The 2005 ISCorp L'Abitibi Cycling Team

• Wisconsin Is Well Represented In The 37th Edition Of The Tour de l’Abitibi!, 8/3/05
• Second Installement from Jared about L'Abititi, 7/27/05
• Tour L’Abititi: Nova Junior Checks In from Canada, 7/25/05
• Team Announcement, 7/13/05

For Immediate Release

By Lowell Kellogg

July 13, 2004

Nova Cycle Sport, Inc. is proud to present the ISCorp Junior Cycling Team that will compete in 2005 Le Tour de l’Abitibi in Val-d’Or, Quebec, Canada. The Tour de l’Abitibi is a weeklong international stage race for 17 and 18 year old junior men. The Tour de l’Abitibi is the only international stage race held in North America that is part of the 13 race UCI Junior World Cup series. This year’s Tour de l’Abitibi will be the 37th edition of this race that invites teams from the United States, Canada,
Europe, and National Teams from all over the World.

Pictured left to right is:

Aaron Brandt (18) Pleasant Prairie, WI

Jared Faciszewski (18) Marshfield, WI

Matt Brandt (17) Pleasant Prairie, WI

Frederik Jacobsen (18) Marshfield, WI

Jason Carr (18) Wauwatosa, WI

Kip Spaude (18) Watertown, WI

Support staff not pictured:

Lowell Kellogg, Director, Menomonee Falls, WI

Joe Cieszynski, Assistant Director, Wauwatosa, WI

Casey McCauley, Mechanic, Marshfield, WI

Nova Cycle Sport, Inc. is a Wisconsin-based cycling club dedicated to the development and support of young cyclists. This year’s ISCorp l’Abitibi team not only consists of all ISCorp riders but also is truly Wisconsin’s team having all its riders and support staff coming from Wisconsin.

The 2005 Le Tour de l’Abitibi begins July 18 and continues with eight consecutive stages that come to an end July 24. Please visit the official 2005 Le Tour de l’Abitibi website at: www.tourabitibi.qc.ca and check on the daily race results available at: www.cyclingnews.com.

Many thanks to our sponsors; ISCorp (Integrated Systems Corporation), Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, and the support of Mike Weber, Larry Kilduff, and the members of Nova Cycle Sport, Inc.

Lowell Kellogg, Coach

ISCorp Junior Cycling Team

Photo credit: Becky Brandt, sister of Aaron and Matt Brandt

Tour L’Abititi: Nova Junior Checks In from Canada

July 25, 2004

Lowell Kellogg, WCA’s fearless leader of the IS Corp Junior squad has taken on Canada’s elite race for junior men, the Tour L’Abititi. Lowell himself did very well in this race back in the day. Today, we can share an update on the team’s experience compliments of Jared Faciszewski. After you’ve enjoyed reading about peloton life from a junior’s perspective, you might want to send the team some band-aids. For all the hard riding his juniors have faced, it’s obvious that Lowell has done a fine job of instilling in his riders the need for a positive attitude. Congratulations to the riders and especially to Lowell.

