The team had the opportunity to reflect upon '12 and prepare for another successful seaon in '13, while catching up on some 'off the bike' news. Although there were many more topics discussed than easily mentioned, rest assured that the GABs are strongly united, highly motivated and unwaveringly dedicated to building upon the momentum created towards the culmination of '12 in preparation for '13. In addition, the GABs would like to emphasize how grateful they are to their sponsors and the support of family, friends, and followers. Tail winds!

Green Arm Bandits at Tour of the Hamptons.

Now that's a nice Sunday ride! Before the crazy 20 degree rides set in it was great to get some team training together and be reminded how nice the cycling is out east.

The ride featured 100 miles of training for most of us with great weather in the 70's
and some great rolling secluded roads that teased the team enough that we have

And again in 2012 GAB Percy participated in the annual Deerfield Dirt-Road Randonnée Nº Eight so far. His sixth time in a row going. It's a great and very special and unique kind of ride. Curious, never heard about it, then visit Py's full report:
http://pyzahl.blogspot.com/2012/08/deerfield-dirt-road-randonnee-n-eight...

Again in 2012 GAB Percy participated in the Tour of the Catskills. This year brutal hot weather conditions for the time trial and second stage were putting a extra burden on the riders. The Cat 4 field of 100 riders from all over New England and may be even else where was extremely competitive and TT times were over 2 minutes faster than in the previous year even riders claimed their times to be a minute up on previous performances due to the excessive heat. However, Percy got in with about 20 seconds over his last year's time with an few Watts less on average. Good or bad according the situation is hard to tell. Placing some where top 1/3, not super excited but well, game on.

The second stage was similar, the KOM #1 split up the field completely -- as Percy was already chasing with only a few other riders willing to help to minimize time losses. At the Devil just one other rider of those survived climbing, all others left behind and more to pick up on the way up... many, many riders walking... Similar finish in the 30ties.

Stage 3 not very different,easy going until KOM1, then split up. Little very welcome feeling rain or "cooldown".

Surviving the whole thing pretty good and placing GC 30 all over. Always a great weekend, even pretty demanding.

[Photo on top: Percy with his training buddy Nick W. -- he did very good in the CAT3, congratulations! A very promising young rider may be going CAT2 soon...?]

Brief Stage Reports:

Prologue, ITT: http://pyzahl.blogspot.com/2012/08/tour-of-catskills-itt.html
Stage 2, RR: http://pyzahl.blogspot.com/2012/08/toc-stage-2-devil.html
Stage 3: RR: http://pyzahl.blogspot.com/2012/08/toc-stage-3-little-rain-and-airport-r...

ToC training weekend and a big ride with a serious set of walls on Sunday for Percy with Nick and Benjamin.

Read more here in my report here:
http://pyzahl.blogspot.com/2012/07/super-toc-ride.html

This summer vacation was planned long ahead of time. Percy is still recovering from his shoulder impact/crash (AC separation 2nd deg.) -- so this was just fine to do and add good base miles and vertical. Still not healed but it seam to come along slowly. A week of cycling with buddies in Philadelphia near the Rawstown Lake.

Some for Py easy but fun cycling and guiding combined with a little more good climbing and a chance to check out the "Toona Race Coarse".

Read more here in my full trip report here:
http://pyzahl.blogspot.com/2012_06_01_archive.html