The next Jalabert!?

Congratulations go out to Anthony and Michelle Musalo for giving birth to the next great cycling sensation. We here at 5count don't have all the specifics as of yet, but check back in the comment section of this post for more info as it becomes available. I know that Anthony has been anxiously awaiting the arival of Michael "Baby Moose" Musalo for some time now (approx. 9 months we figure).

Best wishes to the Musalo family, we hope to see you out on the bike some time before baby Michael turns 18.

Update 5-11-06:
Here's a new image of Baby Moose...it looks like he's the next World Champ too!

TdG: Stage 2

A flat stage that normally would be a textbook race for the big lead-out trains of Health Net, Davitimon and United Pro was animated by 4 trips over Clock Tower Hill in the finishing circuits. The fast teams worked hard to control the front of the field but ultimately it was Discovery that pushed the pace hard on the last lap and launched Yaroslav "Popo" Popovych to the stage win as well as the overall lead.

American, Fast Freddy Rodriguez retains his lead in the sprint classification by taking a couple of points during the intermediate sprints. The first KOM points of this years TdG were offered up on the first ascent up Clock Tower Hill. Kirk O'Bee of the Health Net team had good position and became the first wearer of the pimp-looking KOM jersey. For his lengthy solo effort off the front in stage two, Alajandro Acton was rewarded with the "Most Aggressive" jersey. Although not pictured here, the leader of the "Best Young Rider" jersey is Florian Stalder (Swi) of the Phonak team. Here's how the stage finished:

1 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Discovery Channel
2 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Toyota-United Pro
3 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Davitamon-Lotto
4 Karl Menzies (Aus) Health Net p/b Maxxis
5 Caleb Manion (Aus) Jelly Belly
6 Cesar Augusto Grajales (Col) Navigators Insurance
7 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems
8 Robert Hunter (RSA) Phonak Hearing Systems
9 Florian Stalder (Swi) Phonak Hearing Systems
10 Francisco Ventoso (Spa) Prodir-Saunier Duval

What's the deal with the leaders jerseys?...
Let me be the first to praise Hincapie Sportswear for producing some of the best-looking, best-designed leaders jersey out there (also producers of the Team Olympus kit). My only problem is that they made the "Best Young Rider" jersey green instead of it's traditional white and made the "Sprint Leaders" jersey blue and grey instead of it's traditional green. I'm all for thinking outside of the box, but in this case I feel that tradition should prevail...not to mention that this could get confusing.

In their defense, the TdG organizers did put some thought into why they changed the colors. Here's there explanation about the "Sprint Leaders" jersey"

"The gray and aqua-blue Sprint Leader jersey design takes its inspiration from the fast-moving, rock-strewn whitewater rapids of Georgia's Appalachian Mountains.....Like the quick currents of Georgia whitewater, strong and fast cyclists specializing in bursts of speed will have the best chance of being awarded the jersey."

Here's what they had to say about the "Best Young Rider" jersey:

"Each day eligible riders who are under 23 years of age compete for this special jersey, which recognizes the future stars of cycling. The GE Best Young Rider jersey's Georgia oaks-themed design takes these strong and 'relatively green' young men as its inspiration."

Nice thought, but the best sprinters should be in green, I don't care about Georgia oaks (which lends itself to the idea of established and defined, not young and inexperienced).

Valverde looking strong...
The northern classic, Fleché Wallonne, was held yesterday and won by the impressive Alajandro Valverde. I'm not going to get into the details of the race, but I wonder if the Tour De France GC contenders need to take a serious look at how to compete with this Spanish stud who can both climb and sprint. you can vote for Valverde in the 5count TdF poll located in the sidebar to the left if you feel that he's most likely to win the Tour.

Larson in a Classic

For those of you who didn't know, local cyclist Rebecca Larson got the opportunity to travel with the woman's national team to Europe for some of the classics.

Today she raced in the Belgian classic Fleche Wallonne, and wouldn't you know it...her mug showed up on cyclingnews already. I can't be 100% sure, but it looks like Rebecca right there on the front of the peloton in the U.S. National jersey.

Larson finished in 76th place overall...Congratulations Rebecca!

