LG Members (and our Friends) Open Their Hearts This Thanksgiving

La Grange celebrated our 17th Annual Thanksgiving Day Ride in outstanding fashion! In conjunction with Southbay’s Yellow Vase ride, and courtesy  of the enormous generosity of our membership, La Grange raised an amazing $2,384 for Meals on Wheels of West LA. WOW!!! This will go a long way in providing meals for the elderly, disabled and veterans. A great time was had for a very good cause. Thank you, everyone, for making this year’s event so successful. A special thanks to Susan Gans, Sochin Lee and Catalina Coffee Company for helping make this day so special.

[Ed: Thank you to Jaycee Cary for organizing such a successful ride and event for a great cause]

Jeff Rothschild on Carbohydrate Periodization

TriFit LA's Mad Genius Jeff Rothschild is back at it, with another article that marries cutting-edge scientific research with practical advice to make you fitter and faster. Don't let the target audience - triath-a-letes - fool you, as the advice in Jeff's article is directly applicable to cyclists who ride their bike in dry kits rather than wet speedos. Check it out here on the Team USA website!

Race Report

CBR Upgrade Race - November 12

by Kate Wymbs

With women's field added to the race program, the La Grange women showed up in force. The women's 4/5 field, which had 23 women total, more than half (12 La Grange) started 30 seconds after the women's 2/3 field, which had 5 racers total, 4 La Grange and 1 Big Orange. The LG 2/3's featured category 3's: newly upgraded Tracy Paaso and my former MIT-cycling teammate, Katy Olesnavage and category 2's: new recruit Renee Engelhardt and myself. 

Since there weren't enough entries in category 2's for Renee and me to vie for upgrade points, we devoted our team tactics to putting Tracy and Katy on the podium for upgrade points. All we had to do was send them up the road and wear out Big Orange. The plan: attack / counter attack solo, force Big Orange to chase and get tired, then attack / counter attack in pairs for a breakaway. 

Well, you know what they say about best laid plans. We began the race with this strategy but quickly ran into a snag: Big Orange wouldn't chase. I made the first attack alone, no one followed so I returned to the field. Then Tracy attacked. Again, no one chased. Tracy, however, remained up the road, and we forced Big Orange to the front to try to mount any sort of chase. Five minutes in to a thirty minute crit? Sounds like a great time to make the decisive move of the race. I attacked with Katy on my wheel and we made a clean break. I pulled Katy up to Tracy and we team time trialed for a lap while Renee forced Big Orange to pull. After the lead group had a decent gap, Renee decided to attack and dropped Big Orange. 

In the second lap of the break away, I noticed Renee trailing a quarter of a lap back. I told Tracy and Katy to keep going, and fell back to Renee. We time trialed together for the remainder of the race, never letting up and never catching our Cat 3 teammates up the road. I asked Renee if she wanted to practice a lead out with me and she agreed, excitedly. I lead out for the last lap, ramping up speed up the hill with Renee tight on my wheel, with 100m to go I died and she launched securing her spot in third place. La Grange swept the podium: 1 - Katy, 2 - Tracy, 3 - Renee! Cat 3 upgrade points secured and team tactics for the win! Oh man. It's going to be a good season. Bikes!