An excellent podium for BooCX in Utah!

Tyler came in second in a sprint for the win at the Utah State Championship 'cross race last weekend after leading from the start.  He said the Boo handled the icy, slush-on-hardpack conditions with aplomb.  And yes, only a fellow Princetonian would say "aplomb."

 

New interview with GamJams

CHECK IT OUT.  Thanks go to David and Mike for the excellent Q's!  Make sure to check out the rest of the excellent GamJams site, a nice grouping of high-quality blogs from cyclists around the country.

ISPO Brandnew awards voting

Vote for Boo Bicycles to win the ISPO Brandnew award, a major European start-up and design competition.  Click here and then click the "RATE IT!" button just below our photo--a 10 would be greatly appreciated!

Vuelta Miami press release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Boo Bicycles Wins $7,000 Vuelta Miami

Boo Bicycles owner Nick Frey piloted his Boo R (SRAM Red, Edge Composites 1.68 carbon fiber wheels, and Edge Composites bar, stem, fork, and seatpost) to a convincing victory at the Vuelta Miami out of a final break of six, outlasting a trio of Team Coco's riders as well as Yosvony Falcon, a new rider for the Bahati Foundation Cycling Team.

Out of a field of over 150 riders, Frey was able to cruise his bamboo and carbon-framed Boo R to the front and create a decisive break of 13 in a cross-wind section, then whittle the break down to six in the return trip. After a hard headwind section, Frey was able to make the jump from the final two-rider selection to solo in for the win.

"It tugs at my heartstrings to have Boo Bicycles seeing the big time," said Frey. "We've spent two years refining bamboo bicycle framesets, transforming them from a curiosity into a bicycle capable of winning big races. It is every bit as comfortable as a titanium frame, yet just as stiff as a top carbon bike. Bamboo has a one-of-a-kind road feel that works for everyone serious about riding. It is snappy yet smooth and inspires confidence through corners."

Frey is in Miami for training as well as visiting local bicycle shops through November 17th and will be riding in the upcoming Horrible Hundred Century on Sunday, November 15 in Clermont, Florida.

For the complete story, check out Nick's blog at http://nfrey.blogspot.com/2009/11/win-for-boo-at-vuelta-miami.html.


CONTACT

Nick Frey
503B South Howes St
Fort Collins, CO 80521

515.494.2468
nickfrey@boobicycles.com
www.boobicycles.com
@nfreyBoo

###

WIN FOR BOO AT VUELTA MIAMI!

Here's the Facebook link.  Thanks Carolina!

It was an incredibly windy Sunday morning in western Miami, a tepid 75 degrees and sun, and I was ready to race my Boo R (with Edge 1.68 wheels, bar/stem/fork/post, and Sram Red!) after a couple months without a number pinned.

The race instructions were entirely in rapid-fire Spanish, so I went just decided to follow a bit, see what the rules were like, and enjoy the event.  That said, I set out to WIN--this was a huge deal for me because it's the first and last race I can do with my Boo R after I must ride Jamis starting January 1st, 2010.  Oh, I forgot to mention the SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS CASH on the line :-)

The neutral was an actual NEUTRAL, unlike most crashfests before kilometer zero, and it was great because we started at 8AM and I had just rolled out of bed and suited up about 90 minutes before.  Unfortunately I was without coffee, but I had a couple Espresso Love Gu's and I was awake.

The wind was SERIOUS--30-40mph sustained--and blowing east to west.  And the race had a net elevation change of 7.3 feet.  DEAD flat.  So when the neutral was cruising along at 30+ going west, and I saw the race start and the lead vehicles turn right up ahead, I made SURE to sprint up the left and get in the front.

After a couple attacks in the crosswind, I was carrying momentum from about 30 back and decided to roll it at 95% in the gutter.  Sure enough, that was all she wrote, and our selection of 13 was off and rotating.  It was never easy, but never super hard, just LONG and BORING because there was absolutely no resting.  I was breathing through my nose the entire time, and the legs felt pretty good, thank you very much Colorado!

It was a windy course through a grid the had a turn-around 35 miles in, so it was good because I knew what was coming after the turn-around.  Sure enough, a couple of the 13 rolled off about 40 miles in and got 50m.  I decided to drive it in the gutter and bridge up, and that was probably the hardest part of the race, but it was fun just taking three guys with me and getting the group down to just six.

