Team Updates

It's been a few days since my last post. There have been some developments since then.


First, we got in our first real team ride. Actually it was basically the same as every other Saturday ride has been over the last couple months except that we had all of the local Embrocation guys on the ride, including Pete Smith who made the trip down from the north shore.

It wasn't just us, of course. We had a few of the usual suspects from the local scene, including a couple Cambridge Bicycle guys who are always good company. All in all, a good day with good company, and more than a couple stops for baked goods.

Next, we have a couple new additions to the team worthy of mention:

First, we have Cory Burns who joins us from the former Fiordafruitta team. Cory sent me an email inquiring about the team about a month ago and I jumped right on the opportunity to pick him up. I had the pleasure (actually it was painful) of racing with (against) Cory in last summer's Empire State games, when I was still an official resident of that state. You could say he put in a solid performance when he won the ITT, lapped the field in the points race and pulled his team to a silver medal in the team time trial. He's fast and even though he'll be the odd man out not being a Boston local, I couldn't turn him down. Hopefully we'll see more of this from Cory this year (although in more fashionable duds - seriously man who takes top step of the podium in jeans?):

After a lengthy, and at times bitter contract negotiation, we've signed Pierre Vanden Borre. PVB comes with a hefty price tag but his skills in the Cat 3 field will prove invaluable. A distance specialist, PVB is also a member of the non-racing but arguably more illustrious Rapha Continental Team. These are a bunch of dudes wearing expensive clothes, doing stupidly long rides all for the benefit of the Rapha photographers and videographers following them around. In actual fact, I'm jealous and admit it's pretty cool and the stuff they come up with is great: http://embrocation.blogspot.com/2009/02/034-rapha-rides-toc-episode-2.html

Lastly, I wanted to draw attention to the team's website: www.embrocationcyclingjournal.com/team. This is pretty raw right now, but we'll be adding quite a bit of content when the season really kicks into high gear. Stay tuned.

There is one change to the website worth mentioning. I recently changed Jay Combs' web profile picture. It seems Mama Combs had some misgivings about Jay's previous picture. Personally, I didn't see a problem with it. It's the best picture I've ever seen on the local sex offender registry. You be the judge.

Worry no more, Mrs. Combs. Your lad is a respectable young man:


That's all for now. We'll have more after this weekend's festivities.




James