Reed Eye New Title Sponsor

We are pleased to announce that Reed Eye Associates has become the Title Sponsor of our team effective immediately. We have had a long association with Reed Eye are proud to represent them through our racing efforts. Please visit their website or stop by one of their offices to see the full complement of eye care and vision services they offer.

Tour de Cure

The entire team rode the 100 mile TdC on Sunday, enjoying the perfect weather and promoting a great cause. The eight man train was out front, setting the pace for much of the day. The occasional comfort stop and mechanical malfunction slowed our progress, but we crossed the line intact and in good spirits. Everyone pitched in with the pulling, but Nick was the man of the day, sometimes leading for miles at a time. It was a great morning spent with teammates, something which doesn't happen often enough. 

Special thanks to Will Trafton and the Dorschel Automotive Group for helping make the event possible. Will was out there crushing the 100 mile course, along with many of his colleagues from DAG. We are looking forward to next year and doing it all over again.

OK, so we're slackers...

It's been a while since we updated our page and a lot has happened. Last season finished with a bang. Nick Leonard won the Highlander Cycle Tour Time Trial with an incredible time of 21:05.34. There's not many times better than that in the event's history! Then Dave Marsh went on to dominate the Cat 4 GVCC awards, winning the B4 overall, B4 Road, and B4 primes - a nice tri-fecta. Dorschel/Reed Eye had a great cyclocross season as well with Mike Bohn, Steve Goebel, Jerry Dunn, and Geoff Lawrence showing the jersey with pride. I was fortunate to finish my season with a win in a snowy version of the Apple Farm's Turkey Cross. 2014 is off to a good start with Dorschel having some strong showings in the Giro's. I was able to win the overall series with some strong team support. It was great to see D/RE continually attacking off the front. And now, the next road season is upon us - Battenkill this weekend! See you on the road... -Geoff

BBC - GVCC Ultimate Club Championship - Aug. 11

Last Sunday brought a new race to fill in the void of local cycling events in late summer, the BBC-GVCC Ultimate Club Championship. A showdown of Buffalo Cycling vs. Rochester. Riding down with Steve G., we discussed some possible tactics - we had no idea how things would play out. Would the towns ride against each other, or would it be the more typical team tactics? I assumed that it would be the latter, with regional tactics only playing out later in the race - this proved incorrect. The course could be best described as "lumpy", with not much flat ground to be found. The hills were never too steep, but were stacked close enough together in some spots that a break should get established. The first couple laps were spent with the riders trying to get a feel for the course and their fellow racers. A couple tentative attacks went off, but came back without much struggle. Then some more serious attacks started getting thrown down, largely from the outnumbered Rochestarians. However, Buffalo was working as a team to chase down each attack. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to want to cooperate or counter, it appeared as though they wanted the group to stay together as much as possible and let their strength in numbers play out in a final sprint. Rochester racers (especially Bob Canino, Pete Pelychaty, Paul Mattison, Steve Goebel, and myself) realized the tactics being used and stayed aggressive, especially on the hills, to try and break up the group. Steve Goebel attacked hard at the bottom of one of the hills, and managed to split the group up. Unfortunately this hard effort also spit him off the back although he continued to race and finished not far behind the group. With half a lap to go, Buffalo finally woke up and started attacking - where had that been the previous 5 1/2 laps? Outnumbered and tiring from previous efforts, Rochester tried to cover and join as many efforts as possible. With a mile or so left, a Buffalo racer snuck off the front with what appeared to be the winning attack. He was kept in check through some hard work by Rochester riders, and I found myself in 3rd wheel as we hit the final climb to the finish line with 200m to go. I gave it everything I had on the final climb and managed to pass the lead rider with 20-30m to go to take the win! A great day for Dorschel and Rochester. And to top it off, a great fund raiser for Mike Coyle's family.

Wet and rainy but still winning!

