Back in the game ... with new experiences, new hopes and a new fire for 2012 .

 Thanks to all of you who kept coming back to our "sleepy" website. We will try to do a better job in keeping you updated.  I believe that last season was a good learning experience for both of us and hopefully since last year is out of the way we can get on to having a "good" season.
Last year I didn't like to go to races, I didn't get excited riding my bike and I didn't truly didn't believe in myself. Things are different this year.

PATIENCE
Sometimes you have to take a big step back to actually move forward. I took some time off of riding my bike last summer. Enjoyed gardening, cooking and hanging out with the best group of women drinking wine and laughing endlessly.
Fall was full of great mtb rides on our local trails at SMBA and Spierfalls. There is nothing better than that.

PERSPECTIVE
My best cure was hanging out with friends and getting perspective of the years of training , racing and riding. I finally found myself having fun on the bike again and started to miss The REAL training with serious goals and  significant dreams. It's not easy to live everyday training, eating and sleeping with no time for anything else,  while your social life becomes non existent...especially when you have to work to pay for your hobby:)  but you have to believe it's all worth it.
I enjoyed reading this article written by Justin Lindine (he is a great writer and racer)

"In the words of the mediocre 90’s pop-punk band, Lit, I am “My own worst enemy”,
and so are you.  See, you think the key to success in cycling is training hard
and taking easy recovery days, right?  Wrong. It’s mental toughness and the
ability to take discomfort and monotony with the composure of a Buddhist Monk. 
That and the ability to occupy yourself in airports and hotel rooms for long
periods of time with little to nothing to do…which is why, I am told, Twitter
was created.  So, in preparation for the hardships and discomfort of this coming
season, I have taken to turning the heat down to sub-arctic levels, eating the
same breakfast every single day (forever), and have learned to pretend to like
updating my Facebook status.  (...)
You see, cycling is a game where the strongest doesn’t always win,
but the smartest often does.  So this season I’ve decided to forgo my, “if
you’re going to be dumb you’d better be strong” philosophy for a more elevated
form of gamesmanship.  I mean, if I can convince myself that I like social media
and rice cakes, I am capable of anything."

                                                                              Justin Lindine

FRIENDS

I didn't really expect any support in this upcoming season and with that said I can't even express how thankful I am to Liz Gormley and BlueSky Bike Shop for believing and supporting me this year. She is a great friend and fellow rider who comes from a long history of cycling and keeping the bicycle communtity together.

Mike is sponsored by Greg Jackson and Spin Bike Shop who through the years have
been with us. He is very proud riding for Spin and is looking forward to qualifying for the Windam and Mte Saint Anne World Cups.  And of course teaching a lesson to his boss, Greg.

On  top of that we will proudly be sponsored by Specialized, Trek, Stan's No-Tubes, Genuine Innovations, King Kage, First Indurance, Boeshield, Gates, Saratoga Water and Verge clothing !  

HAVING A GOOD TIME

We are starting  the 2012 season full of enthusiasm and excitement! We look forward to racing and we've been happily riding in the cold weather.
Looks like the spring time is just in  the corner, hopefully see you soon on the trails:)

Happy Rides,
Aleksandra

It feels like we have been racing not only on our bikes lately but in our lives. Working, training, racing on weekends and in the mean time working on some little house projects and try to keep our social life entertaining...it's like a race; we still enjoy it.

CANADA CUP   

 Couple of weeks ago we went to Mont-Saint-Paul Canada Cup. I was very excited to race there, especially because I had some bad luck the weekend before and I needed to make it up. After the last year's race there, I consider Mont-Saint-Paul one of my favorite courses-races even though the course this year was completely different.  We didn't have the best of the luck this year with the weather. After a month of the rainy weather in NY we had welcomed some sunshine, but I guess the rainy weather chased us to Canada. As far as racing in the rain and mud - I truly enjoy it but I am a big fun of staying on my bike during the race , instead of running with the bike...I guess it was a little bit to much rain and it seemed like we were running with the bike about 75% of the race.  Also It was cold, challenging to run in the deep mud and I was thinking that anybody who finished the race should be proud and happy to of finished. I ended up 6th and Mike got 22nd, Bryna finished 8th and my teammate Linnea finished 11th. I have to say though the I'm so impressed with the Canadian race organization and I will happily go back to Mont-Saint-Paul.  

