(Click to watch on YouTube)
New Sponsors!
Herring Gas Cycling is thrilled to announce that we are now a SRAM Sponsored Team. We are so proud to be in the SRAM family. "SRAM is by far the best component group we've ever installed on our bikes," says team founder/manager Frank Moak. "The parts are lighter, they work better and the riders are much happier with them," he continued. We hope to be good ambassadors for SRAM in the years to come. We'd like to thank Stan Day and Bennett ven der Genugten for their help in bringing Herring Gas Cycling and SRAM together!
Herring Gas Cycling Team is also proud to be sponsored this year by Pounds Directional Consulting, an oil field services company. Pounds Directional Consulting is a local company with an international presence in the drilling industry.
Victories in the Spring!
Herring has already ticked off a few marks in the W column this year. The team's bigger wins came first at the Mississippi Gran Prix Stage Race where Bain Foote won the time trial with an average speed of 30mph breaking a 6-stage-win-streak by another rider! The following day, young Ben Gabardi barely pipped that same rider for the Circuit Race win. Great video.
Herring Gas also took home ALL the medals from a stacked field at the LAMBRA Criterium Championships with Jeb Falgout, Jacob Brewer and Andrew Hammond taking the Gold, Silver and Bronze respectively. Now that's how to take a Championship!
Jeb Falgout is not only the LAMBRA Criterium Champion, he also out-sprinted 2 of the most fierce and feared sprinters in the entire South to take the win at Racing Rapides Criterium. One is a former National Champion (Matt Davis) and the other is a perennial winner in any Pro race (Carlos Vargas).Way to go Jeb!.
Video: fast Forward to 2:15
Roster Additions:
The Herring Gas Team has recruited Isaiah Newkirk from the Mirian University Cycling Team. During the Spring, Isaiah will be splitting duties between his school team for the collegiate circuit and Herring for Pro/1/2 races. Isaiah is 21 and has already won a race this year for Mirian U and finished on the podium for Herring Gas twice. He is a strong, smart racer who is only expected to get stronger. It won't be a surprise for us to see Isaiah take the top step on the podium this year.
Here's video of Isaiah 'off the front' for the last 3 laps of The Sunny King Criterium, setting up Woody Boudreaux for a top 3 finish! Video here. You can see how well the team works in these last few laps with Andrew Hammond and Isaiah doing a ton of work to get a great result for their team mate.
Off the Presses
The Herring Gas Cycling Team and the Herring Gas Company have been highlighted in a feature article in the national trade publication LP Gas Magazine. The article describes the long friendship between team founder Frank Moak and company principal Ed Herring. You can see the online version of the article here.
Update on Ben Gabardi
If you missed the news around Christmas, Ben Gabardi was scheduled to leave for the Garmin-Cervello Team training camp in January. Days before he was to leave, Ben suffered a broken back and some severe facial lacerations in a horrible crash while training with Andrew Hammond. Ben ended up in the hospital and spent the holidays in a back brace and missing a couple of teeth. Many wondered if he would ride again. Fast forward to April at the Mississippi Gran Prix, and you can clearly see from the pictures below, that Ben's condition has greatly improved. We are very proud of Ben, both on and off the bike. Although, the accident ended up with Herring Gas retaining Ben for another season, we are confident that Ben is a tremendous talent and has a bright future in Pro Cycling and whether with us or with a ProTour team, we are happy for his success.
New bikes!!!
Here's a couple of pictures of our new Orbea Orcas. These pictures were taken with iPhones and we think the bikes really make great photographers out of iPhone users. The new frame is lighter, stiffer and more aerodynamic and it gives the Herring boys a solid platform to take the victories! We are more than pleased with our ongoing relationship with Orbea and the quality our bikes. They are simply the best!
As you can see, our 2011 Orbea Orcas are decked out with Mercury Wheels. Mercury Wheels continues this year supplying Herring Gas with some of the best, most aerodynamic and stiff, all-carbon fiber wheels available today. "These wheels just make me feel faster", said LAMBRA Best All Around Rider Woody Boudreaux.
Jacob Brewer:
Jacob Brewer spent the spring on a whirlwind tour on pro circuit, racing for the U.S. Military Team. While racing for the U.S.M.T., they traveled to the Redlands Classic, Sea Otter and many other races on the early Spring National Calendar. Here's a great picture of him that ended up in Velonews: Picture
Other Victories:
You might have known that team founder, Frank Moak's wife Terry was diagnosed in December with breast cancer. "Without Frank, this team wouldn't be here and without Terry, Frank wouldn't be here," says Kenny Bellau. Terry has been a major factor in the viability and longevity of this team. We are happy, thrilled to report that Terry has "Things look great now. We're over the toughest part and everything is going to be fine," says Frank of his wife's recovery. Terry recently completed her final round of chemo-therapy, after some scary and difficult months. We wish the best for Terry and Frank and all the Boys in Blue are acutely aware of their importance. This year the Herring Gas Team is sporting a Pink Breast Cancer ribbon next to the cuff of their shorts. We wear this ribbon very proudly and are proud of Terry's recovery.
