The Keg Scandal

I just want to clear up a few things. I don’t like my good name dragged through the mud without good reason.

Background

McChad graciously agreed to host the BBQ once again. Thanks man. In the excitement of realizing the team had survived and thrived for 5 years I volunteered to throw in for a keg.

From forum…

“Beers at Chad's house are on me, I'll throw in for a keg, Fat Tire ok for everybody?”

That’s what everybody saw. From there was considerable communication behind the scenes. In the interest of transparency I’m pasting some of that communication here.

My contention is that I was up for financing the keg the whole time and I believe it was Mr. McChad who backed out. Once he discovered that people would be disappointed with the lack of said keg, in fine lawyering style that the Bush administration would be proud of, he found a scapegoat. I’m nobody’s patsy.

For ease of reading McChad is in red and my writing is in green.

-----Original Message-----

From: Chad McShane [mailto:cmcshane@rwolaw.com]

Sent: Tue 7/17/2007 5:19 PM

To: Manno, Doug

Subject: Saturday

What is your plan for getting a keg to my place for the bbq?

I can hook up w/ you Fri. after work in/near Golden to help you muscle it into your or my car??

Chad

---

-----Original Message-----

From: Manno, Doug

Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 6:26 PM

To: Chad McShane

Subject: RE: Saturday

????????????????

I think I only discussed paying for it. But if you need help we can meet up on Friday. It's defintely going to have to go into your car or truck.

---

From: Chad McShane [mailto:cmcshane@rwolaw.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 9:47 AM
To: Chad McShane; Manno, Doug
Subject: RE: Saturday

FYI, the Keg through Applejack is $130, not including $75 total deposits for the tap and keg return.

Are you ok with that?

---

From: Manno, Doug [mailto:Doug_Manno@nrel.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 3:09 PM
To: Chad McShane
Subject: RE: Saturday

Are we going to drink a full keg? If so, sure. Otherwise I'll be up to donating $60 for an assortment of good 6 packs.

---

From: Chad McShane [mailto:cmcshane@rwolaw.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2007 3:27 PM
To: Manno, Doug
Subject: RE: Saturday

I don't think we will drink a keg and I think your $60 would be more productive than $130 toward a keg.

From past experience $100-120 usually covers booze alone.

---

From: Manno, Doug [mailto:Doug_Manno@nrel.gov]
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 9:29 AM
To: Chad McShane
Subject: Kegger wooooooooooo

When do you want to get the keg?

---

From: Chad McShane [mailto:cmcshane@rwolaw.com]
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 9:49 AM
To: Manno, Doug
Subject: RE: Kegger wooooooooooo

No assistance needed. Since you reneged on your commitment to a keg, I cancelled the keg

order yesterday. Instead I'll be stocking up on 12 pks and cases, some wine and booze at Applejack

later this afternoon. If you want to chip in some cash for the booze, that would be great.

My trip to Costco for the food and supplies is the evening. I hope to ride early w/ Los and then will

be icing everything down by early afternoon. That right, I said "reneged."

---

From: Manno, Doug
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 9:59 AM
To: 'Chad McShane'
Subject: RE: Kegger wooooooooooo

son of a bitch...

Where is reneged here?

I'll throw some money at the problem, especially if it gets you drunk enough to give me a big hug.

So as you can see, until the end I was willing to pay for and help pick up the keg. I just had no way of getting the keg there, especially considering my car was full of HART team gear and kits.

Red, White and Blue

The big news this past weekend, was Nick Frey, taking the first Stars and Stripes jersey for the Haul'n Ass Race Team! Nick earned his sweet new jersey in the U23 time trial event in Seven Springs, PA. Congratulations Nick! I can't seem to find a picture anywhere... but there's gotta be one of him on the podium in the Stars and Bars. Send it to us, if you have one.

From USAC website;
In the men’s U23 event, Nick Frey (Princeton, Iowa/HART) surprised a deep field of 112 riders with a 1.3-second victory over silver medalist Graham Howard (Grand Rapids, Mich./Priority Health) in the 24-kilometer event, while last season’s junior 17-18 national champion, Tejay Van Garderen (Fort Collins, Colo./VMG Racing) placed third. The 40th rider out of the gate, Frey completed the course in 29:51.41 and his mark managed to hold up as several pre-race favorites and higher seeds finished their rides. Howard finished with a time of 29:52.72, while Van Garderen posted the third fastest time at 30:00.13. Frey’s performance also earns him an automatic nomination to represent the United States at the 2007 UCI Road World Championships in September.

Frey, 20 and a Princeton University student, placed ninth in the event last year, but hoped to win a national title this time around.

“My long-term goal was to win a U23 national time trial championship before I moved up,” Frey said. “I haven’t been able to do a lot of big races so far, but I am sort of a time trial specialist and this was definitely my type of course. It had gradual climbs where you can get into a rhythm and that’s what I grew up on riding in Iowa.”

