Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast: Back At TOC
03/28/08 09:08 Filed in: KBS Medifast
Team Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast have stepped up to take PEZ-Fans along as their season rolls out – through the eyes and words of a different rider each month, and to get us going we asked Jonny Sundt about his Tour of California.
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With the season well underway, there’s little time to connect with riders and even less to think about what happened last weekend or even last month. But the guys at |
- Reported by By Jonny Sundt, Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast-
It seems way too early to be looking back, recapping, or doing anything other than getting ready for the upcoming season. But it’s been a month since the ToC ended, and the crew here at Kelly Benefit Strategies/Medifast have been in the grind full time, some staying at the team house in Oxnard, CA; some bouncing from home to the California races, and back.
Some of the young guys are balancing school with the early season racing, and Martin Gilbert is still racing on the track over in Europe. But you wanted to hear about the Tour of California though, didn’t you?
Race reports are like origami, depending how you fold them up and present them they can be very pretty (ooh! a swan!) so I’ll just give you folks the plain piece of paper , and let you make what you want of it.
We all got sick……really sick. With the exception of Reid Mumford, who seems to be of an amazingly strong constitution, and that, coupled with copious amounts of Purell, and a refusal to shake anyone’s hand got him to the finish healthy. It was funny to watch the behavior of the entire peloton change as riders started dropping like flies in the first few days of the race. When we got to the race hotel for the start in Palo Alto it was all hugs and handshakes, two days later riders were treating each other like lepers.
The team are riding LeMond Triomphe framesets, SRAM gruppos, and Bontrager wheels, bars, stems and seatposts, and Selle Italia saddles.
As far as I can tell Astana is the only team that was 100% healthy for the entire race. I have a few good theories for this. They imported some crazy Kazak super virus, had their guys vaccinated, and enjoyed the carnage. Since they spent pretty much the entire race riding the front, nobody was able to breathe on them and get them sick. Their mechanic/bodyguard/handlers were so scary looking (I’m not kidding I’m talking ex-KGB or something) that even the flu is scared of them.
It’s hard to write about races that were disappointing on a personal level, and even harder to write about things that were disappointing for the whole team. I’ll try to be real, but still positive.
I am not whining I swear. I was very excited that our second-year team got invited to the biggest race in North America. It was a nice confirmation that we really did a great job at in the last half of the 07 season. I got all my new stuff, an annual second Christmas that, no matter how many years I ride as a professional, I will never tire of.
The list of great new gear would take my whole entry so here are a few highlights for me:
Lemond improved on a great design, and gave my (and your) Triomphe a stiffer and slightly more raked-out fork, which makes the bike markedly better handling at race speeds. I know that sounds very bike geek-techy, but if you could use the descent off of Mt. Hamilton to test ride all the bikes you are considering buying next, you would know exactly what I am talking about. And the paint job is really cool.
• See the PEZ Review here.
Mt. Borah not only did an amazing job on our clothing once again, but took the time during last season, and this off-season to talk to the riders, and put the feedback to good use. The little details make a huge difference when you are spending all day on the bike.
Yes. SRAM’s RED group is that good, and no, you can’t test ride my bike around the parking lot, because if I let you I have to let everyone, and if our head wrench Jordan sees you riding my bike he will think you stole it, and most likely tackle you … but, you can touch it, just for a second.
I could go on all day here, but I’ll spare you.
I got the chance to ride with some of the guys from Amgen last week, and visit their headquarters in Thousand Oaks, CA. Matt, Jerry, and Bruce took the team out for a nice ride, and even bought us lunch at the cafeteria on the corporate campus. Calling it a cafeteria is bit of a stretch in my book. It was nice, and there was no surly lady in a hairnet shoveling slop onto our plates.
It was nice as well to be able to thank some of the folks from Amgen personally for their support of the race and cycling in America. I was amazed to find out that their cycling club is something like 900 riders strong, and nationwide.
Well, that’s about it for now. I have to go chase my sweetie around the house with the digital camera and see if I can talk her into posing in a KBS/Medifast jersey for the Daily Distractions... I need some PEZ socks!
Shiny side up, but if you really need to fall down, the left side is cheaper...
Jonny Sundt
Direct from the Team Website – here’s About Jonny
“A noted and respected team player, Jonathan "Jonny" Sundt has been called "a great lieutenant on the roads of North America" by the 2005 Tour de Georgia press. He raced the world cyclo-cross circuit in 1999 and 2000 and for the Broadmark Capital Elite Amateur Team from 2001-2002. Sundt has been with Jittery Joe's Pro Cycling Team for the past three years, taking 19th place in the US PRO Criterium Championships in Downer's Grove, Illinois (2005), 11th place in Stage 6 of the GP Cycliste Beauce, Quebec (2005) and 2nd place in the Sprinter Competition, Wachovia Classic in Trenton New Jersey (2004).”
• These guys have one of the cooler team sites I’ve seen, check 'em at KBSMedifast.com
• And see more LeMond bikes at LeMondBikes.com/