Bain and Bethany Foote are the proud new parents to a baby girl, Lydia. Congrats on the new arrival!
Our Extended Family: Keeping track of teammates that moved on to other endeavors:
Chris and Taylor Alexander have moved to Austin, TX. Chris took a job at a hospital in Texas and although we will miss them both, we wish them the best as well as their new arrival Ian Alexander. They will always be part of the Herring Gas Team family.
Chris and Rene' Stokes have moved to the North Shore of New Orleans. Chris is now an agent in the FBI and is working on the Gang Task Force in Metro New Orleans. We know that the streets are safer with Chris on the job!
Troy Porter is having great success working on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope at Stanford University. Troy's field of specialty is Particle/high-energy astrophysics. The Fermi Telescope is a low Earth orbit satellite launched as a joint venture with NASA and other space agencies. It is up there to do an all-sky survey looking specifically for dark matter, pulsars, active galactic nuclei and Gamma-ray bursts. Troy is one of the few people able to explain how it does that.
As always, thanks to all of your sponsors, supporters, family and fans. It all makes a huge difference having you on the team. We'll be traveling all over the country this Summer starting next week in Tupelo. See you on the road!
| Place | Name | Hometown | Team | Age |
| 1 | Taylor Gaines | Bloomington, IN | Pro Chain Cycling | 18 |
| 2 | Yannig Roth | France? | Loire & Sillon Cyclisme | 22 |
| 3 | Frank Moak | Brookhaven, MS | Herring Gas Cycling | 50!!! |
| 4 | Jeb Falgout | Lafayette, LA | Herring Gas Cycling | 23 |
Proud of ya, Frank! Oh yeah and you, too, Jeb :-)
From the Calhoun Community Press:
For 2010, Herring has several additions to the roster. All our new recruits drag down the average age of the team. They are all young and talented and have very impressive resume's. We've always believed in bringing on younger talent, but usually just one at a time. This year however, we were faced with a difficult decision to choose from 3 great riders all with brow raising results. We choose all 3. These 3 riders will be a great addition to the Boys in Blue and will give us great depth. Here they are:
Ben Gabardi:
**Ben in Stars and Stripes Jersey**
Andrew Hammond:
Jeb Falgout:
Jacob Brewer:
First Race, First Victory!
Next On Schedule:
Several of the guys are heading over to Tallahassee, FL for a 3 day stage race the weekend of 2/26. Then on to the epic day of days, Rouge Roubaix in the woods of St.Francisville, LA on March 6th.
See you on the road.
Young Ben Gabardi takes the first place in the BMW Performance Center Circuit Race in Greenville, SC as well as winning the overall for the weekend. This all from a 16 year old. Ben is not quite 17 and has already won a race with a fairly stacked Pro/1/2 field. He said: "Last year I couldn't finish 7 laps of the race" and this year, he stands on top of the podium. Great job to Herring's newest (and youngest ever) recruit!
Photo by: Jimmy Helms
Photo by: Eddie Helton
Over the weekend, Woody Boudreaux (Woodreaux Boudreaux) and I stopped over in Mobile to pick up Jacob Brewer for a quick weekend visit to the house of pain, the NRC Criterium series. We headed up to Anistion, AL to do the Sunny King NRC Criterium. Woody and Jacob would warm up earlier in the day by doing the cat 2 race with a possible last minute invitation into the main event with me against the PRO's starting at sun-down. Well, they did so well and were so active in the race, that their inclusion into the bar-fight that would start later in the evening was a given. From the Start, Woody was off the front with a couple of different rider, whom he quickly dropped. These riders were replaced by new horsepower bridging up to Woody. However no one would pull through at the pace Woody felt was necessary to stay away. He drifted back and this is when Jacob took over. Jacob was constantly off the front for the rest of the race. Either chasing an escapee or 2... alone, or being chased by the entirety of the field. Franky Andreau, the announcer was getting tired of speaking Jacob's name and was starting to make up stories about things other than racing. The course was lined with HDTV cameras which projected the entire lap on the JUMBO TRON at the start/finish. Franky was so exhausted from saying "here comes that guy in blue again" that I believe he started drinking. With about 8 laps to go, the Tour de France star never got the lap count right and it had the strong field of Category 2 riders completely confused. With-in a few laps, you could see the riders making a special effort to look at the lap counter. Six laps to go and Jacob attacked, gaining about 10 seconds on the field. He held this for the next 3 laps, but people were foolishly chasing him down, allowing a very fresh Chris Pic (It's hard to name a pro team he hasn't ridden for) to counter Jacob with 2 laps to go. Woody did the smart thing, expecting the not-so-smart field to chase Pic, which they never did. Woody sprinted in for 5th place, only a few seconds behind winner, Tina's husband Chris.
