Endurance Athlete Prodigy

While at Interbike this year I met an up and coming world champion, Danielle Musto. How do I know she's an up and coming world champion? Well, for starters she's only been racing bikes for 5 years and she's earned many victories against some of the best female endurance racers in North America. Heck, she even placed 3rd at the longest cyclocross race in the US (IronCross IV, 60+miles and 6,000 vert feet www.yellowbreechesracing.org/ironcross) on a mountain bike! Somebody give this chick a cross bike!

Anyway, Danielle has been using eLoad(TM) www.eload.net and EMEND(TM) since Interbike and has really been liking it (was there any doubt!). She most recently rode a Century ride/race in Death Valley to help raise money for the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation http://www.ride.jdrf.org/ where she was the first female to finish and 5th overall (out of 350). BTW, eLoad(TM) is an awesome drink for athletes with diabetes. Look it up at www.HeatDoc.blogspot.com

Danielle is also up for grabs. Now what I mean by that is she's looking for sponsors, so forget about the marraige proposals because she's already got a man. If you're looking for someone to sponsor or just want someone to inspire you, check out her blog at www.daniellemusto.blogspot.com

If you're wanting to sponsor her for nutritional products, forget about it. SHE'S TAKEN!!!!

Oh, and one last thing... Luna Chix, if you're listening, you're best bet is to sign Danielle now, but you'll have to offer her eLoad(TM) and EMEND(TM).

Cheers!

Rol Wheels

I've been meaning to mention this since Interbike but things have been a bit busy. I picked up a pair of wheels at Interbike from my buddy Sean Lambert at Rol Wheels www.rolwheels.com . I got the Race SL's with Sapim CX spokes. The set weighs in at about 1555grams. Just putting these on my bike dropped the overall weight by almost 3/4 of a pound! Unfortunatly, I've gained more weight than that lately just from lack of training. Anyway, putting those wheels on not only trimmed the weight on my fine handmade Italian carbon steed, but they gave it a whole new feeling! They are very stiff and strong, which is the reason I picked this particular set. I feel that my strong suit is sprinting (when I've been training of course) and that's what these baby's are really good at! Now of course since they are stiff they are also confidence inspiring in corners, again, great for crit racing. Did I mention how good they are in the sprint?! Love 'em! Thanks Sean! I can't wait to get a set of your deeper rim carbon wheels!

BK's Remedy

My new pal Jesse (a.k.a. Bitch-Kittie) and Bob Roll's business partner put up a post on her blog www.bitch-kittie.blogspot.com about a new recipe for Eload(TM). Apparently she had a mighty mean hangover, class IV I believe which she concocted a yummy sounding drink, complete with Eload in it to cure. Well, is it any surprise that it worked wonders? Dehydration and electrolyte imbalance are the primary reasons you get hangovers. As we fix all of this with the competitive athlete, so do we with the competitive drinker!

Heat Doc Blog

Announcing one of the newest blogs on the blog. Visit Heat Doc which is Dr. Stoddard's new blog. It will have great information on not only questions posed about sport nutrition and other related issues, but also about his products which are specifically designed for the heat (eLoad(TM), EMEND(TM), and Zone Caps(TM)) Check out the link to Heat Doctor on the right hand side of the page. The url is www.heatdoc.blogspot.com Cheers!

Already Missing Thurs. Crit Series

I was running through some photos from this past season and I came across this personal favorite. This is my 5 year old son Niko and his "girlfriend" who is appropriatly dressed in National Champ attire (she's Chann McRae's daughter, Henna). I think that is Chann behind them standing sideways.

Anyway, Henna was kicking my son's butt all around the course the whole season. I wonder if it has anything to do with having her parent's "pro" genes? It could also be that Chann said that he and Henna ran to school every day, about 900 meters. Future pro in training I guess! Jen, Henna's mom is also a pro racer and has been kicking ass all over the country herself including taking first at this year's Athen's Twilight Criterium. Jen is formerly of Team Conex Train but now has merged with Team HealthCoach/TravelGirl. Good luck to her and the other lady's in 2007!

Product Review

We now have our products eLoad(TM), EMEND(TM) and Zone Caps(TM) listed on two popular product review sites, Road Bike Review and MTB Review.

