FLYIN WITH THE EAGLE

Certain sceners stick out in TMS mind as people who are outright, using a age old midwestern term "good people". and Brian Adams fits that bill, we love touchin base with him as he is always positive and speaks realistic about life and racing. Tms thought it would be a good time to catch up with who some refer to as FLY or as we call em the EAGLE.

1. Mid season race cap?

Weird season so far. As most people (who know me) know, my life is filled with more family and work than it ever was before. It's my second season racing with an ever-growing family, my daughter will be two this August. As many in the Michigan Scene know, it changes your priorities and seriously affects your schedule and motivation to train/travel/race. Not making excuses, cause I am still giving it my all...just that "my all" is not quite what it was 5 years ago.

2. Hows your season panin out?

Not too shabby. Our Lathrup Industries team is always solid, with a roster full of contenders. We are just in a state of flux...lots of family growth, pending marriages (Josh, Alvin), babies (Rob), job changes (BA, Jim, Josh, Alvin), and as most have heard, Josh sliced off his finger on a training ride, which really put a damper on his season. Meurig added a lot of color to the team last year, but had to go back to the UK.

3. Any big family plans for the summer
Nice solid week off during the "lull" in July, heading up north. We get out to the Metro/State parks on a weekly basis, and have some quality time carved out almost daily. Although I may leave a small and inconsequential mark on the Michigan Scene over the years, my family is my true legacy!

4. how about racing plans
Really looking forward to August. With the loss of some awesome July racing (Dexter, Lansing, Fenton), I think a lot of guys are going to be either A) really fresh for august, or B) unmotivated and behind the 8-ball for august/sept. I hope to be the former...with Priority stepping up to a 2-day event, and the Labor day weekend looking to be a 3-day race weekend, we are going to have our work cut out for us. And I would love to race in Rochester again...Jamie, anyone?

5. has your training volume changed scince the family has been started?
Definitely. Now I train smarter, more efficient and structured with my training time/days. Less volume. Doing a lot of Lactate and Power based training. Have really been applying my exercise physiology background in testing over the last few years, and it seems to take a lot of the question-marks out of my program and allow me to quantify my fitness during different phases of the season.

6. good to see Tom Archer back, hows the rest of the boys in short .

See above. The thing is, Tom and our crew are a bunch of really solid guys, tons of racing history and background. They are fun, and we have a great time together both on and off the bike, traveling, hanging out with each other's family. We do dinners during the winter, BBQ's during the summer. I think it shows in the way we race together, but most people in our Michigan Scene know that we are a solid bunch of buddies that have realized that we love the sport, and love to race...but with that being said, we have serious responsibilities to our families and our work. We are not kidding ourselves that we can take guys like Ben Renkema, Karl Menzies, "The Howards" et al...but we love trying! I was able to sneak onto the podium at Allen Park (Lathrup had 3 in the top 10!), and hung on by the skin of my teeth at Gaslight to finish with the break-away...and with Jim winning the State RR, and Rob and others finishing well at recent races, I think we are still a contributing factor to the Michigan scene. We may not have the numbers. Never had'em. That's what makes it more fun for us! We just race hard with who we have...or better yet, we race as smart as a bunch of ol' boys can!

7. wheres MINIME?

Back in the UK putting the hurts to the locals, especially in the TT. Can you believe that guys still does more miles annually on his bike than most of us do in our car? Not to mention he does most of them on his trainer. Yuck.

8. care to add some flavor?
I am stoked to see all of the young talent coming up over the past 2 seasons...seems like there are a lot of strong cat III racers our there. I would really like to see more teams take on the roll of coaching/mentoring like the MCG group and the U23 teams that are starting to pop up. I see so much talent, but no real mentoring or coaching. These days coaching is more like "ride these miles at this pace, email me". I think back to the days (even before my time) with the Obermeyers, Walden, Young, Frankie (Sr)...all that knowledge, all that authority, coaching, molding, evolving. Now adays, on training rides, you try to point out basic skills and components, and try to be positive and constructive, and so many people are resistant to the idea that they don't know it all...resistant to learning. I love the fact that Tour D Kids is back. Would love to see the Waterford series and AA Crit practice develop even more coaching. And I think the "A" race mentality of the training races is great to get the Cat III/IV guys in and alongside cyclists who have been in the sport and can impart some bit of wisdom...either in words or in actions.

Other than that, I enjoy being a part of the "scene". Keep it positive. Ride hard.