DOMARSKI FARM ROOT 66 RACE  

We had the best weekend over at the Domarski Family Farm. We both had good legs, good spirits and good luck which earned us both top podium spots. Apart from the great racing the atmosphere is unbeatable. It was a nice surprise to discover that Matt Domarski who organized the race has some strong polish roots and some of his family was visiting.  We got some of the best in the world recovery drink- Polish beer from Matt's family and not to mention the best prize list in the country.  That's our favorite race and we can't wait for the next year.  

ENJOYING THE SUMMER  

Last weekend we decided to take a little break from racing and stay home, enjoy and relax. We had an outstanding weekend with good rides on our local trails.  Our family came for dinner and my good friend Renee brought the Genuine Innovations's (one of our generous sponsors for 2011) rep Jim over as well.  Good times and plenty of wine over on East Ave.  Saturday our SMBA club had a demo bike day and it was a pleasure to meet everyone out on the trails. I can't believe how many members came to ride even with our pretty rough rainy weather. We rode some cool trek bikes and met some new people. I believe we have the greatest cycling community in the universe. We joined all our cycling friends at Julie and Mark Bettinger's house for a disco party and it is always kind of strange to see everyone without helmets afterwards :)   

RIDING WITH THE LADIES 

  I had the pleasure on wednesday to ride with my Saratoga Super Cycling group. I was planning a nice relaxing ride with the coolest group of  girls but I have to admit it,  that really kicked my butt. Everyone was riding very strong and I'm super excited about it. I look forward to ride with those guys again!  

Enjoy the summer riding and have fun,

Aleksandra

     Home from Canada and enjoying the rest of the weekend.  I had the best time at Mont Tres Blant ; perfect venue, perfect course, outstanding big crowd of spectactors and I felt stronger than ever... We stayed in the middle of everything at the fancy Hilton in the beautiful Tremblant village. It was great to watch the morning races from our hotel window with our feet up to until warm up time.   I was on fire the whole weekend and I guess too confident. I started the race from the back and I wanted to do everything I could to get to the single track as close as possible to the leader Catherine Vipond.  I got a little crazy and took a risk at the place I probably I shouldn't of try to pass, instead of taking the way around I took the risky line off of a steep drop and unluckily hit the other rock which made me flip over my handlebars.  I hit it hard and I wanted so bad to get up and continue my chase but my knee didn't want to listen so I ended up with the frustration and fighting the pain. Well, that's the racing and we have to pay for our mistakes. I hope I can recover quickly and start to train again. All I can say , I love Canada and can't wait for next week Baie Ste Paul Quebec.
   Mike had  a good solid race , finishing 24th out of 80+starters. He raced against a tough field and he also started from the back pack so it was great to see him passing people and making his way up.  I'm always so proud of him:)
    Have a great week and make sure you ride your bike.
Aleks
 

    We had an outstanding race last weekend and happilly both of us made it on the podium!  It's pretty funny thinking about what bike racing is does to  us; It wasn't that exciting at first while driving to the race at a"turtle" speed because you can barely see the road through the pouring rain, and there is always the same question in your mind " why are we doing this to ourselves? ". I guess when you jump on the bike and ride the course you love, weather doesn't matter, it's even more exciting when it's rainy because you actually test your skills and challenge yourself even more. Tymor Park is a great technical course with plenty of rocks and roots, It was my first time racing there and hopefully not the last. There is nothing better than racing on a course you like. And the people are so nice there. I felt good and had fun on the course. 
    
    For a first time I raced my new Trek Superfly and probably that got me excited, racing a new machine. There is the picture below of my new bike which Mike built perfectly for me.  I'm very proud of my super mechanic Mike who has become so detailed with his latest builds.  Thanks to Embrocation Cycling Journal for suppling me with the great equipment.

   Mike had a great day also with his rival Seamus also racing.  Seamus is having a strong season with his latest finish of 13th at the Mellow Johnnys Austin Texas National. They took turns pulling each other and finished together a second apart.        

    We just got to Canada today for the 1st round of the Canada Cups at Mont Treblant and the course is basically the same as last year which is AWESOME.  The Canadians can fit more fun and excitement into one corner then the US can in any of their National courses.. We both love coming up here and the atmosphere reminds me of home in Europe. Canadian  people are so friendly and especially so passionate for the outdoors.  There is a million kids here riding proudly on their bikes and it's great to see their smiles.  

Keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow!  

Thanks and have fun riding, Aleks

Pro Mens Podium

Pro Womens Podium

Maddy was a great sport and she also fed us during the race

Seems like Mike has some new competition coming up. Mark finished 11th in Pro Men Open field his first cross country race!