I'd like to take this opportunity to solicit help in submitting reviews on our products...please? Those of you who have used eLoad(TM), EMEND(TM) and/or Zone Caps(TM) are already familiar with our product's amazing performance, especially in the heat. Those who don't, I hope that you get a better understanding of what our products can offer you by reading the reviews that are submitted.

The links can be found on the pane to the right under the "Links" section.
Road Bike Review
MTB Review

Thanks!

Texas State Road Race Championship

Well it's finally come to pass. The Texas State Road Race Championship which was originally scheduled for June 25th took place on Sunday, October 15th. Thanks to Andy Hollinger and The Racing Post it was definitely a course worthy of weeding out the champions of Texas.

Just for your information, the winner of the Pro 1,2 race was Robbie Robinette from Team Hotel San Jose who won after breaking his rear derailluer cable and having to tie it to his head tube cable stop while rolling in the peleton. He did have to stop for a moment to tweak it so it would be stuck in the 12 tooth cog instead of the 11! Holy Shinto! What a way to win the state championship!

The temperature may have been more favorable for the attendees in October, but don't you know that after months of no rain it just had come down on race day! It wasn't a hard rain, it was the kind that drifts on the wind and gets under umbrellas, tents and probably even skirts (I wasn't looking). Temperatures in June for the original race date would have been more like 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but this day it was a cool 72 or so. This was not the best weather to promote Eload(TM) Heat Endurance Formula which was supplied for the neutral feed. However, the sudden change in temperatures did throw a lot of people's bodies off and many were becoming dehydrated. One racer in particular that I spoke with said that by the time he realized he needed fluid and fueling he started to take it all in too fast and got sick (he still managed to finish 2nd).

It's a funny thing about weather and hydration. If you've been training in the heat you become used to taking in certain amounts of fluid at a certain rate. When you get a sudden drop in temperature your mind takes over and one thinks, oh, I don't need as much fluid. Certainly you're not sweating out as much, but also in rainy or even dry cool weather it's hard to judge. In addition, your body doesn't feel the need to hydrate until it's too late.

One thing no one ever thinks about is fluid lost through aspiration (breathing). Especially when the air is dry, you lose fluid in this manner more than you think. One of the most overlooked sports as far as hydration goes is scuba diving. Breathing in that super dry air dehydrates you fast in conjunction with what you're losing through your skin. Of course, how would you know you're sweating if you're in the water?

Anyway, I met a lot of wonderful people at the feed zone (it was my first time giving hand-ups in a bicycle race). Some were volunteers from the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce and boy, these people were prepared for anything! They had the best setup of anyone else there. They even grilled up some locally made sausage and shared it with us! Yum! The only problems in the feed zone were from missed hand-ups for either of 2 reasons. One, the wet bottles (remember it was raining), or two, the cyclists coming through the feed zone WAY too fast. Again, at least it wasn't 100 degrees or we'd have been seeing some people really hurting. Of course, that was my original point to have Eload(TM) at that race. There's no better proof of a product's capability then when it's used in the harshest conditions. If it can handle being used in the medical tents of the Hotter'n Hell Hundred in August, then any other venue is a piece of cake! Cheers!

Austin AMLI Downtown Criterium

You gotta love Austin and those who live in it and foster the need to race road bikes down city streets at night! Friday October 6th was just such a night. Many came out to play and spectate at 2nd Street and Lavaca.

The evening started out a little bumpy thanks to the City of Austin and errors with permitting. Things got started at about 7:30pm instead of 5:30. Barry Lee (race promoter who rides for Team Hotel San Jose) was still able to pull off an incredible race none the less.

Thanks to Barry Lee I was able to set up my Eload(TM) booth at the race and sample out a truly marvelous hydration mix. It was a warm, humid evening which took it's toll on a few.

I had the pleasure of being introduced to the new women's pro cycling team HealthCoach/Travelgirl by the team director Tim Pletcher who is also founder of ConexTrain. The teams of TravelGirl and ConexTrain recently merged bringing some amazing talent to the squad including Jen McRae from Austin. AG Cycling which is the new managing body of this recently announced team (and there will be more to come I'm told) has given the roll of executive director to Tim Pletcher and will also have Dave Wenger as director sportif. And what an exciting way to launch a new era in women's pro cycling with Jen McRae taking first place in the women's pro 1/ 2 and Dave Wenger coming in 2nd in the men's pro 1/ 2!