Check out the story here

Photo by Mitch Friedman

TdG: Stage 1

Stage 1 of the Ford Tour de Georgia is in the books. I kept going back to cyclingnews.com's live coverage to read the latest of the stage. The actual time line of the race gets a bit skewed while reading a live update 15 minutes at a time. It seemed to me that the first hour or two was attack, attack, attack every 15 seconds, when in actuality I'm sure some of the attacks lasted longer than that.

An eventual break of four was let go and built quite a gap. Of the four, Aaron Olson (Saunier-Duval) was the strong man and was eventually rewarded by earning the "Most aggressive rider" jersey at the end of the stage.

Team CSC added yet another win to their growing list of palmares for the season. Lars Michaelson won the stage ahead of Fast Freddy Rodriguez (Davitimon-Lotto) and Caleb Manion (Jelly Belly) who finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

1 Lars Michaelsen (Den) Team CSC
2 Fred Rodriguez (USA) Davitamon-Lotto
3 Caleb Manion (Aus) Jelly Belly
4 Karl Menzies (Aus) Health Net p/b Maxxis
5 Vassili Davidenko (Rus) Navigators Insurance
6 Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA) KodakGallery.Com-Sierra Nevada
7 Juan José Haedo (Arg) Toyota-United Pro
8 Henk Vogels (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto
9 Peter Mazur (Pol) Prodir-Saunier Duval
10 Cesar Augusto Grajales (Col) Navigators Insurance

It was originally reported on cyclingnews that the 3rd place Jelly Belly rider was Brice Jones. That turned out to be false, but Brice has a blog where he's reporting on the TdG. Brice Jones also was recently in Jacksonville for the pro classic race and won sunday's road race. He reports on that win in his blog as well...check it out.

Big Day in Pro-cycling
In addition to the second stage of the TdG, the Belgian classic, Fleche Wallonne is taking place right now. Only one American is starting the race, Patrick McCarty of the Swiss Phonak team. Look for CSC, Quick-Step, Rabobank, and maybe Liquigas to finish on the podium.

Tour de Georgia starts TODAY!

Who will be crowned the next winner of the Tour de Georgia?

Will the Disco team be able to support Tommy D in his quest to repeat?

Will the other pro-tour teams in the field get the best of the home town teams?

CSC has brought a strong team to support Dave Zabriskie, but does he have the legs to stay with the pure climbers on the road to the top of Brasstown Bald?

Floyd has obviously been on form this season, but are there lingering effects from his crash in Europe which led to the decision not race in the Giro?

Quick-Step and Davitimon-Lotto are probably looking for stage wins, but will the domestic sprinters out perform them when it's time to drop the hammer?

With Saul Raisin out of the race, who's the front runner for the "Best Young Rider" jersey? Trent Lowe again? Will the TIAA-Cref boys ride as well as they are expected to? Look out for Tom Peterson and Craig Lewis.

It should be an interesting week. I'm going to be performing my sister-in-laws wedding ceremony in Reddington Beach this weekend and therefore will not be attending any of the stages this year. But I can promise you that I'll be glued to the computer when the racing gets underway.

For those of you making the pilgramage to the peach state, feel free to drop a line in the comment section to let us in, first hand, on how things are going. Be sure to note any run-ins with any super-star athletes you might come across.

The Weekend Rides...

Just a quick post about some of the riding I did this past weekend.

With no races and plenty of beautiful weather, I got in two solid days of riding with the GCC'ers. Saturday we left from the southern part of town and ended up with about 70 miles. A lot of rotation throughout the day made for a relatively quick pace and sore legs. Alex Price was Mr. Aggressive on the day, attacking at every sprint sign (even when nobody else noticed there was a sprint). We finished by coming in on 441 across the Prairie. There wasn't any kind of finishing sprint, but the heat and wind left me feeling pretty worn out just the same.

Sunday saw a good turn out on the North end of town considering that it was Easter morning. I thought that services would surely take a portion of our normal attendees, but that apparently wasn't the case. Scott and Ed had shown up to the Chevron at 8:00am thinking that we had changed our ride time, unfortunately for them, that change is still a couple of weeks away. Rodrigo was dressed up somewhat like an easter egg in his blue and pink Lampre kit which added a little Easter flair to our ride. There were reports that insead of sprinting to the city-limit signs we would stop and look for hidden Easter eggs...but that turned out to be untrue, so Huan sprinted anyway.