Our favourite couple- Seamu's parents

My new Racing Machine

    I know I'm a little late with last weeks post about my race experiences in New Jersey but better late then never I always say.  I had a real itch to race last weekend and one of my favorite courses just so happens to be the rooty, rocky insanity at the Waywaywanda State park in northern New Jersey.  Its my third time doing this race and the place gets better and better everytime with alot of obvious trail work done by the locals.  Reminds me of our trails at home and worth the 3 hour drive.  Aleksandra chose to stay at home and get some good training in and have a relaxing afternoon of gardening.  I was actually questioning spending 3 hours in the car driving to NJ on the first really nice day we've had all spring but I really wanted to race.  Like usual I got lost and showed up really late for the race.  So late they had to postpone the start by 10 minutes so I could organize myself with registration and setting up my feed.  Anyway a quick rundown.  I felt pretty good, took off from the start and led the race to the end.  Winning always feels good and either way I love racing in northern Jersey.  Also I raced my new S-Works Epic 29er which now that I've worked out the bugs its turning out to be a real race machine.  Although I still love the Bedford Hardtail I'm starting to get used to the full suspension.  Its a tad bit heavy (Specialized is full of it with the 21lb weight) even with the single Rotor front, XX build and 125gr SLR saddle I think its hovering around 22.5lbs.  I know this sounds pretty light but compared to my hardtail which is 20lbs it feels like a tanker truck, but it needs no trail and travels over anything.  I think it might be the ultimate trailblazer.  I had the chance to take it to my favorite trail system this weekend just outside of Saratoga at Moreau State Park (spierfalls) and had a ton of fun.  Its a different kind of riding then with the hardtail and takes some getting used to but I'm looking forward to racing it again next week.  Two races next weekend.  Tymor Park and Winsted Woods.  I can hardly wait.  

See you out there
mike


 

     Wow, I can't believe we haven't posted anything in such a long time.   Time flies.   I got used to Mike being the writer on our blog recently; I would probably post more writing in my native language-polish which is much easier for me or that's my excuse anyway and I'm sticking to it.   Thanks anyway for checking out our website, we will try to stay more active here.

     Springs is here!  Even with tons of rain we've been having lately I'm excited to see greener grass and spend some time on my mtb bike.  There is nothing better for me than riding in the woods which makes all the frustrations of winter training melt away.   I'm trying to use every training opportunity to ride the Stables and while working on fitness it's good to work on the technical skills.  With my late season start I'm  finally starting to feel good training and hopefully I'll notice some results from that soon.   Intervals are getting easier and the legs stronger which hopefully means some World Cups in the near future.  But for now I'm totally enjoying spring in Saratoga.  Trails are little wet but overall in great shape.    Thanks to everyones work, the  SMBA crew has repaired the winter damage and made some new additions that make the riding even more enjoyable.  The first trail day was a  couple of weeks ago and I was surprised to see over 30 people working hard all day cleaning trails, building bridges and make some new lines.  It seems like the club is growing every year and we are VERY proud to be part of it. Great time to see everyone that we normally only run into in passing while riding.   I encourage anyone to come and visit the SMBA trail system and if you need a guide I'd love to take you out on a ride.

      We also raced the weekend before at Wining Trails in Conneticut and as much as I don't really feel fit yet, I especially love the atmosphere at the early season Root66 Race series.  Everyone is so excited to be racing again and  just like usual Jill and Chris organized a wonderful event with prize money and beautiful trophies, both of them are amazing and we are very lucky to have people like that running the series. 

     The race was very fast and hard because there wasn't anytime to rest.  Every time I turned back, Bryna was there and I couldn't shake her.   I was a little nervous for a moment and rode out of control through some turns and it ended up with a little crash... Mike is always making fun of me that nobody is better then me with messing up directions wherever I go; I'm always lost :( so he says: "Every day is a new day for Rokita", because we ride the same roads over and over again but for some reason every time they look little different for me.
Well, I guess I lost myself during the race because somebody broke the tape and I rode in wrong direction, so I had to turn back and tried to catch back to Bryna and Karen which took all of my energy but luckily I still pulled off the win.     

     Mike was very strong at the race, finishing 3rd. Justin, Tom and Mike rode together the whole race with a hard pace passing me which I almost felt off my bike :) I guess Mike was in the front for a while and lost on the final half mile toward the end. He was happy with his result. I believe he is much stronger this year and I never saw him so determined before; I'm looking forward with great excitement watching the rest of his season. 

