May 13th, 2004 – With another great week of racing, the Jet Fuel Coffee cycling team finished off our training camp. Having had a fantastic weekend to start things off, we went on to an intense week of training in order to prepare for the upcoming Tour of Japan, May 23-30.

The mid-week training was looking like it might be put in jeopardy by the weather. Tuesday we left for our ride in a mix of hail and snow. Lucking  the weather only improved as the days went on, and in the end we were able to put in some great mileage. We were staying up in the north-western corner of Massachusetts, bordering both states of Vermont and New York, and the riding was just fantastic. Once out of town, there was little traffic and plenty of rolling, winding roads to choose from. Surprisingly there were climbs in the area that took us twenty plus minutes to climb.

It was one of the best weeks of riding I've had in North America.

Sterling was our first race of the weekend with a rolling course with one significant climb to test the legs. I think that the team rode superbly. We covered all the moves and were definitely prominent throughout the day. Stig and Buck, two of our designated leaders for the race, were in the first significant break of the day. We were comfortable with that and I thought that there was a good chance that the move would stay away. Racing in New England is aggressive and the teams are definitely well organised, racing as more cohesive units than in most other areas. So behind in the field the pace started to pick up with the Land Rover team, which had missed the move, putting one rider after another on the front. One lap later, the move had been caught and a new flurry of attacking started.

A group of twenty of us had split off the front of the bunch, mainly through intense racing on the run into a climb where a small rise put pressure on the legs. Jet Fuel was well placed again with Thorben, Ryan, Stig, Matt and myself all in the move. I asked Thorben, Ryan and Matt to help set the pace on the front to make sure that the move didn't flounder – as breaks of a large number often can since no one wants to take up the pace. Slowly we distanced the field, but in a move that large another selection is going to be made before the finish.

When Matt Hamblin, a strong member of the Fiordifrutta team, attacked on the small rise running into the climb, I jumped on him and, with the pace heating up, the group of twenty cracked apart on the climb. At the top there were five of us clear, the famed Fat Nat Faulkner, Hamblin and Shawn Milne of Fiordifrutta, Stig and me. We were trucking along and Curt Davis of Fiordifrutta came across over the top impressively. That made for three strong riders from Fiordifrutta against Stig and me – the odds were not in our favour!

With two laps remaining, Stig and I had to decide on our tactics. Did we want to attack on the climb with one lap to go and try and solo, or wait and try and take the uphill sprint at the finish line? The trouble with attacking was that the finish was at the top of the hill, meaning that you would have to stay away a whole lap. The biggest problem with this was that the last five kilometres was a flat headwind section where it would be easy for a couple of guys behind to bring things back together. Not only that but if a Fiordifrutta rider came with you, would they work? Not likely. In the end we all worked together to stay away and it came down to the sprint. I thought that Stig and I had a good chance of taking it and we were both well positioned. What we didn't know was that Shawn Milne of Fiordifrutta was a fast finisher. He made an impressive surge on the climb in the sprint which neither Stig nor I were able to follow. I tried to surge over the top as it levelled off in order to come back on him, but the legs were screaming in pain. In the end, Stig and I finished second and third – not a win but still not too shabby.

Unfortunately I don't have much to say about Bear Mountain, Sunday's race. I dropped out and spent the afternoon sleeping in the back of the van. All week the team had been struggling with sickness and I think the beast finally caught up with me. It sounded like Buck, Ryan and Stig all rode a great race though, with Stig finishing third on the day.

All in all, with the team finishing on the podium in three of the four races, we put in some fantastic miles, and the training camp was a resounding success. It was definitely one of the best things we have done as a team. We have to give a huge thank you to Kathy Rinehart in North Adams, who gave up her house to the team for a week, making the whole camp possible. Thank you Kathy, it is not often that generosity like that is seen in the world.

Sterling Road Race:
1. Shawn Milne (FiordiFrutta)
2. Stig Somme (Jet Fuel Coffee)                  
3. Andrew Randell (Jet Fuel Coffee)               
4 . Nat Faulkner  (Trek/VW/Doriti Gelati)
5. Jon Hamblen (Fiordi Frutta)
8.  Ryan Roth (Jet Fuel Coffee)
24. Matt Hansen (Jet Fuel Coffee)

Andrew Randell, 2002 National Road Champion, rides for Jet Fuel Coffee