Lewis featured on VeloNews

Congrats go out to one of our very own former Hincapie Cycling teammembers, Craig Lewis. Craig was recently featured on VeloNews.com for his great first year with Team Columbia and his bright future in the sport. Click here for the read the full article. Lewis (24) started off his now famous cycling career with our Hincapie team way back in 2002 where he raced as a Jr. with us (then we were the Fairway-Cyfac team, and Hincapie Sportswear was just starting to boom in the Southeast). Craig raced the 2002 and 2003 season with the team and them moved to TIAA-CREF in 2004, Slipstream in 2007, and landed his current spot with Team Columbia in 2008. Congrats to Craig for making it to the big stage...best of luck with all your future races.

Training Camp: part 1

We had a good team training ride today. In total we had 12 of the team members out together which was great. We had a nice long ride and it was good to catch up with everyone and see that they were all looking forward to a great year. I was the lucky dog who got the honor of being the first to test out the new Gary Fisher ARC Pro team bike, and was very impressed. I spent 4 hours on the new bike today on the ride, and it was a nice ride straight out of the box. Other than looking freakin hot, the frame was very responsive (as always, we played around with a few city limit sprints) and also climbed well. It was very easy for me to dial in my position on the bike, since it's geometries were virtually identical to the Lemond's we rode last year. The new Bontrager Race Lite bars were perfect and had a good feel on the ride. We are still waiting for a few extra parts to get all the bikes built up, but I know the other guys will be equally impressed once they get their first ride. We were able to hand out a few pairs of the new Bontrager RXL Shoes and the fits were perfect. Hopefully we can get our cleats dialed in and get our first ride in them tomorrow. Stay tuned for some pics of the new rides...Later, Adam

Gary Fisher: 2009 Team Bike and Co-Sponsor

NEW for 2009: The 2008 Hincapie/Coca-Cola/Barkley Team will become the Hincapie/Gary Fisher Team presented by BARKLEY! We are pleased to introduce Gary Fisher Bikes as our new Co-Sponsor for 2009 and beyond. The team will race the newly introduced Gary Fisher ARC Pro, equipt with top of the line Bontrager and SRAM components. The ARC Pro features a stiff aluminum frame with carbon fiber seatstays and chainstays, along with a Bontrager carbon fork. Look for the team edition Gary Fisher ARC Pro at the head of the races in 09'. Thanks to Travis, Chris, Jeff and Travis G. for making the dream a reality.

SRAM Pledges 2009 Support

SRAM Continues 2009 Team Support

For our second year in a row, the Hincapie/Gary Fisher Team presented by Barkley is pleased to have SRAM return as our official groupo sponsor for our Gary Fisher ARC Pro framesets. Our team had great success with the SRAM Force groupos last year and look forward to a great 2009 season with their continued support. This year the team bikes will be equipt with a combination of SRAM Force and SRAM Red shifters, cranks, brakesets, bottom brackets and derailures. Thanks to Alex, Ed, Paul and Jim for all their help. The team is also proud to be contributing through SRAM to the World Bicycle Relief program, along with other SRAM sponsored teams, in order to provide stable and sustainable bicycles to areas around the world for transportation and labor uses. http://www.worldbicyclerelief.org/Visit our friends from SRAM at http://www.sram.com/ and follow other fellow SRAM Athletes at http://www.theroaddiaries.com/

Just Training

This weekend we were glad to get in a little "mini-camp" with the guys. Saturday we did the Polar Bear together for some miles, and Sunday took a jount out to Morrow Mountain. John was able to come down from VA, and Reid, who has been spending the last week training with the Virginia Tech Team in Florida also popped in. Sometimes it is just good to get together and experience the ride... going to be a good year.

Reid cropped this picture to hide his uncontrolled mullet
John and Adam pondering the meaning of life (and the future joy of our Gary Fisher bikes) at the overlook down to the Pee Dee River

Belize Day 7: One the Road Again

Sunday: Monte, Lori, David and I got up early on hit the road on the bikes for a 55 mile ride back up to Orange Walk. Monte said "he was really tired, but wanted to get in one last good ride". I matched him 2 up for a 3x 15minute pulls, and he was must have been feeling a little "better" than he thought. Seemed like the Northern Highway never ended. Made it into town around 9:30am and found a nice local fruit concoction to cool us down. After a quick parking lot change we started packing up the bikes for the flight. Got to see our friends and sponsors from the Sugar City team one last time which was nice. Went outside of the box and tried some local rice/beans and grilled fish for lunch. Harkey stuck with his same boring grilled chicken, Coke and baked tater.
Jumped in the van and did the long 6 hour mach 3 run to Cancun. Andrew scored us some great fresh pineapple from the locals on the side of the road. (You may have noticed that the theme of food seems to run through these posts...funny how comforting good local food can make a long, hot, sometimes stressful trip seem a little more easy. 'Bout all you can think about when you days shape up like "eat, ride your bike, travel, eat, travel, eat, travel some more, sleep") Scored a nice room at the Avalon Grand on the strip in Cancun for a few hours, then off to the airport tomorrow back to good ol God's Counrty NC. Thanks for joining us for the ride! Adam

Belize Day 6: Let's be Tourists!