Eload Girl at Interbike 2006 

Interbike 2006

Wow! What a way to start off a new partnership with a national distributor (Bike Mine)! For those who don't know what Interbike is, let me explain. Interbike is like the Detroit Auto Show but for the bicycle industry. The first two days consist of the Outdoor Demo at Bootleg Canyon which is about 40 minutes out of Las Vegas and 11 miles short of Hoover Dam (I wouldn't have minded checking that out while I was there). Lots of in the field product testing of everything from mountain and road bikes to sport drinks and portable solar powered air conditioned medical tents. Wednesday through Friday are indoors at the Sands Expo Center behind the Venetian Hotel. This is where the manufacturers pull out all the stops to show the bling bling.

This year's event was a stunning success in my opinion for Medion Corporation (Eload, EMEND and Zone Caps) as well as our new distributor Bike Mine and New Sun Productions (Scott Gibson) whom we shared space with at the Outdoor Demo.

Monday's Outdoor Demo started off a little rough with my products being lost by the handling company. You can imagine my surprise when I got to my booth space only to it missing all the product and coolers I had shipped. While those were being sought out by the company that lost them, I started work none the less. I had seen that there was a fire department mobile command station set up for all the fire and medic personnel which were there to support the event. Wasting no time I made contact with them, gave them a bunch of Eload samples and briefed them on it. I mentioned that Eload was also used in the medical tents at the Hotter'n Hell Hundred this past August as well. They checked it out, tried it, and loved it! The medics there were sending me people to get hydration! Man, you can't buy advertising like that! At one point the medics brought us a patient who was down from Alaska. He was complaining of dizziness and upset stomach in the 95 degree heat. Lucky for us we had the best of both worlds to help. Eload was used for replenishing his electrolytes without upsetting his stomach and the solar powered, air conditioned, portable tent made by New Sun Productions got him out of the hot weather. Our tag team of relief was a smashing success for our friend from the north! Needless to say, I'm sure he'll be a user of Eload for the rest of his life!

The indoor demo went just as well. I believe we touched a lot of lives during those 3 days. I met many endurance athletes, fire fighters, medics, military personnel and others who could all relate to having had symptoms of heat related illnesses including cramping, bonking (loss of energy), upset stomach, heat headaches and dizziness at one time or another. I'll bet you have too, right? I've even been told by several of the fire fighters that on the job heart attacks happening to otherwise healthy brethren have been directly associated to dehydration and lack of electrolytes during the stress of fighting fires. Why does this happen to highly skilled and healthy people? Because of improper hydration tecniques and inferior oral hydration products to prevent these things from happening. Eload was medically designed to treat and prevent the symptoms of heat related illnesses. www.eload.net

Here's a big Hi to friends out at Interbike this year. Greg Kreider from Red Rose Imports www.redroseimports.com sporting the newest in hand made Italian racing machines. Tim Jackson from Masi Bikes www.masibikes.com and www.masiguy.blogspot.com who is the brand manager and a real hard worker (not to mention co-sponsor for the men's elite road racing team Abercrombie & Fitch). I don't think you'd see many brand managers loading bikes in trucks after working two days in the desert heat. Tim was, but then again maybe he could because I loaded him up with Eload(I know, shameless plug)! And then there's Sean Lambert from Rol Wheels www.rolwheels.com. We're talking smooth, high end super light and gorgeous wheels here! I'll be sporting a brand new pair on my Carrera Estremo this week! Last but not least, one of my best friends, Marcin Sochacki, owner and product designer of Rocket Science Sports www.rocketsciencesports.com. This guy drove to Las Vegas for this show all the way from Austin, Texas. Lookout triathlon industry, you've met the next up and coming leader in the industry!

I'm sure there will be more to come as many contacts I've made will be following up in the next few weeks so stay tuned! Oh, and one last thing. I wanted to give a big thank you to Scott Gibson from New Sun Productions and Wingnut Gear for an awesome Outdoor Demo. Thanks also to Eddie Odea who came out to play with Scott for the event. Cheers and good luck guys!
http://www.wingnutgear.com/event.cfm?id=19

Until next time, cheers!