Christmas!!!!!

Today was a great Christmas........I got a new cell, clothes, and all kinds of great stuff. I was completely satisfied, and then my dad told me to go look in the big box, and a new Giant tt bike was in it!!!! I was totally blown away cause we learned only like a week ago that Giant was our bike sponsor. So it was a great surprise.
Here is some pics.

TEAM CAMP

So we had our first camp this past weekend.....It was good rding and a great time. We got to hang out with George, so that was cool. Our team is looking really strong, I'll try to post some pics if i can them.

aj

ROCK RACING

Go check out the interview on velonews. That director dude is one crazy mofo.....I'm not sure I agree with hardly anything he says, but i like the dude. I think he is a great character for cycling! cycling needs more people like terell owens, or mike tyson!!! those people that just raise complete hell!!!

we got our first team camp this weekend....I'll try to post some photos from it.

aj

BASE.....BASE.....AND MORE BASE......

Yep....base is bout all i know right now....But i guess thats the name of the game this time of year....This is the first year i have done a true base phase, and I have learned that there is a huge differance between strengh and fitness. I think I am getting stronger then ever, yet i am probably way less fit then i was this time last year. I have tried my best to stay under control and not go hard, and I can really tell this has worked because I did a group ride over the weekend, and it sucked!!! Just standing up over a hill at 400 watts killed me. Yet I think this is a good thing, since I usally have a habit of peaking to early....I'm a beast at endurence and tempo zones, but the second I enter thershold i feel like i only got 1 lung!!! Once again I'm thinking this is a good thing......So the moral of this story is constant group rides (in my un-professional opinion) are totally terrible for base. Because a 3 hour group ride for me avg, less watts then when i ride alone, yet the max in the group ride is way higher. Base isnt going easy, in fact i think that base is not going easy, yet never going hard.....I hope this makes sense to people......
aj

MY DAD!!!!!!

Go to http://www.slowtwitch.com/
and check out his interview.............I got the best family in the world......an espically the best dad!!!!!!

SWEET VICTORY!!!!!!!!

So its a typical Wensday........go home ride....then me an my boys from my school go up to take advantage of all you can eat wings at HOOTERS. This is actually a fierce eating competion to see who can eat the most wings......To make a useless story short: It was a great battle.... me an Damon Weber (FOOTBALL PLAYER) pulled away from the pack and by the end i took victory shattering the old record of 51 wings with a grand total of 60 WINGS!!!!!! HELL YEA!!!!!!! I am now the offical Northwest High School record holder!!!!!!! If cycling don't work out I thinking about competitive eating.......On another note I had a great 3hr ride today an like half of it was in the pitch dark on the back roads of North GA (VERY SCARY).......
Everybody keep it real!!!!

AJET

Last few rides

The last few rides have been pretty good.......I got in 3 and a half hours on thanksgiving. Me and my dad went mountain bike riding and it was rainy and cold. A true epic ride. Today I rode with my teammate David Talbott. We set out for a solid 3 hr ride, but despite my great (or so we thought) knowledge of the area we managed to get lost. ADDING A MONSTROUS 30MIN TO OUR RIDE!!!!!!!!! A bummer indeed. Oh well, it was good to ride with lil' T.... Well 3hrs 2maro and sunday......... :(
aj!

A lil update

Well I'm officially back to full time riding.....I had a mild 11hr week this week. I stayed at my bro's college this week up at Sewanne and got some great riding in up there. The fall weather is beuatiful.....I'm currently weighing 148 and around 6'1....so I'm currently happy with my weight right now. I wanna be south of 145 my nats....so i got some work to do...This time last year I was 155 so I think my climbing will be much better this year....Our team's first training camp is soon.....
btw my teammate david talbott has a new blog...
its....... www.otherkingdavid.blogspot.com
check it out.....
oh yea 2maro is 50 cent tacos at Los Reyis!!!! I'm pumped!!!
piece out

aj

Back to full time riding!

Well xc is finally over. I had a very poor display at state, but oh well. I did a 3hr mountain bike ride today, in the North GA mountains. It was great! The fall colors are awesome, and the views were really good. I'm so glad I live in this area. Now that xc is over it's full time bike training now. Which is good, I'm ready to hit it hard.
I'll write more later,

aj

DOWN IN PANAMA CITY

So i'm down here in Panama City watching my dad kick ass in his Iron Man!!!!! I did a good 3 hour ride this morning. The weather is really nice down here. On another note check out my COACH/CO-TEAM DIRECTOR'S Blog. It is:
http://methodicalman.blogspot.com/

If anyone needs a coach hit him up. He got me in the best shape of my life this year, where I was able to get 2 podiums at nationals, a top 10 at Fitchburg, and a stage win!!!! He works for www.kingdomsports.net
This is the same coaching group that coaches Nate Brown, and Ben Gabardi,
so hit them up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also our high school cross country won region this past thursday. I got 12th in the meet and ran a solid 17.44 for 5k. Next weekend is our state meet thn xc is over (THANK GOD!!) Thats all I know for now,

A.J.