Everyone was in the mood to keep the pace civil, so we just rolled along enjoying the weather and the more social aspects of group rides. Soon after the rest stop Jayson (on his TT bike) and Huan rolled off the front in what I'm sure they thought was an attack, but to the group (who maintained our blistering 19 mph avg.) it was just Jayson and Huan getting in some heavier training.

Once we came into Alachua via 241, Ed Joy upped the intensity while climbing Mebane Hill. That turned out to be the catalyst for the attacks, splits and chases on the remainder of the ride. We regrouped at the light waiting to cross 441, but the splits came shortly after when Ed once again rode past me as I was setting the pace on the front over a little roller. I didn't respond so as not to validate his decision to increase the speed. Moments later Scott Pfaff and Danny Lyons jumped across to Ed and it was obvious that the three weren't waiting for the rest of us. Cindy Tompkins pulled through, but that was it...I think everyone else was still looking to end the ride the same way it had gone throughout the day, nice 'n' easy.

Danny came back to the group, then Julie Ficker and Alexis Debroski shot across to the two leaders just before we got to Millhopper Rd.. The gap was opening while Cindy and I did a two-person rotation in an attempt to bring the group back up to the leaders. Julie must've burned all of her matches to bridge the gap because she returned to a now dwindleing chase group shortly before we got to the I-75 overpass. Daryl Tompkins and Ryan Saylor, who had been content with keeping the ride easy, started to work with Cindy and I (probably out of pity). The four of us weren't letting the front three get away, but we weren't pulling them back either.

Ryan rolled away from us just as we were coming up to the overpass and I knew our chances of catching them were gone. However, the benevolent Mr. Saylor sat up and waited for us and made us a deal at the top of the climb. He said that he would catch the leaders for us, but one of us (now only 3 left; Cindy, Julie and myself) would have to win the sprint. And with that, Ryan set off on a 4-mile TT at 28-30 mph, dragging the three of us along in his draft.

Needless to say we caught Ed, Scott and Alexis within the final mile. They looked pretty spent and after a moment of looking around at each other Cindy went. Feeling compelled to not let Ryan's stellar pull go in vain, I followed Cindy for some added insurance. Nobody really followed us and our end of the deal was upheld.

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This post turned out to be longer than intended, but at least you've had a little 5 minute time-waster...Now BACK TO WORK!

Buzzzzzzzz

From the Editor: 5count will be starting a new feature very soon. We're calling it, "2Wheel Reveal".

In this feature we will be posting interviews that we have conducted with people that we feel you, the viewing audience, would be interested in reading about. (as long as they are interesting people that are willing to talk to us)

We are currently in the process of lining up guests for the "2Wheel Reveal" section. Stay tuned to find out who the focus will be on in the first edition of this ground-breaking new feature.

Cover Model

For those of you that didn't know, I've recently been the featured model on the cover of a magazine. Explore is a research magazine that is published three times per year by the Office of Research and Graduate Programs at the University of Florida. Explore highlights research that is being carried out at UF by the varying graduate programs. With a circulation of aproximatly 30,000 - Explore is a highly respected publication around the country as well as here in Florida.

I ended up squeezing a bucket-full of oranges for this shoot. I was dressed in plastic trash bags with publix bags rubber-banded over my shoes so as not to coat myself in orange juice and pulp. The creative director was trying to get just the right amount of "spray" in the picture frame...and with no way to control how an orange is going to spray, I just kept squeezing. The life of a model is so hard.

For personally autographed copies of the Spring 2006 issue of Explore, contact the 5count offices via email to set up payment and shipping.

To find out more about Explore and research from the University of Florida, go to www.rgp.ufl.edu/explore/

photography by Ray Carson

Jax recap

Saturday - Downtown Jacksonville Crit
I was right, this race was hard. Why you ask, well there were a couple of factors.

