Name: George Schenk, owner.

What is it that you do in your business?  What is your businesses ethos?  Help others as best as I am able, pick up litter.  Be a good neighbor.

One thing that was tough in working or starting your business?

Making sure that we were doing all of the things we need to do well.

What's the best part of your job now?

Engaging others in the important conversation of food: Where did it come from?  How was it grown?  What does it mean to our environment and to our health?

What was your first bike? Schwinn, 1958

Do you ride currently? No, I walk. 

What else would you like to add to this brief profile?  Good Food Helps.  

4:30 - the number on clock when my alarm went off

0 - cups of coffee consumed because the espesso machine wanted it's

filter changed

170 - miles driven by Damian in 3 hours and 40 minutes.

4- late model Cameros spotted

2 - the number of right handed gloves I brought.

1 - (only! Not bad for NY) times we were accused during the race for

being "homos"

3 - number of times I thought I was going to dropped on the climb.

That's one time per lap for those of you keeping score.

Like 20 - the number of sketchy moves I saw in the 3/4 field. Really

guys?

About 10 - feet between an disgruntaled driver who was passing the

field and on coming traffic

2 - the lap number when I was scouting out garages to duck into as

rain and thunderstorm loomed overhead.

1.5 - kilometers to go when Steve Franscico grabbed my wheel and commanded

that we make move up

80- the number of dollars awarded for 3rd place finish.

74 - the number of dollars spent on registration, gas, bars, gels,

lunch and a mocha latte.

Jim and I raced The Capital Region Road race yesterday gearing up for the GMSR.  Actually gearing was the word of the day as Jim and I both had difficulties shifting.  I had an increasingly dysfunctional right shifter with a mind of its own.  It did not crumble in my hand or lock up as has happened in the past, but I did need to be diligent in holding it in gear to prevent the chain from rolling up and down my cassette. Jim's fluidity of shifting was compromised by factors yet to be determined.  Jim's whole day was affected by the lack of his habitual morning fluid being unavailable due to the day starting prior to the opening of his favorite Coffee shop.  Didn't seem to matter as he found the right gear and took 3rd overall. The prize official was almost insistent on giving him the 2nd place purse.  I had to settle for 40th as the mechanically demanding course proved to be too much for my worn out shifter that found the neutral gear at the most inconvenient time. For those keeping track it did rain at this race so those that skipped it due to the clear forecast you missed a good sprinkling of fluid from the sky. Yet another day to wash the bike, and probably the reason so many mechanicals are happening at this point of the season. After the race while inspecting what a pot hole did to friend of Flatbreads' Jack Pillar's (Placid Planet) carbon wheel, Flathead cycling president Eric Greenburg (out of Flathead Valley MT http://home.centurytel.net/flatheadcycling/) approached me excited that there was another team with a flat state of mind.  -Damian Bolduc

July 28th Tour of Hilltowns

- Jim Komarmi

All jokes aside, the cheap and moderately crappy wheelset Forte Titans from Performance.com  did survive some huge hits on the Tour of Hilltowns course. Half road race, half mountain bike race and half mountain climb (that’s right- three halves) did provide some decent racing but the race did have it’s interesting twists. This year’s addition of Hilltowns didn’t have fallen telephone poles, misguided pace cars or downed electrical wires. But horrendous pothole roads (yes, worse than Waitsfield) and sandbars allowed those who brought their mountain bike skills to excel. We shouldn’t forget to thank the town of Charlemont for the fresh “chippin’ & seal” on East Hawley Road 1,400 plus accent. Pedaling in sand might have been more difficult, but that’s racing… and it turned out okay in the end. Just a little warm-up for the month ahead.

July 22 La Festival De La Clam

Sure it's a long drive and the race is short.  But there's fried clams, and clam tribute bands, and a guy in a clam suit. (I think it was a guy.)  Anyway, the race was great.  Short, hard and fast.  Justin Spinelli drilled it off the front to win leaving the rest of us chasing what there was left to chase.  10 laps, 1 steep uphill per lap.  A good time. I finished in or near the top 15 and for me with a race that demands a lot of leg horsepower, that's fine.  (I won't say I'm happy.)  

On the bright side, we got to see a lot of good friends.  Many thanks to the folks that were on the finish line. (Mostly nordic skiers.-  Actually I'm pretty sure the entire festival was comprised of Maine nordic skiers.)  Also, thanks to Eileen Carey for not getting too mad when I rolled down her car's malfunctioning window- it took us a half hour in the Dunkin Donuts parking lot for us to get it closed.  

August is packed with races.  As usual

there is more to come. -AG

 16

Mmmmm. Those practice crits are tasty.  Thanks, Claude.  