The six of us rolled quite well, and the only guy I knew in the group was Yosvony Falcon, an excellent rider who was with Toshiba in 2008 and will be on Bahati's new team in 2010.  VERY smart and quick rider, so I was a bit worried about him.  Three guys were on the same team, Coco's, and another guy in a Pro Bike Kit jersey and black shorts.  It was a good group that worked very well together from mile 40 until just before the finish at mile 72.

Coming back in, I knew I had great legs and started to get my internal smile going--I knew it was my race to lose, I just needed to be smart and not play my hand until everyone had gone all-in.  A Coco's guy attacked with a couple miles of INSANE headwind left, and I bridged up to him and rolled it as hard as I could to get a larger gap.  He sat on, having two teammates behind, but he also said in broken English, "No spreent, no spreent!".  I've definitely heard that before, and although I believed him, I made sure he rolled through in the headwind a couple times.

With the finish in site, but a LONG last kilometer, I had him get in the front for 20 seconds and then I jumped and sprinted and came in solo.

The win meant a lot to me because I could tell it was a huge event for the local fans and riders, and because I really showed that Boo is a great race bike that can WIN.  It's very stiff and efficient, and being able to jump hard into a crosswind to latch onto another rider is so important in a race like the Vuelta Miami.  Mostly, I am just happy to be able to come to dealers now and say that yes, it's not just a pretty face--this thing can be ridden FAST.

Having Tyler Wren up at the Cycle Smart Invitational, battling Adam Craig for 10th until the unfortunate final-lap flat, is great as well!!  It tugs at my heartstrings to have Boo seeing the big time :-)

POM - the glass is half full

POM is signing on as a sponsor of the Garmin pro cycling team, and I must say I've become addicted to their juice mixed with my favorite water.  It's an expensive habit, but well worth the $$$.

GO CYCLONES!!!

I'm not a huge football fan, but hang in until 1:25 and you'll see why I'm posting this.  PASSION.

Too good to keep secret

This picture (from the team time trial on September 11th, 2009) much sums up my last race weekend of the season at the Univest Grand Prix in eastern Pennsylvania.


note: never ride a 108mm deep front wheel with a 19mm wide front tire in pouring rain and 30+mph wind gusts.

Thanks for postponing concern for your son, Dad--this is WAY better!!

So hot right now

Wrenegade Boo sighting #3

Wrenegade top-10 on Boo Cross at Granogue!

TOO COOL

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

The one-off T Wrenegade Boo 'cross kit is coming soon!

Should be here next week, ready to get muddy.

A teaser . . .

Uh, yeah, that's SNOW in OCTOBER

All I can say is "THANK YOU ZACK V!"

BOO ON THE FRONT PAGE OF VELONEWS!!!

Interbike TEASERS!

Well, we had a plan and it was going well . . .

until a bad wheel choice (Zipp 1080 with a 19mm Crono tire) led to a couple guys in green and blue sprawling along the road just 1k before the finish of the Univest TTT.

We placed 10th out of 30 teams, but we were less than 15 seconds out of top five! ARGH.

From The Fort to The Boat

I forgot a nice pic from Casey Gibson at the Tour of Utah Time Trial.


The Steamboat Pilot article.

Many top-tens and 2nd overall, not too shabby!

Yes, I'm still alive!!

U23 Time Trial podium - July 31st, 2009

My beloved readers, it has been FAR too long! Looking back at my last post, just after ripping it at the Nature Valley TT, SO many things have happened.

I've moved to Fort Collins, Colorado and am loving it (especially now that I can breathe out here!). I can't wait to go skiing/hiking/MTB'ing/off-roading once the season comes to a close!

I've done some races at the Tour of America's Dairyland, Superweek, the $25k Chicago Criterium, some local Colorado races, and most recently the Tour of Utah. It's been a whirlwind season, and unfortunately it is drawing to a close. Only four weeks remain, but there are some SERIOUS races left including the Univest Grand Prix in Pennsylvania (Sept. 11-13) and the Vegas Crit Worlds during Interbike on September 24th. Check out the first page of my resume below--it's making the rounds and I'm VERY excited for 2010.

