La Voix February 2024

RACING NEWS

CBR

 

CBR race report as told by Morgan James:

”I raced in the opening race of the season at CBR this Sunday in the women’s pro 1/2/3 race! We had a great turnout of 24 women I believe. Lots of great competition with some internationally ranked competitors. I was definitely in my head entering the race, feeling doubtful of my preparation. I’m happy to say that I had a great race! I was able to get out there, overcome my negative head space, and give it my best shot! I won some points towards the overall sprint standing and was able to earn a bronze medal at the finish! Overall, I’m so excited to see what the rest of this season has in store!”

 

Santa Barbara County Road Race

 
 

The Santa Barbara County Road Race on January 27th marked the start of the season as riders from Velo Club La Grange geared up for the challenging course in Sisquoc. With perfect weather, our team engaged in fierce competition across three categories.

In the Masters 35+ category, Peter Virth earned a commendable 15th position against stiff competition. I had a strong showing in the Masters 45+ category, with 7th place. Nick Gillock displayed exceptional form in the Masters 55+ category, with a 3rd place podium finish. Meanwhile, in the Masters 60+ category, Mike Waugh, new to both La Grange and our race team, battled to 17th. 

Our team is proud of their performance at the Santa Barbara County Road Race, a promising start to the race season!

CLUB NEWS
Save the Date! Helen’s Night Returns This Month - Thursday, Feb 22nd at 6 pm

 
 
 

Please join us for the return of Helen’s Night on Thursday, Feb 22nd at 6 pm. This super fun event is basically a big party for La Grange members, with food, drinks, and discounts on all things bikes. For one night, Helen’s will offer 25% off everything in the store except for bikes and GPS units which will be 15% off! Come visit or discover your local bike shop with a history of serving the local community since 1936. Bring your shopping list and stock up while mingling with Club members and Helen’s staff and mechanics! Pizza and drinks will be served. Stay tuned for announcements as we get closer to the date. Helen’s Cycles is located at 2501 Broadway in Santa Monica, CA, 90404.

 

LG Happy Hour with Sean Quinn at Gilbert’s

 

Happy Hour Recap: Sean Quinn Q&A! Read on to learn about the most powerful performance enhancer in the modern peloton…

A chilly January evening on the back Gilbert’s patio was made warm and festive by glowing heat lamps overhead, super friendly service, delicious quesadillas, taquitos, chips, margaritas, beer, and a full house of LGers in puffer coats. A few braved the frigid weather and arrived by bike. Sean Quinn with Education First Easy Post and friend Artem Schmidt who races U23 with Hagens Berman Axeon (the same team Sean started with as a Pro) spent the entire evening with LaGrange mingling and engaging in a casual, informative Q&A with our guests. Board Member Larry Goodman led the conversation starting with how Sean’s year with EF will look…

Things are going great with EF. In fact, the team extended his contract another 3 years and Sean is set to race the Giro this year (and possibly the Olympics)! 

Sean’s home in Europe is in Nice, and both he and Artem shared that traveling to other countries for racing was their favorite perk of their job. 

Sean doesn’t particularly like racing with radios. They can’t listen to music and everybody in the peloton gets the same info at the same time, for example, an approaching bottleneck, which causes the entire peloton to get nervous and surge at once.

Neither Sean nor Artem cross-train, but they are kept at nearly 0% body fat for racing. Careful nutrition and lack of weight bearing or impact exercise means their bones become quite frail so they take regular supplements to improve bone density.

When asked what is the single most impactful performance enhancer in the modern peloton  Sean shared: carbohydrates! He ingests up to 180 carbs per hour while racing, mostly through gels. Nutrition bars would be too cumbersome and take too long to eat and digest. The high carbohydrate diet makes the racers extremely fast but has its drawbacks as many pros suffer from indigestion. And so, eating during a multi-day race becomes a chore- Artem admitted that white rice for breakfast day after day can be a bit of a downer.

For those of you who did not know, Sean is from SoCal. Marco Fantone remembers riding with 13-year-old Sean at Nichols back in the day.

Finally, the answer to the question many of you were probably wondering: Sean rides Shimano.

 

January LG 50

 

Velo Club La Grange kicked off the 2024 season with a nice, easy-to-moderate pace up PCH North to La Piedra Beach. The weather could not have been more perfect!

The January LG50 was led by Bodie and Dan M. and started at our club sponsors, Helen’s Cycles, where 54 riders left to head north along PCH. The peloton took in spectacular ocean and mountain views on an unseasonably warm and clear day, a very welcome reprieve from our cold and wet LA winter. Our LG van was with our team at the Santa Barbara road race, so Lisa Goldfarb who provided awesome SAG support for the ride drove the Helens van to picturesque La Piedra Beach. A festive few enjoyed a cold beer at Santa Monica Brew Works after the ride. Thank you to Bodie, Lisa, and Dan for your work on this LG50 and Dan for documenting our gorgeous ride along the coast!