By Jared Faciszewski

The race started on Monday with a seven lap 15k prologue. There was a neutral lap in which I was taken out by a crazy Colombian. This is definitely the theme for the week. Kip skidded a little and bit it but jumped right up off a set of tacoed Hed alps. Carbon is definitely not for this year. Matt rode well and ended up 8th. The next day was the Team TT. We all rode well and ended 12th. Matt had a slight mechanical on the line, and a little bit of motorpacing and we were all together. We will see if that fine ever makes it onto Lowell's credit card. Later that afternoon was a 55k crit on the finishing circuit. There were some crazy but not serious crashes. I only unclipped twice. Matt was caught with a half lap to go in a valiant breakaway. The next day was the anniversary of the death of my Trek 5900 last year. I safely passed the 1k mark this year. It was a fairly crash- happy day totaling around 120 kilometers of riding. I went down hard with 500m to go at the bottom of a 60-70kph hill. Euro's should really ride crits more. TT was up next in the morning. This TT is like no other. All the riders must give their TT bikes to the race organization the night before to be taken down into an old mine that is now a museum. Riders are then taken down into the mine and ride out on their way to the 14k TT. We all rode very well with Matt the best in 25th place. I was 15 seconds down to Matt with Kip and the classic Rev-X's hot on my tail. Later in the day was an 85k road race. It was fast. You'll never guess what happened though. I crashed 50k in. Nothing like digging your bike, minus a front wheel, out of a pile of 20 bikes. Casey McCauley, our mechanic has been slaving his butt off fixing mainly my bike, rebuilding wheels and such. Casey slaps a new front on, and we are off. A little motorpoacing/wrenching while holding onto the car at 50mph, and we are back in the pack. Kip gives a little loving to a semi on the side of the road with his handlebar and briefly touches down. Finally, we are all together and safe for the rest of the race. Matt rode to 16th. Today was a 120kilometer road race. Pouring rain that stopped at the finish kept people more on their toes today. There were few crashes but tons of bloodshot eyes from 60kph raindrops. No results are up yet, but Matt was in the top 20 again. I was second in the Mayors sprint today for the 2nd time. We finally put a man into the winning break with Kip’s acceleration at a King of the Mountains sprint. Truth be told they are pretty much King of the Rise sprints. I learned today that my computer is exactly 200 meters off after 49.5 kilometers. Coincidentally that is exactly the distance I was caught before an intermediate sprint after taking a 2km flyer. Junior gears are always fun, and this race has seen a lot of 150 rpm plus cadences in the sprint. I'll try to send an update after our remaining 200k have been covered.

Jared

Second Installement from Jared about L'Abititi

July 27, 2004

Saturday and Sunday, the last 2 days of the race, we were blessed with sunny skies and few crashes. Saturday was a 100k road stage. Our plans for the 100$ mayors sprint were foiled once again. Kip pulls off an amazing chase after flatting for the second time in 2 days. Stop and go driving in the caravan makes it hard for riders with troubles to catch on, and also resulted in some sweet tire burn marks in Lowell's Accord. Impressive handling skills by Kip and we have yet to have a crash 20k into the stage. A fairly quiet day for all of us with a little water bottle trading with Japan and we are ready to go for our last day. Sunday is a 70k crit on the finishing circuits. High winds throughout the whole course slowed the peleton making the race fairly managable. 32 laps on that circuit is insane, but it actually went quickly. Matt made a couple moves to get off the front all doomed. With nothing for my legs to live for other than 20 hours in the car, I made a last ditch effort to get off the front with 2.5 laps to go. A half lap later we hit the uphill headwind. I am sure you can guess what happened next. Around 10 laps to go a broken chain placed Frederik on one of our 2 spare Colnagos. Amazingly, that was the first use of a spare bike this week. It worked perfect and Fred finished the race. I laughed for 2 straight laps when I saw him riding the 53cm frame. Fred normally rides a 58 so you can understand the humor. The comedy of the situation was one of the few things that translated into 8 different languages. Funny thing was, there would be no laughing if one of them had a mechanical as we were one of a very few teams lucky enough to have spare bikes. Anyhow the race ended without further incident. A break succeeded with a few time gaps in the field as well. Matt was our best placed rider in 18th. The awards filled the rest of the evening. I can always go for a night of French. Here was the final overall.

Matt Brandt - 21
Jared Faciszewski - 28
Jason Carr - 36
Kip Spaude - 38
Aaron Brandt - 54
Frederik Jacobsen - 71

We were 9th out of 26 participating teams. The only US teams to beat us were the National team and Hottubes. Both are large nationally based programs. Kip's breakaway that netted himself 2 points resulted in a 42nd place in the points competition. Everyone enjoyed Canada and Val d'Or because, well how could you not. A huge thanks for Lowell, Casey and Joe for supporting us throughout all of l'Abitibi. Huge thanks to everyone Involved through IS Corp, especially Mike Weber and Larry Kilduff. Thank you to everyone that helped us in any way. The IS Corp Junior Cycling Team thanks you.