The Hincapie Devo Team Roster!!!!!

Here it is!!!!! I'm so pumped to be on such a strong team.......


Rich Hincapie- Cat 1 Greenville, SC

Shane Weaver- Cat 1 Greenville, SC

Steve Carpenter- Cat 1 Chattanooga, TN

Randy Owens- Cat 3 Greenville, SC

Jeremy Ellis- Cat 3 Greenville, SC

Steve Colavito-Cat 1 Atlanta, GA

Lynn Joslin-Cat 1 TN

Nichole Bossie- Cat 1 Greenville, SC



U-23 Development Riders

David Hutton- U-23 Cat 2, Monroe, OH; Furman University Student

Nick Housley- U23 Cat 2, Marietta, GA

David Talbot- U23 Cat 2, Single Mountain, TN

AJ Meyer- JR Cat 2, Cohutta, GA

Ty Manger- JR Cat 2, Griffen, GA

Ben Gabardi- JR Cat 3, Jackson, MS; 2007 13/14 JR National TT & Criterium Champion

Evan Wynn- JR Cat 3 Asheville, NC

Tyler Karnes- JR Cat 3 Chesapeake, VA

Angela Austin- Greenville, SC

Cynthia Lehner- Greer, SC


Beware Of US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AJ

Dirty South

Yea baby.....next year its gonna b all bout the southern boys in the junior races!!!! Why u may ask???? because of the new Hincapie devo team!!!!!! heck ya.....the roster will be final soon, i'll post it asap!!!! but yea were gonna show everyone wats up...........5280, hottubes, disco juniors, yall all better be scared!!!! lol...on another note, im still running xc, and not riding much....im lifting some, and riding a little, but my hardcore base starts in NOvember.....i did 90 min sunday at 190watt avg, and that bout killed me!!!!!!!! so i got a ways to go..........
I hope everyone enjoyed my trash talking...........aj

ps check out my dirt south homie tyler's blog....www.tkarnesblog.blogspot.com

THE SEASON IS NOW OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I had my last race of the year this past weekend.......I was out of shape an felt like crap the whole weekend......nevertheless i had fun. The first day i raced juniors and pros.....the junior race was actually really hard. I got in the winning break that had Andy Baker(3rd in 17/18 crit nats) and Alder(Hottubes dude) and tyler(a strong dude from VA) well Alder an Andy started attacking jumping....an giving my poor form, i popped......then chilled in the pack, and misjudged the sprint and got 3rd in the field sprint, which was good enough for 5th overall cause tyler got popped out of the break to.......in the pro race which has craig lewis in it.......i went on a flyer and got a 50 dollar prime(CHA-CHING)....my teammate Geri Mewett got 2nd in the race which was a huge result for the team.......The next day I just did the juniors......I felt like complete garbage the whole race, but thankfully it came down to a field sprint and this time a timed it right getting a win in my last race of the year!!!! So I was happy to get a W this weekend considering my form.....but now its time to take some time off an the start good old base training.......oh yea i brought home like 250 dollars(CHA CHING)!!!!!!!!
Piece Out,

AJ

A Great Ride!

On Monday I left my house an headed out on an epic journey. My parents were camping with some friends by brass town bald. So I decided I would ride there. It was great riding and great weather. I did a similer ride in the winter, but this one was a little easier. It was still epic. I got a total of 5 climbs, and 5:30hrs. My last race of the year is this weekend. Its kinda going be a get together or next years team, which is going to turn heads! I'll write more later,

aj

update

well i just now have start training on a regular basis again. I did the US100K an just finished in the pack, which was one hell of a workout (27mph avg for 100k). I'm starting to get into a little shape, I just don't want to embarrass myself for the crits in OCT. I'm am also running CC. I'm not doing so well right now, I have been injured so I havent been running so much, but hopefully I will get into shape soon enough. So it's looking like next year the Hincapie team is gonna have a full fledge junior team. Just to name a few big names that might come....Ty Magner (GA cat 2 crit champ, and like 2 top tens at nats) and Ben Gabardi (tt, and crit nat. champ!) There are others to that are looking into the team, but I'm already excited about next year!!!
A.J.

Maryville Race (Another Hincapie Win!)

