The Lifestyle: New Toys

Tuesday was the annual Kelly Benefits/Lateral Stress Velo "Big" team meeting. It's the kick-off meeting for the road season and we had lots of members in attendance from 1st time racers to an member of our elite team. Speaking of the elite team, 2 members of last year's team have moved onto the professional ranks. Our team has now graduated something like 5 riders to the pro ranks in the last 3 years! Very cool.

Usually, John Kelly, President of our title sponsor and avid cyclist, comes out to mingle and give a short speech. This year he was out of the country but sent his well wishes for the upcoming season.

Another reason this meeting is a big deal is that we get our new kits for the year. I wasn't wild about the new design at first since I really liked the yellow and green look on last year's kit. But once I tried it on I was sold. Here what I'll be racing in this year:

And the side view:

I'm glad I got the matching socks this year. I think they round out the uniform nicely.

One of the reasons we get a new uniforms every year is that we want to make sure to give proper recognition to our generous sponsors - particularly in these hard economic times. Several of these companies have employees who are members of our team. They have taken heat and fought hard to secure the sponsorship that allows us to keep this club going. Here is a complete list of our sponsors for the 2009 season:

• Kelly Health Benefits (Title Sponsor) *
  
• Race Pace Bicycles *
  
• Express Scripts
• Berg Recycling
• Katzen Eye Group *
  
• Dentaquest
• Coventry Health Care
  
• Mt Borah Clothing *
• Defeet *
  
• Trek Bicycles *
  
• Cerasport *
  
• Shimano *
  
• Tifosi
• Giro *
  
• Powerbar *
  
• Gore Ride-on Cables!

An asterisk (*) indicated a product or service that either someone I know personally or I myself use and recommend. I would encourage youto check out the products and services from any of these companies. If you get a chance to mention our team that would be a fantastic way to show that their money is being well spent!

I'm really pleased with our sponsors and kit for this year and feeling ready to race tomorrow despite taking most of this week off the bike to make some repairs. Fortunately, the last part I need to get my bike going arrived in the mail today. Big thanks to Geo for EPing me this set of FSA Super Road Chainrings:

They will definitely add a snazzy touch and quality performance to the bike. One neat thing I noticed is that the big ring has been machined to reduce the rotating weight on the cranks. The contrast isn't great but you can make out what I'm talking about in this picture: