Stinger Buzz

Nicolas Roche out in front

Young Irish-Franco Ag2r rider Nicolas Roche (and son of the legendary Stephen Roche) is having a great Tour so far. He finished 7th in yesterday’s stage and sits in 13th in the overall GC standings. Somehow, after each stage in the Tour, Roche also finds the time to write a diary of the day’s events for his local paper, the Irish Independent. In addition to being a world-class rider, Roche turns out to be a talented writer, providing a fascinating and often humorous look at life in the peloton.

A few days ago on Stage 6, Roche wrote this:

“Yesterday, I was eating some of the energy sweets the team use when Lance Armstrong came up alongside me for a chat. We talked for a few minutes as we rolled along and ate and he asked me how I liked the sweets. I told him they weren’t great, but were a change from the muesli bars we usually get. Today, midway through the stage, I got a tap on the back. I turned around and it was Lance with a handful of Honey Stinger organic energy sweets. “Here you go Nick, try these. They’re the best around. Let me know what you think,” he said.

Even in full flight, during a stage of the Tour, Lance is a good businessman. He recently bought into the Colorado-based company that makes the Honey Stinger sweets, energy bars and gels and who better to have as a mobile sales rep in the middle of the peloton? He was right, by the way, they were really nice.”

It’s pretty amazing that Lance is rolling around the peloton handing out Stinger chews to other riders. You can’t ask for a much better brand ambassador. Thanks boss!

Check out the latest from Bicycling Mag – talking about the new big man on campus – he’s almost earned his own cubicle here at HQ.

Team Honey Stinger/Trek showed up in force for the 2nd annual Fat Tire 40 race in Crested Butte on Saturday, the fourth stop of the Mountain States Cup race series. Featuring 40 miles of riding on some of the Butte’s best singletrack, including over 8,000 feet of tough climbing and some pretty technical descents, the race put riders and their gear to the test. Our team brought home some well-earned hardware, as well as plenty of bumps, bruises and big smiles.

Nate Bird, following up on his 7th place finish at the Bailey Hundo last week, had a terrific race and landed on his first pro podium in second place behind local Travis Scheefer. Kelley Cullen finished in third in the pro women’s race, hanging close behind winner Gretchen Reeves and runner-up Jenny Smith for the whole race. Peter Kalmes also finished in second place and Rose Alford finished in fourth place in their respective Cat 1 age groups. Team riders Ryan Dorsey, Ben Portilla, Len Zanni, Bryce Gordon, Michael Hayes, Sari Anderson and Tammy Jacques all finished the race as well – some looking a little more cooked than others, but all happy to have completed it.

Here are some some photos from the day, mostly taken at a creek crossing at the 20-mile mark.

Nate Bird crushing it across the creek en route to a 2nd place finish

Kelley Cullen cruising to 3rd place

Ben Portilla's Specialized S-Works shoes with boa are dialed in

The team’s Specialized S-Works shoes with boa technology were perfect for the wet, technical course, allowing riders like Ben Portilla to micro adjust the fit throughout the race.

Sari Anderson racing just 3 months after giving birth

Sari gave her prototype women’s specific Osprey Verve 4 hydration pack rave reviews.

Len Zanni

Lenny learned you might need more than one (or 2 or 3) extra tubes for a 40-mile mtb race. Nonetheless, he finished the race by running down most of Mt. Crested Butte

Video from a ride this past weekend on the trails and roads near Aspen and Snowmass, CO with a few of our team riders! Plenty of Honey Stinger products, Trek mountain bikes, Osprey packs, Smartwool socks, BOA enabled mtb shoes!

Scott McCalmon charges at Teva

So many races, so little time.

Two weekends ago (sorry for tardiness), Team Honey Stinger/Trek adopted a ‘divide and conquer’ approach with riders heading to both the MSC Chili Challenge in Angel Fire, NM and the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, CO.

The Teva Mountain Games, which has grown to be the largest adventure sports festival in the country with over 40,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes, featured a XC course with over 1,000 feet of climbing each lap. A huge field of pro and expert riders showed up including big guns like JHK, Jay Henry, Georgia Gould, Heather Irminger and Katie Compton. The weather was beautiful, if a little hot, and the race featured a new (built the week before?) singletrack on Vail Mtn called Hank’s Hideaway that started soft and loamy but soon turned to a dusty, brake-bumped dust pit.

JHK and Georgia had convincing wins in the pro field, both winning by almost three-minute margins. Stinger rider Scott McCalmon finished in a strong 17th place in the Pro category and Max Taam, in his first MTB race of the year, finished in 23rd.

In the expert field, Honey Stinger rider Peter Kalmes raced to a second place finish in a tough field of almost 70 dudes. Rob Russell from Honey Stinger also finished on the podium with a third place in the Singlespeed category. Check out a full report and great photos from the Mountain Flyer magazine.

Angel Fire treated riders well as pro riders Ryan Dorsey, Colin Osborn and Len Zanni placed 7th, 10th, and 12th respectively. It’s a long haul down to Angel Fire from anywhere but the cross country course is one of the best around as it really rewards the all-arounder as none of the climbs are too steep, there’s technical climbing and descending and the super fast downhillers can generally make up some time. Next Mountain States Cup stop is Snowmass in July.