Nick Frey Cycling Resume - page 1

Tour of the Battenkill - April 19th, 2009

I've had great success with Boo Bicycles!! James and I have worked tirelessly these past few months to perfect our frames, and I have been training on my personal Boo for almost a month . . . it is simply INCREDIBLE. A stiff, light bike that remains supple and smooth over chip-seal and mid-corner expansion cracks. It is everything we have hoped for: beautiful, unique, green, and stiff/light/supple to boot. The big launch of Boo Bicycles will be at Interbike in Vegas September 23-25. James and I will be displaying some beautiful models: a complete road and cross bike (both to be RACED at the Vegas cross and criterium) as well as a custom belt-driven fixie and a beautiful low-cost commuter with some handmade pannier bags.

Boo Bicycles will be at Booth 6180, please come by to experience the beauty of Boo!!

NVGP pictures

Credit goes to Cyclingnews and VeloNews for these!

This is probably 100m before the TT finish, on a very long and painful small-ring climb. OUCH!!

It was definitely worth it, though! Snagged both the top amateur and the top under 23 jerseys with a time of 13:09, good enough for 14th place overall.

Getting called up to the front for these NVGP criteriums is crucial--they're only 60 minutes and all-out from the gun, so staying up front is both safer and easier. It's also awesome to be up there with guys who fight for stage wins at Tour of California!

Standing next to my good friend and former teammate Tom Soladay in the orange Wheaties sprint jersey (AND the red Most Aggressive jersey, to boot!).

Here is our super-fast climber Rolf Eisinger putting in a monster effort to set up our other climber, Ian Grey, for the first King of the Hill--they went 1-3! Awesome team effort and way to stick with our plan: attack from the gun on the tough initial climb out of town.

This part was a blast--the entrance to the hectic, technical finishing circuits was a deep gravel road followed by a FAST minefield of a downhill. WOW. I knew it well from last year and followed a nice little breakaway about 1 mile before the entrance, then dropped the guys in the break to just barely stay in first going into the gravel. The entire OUCH train basically absorbed me and, like in Tour of the Battenkill, I simply followed master 'cross racer Tim Johnson--always a safe bet in conditions such as these.

I think Rory Sutherland (in the black/green King of the Hill jersey) found the only guy he can actually draft that isn't already a teammate!

Awesome company on the podium after Stage 3!

Tonight is going to be a FAST, technical run through uptown Minneapolis. I've heard that it's the trendy, hipster part of town and the Friday night crowd should be going insane! The race doesn't start until 7:45 PM, and Dad is driving up to watch! My plan is to stay at the front and be safe while conserving as many matches as I can for tomorrow's queen stage in Mankato.

Thanks for reading, and follow our team's awesome Twitter account for live during-race updates!!

HELL YEAH!

Out here at Nature Valley . . . more photos, reports, and power files to come, but here's a little something to wet your appetite: http://www.velonews.com/photo/93149

By the way, we came in 4th overall on the teams competition as well! Tonight's crit went well, we stayed safe and a couple of us got used to going 30mph for an hour after not having a FAST race all season. Tomorrow is going to be an awesome day with a fast and short and windy road stage in Cannon Falls.

Time for bed . . . more to come tomorrow afternoon!

You know you want to buy my SRM

It's going for a bargain.

Stars and Bars!!

Read about it here.

SICK Gila crit!

T-minus 11 hours until the start of tomorrow's queen stage, and I'm wired! The Gila Stage 4 Criterium just finished four hours ago, and it was a blast! SUPER windy, awesome course with a good-sized hill and fast descent, and an amazing crowd. The entire town of Silver City came out, and we wanted to give them a show. I was super happy to find my legs once more, and I made sure to spin for an hour this morning to flush them out and get the juices flowing. It's definitely nice to finally race in the afternoon instead of NINE AM.

For a full race report and some sweet pics, as well as my TrainingPeaks file from the race, check out my TwoWheelTales author page! And you'll really like this one.

I'll be writing another post tomorrow afternoon, post-Gila Monster. During the stage, check out the team's Twitter feed--Rob will be holding his phone up high to get some reception and give live updates! I've got my work cut out for me, and let's just say I'll be trying to get some serious face time for Ciclismo Racing while helping our top GC boys Ben and Rolf!

A true tale of suffering: the Gila TT!

WOW, I haven't felt that slow on the TT bike in a long time!! The lungs are so toasted at this point that I can barely pedal the bike. It was a hot and windy ride, and the Gila TT course is infamous for destroying rhythm and forcing riders into submission. I definitely understand now!