Only One left on the season!  Get out there on July 29th. -AG 

July 14 Tim from Idaho

Our man our west, Tim Mitchell brings another race update.   The Gate City Grind:

So the first day started off with an 83-mile road race in the morning, rolling

terrain, five climbs.  It was a pretty fast start to the race with attacks

going off withing the first mile of racing.  I tried to get into a few of the

early moves, but nothing was sticking.  I actually kind of over-cooked myself a

bit by being so aggressive at the beginnin of the race, but its more fun to race

that way, so...  Some breaks stuck for a while and then came back; within the

last 20-miles I managed to tack myself onto a chase of 6 people running down

what ended up being the final 4-man break, we closed a big gap to less than a

minute within 10 miles and I ended up 8th for the day, just over one minute

down on the GC.

Later that evening was an 11km time trial on an interstate frontage road.

Pretty flat and very fast.  I went out WAY too hard and was hurting pretty bad

by the turn-around, I managed a pretty good effort on the way back in and ended

up 5th in the TT, putting me 7th on GC.

The next day we had a criterium, 1.1km loop with 9-turns.  The pace was insanely

fast right from the start and a few of the Pros that were in the race seemed

determined to show us just why it was that they were pros and we were not...

It worked...  The entire field blew-up in the 102degree heat with over half of

the field dropping out.  I hung in there at the tail-end of the lead lap and

ended up 9th on GC, a bit of a move back, but still the best Cat2 in a field

with a nunmber of strong Cat1's and a handfull of Pros.  A pretty decent

showing all-in-all.

Jul 5 -  Here Fitchy Fitchy.

 So I've been racing at FItchburg for the last four days, staying with Midd grad Peter Bell about 45 minutes away in Waltham.  The races haven't gone as I'd have wished, but wishes don't fill race palmares so instead of a boring should-have, could-have post, I'll give you the high points of the week.  The time trial was the same as last year and without any significantly notable events. Congrats to Vermont rider Charles McCarthy for winning the Cat 2, tt.  The road race was moved up a day due to the 4th of July holiday and the difficulty with the road closures in town.  Epic conditions were fun to race in- it was raining and the descent is high on pucker factor without wet roads but I did love hitting the high fifties on the speedometer. (En fuego.)  I have to thank the unnamed Landry's rider for not washing all of the detergent out of his shorts, making for some serious froth on the saddle. (It looked like his ass had rabies.)  I chuckled for half a lap.  Today's circuit race was fast and mad fun.  I've been suffering a mini crisis of motivation lately.  (Not large- but you know how it is.)  I'm fired up now. The crit tomorrow will be speedy and I'm thinking about it as the first hard event of the rest of the season.  Anybody know anything more fun that racing? (Hint: no.) I'm real curious who's going to be America's Next Top Model during this MTV marathon I'm watching. (Don't tell me how it ends.)

June 26 Gearing Up for Fitch 

It looks like, I'll be rolling into Fitchburg as the lone

Flatbread kid.  So I've been gearing up and training

my weaknesses.  Here's some footage from today's

training. 

June 22nd  

Tim Mitchell Race

Report: Elkhorn Classic Stage Race

Tim Mitchell is pursuing graduate studies at the University of Utah this summer and flying the Flatbread colors in races around the west.  He reports in on his last event.

First day was 75-mile road race, unfortunately I got food poisoning that

morning.  I raced anyway, but it was 85degrees outside and the only thing I

could get down on the bike was 1.5 bottles and 1 Clif Bar, not a very good

combo when you do 75 miles in 3 hours.  I dropped my chain at the bottom of a

climb with 25miles to go and tried to chase back on but I went too hard and

blew up in EPIC fashion and couldn't close the gap, lost about 12 minutes on

that stage.

Second day was suppossed to be a morning TT and an evening Crit, no crit though

as apparently people in the West are scarred of racing on wet pavement (oooh,

scary) The TT went OK in the morning, 10.2 miles, still felt awful from the

previous day, was only 1 minute out over a few Pros that were there, it was a

STACKED field, had I been 10-15 seconds faster I would have been in the top 10

I think.  Starting to get a hang of the whole TT thing.

Third day was grueling, 105 miles, 3 major climbs finishing up a 7-mile 7% climb

to 5500 feet.  I was angry after they cancelled the crit so I attacked right

from the start, couldn't get away at first, tried about 5 or 6 hard attacks.

Then at mile 25 I put the hammer down and rode off the front of the field and

stayed away for about 45 minutes and at one point had built up about a 3 minute

gap.  Eventually the field closed it down and then with about 12 miles to go I

went flat-out in a break with 3 other riders, we hit the base of the final

climb with a about 2 minutes on the field and then I attacked the breakaway and

put in an all-or-nothing effort up the final climb.  I made it to about 2.5

miles to the finish and then the lead group caught me right at about the time

my heart was exploding in my chest...  I limped across the line a few minutes

back (not sure on placing as I immediately got in the car for the 8 hour drive

home.  Not a huge chance of any of those solo attacks working... but to win,

you have to risk losing...  105 miles, 4.5 hours, 9000ft climbing, 4200kj,

260Watts average, 310Watts normalized power

June 21st  Practice Crits in the Free Press

     click photo for more.