Jared

Wisconsin Is Well Represented In The 37th Edition Of The Tour de l’Abitibi!

By Lowell Kellogg

August 3, 2004

In this year’s Tour de l’Abitibi there were ten Wisconsin riders on four teams. The ISCorp Junior Cycling Team consisted of all Wisconsin riders and support staff. The Borah-Midwest Development team had two Wisconsin riders. The Minnesota Junior Cycling Team and the US National Team each had one Wisconsin rider. The Wisconsin riders with their respective teams and overall general classification placing are as follows:

142. Ulric DeYoung (18) Wauwatosa, WI US National 11th overall GC
171. Aaron Brandt (18) Pleasant Prairie, WI ISCorp 54th overall GC
172. Matt Brandt (17) Pleasant Prairie, WI ISCorp 21st overall GC
173. Jason Carr (18) Wauwatosa, WI ISCorp 36th overall GC
174. Jared Faciszewski (18) Marshfield, WI ISCorp 28th overall GC
175. Frederik Jacobsen (18) Marshfield, WI ISCorp 71st overall GC
176. Kip Spaude (18) Watertown, WI ISCorp 38th overall GC
204. Ross White (18) Independence, WI Borah-Midwest 112th overall GC
205. Ben Wizner (18) Onalaska, WI Borah-Midwest 83rd overall GC
216. Bjorn Selander (17) Hudson, WI Minnesota 22nd overall GC

The ISCorp Junior Cycling Team finished 9th overall in the team competition. There were 27 teams consisting of 6 riders each from all over the world. All 6 ISCorp riders and all 6 Borah-Midwest riders completed the eight stage tour. There were 172 starters in this year’s tour with only 122 finishers.

The Tour de l'Abitibi is a stage race for riders 17-18 years of age. The Tour de l'Abitibi is race 6 of 11 Junior World Cup events and the only Junior World Cup event held in North America. The Tour de l'Abitibi is sanctioned by the UCI and draws national, regional, and privately sponsored teams from all over the world. The race is based on the individual rider's time. This year’s tour consisted of four point to point road races, two criteriums, one individual time trial, and one team time trial. ISCorp finished 11th in the team time trial that help secure our top ten placing overall.

2005 Tour de l'Abitibi General Team Classification
1 Canada (Canadian National Team)
2 Etats-Unis (US National Team)
3 Suede (Sweden National Team)
4 Hot Tubes Cycling Team (US)
5 France (France National Team)
6 Belgique-VC Ardennes (Belgium)
7 Quebec (QC)
8 Colombie-Britannique (CA)
9 ISCorp Junior Cycling Team (US)
10 Minnesota Junior Cycling Team (US)
11 Coast to Coast (CA)
12 Ontario (CA)
13 Atlantic Cycling Centre (CA)
14 Colombie (Columbia)
15 America’s Cycling (US)
16 Elicycle Sports-Experts-Louis Garneau (CA)
17 Japon (Japan National Team)
18 Alberta (CA)
19 Abitibi (QC)
20 Major Motion (US)
21 Dynamiks de Contrecoeur Gyva Boutique de bureau (CA)
22 South Eastern Regional Team (US)
23 Borah-Midwest Regional Team (US)
24 Texas Regional Team (US)
25 Espoirs de Laval (CA)
26 Arizona Select Team (US)

Team classification is based on the top three finishers of each team for each stage. To be in the team classification a team must have at least three finishers. Please visit the official tour website for further information and complete results at www.tourabitibi.qc.ca. Many thanks to Mike Weber (ISCorp), Larry Kilduff, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Nova Cycle Sport, and everyone in Wisconsin for your support of young athletes.

Lowell Kellogg, Coach
ISCorp Junior Cycling Team