Welcome everybody, to my new story. This story is a tiny bit different, and is somewhat similar to baggieboys' Shy Vogel story, only instead of telling it from the future, its in the present tense. It will also revolve around 5 American cyclists, who all (for fictional purposes), ride for the same local club, and began riding at the same time.
In order to clear some bits up, some of it will be reported by the writer of the story (which is actually me, but will credited to one of the 5), and some of it will be from me, pinktay3, as writer of the thread.
Spoiler
Don't worry, me writing not in the story will be in spoilers and in italics.
I'll try to make it as easy to follow as i can, but i'm not yet the greatest story writer in the world, but i hope to improve lots.
Finally, updates have no confirmed time, as you can probably imagine how much time it takes to do a single 'chapter'. The 'chapters' will be based on months, and may come with something written from all the riders, or something coming from only 1. It all depends on who does what each month, my time constraints, and other commitments.
I really hope you enjoy this, as i'm enjoying writing it.
There will be 2 reserve posts. 1 containing the riders and other information of that sorts, such as notable wins/injuries/transfers, and the 2nd will contain links to other parts of the story, for ease of reading.
Finally, i've no idea how long this will be. It may be for 1 season, it may last for 15. Depending on length's, i have different idea's in mind to avoid repitition, boredom and to keep motivation high.
Edited by Pinktay3 on 07-12-2012 03:13
August 11th 2011; Excerpt off Taylor Phinney’s personal Website
Thinking back to 2007, I distinctly remember Nationals of that year, I’ve not really a proper idea why, although I do have a few suspicions why. We were at the famous Mt Baldy, awaiting the start of the road race, and there we were, all 5 of us lined up together for the first time. We’d met about 5 months earlier, at Track Nationals, and had since all joined the same club, and acquired the same coach, Greg LeMond. The Tour de France winner had been my coach from the start, with some guidance from my dad though, and with many, many successes, especially on the track, he decided to go public with his coaching, and managed to scout the other 4 guys from various clubs around the nation.
First off, there was Andrew Talansky. A keen climber who loved riding long, hard and by himself, he had developed a great ability to get up to speed and maintain it for a long time, similar to the great Time Trialist’s of the pro peloton. And then he could climb as well and man, what a joy to watch. Not only was he fast, but smooth, consistent and had, and still does have, one of the best pedal strokes I’ve ever seen.
After Andrew, Greg managed to find Peter Stetina. Another fantastic climber, Peter is from the same club as Andrew, and the 2 regularly competed against each other. Peter was a better climber, but whenever there were flats or any form of Time Trial, Andrew sensed his opportunity and took it, not to say Peter is a bad rider, just some work was needed on his all round ability.
Moving to the other side of the country, Greg managed to pick up Thomas Peterson, the young rider from Seattle. With not too many big mountains, but many rolling hills, short, sharp climbs and many long, flat, windy roads, Tom has slowely developed into a great young Puncheur/Time Trialist. One thing every cyclist wants is ability in 2 disciplines, and with Tom being proficient on both the hills and the flats, he can do well on most terrains.
On the way back to Colorado, we stopped to compete in a local domestique race. Low and behold, guess what we found. Another young cycling talent for the US, and the steepest hill I’ve ever raced on. Tejay Van Garderen was living and racing in a small town enroute to Colorado, and was doing very well for himself. He was winning almost week in week out, and during the race I participated in, as soon as we reached the hill with about 15 km’s to go to the finish, all he did was stand up. He stood up and speed of the front with such speed he went by himself. Coming over the top, I could see him, just rounding the corner at the bottom. And I remember thinking to myself ‘Ha, I’ve got you now’, with me being the time trialist that I am. Yet, for 15 km’s, he not only held me off, but extended his lead, and ended up beating me by over 1 minute. Certainly we had something special here. So he can climb, time trial and ride the flats very, very well. What more do you want from a cyclist?
So now there were 5 of us. And we all, well all of them except me, moved to Colorado to train and live with me. Just imagine what mum thought of that. Five 16-18 year old cyclists living under the same roof, using the same food, the same washing machine and the same shaving cream. Soon enough though, we reached states. In which we came 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th and 13th. Usually these would not be too bad results, considering the amount of riders in the race, which is usually up around the 80 mark each year. As Greg said later that day, the problem was us. Not our ability or skills, but us as a group of 5 young, talented, very strong riders. He said that we go out for 5 hours every day, and work our butts of every day. We know each others skills, strengths and weaknesses like the back of our hands, and we should show it.
With the TT the next day, it wasn’t an opportunity to ‘show it’ as a whole, but as an individual against the clock. We all expected to do reasonably well, because all of us, bar Pete, could ride well against the clock, and the course even had an uphill kick to it the entire way, so this strengthened Pete’s chances too. All but 3 or 4 riders from the Road Race competed in the TT, and again, we finished well. We claimed 1st, 2nd, 4th, 9th (after a puncture to Andrew), and 17th. With this display, we showed that we were definitely some of the strongest riders in the state, and we set in place a plan for the year after, 2007.
Still to come before the story actually begins properly, there are 5 more 'Intro' mini stories. Hopefully i'll zoom through them now that school's finished. Let me know what you think of Intro (Part 1). Please don't feel inclinded to be nice. If you think its bad, be honest, it'll make for a better story for everyone.