Saturday: Not sure if we had another night's room, we packed up all our gear, left it in the hotel lobby and headed off to meet Tony for a 12 hour tour of Belize (Caracol Mayan temples, Rio Frio river and caverns, Twin Tunnel Caves and 1000ft falls). Long day, but a once in a lifetime experience to see the awesome sights of highland Belize. I got to share a pizza with Charles and life was good.

Belize Day 5: Recovery Day

Friday: We are all busted, but had a great night at the Radisson Fort George thanks to the help of our friend and supporter, Jim Scott! We slept a little late today and had breakfast at the bakery (cinnabuns, johnny cakes and scones). After going to sweeten my java, the lid pops off and I dump about 2 cups of pure, fresh Belizian Cane Sugar in my coffee...needless to say I was having a little sugar high for the rest of the morning. We ride out to meet our friends Charles and Tony from Leslie Imports and then out of town for a 30 mile recovery ride on the Western Highway to Hattiville.
After lunch we met up with Roger, Shalini and Christian at the bowling alley and test our skills on the worst bowling lanes in history.
Dinner with Charles at the Stone Grill (Monte opted for the Jerk Beef strips for a little spice) and then visited the Smiling Meats shop with Matthew.

Belize Day 4: Sucki-Suck WINS the KREM Classic Race!

Thursday: Race Day -
Women's Race:
Lori was our lone female team member representing the Hincapie/Gary Fisher/Barkley Team in the abbreviated 60 mile womens version of the race. After a Builder Bar breakfast, her race left at 9:00 combined with the Jr's field. She spent most of her race chasing attacks and breaks with the Jrs in order to form seperation with her other female racers, which included Shalini Z. (winner of the 2008 race). Lori, not known for her sprinting knew that she had to lead out the sprint into town as fast as she could. She took a great line through the round-about and held off her other girls to the line for the WIN! After a little post race interview with KREM Radio and Belize Channel 5 TV, Lori was presented with her monster trophy, prize money, Championship ring, and Sheep (yeap, she won a sheep as a prime on the road!) Big props to good ol' "sucki-suck" for her biggest win to date!!!

Men's Race:
Monte, David and I roll out to breakfast at Melin's house in Orange Walk, eggs over easy, fried ham and tortillas at 5:30am. We leave for the race at 7:00 after I had already made 3 pit stops at the bathroom...a little Montazuma zoom zoom action. Lori's (aka sucki suck) race leaves from Orange Walk so she got a little more sleep time. We stop on the road about 6 miles from the startline at the Mexico boarder and get our bikes ready and suited up. I duck out into the sugar cane fields with a newspaper for round #4. After riding to the start we sign in and go through the pre-race check up and find some shade. Race starts...crazy! Full on cat 5 action. Moto official dumps his bike just in front of the pack, we are bunny hopping speedbumps, dodging chickens and stray dogs, caravan traffic, sugar cane...you name it. Entering Corazal the road looks like a mine field of potholes. Chris and I both loose all of our water bottles, and our sprinter, Mateo flats his front wheel. I dropped back with 2 teammates to get him, but he is nowhere in site and chase back on through the maddening caravan (Repeat step 1 three more times!) After my third time dropping back for my sprinter, I closed the gap back to the field and a crash of 10-15 guys blocks the road. I run off the left side of the road to avoid running into the moto official, and get bogged down in a ditch in the cane fields (this is where my race went south). I spent the next 5 miles or so trying to chase back on to no avail through Orange Walk. Monte is in a 5 man break at this point and the race is going fast into town for the $1000 prime. Monte takes a narrow 2nd for the prime and his break gets caught. David goes back to the caravan for water, eats bumper and crashes into a service vehicle while pacing up. I settle in for a lonley 55 mile ride to Belize City with no water. Marlon (Team Santinos) attacks just past Crooked Tree towards Belize City which puts us on the defensive. Monte and Nery set up a strong chase at 28-30mph for the next 5+ miles but can't close to the leader up the road. They pull the 2nd group of about 20 riders to the line and get passed in the sprint for 11th and 12th place, with Jose Choto taking trophies for 1st master and Chris 3rd place master.