Enjoy the ride, 
Thanks for reading

Aleksandra

    So we  made it to California Wednesday night with no real flight problems to speak of other then the inflation of transporting your bicycle on an airplane.  Luckily Aleksandra sweet talked Elmer from United Airlines into sending both bikes for a 100 bucks.  This was a lot better then the original 400 dollars for the pair that almost set me off into a major fit that would of surely got me kicked out of the airport.   Thanks Elmer.   For the fourth year we stayed with our best west coast friends Alex and Tonya in Altedena in their mountain top retreat.  They transformed their den into our sleeping area and it worked out perfectly.  Those two are the best hosts with their fancy beer and coffee.    I have to admit though there is nothing like beer and coffee picked out by an expert.  Although I was really tempted to bring gifts of Miller Lite and a pound of Starbucks just as a race tactic to put Alex over the edge.    Thank you both for your warm hospitality.
     Thursday and Friday were the usual prep days for the race with pre-riding and nervousness setting in.  This was the first time, like every year, that we are able to wear shorts and ride our mountain bikes.  It seems like everyone out here has tans and been racing for a few weeks.  That's it,  I'm going tanning before next year's Fontana.  Maybe I can intimidate a few people.  Aleksandra for some reason looks tan but she alsways looks tan.  Me , I look like I just came down off of Luzerne mountain with 2 layers of cycling clothes in 3 degree weather.  
      Race day was the same as always with the warmup, lineup and a crazy start.  The women's field was around 33ish with a crash at the start and 4 laps on the newly designed course.  Aleksandra rode strong all 4 laps but it wasn't her day.  I was proud of her and it's the start of a long season that always starts so early.   Her teamate Linnea also had her first race of the year and also rode strong.  I think 2011 will be a great year for the Embrocation Cycling team.    The mens race was 5 laps with what originally started out with well over 100 starters ended up with around 95 racers.  Very fast as always with guys doing everything possible to get a good spot for the singletrack.  I was the middle of the field for the start of the climb.  The climb I'm talking about is no ordinary climb.  "The wall" is what they call it and it is dreadfull.  I don't mind climbing in races but this is a knee buster like no other.  Other then that I loved the course with tons of cool singletrack and nice flowy decents.  I really rode my best finishing 60th which doesn't seem that great but I didn't get pulled which is very cool and once I knew I made the cut on the last lap I took my time and enjoyed myself.  I know that sounds funny but I'm there to have fun and I probably lost 5-10 minutes on my last lap and got passed by 3 guys but I really had a great day.  I even met a nice Mexican family on top of the climb and explained to them that for the first 4 laps I rode this big hill but for the last I'm gonna walk it.  I was feeling a major cramp coming and it felt good to walk for a change.  They were laughing and so was I.  I thanked them for coming out because I can appreciate spectators especially ones that have no relationship to cycling.  So I rolled in to the finish and went directly to the nearest In n Out burger joint and then immediately  to the local beer  store.  This has been a great trip that I wish would never end but I have to be at work tomorrow so were catching a plane shortly.  
       thanks for reading
            mike

    So it feels like its getting a little warmer and I think I saw the sun a couple of times on our rides this weekend so things are looking good.  We had some nice hard long ones this weekend out and around the Sacandaga Lake area with a couple of big climbs in there.  Still haven't been able to ride the road bike yet due to the poor condition of the roads but the cross bike works well and the Powertap computer always ensures a worthwhile workout.   Saturday we had some friends over for pizza and ended up talking way past my bedtime.

Here is a pic from saturday at the scenic overlook above the Conlingville Dam.  There's a hotdog truck parked there in the summer for the tourists.

Another pic from the overlook above The Great Sacandaga

Aleksandra rocking the cool adjustable fender

Here is another

Stan's No-tubes shipment.  I've never had so many wheels.  There is even some cool road wheels in there. 

  The man himself  
                         Kelly Bedford
                    

Here is a pic of two other great guys, Scotty Paine and Paul Harris. 

Here is a picture of all our fans.  We have about 200 fans and they like us so much they moved into the basement to protect our bikes.  Very cool.

And a final pic of the new addition to the bike collection.  This is a 1996  Eddy Merckx (built for Caloi bicycle company) ridden and raced  by Lance Armstrong.  The top tube is autographed, has the name tag and also came with the original build tag from Merckx with Lance's name on it.  This particular one is in super shape.  Can't wait to ride it.