 

All Clubs Gala

 

A few weeks ago, we enjoyed the All Clubs LA Gala Weekend, a 4-day celebration of cycling and community. Founded by Ken Vinson, All Clubs LA's mission is to foster diversity, respect, and inclusion in cycling while engaging in industry information sharing and promoting access. The ACLA Gala is a local and nationwide endeavor, bringing in riders from all over the country.

All Clubs Weekend as told by Jaycee Cary:

I started the weekend early and joined the Friday “A-ride”. Several hundred riders started from downtown Long Beach, in an amazing parade of colorful kits, bikes, and characters. The groups split into multiple paces (A, B, and C) in the Long Beach marina and things got spicy. There were many new faces in the group as well as the usual assassins (Rahsaan Bahati and Charon Smith) and friends of La Grange, Elijah Baker (Pedal Mafia), Patrick Rolden, and Mario Miller (Canyon). We went as far as Newport Coast in a collection and sprints, climbs, and time trials interspersed with lots of smiles and just a little trash talk. Spirits were high and legs were tired. It was nice to hang with these heavyweights. 

Saturday night brought the centerpiece of the weekend, the All Clubs LA Gala. Almost 350 attendees joined this black-tie affair, swapping cycling kits for suits and fancy dresses. This year, La Grange was well represented by Peter Dorantes, Lisa Goldfarb, Morgan James, and Jaycee Cary. The gala was in the Long Beach Hilton and featured a sit-down dinner, presentations, and live music. This event was a who’s who of local cycling plus a large contingent of East Coast folks from as far away as New York, Baltimore, and D.C. The focus of the event is to further the causes of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the cycling community and many of the industry’s best brands were there in support; SRAM, Zwift, Strava, People for Bikes, Canyon, USA Cycling, Ibis, and more. It’s always so rewarding to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

The motto of All Clubs is “We are stronger together than apart”. The Gala weekend was a sparkling and inspirational example of this. I am so proud to be part of the beautiful, diverse, and inclusive sport we call cycling. If you’d like to learn more about All Clubs LA, visit: www.allclubsla.com

Thanks for reading

Jaycee

 

Meet a LG Member Interview: Joann Zwagerman

 

LG, please meet new LG member Joann Zwagerman. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Joann has lived in New York, Honolulu, Villanova, PA, and Henderson, NV.  After being gone for 35 years, she relocated back to California in 2015. Joann explains:  “My family and friends said that it was time for me to come home, so I listened. I don’t regret it. They were right.”

Read on to learn more about Joann’s passion for sports and for sharing it with others, as well as why she founded FDR (South Bay’s famous Friendly Donut Ride)!

Interviewed by Renée Fox.

What do you do other than bikes?

I am happy to be back in L.A. because I get to do all the outdoorsy things that I love and be closer to my family and friends. Believe it or not, I have a few passions besides cycling.  Weather permitting, I try and go fly fishing as often as I can get away. If there is snow, you’ll find me skiing. I have been PADI certified since 1989 and would enjoy doing more of that and sharpening up my golf game this year. 

What drew you to cycling?

My son rowed crew in Radnor and then for MAC, in the Marina, when we first moved back to California. I had to wait for 4 hours while he practiced. They share a boathouse with UCLA, I know you guys are aware of how many cyclists pass that boathouse every day but do you know what they all have in common? Every single one of them had a smile on their face! So, I decided to buy a bike. Now I smile like a 12-year-old every time I go out for a ride. 

Tell us about your bikes… 

I have collected a bunch of different bikes over the last 9 years. I will typically purge bikes before I buy a new one so that ‘N’ number stays somewhat constant. This means that I am always looking for that N+1. Road:  Currently, I am infatuated with my new black, S-works Aethos. Gravel: I have a love/hate relationship with my gravel bike because I’m an SRAM girl, and it has Shimano. City: I recently purchased a city bike. I find that I make excuses to go places just so that I can ride it. Cruiser: I have a single-speed beach cruiser which is mainly for company. Trainer: I have a dedicated and Specialized tarmac for a trainer that isn’t plugged in.  N+1: I am in the market for my next XC, full suspension mountain bike. 

Why did you decide to join La Grange?

This is my second time joining La Grange. I joined in 2015 when I first started cycling. I let my membership lapse because I moved from Beverly Hills to the South Bay and wasn’t able to make it to the West Side for rides. I recently rejoined last November because I felt that I needed to reconnect with my west side roots. 

Please share a cycling story with LG…

My goal, when I started the FDR - Friendly Donut Ride, was to create an open, friendly, and fun ride that also needed to be challenging and have adventure. We started with 10 cyclists on the first FDR, and now the group has grown to almost 2200 members on Strava and over 2600 members on IG & Facebook. It has been going on now for over 8 years. Time does fly!