Later in the PRO/1 race, 99 racers lined up on the uphill Start-Finish line of the .8 mile course. This course is a perfect rectangle, lifted sharply at one end. This is to say that the entire front length of the course was uphill and the back side of the course was 38-40mph downhill. At night. Looking around at the parking area was a study in your familiarity with Velonews. All the big, U.S.-based pro teams were hanging out near their team cars, Bissel, Ouch, BMC, Kelly Benefits, Colivita... You name it. We were wondering why none of them were warming up. From the opening bell it was just plain fast. Sprinting out of the saddle from the last corner all the way up hill, past the finish line to the first, I was expecting it to slow down a bit. Glancing at my computer, we were heading uphill at 31-32mph every time. I got a good start and went into the first downhill turn in about 5th place. I held this position for the next several laps, waiting for it to slow up a bit. But it just got faster. Many laps later, I found myself in the rubber-band section, about 25 riders back. I knew this was bad because even though I tried, I couldn't move up. It was hard enough to maintain my position where I was. Trying to get out of the draft on the downhill and pass a bunch of guys was quickly becoming a bullet I couldn't shoot. But I gave it a try anyway and got my wheels into some clean air. Heading down into the very fast, dark and bumpy turn 3, I got myself a little squirrely and into the gutter. Even at the limit of adhesion, I'm fine with that. But at the next off-camber and narrow corner, if your line isn't perfect, you'll be out in the wind for a couple of hundred meters until you can muscle your way back in line. That's exactly what I did and it's exactly what did me in. I got back in line about 20 places behind where I first attempted this boneheaded move. The next lap, I was suffering so bad that I really wasn't paying attention and in my old aged dizziness, got bumped off course and into the loose stuff. I guess they caught this on camera because when I crossed the line, off the back, the officials told me that I had a free lap coming to me. Who am I to argue? I got back in once more and lasted a little more than 3 laps and I was done. I was disappointed to see pretty much every category 1 that I knew, already standing on the sideline watching. Matt Davis stayed in for a few more laps than most anyone else (of the cat 1's), but hanging at the back of a field that has competed in 8 professional criteriums in the last 14 days is an exercise in humility. That's why they weren't warming up, you race this much... warming up is for amateurs. Woody and Jacob did as well as any cat 1's in the field, but they had already fought a battle today. This was my first NRC criterium since Katrina and I have to say that the mood at the car was pure disappointment. We're better than this, but it's hard to be competitive in the NRC if you sit out for a few years. We've got a lot of work to do. Knowing that only 30 riders finished was no consolation.
Here are some pictures from the really fast Cat 2 race.
See you later,
We were on the defensive all weekend. We've decided to employ a new tactic this weekend, however when most of us are just trying to not get dropped, tactics are as useful as tits on a bull. We did have some moments of greatness, but I told Frank that I felt like we brought a knife to a gun fight. It was by far the fastest racing I've done in Mississippi since the hey-day's of the Tour le Fleur when there were 200 pros there.
Anyway, the Friday night crit was just insane. I felt like I was in Athens. We were staying near the front, but were still a long way from being at the front or off the front. I took a couple of fliers, which didn't even last a full lap (except the first one) and Bain, Tim, and Jake were about the same. I got positioned well in the final few laps but got bumped really hard with a couple of corners to go and sprinted my brains out for 14th. As hard as we were going in the pack, Michael Olheiser was off the front, towing a guy that did the tours of California and Georgia last year. The guy sat his wheel for 10 or more laps and won the sprint @ about 25 seconds in front of the pack.
The RR was an exercise in humility. We were at the limit the entire time and got ourselves handicapped pretty early due to some really unfortunate blunders. First, we took on Clark Butcher for the weekend. Clark flatted about 10 miles into the race and Scott stopped to help. The roads were wet so there were flats everywhere, so they never caught. Then at about 45 miles, there was a 6 man break that blasted past me as i was off the front. I never got on, so as the pack came up, I was screaming that we need to chase. Bain said something to me and I thought he said "go to the front." Anyway, there we were, Frank, Jake, Tim, and myself chasing our brains out to bring the crit winner back for about 10 miles. The whole time Bain was off the back with a flat with Chris A and Woody. We had no idea. Bain finally caught, but his race was basically over. Chris gave Bain his wheel and Woody was done. I never knew he flatted until the race was over. We did our very best to screw ourselves. Jake and Frank finished in the front group, but there was a small gap in front of them.
