New year, new team, new goals.

For the past two years I have been of racing mountain bikes for the Trek/Gary Fisher 29er Crew. In 2012, Trek decided to change it's marketing tactics and the Crew was disbanded. Racing for the Crew was a privilege, but because it was a (inter) national team, with only two or so members from each state, I never really got to train and ride with my team mates. Fortunately, most of my frequent riding and training partners were riding semi-officially for VTC (our goofy made up team) and a great shop called Bicycle Tech in Lincoln Park, NJ. My good friend and training cohort Walker had the idea to take the team to whole new lever this year; he got some great new sponsors on board, including Catbridge Machinery, Jackson Private Tutoring, Singletrack Audio, Jackson Private Tutoring and Eleven Madison Park, one of NYC's (and therefor the world's)  finest restaurants.
In addition to Walker Jackson and Roger Foco, the Bicycle Tech Racing / VTC / Eleven Madison Park team roster has been expanded significantly with the addition of  Kris Brokaert (formerly of Salsaspurters), Daniel Humm (formerly of  the Swiss Junior National Team), Bill Christman (formerly of MTBNJ) , local legend Mike Montalbano (formerly of Dark Horse Cycles) and myself. The team's main objective is to have fun, but with such a strong cadre of riders, expectations of victory are pretty high.
My personal goal this year  is to win the Masters Endurance class in the Mid Atlantic Super Series. It's not an easy one, as there is some very stiff competition in that series, but I feel that if I train hard and recover intelligently, I have a pretty good chance. I'll also be seeking out some other choice endurance races for fun and adventure like the mountainous epic Dragon's Tale in the Shenandoah's and the rocky Bearscat 50, right here in my backyard of North Jersey. Who knows...I may even throw in a couple of shorter XC races to gain some speed, and maybe even a multi-day stage race in the fall, just for kicks.
This blog will be my new home for my ramblings on the races, and any other random crap the floats through my head. So tune in when you can, and get out and ride... and be sure to say hello when you see the black, red and white of Team BTR/VTC/EMP out on the trails.