Meanwhile, closer to home, the gang raced the Mike Horgan Hill Climb and the Longmont Crit this weekend. Saturday was nothing but uphill and every man for himself. Dan turned in a 7th place in the hill climb, while the team saw the return of Rowdy and Ewam to racing this weekend. Rowdy turned in a pretty solid time - especially considering it was his first race of the year, and Ewam rode well also, happy to be back in the mix. Sunday HART missed the break, and it was a tough race to do the work to pull things back together. Frustrating to say the least, but the guys are gearing up for some revenge at the Salida crit coming up! Sunday also saw the return of Brent to the group, taking everyone off the injured list, and putting HART at full strength for the upcoming races!

Randy is also racing out at Superweek, and waiting to blast out of the pack and make the HART presence known.

Mike Horgan Pre-Ride

This past Saturday Ewam, Chad, Brent and I took a ride up to Eldora, to check out the Mike Horgan course. Even at 9am it was ridiculously hot already, but other than that, the weather was gorgeous. Since I travel it nearly every day, there isn't a chance that I could forget, but I think the other guys were reminded just how ridiculously steep Magnolia is. It always makes for a challenging ride.

McChad shows us his "Killa-face"...

It was a great ride; fun too be out in good weather, on a Saturday morning with your teamates. Ewam and Brent were both killin' it! I think with their time off from injuries, they are both coming back stronger than ever. And it's a great weekend to be strong, with Mike Horgan on Saturday, and the State Crit Championships on Sunday!

Is that a hair in my meatball?

Don't eat the meatballs...

Its rough out in the East

Randy and myself headed out to do the Fitchburg-Longjos Classic stage race. Randy was going to do the race but a meatball took him out of commission and straight to praying to the porcelain god after stage 1 (TT). I ended up a disappointing 90 seconds or so back off the leader. This would just mean I would have to ride well on the mountain stage. The 2nd stage was a circuit race that featured about a 600m stair step climb every lap (about 3 miles) with the race being about 63 miles long. I found myself in a large breakaway of about 12 riders for many laps in the middle of the race. It looked very good at one point when we got about 90 seconds over the large main field of about 145 guys. The break was doomed when some guys stared to sit on and not take pulls as the race wore on. A field sprint up the stair step climb was imminent, I positioned myself quite well in about 10th spot. However some dude was fighting his way into the front of the field and rode into the side of my bike. This caused my chain to pop off and bend my rear derailleur hanger. I had to get off my bike and put the chain back on. Luckily, I got it back on and finished in the back to the main field so I did not loose anytime

Stage 3 was the road race that is a long 92 miles and has a difficult ascent up the feed zone climb 8 times and finished on top of the ski resort. I had to used the SRAM neutral bike during the race because my bike was unrideable due to the hanger bent beyond repair. The neutral bike was not as bad as I thought it would be, but was defiantly not as light or stiff as my Sampson Diablo. Basically rode on the well on the day but could not gain really that much time on the course. Ended up 20th on the stage about 1:20 off the winners time. Moved up into 22nd in GC. Not the result I was hoping for especially when 10th place on GC is only about 18 seconds faster than you.

I wanted to salvage the race by doing something on the final day in the crit. Needless to say, not only did that not happen but ended up hitting the deck pretty hard. I got back up and struggled in to finish with the field. It was a rough trip for both Randy and myself. It was a disappointing race however I did see some glimpses of good form that I am hoping will come around into full swing in the next few weeks.

I am doing a race this weekend part of the USA Crit series www.usacrits.com and then Nick and I are off to Under 23 nationals in seven springs, PA.

-Nate

Sunshine Hill Climb

This past Saturday was the Sunshine Hill Climb. No question on the classification of "hill-climb" needed for this one, just check out the statistics; 3000+ feet of vertical gain, in just over 9 miles, finishing at nearly 8500 feet up. And no question that plenty of the local "big guns" showed up for this one. Ewam, Wes, Hutch, Dan, and Nick showed up to race this one.

Even before the 8am start, it was getting hot, and with plenty of fast guys to keep an eye on, the race started out at a very civil pace. Of course, the problem with that, usually means that when it's "go-time", things are going to go that much quicker! And they did! By the second steep section, it was every man for himself, as the field began to explode. Dan contined with his string of solid, consecutive finishes, and was the 8th man over the dusty finish line at the top of the dirt climb. Not bad at all, considering the depth of the field, and the fact that he left a couple Tour of California riders in his wake, among plenty others.

Hopefully we'll get Randy or Nate to post an update from their trip out to Fitchburg, it sounds like Randy isn't a fan of Massachusetts-Meatballs...

Tomorrow is the 4th of July, and HART wants to remind people, "Light fuse, get away!"