Well the team kicked ass......notice I said the team, not a.j. meyer. About the only thing I did worth mentioning was an attack from the gun, that stayed away for 5 or so minuets. I pulled out halfway through, I was still with the pack and everything, but I was fried and the break was gone so I said the hell with it. Anyways Chris won the race! Geri took 5th......pretty good results for having 2.5 guys there.(I counted as .5 today) I think I am pretty much calling it a season, and working on XC for now. On the bright side, I'm really motivated for next year....I think our team is going to be turning heads next year!

A.J.

Race, Running, And More..........

Well I have my first race in the states tomorrow. I hope no one is exspecting and grand apperience or anything. I feel absolutly fried but I'll do what I can to help my teammates. Hopefully we will show team Krystal whats up. It's 78 miles long, and it's gonna be hot as hell, so should make for a misrible race. Also.....the lastest rumor has it that Ty Magner (One of the best juniors in the country) is talking with team Hincapie. Yea so Hot Tubs better be scared. I have also started running a little. I'm trying to work my way in to cross country. I'll post about the race 2maro.
Adios,

aj

Some info

Well my bike has arrived from the airline......as a matter of fact i did a 30 min. ride yesterday. I have ran twice this week getting ready for xc season. It looks like i'm gonna be racing this weekend, in Maryville..... we'll see how that turns out.
piece,
aj

Ready for anything

back home

Well I made it back home, boy it feels good to be back. I am pretty much fried. The airline lost my bike, I guess it should show up anytime, personally it wouldn't bother me if it was lost the rest of the month. I might race this weekend in Maryville if my bike shows up. Thats all I know for now,.
aj

todays race

Today's race I went into it feeling like crap. I have some how hurt my hamstring over here, and it was hurting pretty bad. Anyways I didn't think I could do good so I decided to go on a solo brake on lap 1. So I ended up staying away like half the race, until a group of 6 bridged up to me, and it ended up being the winning brake. One guy got away on the last climb, and I ended up getting 2nd out of the brake sprint. So third place again. I'm pretty sick of 3rd, but It could be worse. Not sure if I'm racing sat. cause my hamstring is killing me.

aj

Podium Again!

Today was the longest and hardest race. It was in the high fifties, and windy as it's ever been. The Lituainian National team came to. I got the second pream. Then a break of two guys got away, with a strong belgium guy, and Adam Lebowitz. Adam is probably the strongest kid on our team on the flats, he can't climb to save his life though. I saw him go up the road so Me and teammate Ian Moore try to bridge. We hold the gap at 20 seconds for a while. Ian popped because he had a slow leek. So I drill it an bring the gap down even futher, but never made it across, so with 40k left to go I was all alone. I held it until 10k to go, when I belgium kid and a Lituainin bridge to me. We dropped the Lituainin on a hill, and I ended up taking the other dude in the sprint for 3rd. I think this is one of the best efforts in a race I've done all year. I was all alone in over half of our longest race, and still managed to get 3rd in the sprint. So two podiums in two days. Oh yea, we had to use our team jerseys today, so I flew the hincapie colors.

aj

Link of The Day

My national team teammate's blog. http://thebozblog1.blogspot.com/ It's Ian Boswell's blog, he is probably the best climber our age in the country.

Race 4

I finally got a podium,

3rd place today. We dominated the race as a team. I got into an early break of 6 riders, and our National team had 4 guys in this break. We eventually popped one guy, so it was four against one. I was feeling very strong, but with to laps to go our team manager told us to attack the guy. So Cody, and Charlie attacked first, and the guy didn't respond, which sucked for me an Ian Boswell because we could chase. I won the sprint for third, and Ian got forth, resulting in the first USA national team to go 1,2,3,4 in a race in history. I was kinda pissed because I felt pretty confident that I could have won today If weren't racing togather. Oh well that's cycling. I'll put up some race pics later.

aj

RACE 2

Well I finally got a top ten.
Tenth to be exact. I went for the preem on the first lap and got it. Right after that Adam(2nd in the nat. tt) went off on a brake. I sat in the pack the next few laps, meanwhile Jacob bridged with one other kid to Adam. Four laps into the race I attacked and got into a group of three, but one kid sat on and the other kid was really weak, so I drove the crap out of the brake, finally when we got about a minuet on the field, we got news that a group of 6 was coming up with two Americans, so we waited. Our group worked well together, for about one lap then it was getting disorganized. So I would take two, even three pulls, more then everyone else just to keep it rolling. We had the leading group in sight, but the people that were sitting on started to attack us, and I couldn't respond. So a group of three got away from out brake, and Ian managed to get in it. So the rest of the brake rolled along, very disorganized until Cody, and charlie(both Americans) bridged with a group. Charlie and Cody went right through our brake and I managed to hop on with them, and that's the group I finished with. So the USA had 6th guys in the top ten, 1st, 2nd,4th,8th, 9th, 10th. which is almost unheard of. That's all i got for now,