Check out my new TwoWheelTales post for a detailed description of the race. Long story short, let's just say that the power file is going to look like a decent tempo ride! At this point I've realized that the altitude is going to make my life worse and worse throughout the race, because the legs feel very strong but the lungs are giving out earlier and earlier. Tomorrow's criterium should be very fun because I can probably go hard for short periods, and our fast-man Phil is riding really strong and is revved up to finally show his stuff in his specialty event. I know the team is going to be showing well tomorrow!

I'll be doing my best to finish the race well and help get Ben into position for the climbs on the final stage, the Gila Monster. Feeding throughout the 105 mile, three-climb stage is crucial, and I'll have my work cut out for me. I'm really excited to have a guy on the team riding so strongly and fighting it out for a top GC spot!

In other news, the Keller Center Dedication has made it's video available on the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education website! Check it out:

Another TwoWheelTale

CHECK IT! Also, look for me in any pics with Lance/Levi/Horner through the valley mid-stage . . . I made sure to ride just behind the Mellow Johnny train! Legs are still feeling good, lungs are not finding any more oxygen, and the team has really come together--I'm STOKED for the rest of the Tour of the Gila. Keep reading more at TwoWheelTales and our team's live Twitter Feed, written by our in-house extrovert, Rob Noble, the Ciclismo Racing Director of Communications.

Ciclismo on Twitter!

Rob Noble, our Communications Director, is riding along in the team vehicle handing up food, dishing out encouragement, and updating the Twitter feed live with race goings-on. CHECK IT OUT!

First Gila stage down, four more to go!

An excellent day for Ciclismo Racing!!! We got Ben Kneller and Rolf Eisinger into the top-30, placing 18th and 28th, respectively. Here is a detailed review of the race at TwoWheelTales.

I'm fed, massaged, and putting the legs up . . . tomorrow is going to be a good day. Look for me in the breaks!

Also, look for me along/behind/in front of a certain boy from Texas.

Racing with Lance after all!

Apparently he will be racing with Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer in the Mellow Johnny's jerseys.

Check out TwoWheelTales for Tour of the Gila and on!

I've just begun writing for TwoWheelTales.com. I'm flying out to Albuquerque at 9AM tomorrow morning for the Tour of the Gila--it should be a blast! After that I'm heading back up to Fort Collins, CO with the Ciclismo boys and will meet up with Nick Bennette and Austin Roach (of Princeton Cycling fame) to bring it to the other collegiate cyclists at Nationals.

Point is this: I'm planning to keep diaries for each big race I do this season, and these diaries will be written on TwoWheelTales.com. It's an excellent site where you can look through and read about the goings-on in other professional cyclists' lives.

Do not fret, I will still be writing for get on your bike and ride! This will be my personal blog, where I talk about anything I want related to what I've been doing in life, what my plans are, etc. My TwoWheelTales blog will be much more race specific. The two will obviously be interconnected!

Time to pack up, tie up some more loose ends with school, and get some sleep before THE BIG SHOW BEGINS!

Keller Center video

http://www-dev-edit.princeton.edu/news/media/keller/

ARMY!

After a ROUGH week at school (Nuclear Physics paper followed by an Automatic Controls 24-hour take-home midterm and a full-day video shoot for the Keller Center opening) I was pretty wrecked going into the Army race weekend at West Point, New York. No worries, the weather turned out to be better than expected on Saturday (no rain, only 30+ mph wind to deal with!) and Sunday (INCREDIBLE sun and 70s!!).

We had MANY Princeton cyclists, with almost the full team racing, so it was a blast--only Austin "The Roach" was missing due to a mandatory plasma physics geek-conference. No TTT for Men's A, but Bennette and I got in plenty of training outside of the races. My legs were FULL of crap in the very tough circuit race on Saturday, but I made it into the break with some serious heavy-hitters: Jamie Driscol and Vinnie Scalia of University of Vermont, Josh Lipka of University of New Hampshire, Chris Ruhl of Penn State, and Derek Merkler of Army.

We worked well together, and it was apparent that we had made the winning move after just the first few tough laps. The gap soon balooned to well over a minute, but I also knew that things were going to explode with the two best UVM guys in the break. With three laps to go of a two-mile circuit, Vinnie launched a HARD attack up the finishing hill and Jamie got a free ride for a lap. Josh, Chris, Derek and I worked well to slowly reel him in, knowing that Jamie would then launch his attack. Sure enough, just one lap after Vinnie made his move, we were about to catch him on the finishing hill and Jamie blasted off with Josh hanging on for dear life.