• Wind- it was bad enough that there were 30 mph gusts coming off of the river, but what made it worse was all the tall downtown buildings. There weren't any clear cut head/tail/cross winds, one section could have a head wind in the beginning, then you'd get slammed by a crazy cross wind in the middle and just as you'd start the corner, a tail wind would push you through it like bubbles out of a jacuzzi jet (how bout that analogy?) At one point, just before the third corner, the cross wind was soo bad that we would slow to 17 mph and have to lean into the wind just to stay in a straight line. So we were going straight, but leaning at like a 67 degree angle...CRAZY! It was supposed to rain as well, so I guess I can be thankful that we at least stayed dry.
• Big-time race, Big-time field - Being an NRC weekend, there were a lot of top level amateur guys who traveled in from out of state as well. This upped the competition level and created a fast, aggressive and hard race.

In the end, I didn't get a result. With two laps to go I was on the wheel of Big Phil from Team Florida. While going through corner #1 I was taken into the cones when Phil flatted. I didn't go down, but the delay was enough to see the entire field charge by. I was annoyed, but not as much as Phil was. I was happy with making it through the windy conditions without quitting. The mental part of this race was harder than the physical part (just by a smidge though).

I stuck around to watch the rest of the races as I had some friends and teammates who had qualified for the amateur finals race. The crowds were great and the venue was top notch. Rebecca Larson once again made it onto the podium in the woman's pro-1,2,3 race. The men's pro race was delayed just long enough to see the first rain drops fall while the pros sat on the start line. Earlier in the day I had seen Frankie Andreu with his United Pro cycling team. The UPC boys were among many top pros who ventured down to the ole F-L-A for some racing. Jittery Joes brought some big guns including Australian, Trent Wilson. Brice Jones from Jelly Belly was also in attendance as well as Dan Larson's VMG boys. Unfortunately, the rain increased in intensity and the crowds dispersed. I watched the remainder of the race from a friends hotel window.

Sunday - Penny Farms Road Race
This was the first race in more than a couple weekends where I felt strong enough to do more than just hold on. I stayed close enough to the front to watch for anything going up the road and never got myself into the "hurt-locker". Coming into the last mile of the final lap of the race, we had all of our guys lined up on the front setting the pace for the eventual sprint. I was fourth wheel as the sprint opened up and the field spread out across the road. In the blink of a eye someone went down right in the middle and before I knew what had happened I was flying through the air and landing directly on my head. A ton of guys went down and I fared better than most thanks to my trusty helmet, which gave it's life to save mine. Obviously not the way I had wanted the race to end, but my teammate John finished well and I didn't die.


Here's the finish of the race just as the sprint started to open up. If you look closely, you can see some red, white and blue jersey's on the ground in the middle...that is probably my teammate Brad, but I'm in there somewhere. Thanks to Jayson O. for sending me the pic.

I did the Hipp ride yesterday and didn't feel the effects of the crash, so that's a good sign. No races the next couple of weeks for me, so I'll probably get a chance to see my wife who's been buried at work (she's an accountant.It's's tax season).

Check this out...

Check out this video by these two guys from Muncie, Indiana. It's in response to the "Narnia Rap" by Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg on SNL. There have been a bunch of remakes, but this one was pretty well done.

If you haven't seen the original, check it out here

See ya in Jax

The only NRC event in the state of Florida is this weekend in downtown Jacksonville. Saturday's crits will take place in front of the Landings highlighted by a twilight pro crit with members of ATG-Toshiba-JetNetwork, Cycle Science, Nerac-OutdoorLights.com, Toyota-United Pro, Jittery Joes, Rite Aid, Target Training, VMG, Navigators, Jelly Belly and Colavita in attendance.

This weekend is sure to attract elite level amatures from around the southeast as well which will undoubtably make the racing tough! Good luck to those of you who will be racing.

The crit course is outlined in the above photo

Carnage Follow-up

In a recent post I told you about the minor crash on our last training ride out at Progress Park. I've just gotten a follow-up on how Doug is doing. The image below illustrates just how bad crashing sucks. I must admit, Doug's bruising is way worse than I thought it'd be...I guess when you're over 50, the blood doesn't circulate quite as well huh Doug?

***Editors Note: the following image is not meant for the weak of stomach. The contents of the following image have been blurred for your protection, if still interested in seeing the bruise in it's full glory click on the image for an un-obscured view. Warning proceed at your own risk!

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

John Gress/Reuters
Congratulations to us! The Gators dismantled the UCLA Bruins last night 73-57! It truly is great to be a Florida Gator!