courses were short and dry making for high power output a necessity.  Starting up hill is always a hell of  a way to start the fastest races in the east coast, too.  Rickey was fortunate to get a call up with his UCI points, but I was stuck way back.  Rickey and I both start slow, though Rickey can freight train his way back through the race.  Sunday was a different story, however.  Slow starts for both of us, and while I felt a lot better, the group I was working with didn’t have the cooperation needed to make up time and Rickey was having a hell of a bad day.  Combined we finished together – 1 lap down.  Taken into perspective, I actually rode farther on Sunday than Saturday since we did something crazy like 9 laps.

Colin Reuter has a funny video up from his seat cam that shows Manny Goguen seeing the lap cards and exclaiming “6?!”  Yeah, our thoughts exactly.

Next week is Granogue and Wissahikon.  Another fast weekend.  For me this is my last weekend in a row for fast races then I back off for a week and do some local stuff.  Rickey is higher in the hunt for Verge Series points, so he will head up to Maine after this weekend and contest that series.  We’ll keep you posted.

Thanks for reading!

Ricky hitting the sand.