Belize Day 3: Can we race? (Updated)

Did a nice 2-3 hour ride today to Crooked Tree, but our whole gang is pretty stressed out. It was really nice to meet up on the road with the Sugar City Boys team and train together. The roads here are really rough and it was good to have friends, teamates and a support truck to share the ride with. We are running into some opposition down here to letting us americans race. There were some heated discussions at the team meeting last night that lasted late into the evening. We have been going round and round with the Belizian Cycling Association constantly. Their intentions are good, but we are having to scramble to get documentations squared away that we had already sent prior to us buying tickets to race. Foriegners racing in the USA don't have anywere close to the hard time as they evidently do down here with registration. We just want to race! Right now there is about a 70% chance we can race tomorrow, but that other 30% is driving us crazy. Big thanks to our NC/SC Cycling Association President, Vicki Lyons for all of her help in getting us the repeatitive documentation they are needing down here. All in all a real stressful night last night and today. We need to get out and go for a walk to clear our minds. Great Country, great climate, great people, but a totally different approach to allowing foriegn riders to race.

5:30pm: Things look much more promising for us to race tomorrow and we are prepared. Our local friends, Melin with the Sugar City team and Andrew with Acros-Guiness, have taken great care of us while we have been down here and helping us get things squared away with the race. We re-sent all of our documents and are ready for a good race. Our spirits have picked up greatly. I am looking forward to dinner tonight at La Hacinda and a nice team meeting tonight. Everyone is fit and ready, but heat is definately going to be a factor, but we have a good plan and great teammates and support. Breakfast early tomorrow and we head off to Corizal to start the race at 9:00, which runs from the Belize-Mexico boarder to Belize City, 100 miles south.

Someone local at home keep Melissa in the loop, my email is down and I can't get through. Adam

Belize Day 2: "Chicken Slayer"

Woke up today at 5:00am to ride at 6:00...Monte looked outside and proclaimed that is was "pitch ass dark outside" and about 80 degrees. The equatorial Sun soon came up with force and we set out with bellies full of tropical bananas and mini clif bars. We rode 60 miles on the roughest roads I have ever seen to the Mexican boarder and back to Orange Walk with our Sugar City teammates Nery, Bertrain and their director Damion. Basically the roads are a mixture of 1-2" sided gravel with huge gaps between. The smooth sections lack the characteristic mindfield of 2 foot HOLES that the really rough sections have. Monte was having a little trouble with his hands going numb, and I know we will be really sore tonight. We stopped just shy of the Mexican boarder (long story again) and decided to turn around. A quick stop at the local store for some bagged water (chilled 1 quart plastic bags of water, rather than bottles) and Gatorade.
Passed another guy on the bike with a gun (double barrel this time) on our way back to Orange Walk. About 20 miles outside of town went through a pretty rual area (mile of sugar cane mixed with shanty shacks along the roadside with various livestock roaming free in the "yard"). A huge golden chicken was running across the road, and diverted its path straigh towards us. Harkey narrowly dodged the fleeing fowl, but Adam t-boned and ran right over the entire chicken with his bike, both wheels. Feathers flying, know known as the "chicken slayer of belize".
Late 10:00 Breakfast of tortillas, beans, eggs and fried jack pies was a welcomed blessing. We all agreed that we would crawl across a desert of broken glass for the homemade thick totillias from here. We cracked and caught up on some sleep and will head back out tonight for dinner.

Belize: Day 1 Run over the Boarder

We flew out of Charlotte today on the way to Cancun. After the 3 hour flight, we waiting in about an equally long line at customs and immigration. Andrew picked us up and we started our run into Belize. During our 6 hour drive...yeah, I could not help but notice that there are tons of machine guns in Mexico. Military checkpoints every few miles will well armed chaps, heck we even passed a civilian riding a bike with his gun straped to his back. Crossed the boarder out of Mexico (real scary, ask me about the details) and into the "Free Zone" a short area between the 2 countries. Our van was searched as we left the free zone and again as we entered Belize but Andrew definately helped clear us through. Arived in Orange Walk, Belize at around 6:00pm and met up with Melin, owner of the local Sugar City Boys Team. Due to some registration problems, we will not be able to race as our own team. Monte and Adam are racing with the Sugar City crew (Orange Walk is famous for sugar cane), and Harkey and David are racing with the Guiness Team in Thursday's race.
Melin has been a great help and has taken great care of us. We had a nice meal of chicken fajitas and bottled Coke tonight and met on of his riders from Guatemala, Nery Valasquz who just won the climbers jersey in the Tour of Guatemala, who will be racing with Monte and Adam. We checked into the Hotel de La Fuentes here in Orange Walk. Will try to get pics us as available.