We all have stories about how tough the sport can be for new and seasoned riders.  Group rides, pace lines, and long-distance rides can all be intimidating, especially if you don’t know anyone or are new to the area. The FDR leaders work hard to make sure that the riders feel welcome, comfortable, and confident.  I love seeing new riders blossom into hardened cyclists, flourishing in the sport.

I am so thankful to the cycling community for embracing me and supporting this crazy journey. The FDR is a way for me to help pay that forward for cyclists and the local cycling community.  Knowing how many individuals were able to achieve their cycling goals on the FDR, makes me extremely happy and proud. One of my personal goals was to cycle the ‘Going to the Sun’ road in Glacier National Park, MT. Renee wrote about this a few months ago. It was EPIC! The Next trip is at the end of April, and I am planning on cycling in Yellowstone before the roads open to cars. 

Joann generously offered to share her personal story…  

I was married and have two great kids who go to school locally.  I live and work in the South Bay. I am a trained architect, I graduated from Pratt Institute, School of Architecture. I worked for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Gensler, and Johnson Fain. Currently, I specialize in providing windows and doors for large, residential luxury homes.  

I appreciate you taking the time to read my story. I’d like to do a ride with LaGrange in the near future. I have had some issues and am slowly getting back on the bike. One of my favorite Sunday spots for breakfast is Gjusta, in Venice. I love their Croque Madame. It’s huge in calories, so if someone wants to split that with me, hit me up, and let’s go!

Connect with Joann, ride with her, and with FDR: Joann on LinkedIn, Joann on Strava, FDR on Strava, FDR on FB.

 

New Members

Please say hello to our new members who joined in December 2023 (you can find them in our Member Directory): Brent S., Charles B., Chris W., Daniel S., David M., Edison H., and Joshua G.

Welcome everyone, La Grange is proud to have you with us!

IN THE NEWS

New BMX Pump Track in Inglewood

 

September 2023 was the official opening of the Inglewood Pumptrack that is located in Edward Vincent Jr. Park. The park is 55 acres and has been a central hub for the community and surrounding cities with playgrounds, picnic areas, a pool, as well as a place to go for sports facilities. Now, they add one more to the list of athletic facility offerings. The pump track area is located between the skatepark and tennis courts. There are two tracks, a smaller Woodlands track, and a World Championship track. Read more here.

 

Healthy Streets LA

 

Big news for the coming March election, as the Los Angeles Times has joined a broad range of community groups to endorse the Healthy Streets LA initiative. Frustrated by the lack of political will and bureaucracy, street safety advocates collected enough signatures to put Healthy Streets LA, or Measure HLA, on the March ballot. The initiative would force the city to carry out the improvements in the Mobility Plan. Any time city departments repave at least one-eighth of a mile of the street, they would have to add the improvements outlined in the plan, whether bike lanes, bus lanes, pedestrian enhancements, or fixes to ease vehicle traffic. Check out bikinginla.com for more details.

 

Cycling in The World

 

As told by Bicycling.com: How to Watch All the Biggest Pro Cycling Races of 2024. Here’s a look at the Pro road races we can’t wait to watch in 2024—plus, where to watch all the action!

 

UCI Welcomes MyWhoosh

 
 

UCI welcomes MyWhoosh as the main virtual cycling partner while the UAE gears up to host various world championship events. Read more here.

Sponsored Content - TRIFIT LA

 
 

Enjoy the 2024 LG New Years promotion: La Grange members receive a $10/monthly discount.

Join today for $99 and find out why TRIFIT was voted Santa Monica’s MOST LOVED GYM, with the city contest tallying a record 60,000 votes. $0 amenities fee, $0 initiation dues. The 29,000 Square Foot IndoorFacility features:

  • Indoor 3-Lane, 25-Yard Lap Pool

  • Squash Courts, Steam & Sauna

  • Sports Performance & Private Training

  • Fully Equipped Weight & Cardio

  • Towel Service

  • Locker Room Amenities

  • Nutrition Counseling

  • More…

    Visit TRIFIT LA’s website to learn more.

SOS - Support Our Sponsors

 
 
 

Rudy Project

In the market for performance sunglasses, helmets or goggles? Whether skiing, cycling or looking for prescription solutions of the highest technical level, Rudy Project has a great selection.

La Grange members receive 35% Off MSRP on all regularly priced merchandise. Click on the Rudy Project VIP login link and use your LG Member credentials.

You may also wish to sign up for Rudy Project notifications to receive additional savings throughout the year.

CAFFE LUXXE

It all began in 2006 by co-founders Mark Wain and Gary Chau who are best friends since school, with a richly drawn espresso enjoyed one fine Italian morning while on holiday.

From first sip, they began dreaming of traveling the world to source inspiration for our own neighborhood cafes. 

Caffe Luxxe has grown from their first location (located at 925 Montana Avenue in Santa Monica) to now serving 6 locations in LA, and 8 in total. Find a location near you.

 

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