It was a wet and rainy night at the Riga course so it was a smaller than usual group but most of the strong men were there!  Three laps on the 9+ mile course and it was relentless attacking from the start.  Dave was the first to go but was quickly absorbed however Nick immediately fired off a counter attack and that got the group flying!  Everyone was together going into the first prime up the hill.  Geoff lit it up and took the first prime with Madden (CNB) to follow.  Shortly after that there was an attack and Nick and Dave were close enough to latch on and then ignite the small group of five to get away.  The group of five consisted of two Dorschel/Reed Eye riders (Dave and Nick), two CNB riders (Hoag and Miner) and one North 40 rider (Mattison).  With the two largest teams represented and some serious hammering going on in the break the five guys continued to extend the gap and were ultimately gone for good.  Dave grabbed one point for 2nd on the second prime and Nick grabbed one point for 2nd on the third prime.  It was pretty clear that Miner (CNB) was the strongest sprinter so Dave and Nick felt the only way to win would be to attack and hope to get off the front of the break and that is exactly what they did.  Nick went first forcing Miner to chase for quite a ways, then immediately after Nick was brought back Dave followed forcing Hoag to chase.  Again as soon as Dave was back in the group Nick went again however this time the group was slower to chase and it was clear the damage was being done.  Once Nick was brought back Mattison (North 40) with a perfectly timed attack went for it and no one had the legs to chase except Dave.  Dave eventually grabbed Mattison's wheel and they exchanged pulls at max effort to stay away.  Dave was able to maneuver in behind Mattison forcing Mattison to lead out and with one last effort Dave launched past Mattison for the win!

Another great tactical showing by the Dorschel/Reed Eye team which resulted in the team's fourth win of the season! 

3 in a row!

It was another beautiful night for racing and the G-Tour was at the Mendon course.  The Mendon course is a good one because it has some rollers, some wind and enough turns and hills to allow a break to get out of sight making it easier to stick to the end!  On the 1st lap Nick went off the front to set the tone immediately, this was going to be a tough race.  He was eventually caught before the end of the first lap but it was a good way to get the race going.  Immediately after the end of the 1st lap Geoff rolled off the front with no immediate reaction from the group giving someone the opportunity to launch in to a bridge and get a break going and that's exactly what happened.  Frank from CNB was the first to make a move and Dave saw the opportunity and jumped too.  Doug from Park Ave also made the move and the break was on!  The four riders were working well together and extending the gap over the main group.  Bob from Pedallers bridged a  little later in lap 2 and a solid break of 5 was putting the hammer down.  The break of 5 guys continued to extend their gap over the main field throughout the next two laps however the pace was taking its toll on some of the guys and on lap 3 Bob and Doug were dropped.  Frank, Geoff and Dave continued to work together until Frank was lost on lap 4 and Geoff fell off on lap 5.  Dave was left to solo the last nine minutes of the race and crossed the line well ahead of the main group for his third G-Tour win in a row!

In the bunch sprint Jochen showed his sprinting chops and got in there for a 6th place!

Awesome showing by the whole Dorschel/Reed Eye team!

Bunch finish at Wheatland

Finally some nice spring weather for a Tuesday race and the Dorschel/Reed Eye team took advantage.  The group raced four laps with primes on laps 1, 2, and 3 and Dorschel was in the mix for all the points!  On lap one Nick was off the front however wasn't able to entice anyone to bridge to him and was caught before the two rollers on the finish road.  Points were up for grabs as we crossed the finish line for the first time so Dave gave it a go and was narrowly edged out for 1st but was able to pick up the 2nd place points for the prime.  As the 2nd lap continued guys continued to try and get off the front however pack welding was the theme of the night and the group came together again before the 2nd prime.  Again Dave went for more points and was again narrowly edged out for 1st place points and had to settle for 2nd.  The third lap was very similar to the first two however this time Dave couldn't be denied and won the prime.  Lap four again had attacks some of which looked like they had the legs to stay away but it wasn't to be and the sprint would be on for the finish.  It was a hectic sprint with many guys starting their sprint too early but Dave was there at the end and took the sprint win by half a wheel!  Jerry also got in the points with a strong 5th place finish!

GVCC Spring Classic - Bloomfield April 20, 2013
Nick Leonard

The day started early with team Dorschel / Reed Eye Associates volunteering to handle rider check-in for the premier spring classic in upstate NY.  The CAT 4’s would be going off at 10:30AM and completing 4 laps around the 11 mile circuit.

Temperatures ranged between mid-30’s to lower-40’s, with strong winds coming out of the west at 20MPH and gusts up to 40MPH.  The wind turned out to be quite scary on the North/South sections of the course which had open and exposed road.

At 8:30AM, just as the CAT 5’s were heading out, Mother Nature decided to throw out a little teaser and it began to flurry.  Last year conditions were cold and wet, not pleasant; so when I saw the flurries I knew we were going to be in for tough day.

We rolled out on time and the group of 31 strong rode the two miles up hill to the neutral start and the race was on.  About a mile after crossing the start finish line a group of 6 riders attacked and got off the front of the main field.  As we approached Baptist Hill Rd a short time later, I made a futile attempt to bridge up to them on the on the downhill heading into the turn onto Tilton.  I was soon joined by a UR rider and one other guy.  As we hit the 90-degree turn, I came in too hot and overcooked the corner nearly sending the other guy into the ditch.  Not exactly a good sign at the start of the race, but what the heck, I’ve seen the likes of Thomas Voekler overcook a corner in the TDF, so it happens to all of us.