The TT was slower than this year for most people. Bain was not feeling his best and neither was Frank from the morning RR, but Jacob was the suprise of the day rolling a 8:06 for 10th place.
Then the final Crit at the Co-lin college was really epic. As they called out names it started storming. Only for about 10 minutes, but the roads were wet. However these riders were as about professional as you will find and there was a really gentle pace in the corners and an insane pace on the straights. The streets started to dry after about 40 minutes and every lap was faster than the last. Nothing would get off the front and last and Tim was really one of the strongest guys there. For a while some of us just felt like "also-rans". But with about 5 laps to go, there was a dangerous 6 man break off the front and Clark and I wnet to the front and gave some last ditch efforts. This evidently destroyed the field becuase only about 25 riders came across the line the final time (they were pulling dropped riders). One lap to go and Micheal O asked Tim to get on his wheel, making a deal, but one of those Metro VW a-holes hooked Mike hard putting Tim on his head in the gravel and mud. Hotel San Jose finished the crit 1-2-3 and Tim finished in the golf cart with a concussion. I think Tim might have pulled something off. He was riding that strong.
We didn't ride bad, but we really had no luck, no opportunities to capitalize on. It was a long drive home. And San Jose just dominated everyone except Mike O.
This was a race I couldn't miss. This course is non-technical and favors top end speed. Nice crowds, nice payout and good competition make for a great event. I did it last year with Scott, my teammate, and we did very well. We both came away with close to $600 each in prize money.
The race started off fairly fast, a good bit faster than the Master's race I raced earlier in the day. Immediately, Matt Winstead was trying to ride off the front and was doing so successfully, but Eric Murphy ans a couple of others were keeping him in check. Still Matt had a few seconds on the field. Various people in the crowd had cow bells, so on one of the early laps while Matt was off I thought I had heard the bell for one of the many prime laps. On the finishing straight, while Eric and a couple of others were drilling it at 30+mph trying to chase down Matt, I attacked them and blew past Matt before the start-finish line. That's when I heard them ring the bell for the prime lap. I thought to myself, 'you idiot'. Although it was ill timed, I let off just a little so Matt could latch on, and we drilled it for a lap, but the pack was relentless and chased us down for the prime.
One lap later, I launched another attack on the back stretch and just soloed for a few laps. I was thinking to myself that it would be nice if one or two other riders had come with me, but I was committed and was feeling strong. I just kept drilling it hoping that someone would bridge up so I would have someone to work with. Next thing I know I see someone on the back stretch closing in. You have to keep in mind that there are some really dark spots on the back stretch, so you can't make out who anyone is unless they're right on you. As the rider got closer, I noticed it was Matt. I thought this was the ticket. Matt and I pushed it for several laps sharing half lap pulls and kept a pretty good gap. Matt was encouraging me when I was taking pulls telling me to give it all I could (as if I wasn't already doing that). I knew that if we were able to hold off the onslaught of the pack I would be a long shot still to win. Matt was just that little bit stronger and it would show at the end. Eventually Myogensis, Tria Market, etc started to work really hard to bring things back together.
As the race went on, I initiated breaks and followed moves, but nothing seemed like it was going to work. Nearing the end of the race as I drifted back in the pack a bit after one of my many efforts, a counter attack went off the front with Stuart Lamp, Cleve Blackwell & Matt Winstead. This happened with 4 or 5 laps to go. Three more riders tried to bridge to the break with 3 laps to go and although they weren't successful in doing so, they were successful in creating a sizable gap between them and the pack. My options were to sit in and sprint for 7th or give it one more effort and try to bridge. I attacked and everyone that had been sitting in for most of the race suddenly decided they wanted to race. With the pack on my wheel, I chased for over a lap and pulled back the three chasers. I dropped to the back at the beginning of the last lap, and then fought my way through riders getting dropped on the back stretch and caught on coming into turn 4. I started my sprint right out of the turn and picked off a number of guys, but only for 20th place overall.
My results for the day were 2nd in the Master's race and 20th for the Pro 1,2,3. Looking back on the day it is hard to say what kind of effect positive or negative the master's race had on my legs for the night race, but I do know my legs felt better in the Pro 1,2,3 race than in the Master's race earlier that day, and the Pro 1,2,3 was a much harder race.
Tim