KMC Test Chain - 1000 Miles

With just over 1000 miles on or KMC test chain (see original article below), we have noticed some wear to the paint. The outer links on the outer drive side show about 20% wear, mostly on the center portions due to the cassette teeth while down shifting. The inner side of the chain (the side against the frame) shows much more wear with about 50% of the paint gone. As you can see, most of the wear is found on the outer X-Bridge links as well as the hollow pins. This wear is attributed to repeated upshifting up the cassette. Other than the paint wear, the functioning of the chain is still perfect. Shifting is smooth and the wear life of the chain seem unaffected. Look for future updates.

Product Test: KMC X10SL Colored Chain KMC 2009 Official Chain Sponsor

Our friends at KMC Chain sent us a new gift to test out. We are currently testing the new KMC X10SL chain... now in Color! KMC currently offers several versions of single speed chains with colored finishes, but currently only offers their road chains in either silver or gold (see our previous article for pics). In the world of bike bling, who would not want to ride up to their next club ride or criterium sporting a new KMC chain in blue, white, yellow or pink in our case? The color possibilities are limitless. While the team may not be riding pink chains next year, as is our test chain, you may see some red or white versions on the 2009 Gary Fishers.

KMC has entered into their third year as the official chain supplier for the Hincapie/Gary Fisher Team presented by Barkley, during the upcoming 2009 season. We appreciate their support and look forward to an awesome season of wins on KMC chains. Their products are incredibly durable and shift very smoothly. I recommend a KMC Chain as your next bike upgrade purchase.

On Test: KMC X10SL colored chain

Various color options offered from KMC Chain

Our chain is made of an alloy steel that has been powder coated, pink. Over the next months we will be logging as many miles as possible to test the shifting, durability and lasting color finish on the X10SL chain. We will regularly clean the chain with Finish Line Super Bike Wash and Multi-Degreaser, and keep the chain lubed with Finish Line Dry Lube. We cleaned the new chain and applied lube prior to our first ride. During the first test ride we put the chain through multiple shifting through the gears, the chain shifted smoothly and the finish on the chain looked just a good after the ride as it did at the begining. Stay tuned for more updates.

"Missing Link" for easy removal and cleaning

Hollow pins and hollow X-Bridge outer plate

The KMC Test Group! Making your ride a little more colorful!

"How can I get my own colored chain?" Great question...for now you will have to wait if you are looking for a 10 speed version of this chain. However, you can visit your local shop to order a colored KMC chain for your fixie, track bike, single speed MTB or BMX. To learn more, visit http://www.kmcchain.com/ "Don't hate me because my chain is beautiful."

Short-track MTB Race #2: 2 more WINS in the Dark

Tonight was the first of the 2 Nite Races in the Fall Shorttrack series. The course was fast and smooth after 2 days of raining, an suited us roadies well. It was pretty cold and windy, and starting a race in the dark at 9:00pm is, lets say, interesting! Lori and Lisa had a great ride doing a repeat Win and 2nd place. Ol' Adam also had a great ride to Win the Super Sport division. Chris "I like to do squat workouts before racing" Harkey had to settle for a well fought 3rd place tonight after closing a big gap after Justin crashed out of the lead group on the back side of the course. On a side note: Two of our training partners, Danny and Daniel also took 1st and 2nd in the beginner class after riding away from the other racers. Looks like the winter training plan is paying off.
1st - Lori Harkey (Wms Sport)
Adam Little (Super Sport)
2nd - Lisa Preaslar (Wms Sport)
3rd - Chris Harkey (Expert)
Thanks again to our sponsors for their support...even during the "off season".

BARKLEY Pledges 2009 Team Support

After a great season at the Team's presenting sponsor, BARKLEY has pledged continued support of the Hincapie / Coca-Cola / BARKLEY Team for the 2009 season. BARKLEY's support has allowed the team to enjoy several successes on the road throughout the season spreading the word of the benefits of healthy living. We look forward to racing in the Kansas City area, their home base, and connecting the cycling communities of the midwest and southeast. We would like to thank Andy Woolard, IV Whitman and the Senior Staff at BARKLEY for their efforts in allowing us to represent BARKLEY for another great year! Look for great things to come!