The group off the front had a 30 second gap on us at this point and we were joined by a larger contingent of riders, which turned out to be a great help as we were heading directly into the wind.  After the rollers on the first lap and heading into the second lap our larger group quickly got whittled down to 5 riders, including Phil Nesbit from Towpath and Eric Giehl from Quality Care Pharmacies among others.  We started to get a good rhythm going in our paceline and attempt to cheat the wind.  On the rollers of the second lap, one of the riders in the break got popped off the back and joined our group.  This gave us hope that we could eventually catch the lead group which had a minute into us at this point.

As we got past the rollers on the third lap and headed north, our group was 100 yards off the leaders.  We would become one heading into the fourth lap.  There were one or two solo attacks on the last lap that didn’t stick on account of the wind, but the most decisive would come just before the long stretch North on Baily prior to finish.  A rider from the UR team launched himself off the front, and continued to put time into our group.  A couple of us, like Eric, Phil and I, put forth some hard efforts to try to close the gap, but without the entire group taking the same tenacity, it would not be so.  As we turned onto Gauss and hit the false flat, I decided to turn up the heat and everyone quickly followed suit.  We turned onto Oakmount for the final climb prior to the slight downhill heading into the finish and I had good position at the front of the group, giving what I had to road beneath me.  As we crested the hill I stayed close to the yellow line so that I wouldn’t give shelter to the wind for my competitors and was now in third position.  A large gust of wind hit me like a wall and shoved my bike three feet to the left.  As I struggled to right the ship, a rider from Cornell overtook me and this would set the placing for what turned out to be a very difficult day.  I hit the line in fourth place glad to have survived the wind.

Team Dorschel / Reed Eye Associated had four riders out in those conditions and thankfully everyone made it home safe and finished all four laps, something not everyone can claim.

Parish North 
4-16-13

Another win! Another great night of racing for the Dorschel/Reed Eye team. Wet, windy weather welcomed the riders to the Parish North course tonight. Dave got away on the first of 6 laps and was the first over the line at the finish. Jerry and Nick were with Phil (Towpath) going up the finishing hill, but Phil was able to pull away on the final ramp. With riders up the road, Geoff was towed to the finish and was able to jump away for 5th. Good early season form had Dorschel/ Reed Eye holding places 1,3,4,5 at the end.

Top 10 finish at the Tour of the Battenkill!

It was a chilly damp morning for the start of the Tour of the Battenkill this past weekend however Dorschel/Reed Eye Associates was there to represent.  Both Jerry and Dave made the trek to Cambridge NY for the queen of the classics that included over 10 miles of muddy pothole filled dirt roads.  It had rained all day the previous day so the dirt sections were pretty sketchy however Jerry and Dave negotiated them safely and only got a little dirty!

The race started conservatively with the 65 mile distance in front of the field but as soon as the climbs started it started to heat up.  Both Jerry and Dave stayed near the front and out of trouble most of the race and were in good position near the end when the decisive action began.  As the second to last climb began on Meeting House Rd the paced ramped up quickly and the group was quickly stringing out as guys were put on their limit.  Dave was 5th wheel over the top of the climb and Jerry was close by, both feeling that this is where the final selection would happen.  Unfortunately it wasn't and the group of 25 or so came back together on the downhill.  That left the last climb of the day up Stage Rd, steep in some sections and a bit of a stair stepping climb.  Dave started to cramp prior to the climb and slipped towards the back of the group however Jerry was in great position as the group hit the start of the climb.  Dave slowly picked his way past riders as they blew up and was 11th as he crested the top.  Jerry was in perfect position in 4th wheel however suffered a punctured rear tire about 2/3 of the way up which took him out of contention.  A quick wheel replacement from the neutral wheel car and Jerry was back in action but not until the group was well ahead.  Dave latched onto a group of 6 guys that were in pursuit of the leading group of 4 with about 5km to go.  Unfortunately the chase group wasn't working well together and the lead group of 4 riders was getting away.  Dave made the decision at that point to conserve energy for the sprint.  At 400 meters to go there was a sharp 90 degree corner into town and the sprint was on.  Dave managed to get around four riders in his group to finish 7th!  Despite the terribly timed flat Jerry still finished 32nd out of a field of 83 riders.

Overall it was a great experience and a great showing for the Dorschel/Reed Eye Associates team!