With just two laps to go, the situation was now 3 vs. 3, and Chris, Derek and I knew we had no chance of both catching Josh/Vinnie/Jamie and beating them up the climb. I especially knew my legs had some governors on them--whenever I went over 90% on the hill, they just locked up and had no fluidity to them. OUCH.

We kept them within spitting distance, but it didn't matter--I ended up going my 90% maximum up the hill the last time and getting last in the break. I was happy to have made the right selection and fought it out, but I also knew my legs were wrecked from a tough week and not being recovered. I knew the next day would be much better and the legs would be opened up . . .

Army Hill Climb Time Trial power file

Sunday started off with an early-morning BANG! in the form of a hill climb time trial on West Point's campus. A nice little 10-minute climb with 650 feet of elevation gained on excellent roads was made much harder by the incredible headwinds and crosswinds. I was very happy with my performance, getting 4th and posting a very good power number: 399 for just over 10 minutes, equating to 5.4 W/kg. I'd say that's not much above my threshold power when I'm completely fresh and ready to race, so that's really encouraging!

The team hung out, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and raced all day long. We had some brilliant performances (Becca and Rocco mixing it up right at the front of the Women's B and Men's C) but also some sad events (Brian running over a guy on the last lap and breaking his bike, the second year in a row at Army!).

Army Criterium: not the hardest race I've ever done ;-)

It was a great vacation from school, and I'm very happy my form came around and the team got to hang out and bond. We're going to finish the collegiate season strongly, and I am on track for the next three weeks of school, my final three weeks of Princeton!!

Check out some sweet picture from the racing this weekend!!

PayPal is now working!

Again, your donations are GREATLY appreciated! If each of you, my wonderful readers, donates just $10, we'll have, uh, lots of money . . . I think!

Just like Obama, we're doing it GRASSROOTS, BABY!

Upen races, DONATE!

I'll keep it short and sweet . . .

First off, I'm BEGGING you all, my wonderful readers and devoted friends/family/fans and the people who keep me motivated and going 110%, to PLEASE DONATE ANY SMALL AMOUNT TO MY TEAM, CICLISMO RACING!! It means a ton to us and we'll get you hooked up with the bi-weekly team newsletter, and with your help we'll even be able to afford chamois cream.

Here is a link to sign up for our NEWSLETTER, and here is the flyer for our soon-to-be-famous launch party:


On Saturday I had planned to ride from Princeton down to the Philly circuit race, do the race, and ride home. Well, I got started a touch late and ended up doing a decently hard TT with a full backpack on for two hours, only to get hopelessly lost in a great part of North Philly (wink wink). I ended up watching the race and heckling some guys, then rode home. But again, the ride home was a bear because I had a headwind the whole way and took an even longer, more circuitous route! ARGH. Got home after 6+ hours of riding and 5000kJ.


Notice the large spike in HR and elevation at around mile 50? That's the Manayunk Wall! Brought back many fond memories . . . it's crazy to just ride it after only racing on it, and it definitely hurts at the top!!


The team got up before dawn on Sunday (I didn't even get off my bike on Saturday until 8PM!) to drive down and race the TTT and criterium. We rode the TTT on our fast bikes, but did about 85% to just get things smooth and figure out our communication and rotation. We pushed it a little near the end, but were really happy with how controlled and smooth the effort was. We won by over 20 seconds!


The criterium was a very fast but easy race on a wide-open flat course with only three huge, smooth turns. A sprint finish if I've ever guessed a race correctly! With 6 laps to go, a break had been off the front with a consistent ~10 second gap for much of the race, and Austin and I finally decided enough is enough so we got to the front and ripped it. We had a lot of help from Chris Ruhl which lead us to bring the break back in just under 3 laps! Argh . . . to early. After some amazing late-race moves by UVM and the ever-powerful Josh Lipka, Austin and I did our best to get Big Bennette a leadout. I was tapped out just about 50 meters too early, and Nick had to do the whole final drag against UVM's endless stream of guys--he got third to a fast Colin J and a coordinated UVM team effort. Kudos.


Now I've been locked in my room for over a day writing my nuclear physics paper--AHHHHHHH!!! Then tonight/tomorrow I have to do my automatic control systems take-home midterm--DOUBLE AHHHHHHHHH!!!

"Just four weeks left, Nick . . . "