June 20th  Damian Bolduc Wins Men's 3/4 class at Wilmington to Whiteface!!!

Congrats!!!

Damian racing in April at the Palmer Road Race. 

June 15  Steamed Burgers

The truth is that we went for a bike race, but the call of steamed burgers following the Housatonic RR was too intoxicating to ignore,  so we went.  The Food Channel purportedly ran a special on Ted's Steamed Burgers.  (No relation to our Ted.)  But frankly, they just seemed a bit different.  Jim noted the consistency of the cheese used for the burger was to his liking.  The race was not really to anyone's liking.  I had a good day, but felt pretty miserable at times.  Pretty humid and quite hilly. Results here. Damian drove and that was fortunate, since he'd just received a fine father's day gift in a Garmin GPS system.  She found our hotel, Ted's Burgers and the race without incident.  (A first for me. I gotta get one of those things. ) Practice crit this week in Burlington for me & Claude.  Damian will put in his time at the Claremont sprints.  Sabe is still rehabing a knee injury.  Tim is out in Utah tearing thing up.  Can we get a report, TPM?   More soon as this week holds a lot of good stuff:  Up Next is Whiteface. 

June 14  A Week of Great Rides

Maybe it was something I did in a past life but I had more than my fair share of great rides this week:  It started on Wednesday whe

n Middlebury College alum Zoe Owers and her significant other Brad Sheehan decided to swing up to Vermont for a romantic getaway of gap rides.  Brad's Met Life teammate Charlie McCarthy came along from just over in Waitsfield and it was a fine, fine couple of climbs.  (By fine, I mean labored.)  On Thursday, I snuck up to Jericho for a ride with Sabe and Lea.  Another significant climb, this time up Smugglers.  I felt lucky that Sabe had to take it easy on my with a bit of a knee injury.  However, Lea has full gas pedal available to her, which is good since she takes on the dirt world 

next week in Italy.  Finally yesterday, I go an 

easier go in with Ted andGraham.  Ted was 

working out a new powertap  and Graham was

workout out...well road 

riding.  (See team roster for 

from a tough go at the Balloon Festival in 

Cambridge.  In other significant Vermont cycling news.  The state's signature (and New England's best) race is undergoing some changes.   Looks like we'll be climbing less and racing for time, as opposed to points like in years passed.  Should be good.  More after the sufferfest this weekend. -AG

June 10

Ouch.

June 8  Tim Checks in. Upcoming Racing. 

Some brief updates:

- Tim Mitchell Reports from Salt Lake City, UT. where he's doing research for much of the summer.:  "5th place in the Pro/1/2 Sugarhouse Crit.  Almost caught Burke Swindelhurest

(Bissel pro team) on the last lap, caught the breakaway at the finish line,

just needed about 200meters more and I think I would have had the victory...

Legs are getting good!!!"

- Claude and Andrew braved the heat of Cambridge NY at the Balloon Festival.  Andrew had a decent race with a solid breakaway and a poor result.  92 degrees is hot. (Just an FYI)

- Two Options for Racing Next Weekend:  Housatonic Down in CT on Sunday.  (Why Sunday?) and the Whiteface Hill Climb over in NY on Saturday.

June 2nd-  Champaign Pavement.

I raced the pro 123 field over in Auburn.  things went well until I flatted with 22 miles to go. 

 I got a wheel and soloed it in. Apparently not in time to get a result.  A good effort anyway.

I heard some new things from the officials at the start of the race.  "Public urination is a Class 1 sex crime, so now if you get busted you have to go to court and will be put on the sex offender list (registry)"

"There is a long section that was paved yesterday so you will have champagne pavement today"  

"What is champagne pavement?"

"won't it be wet champagne pavement?"

Also a word of advice, when changing a wheel in a hurry it goes on a lot faster when the QR skewer is open.  - Damian

May 24

 I don't know a rider who isn't inclined to invoke a voice-over occasionally.  You've done it: sprinting to the stop sign, giving into the inner-Phil Liggett- "the cagy-Vamont ridar, now turning the pedals in anger."  Today, at the last minute, I joined a group ride that was cruising past my house up the gap and over towards Brandon.  I did this knowing the rest of my weekend was to be spent with my bride paining my kitchen.  (Why I, alas, didn't join Damian when he invited me for a ride. Sorry, dude.) After a fairly stout push up Brandon Gap with Kevin Bessett and the GMBC crowd, I heard Phil and Paul extolling my meager skills as a rider.  Like I said, not uncommon.  What might be a bit different is that after arriving home and pausing for station-identification, a couple PB&J sandwiches and a change of clothes, I got down to riding tempo on some serious latex paint application...and Phil and Paul came with me.  While I painted, I could almost hear Phil starting out:

 "The diminutive Gardner is painting the kitchen drawer of his life." 

May 13  Going for Distance