AJ

First Race

well as a team we did could. we had two guys in a break of four. that stayed away. we took 2nd and 4th. Jacob took 2nd, and Cody took 4th. i have never raced with such a strong junior team we were so aggressive. I finished 30th in the pack, and they payed 30 deep so that was good. I felt really strong and had some good moves. I put in an attack with 2 to go, and stayed away the whole lap an caught with one to go. the finishing sprint was a straight 2k road, with a tail wind, and with an overpass with 500 meters to go, so it was downhill as well. so it really didn't suit, so with 2k to go, i attacked with some other dude, an dropped the guy, on the overpass hill. at the top of the overpass hill i stood up an cramped. i guess all of my attacks caught up with me. I felt very strong, but i think I might have put in to many attacks. In tomarrow's race i'm going to attack fewer times, but go harder when i attack. On the bright side, I finished fairly easily in the pack, and last year i didn't even finish the first two races, so definatly an improvment there.
thats all i know for now,

aj

Sum cool stuff

Well I made through my first day in Europe. The first day consited of: Getting our team clothes, which are pretty sweet. Then we did a grueling 1 hour ride. But the hardest part was trying to stay awake to adapt to the time change. Never the less, I made it. Today we rode for around three hours. Thats all I know good right now.

Nationals, Europe, and more

Well I'll start out with Nats. First was the time trial, I rode awful in it placing a disapointing 24th. After that was the road race. Despite not having high exspectations for this event I got 4th! Making my first ever national podium. After that was the crit. which I was hoping to win, but unfortunlty i only got 2nd. I'm now in Belgium, and because of the time difference i have been up for over 24 hours! Where all about to go for a ride so I'm gonna get off here.

Prepping for Nats

So this past week I have been getting ready for Nats...... Not doing anything to hard, just a few efforts here an there to keep the legs opened. I'm feeling good, I set a new PR on fort mountain yesterday, and that was a controlled effort. I think I could have gone a lot harder.The plan is for my form to rise from what it was a Fitchburg, until Nats.....And I can feel it doing just that. Hopefully I can maintain my good form over an Europe to.

cool link of the day!

tokd.wordpress.com

My friend, David Talbott's blog.

Longsjo stages 3 and 4.

Stage 3
I started this stage with mixed feelings. I'm not by any means a "climber" but I have been working very hard on climbing lately. On the second to last climb, I was in the lead group of 5 over it. We were caught by the field shortly there after, but I thought no big deal since I just stuck with the leaders on that climb, doing it again on the final climb would be no problem. Well.....it was a problem. I have no clue why I cracked so bad, but anyways, I limited my losses to 58 seconds. I fell to 11th overall, which was very disappointing because I really wanted to finish top 10.
Stage 4
I was out of the top ten by 9 seconds. They're was a ten second time bonus for the winner of the stage. So all I had to do was win the stage. It was a longshot, considering that this was the biggest junior stage race in the country. Well the race was fast.....29mph avg.....I played it smart, conserving my energy all race. With 5 laps to go the guy in 10th place crashed! That was a huge boost of moral, All I had to do was finish, and I would be top 10. So with no pressure on me, I raced on instints. Coming through the last corner I was 3rd wheel. But the guy in front of me dropped his chain. So with 400 meters to go, I launched my sprint. I saw 200 meters to go, and still no one came around me. By the time I saw 100 meters to go, I could here wheels coming from behind me, I crossed the line just in time to hold of the guy in 2nd. I had won! It was the biggest win of my career. Close to 100 kids from around the country come to this race to try to win a stage, and out of all of them I had won a stage!! I still am in shock.....This gives me great moral going into Nats.

Longsjo......Stage 2

Well this race was a 25 mile circuit race. The circuit is 3 miles, with one tough hill, the hill is around 500m and over 10%.....anyways the race came down to a sprint as normal. I sat in the whole time, untill two to go, I launched an attack, an got around a 20 second gap. I got got caught right after 1 to go. The Nate (my good friend) countered a got a gap. Poor Nate got caught with around 500 meters to go. Well at least the southern boys made the big teams work! I finished in the pack so I should still be sitting in the top ten. Saturday is the big stage. We will see how my climbing is after that.

Longsjo Classic Stage 1

Okay, for those that don't know, the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic is the biggest junior stage race in the country. Well the tt was 6 miles. The first 5 miles was on a climb that was stair-stepy, with some false flats. It probably avgeraged 4-5%. Me not being much of a climber, wasn't real happy with the course. However I managed to finish 9th place. Not bad considering that this is the biggest junior race in the country. The only rider in the 15-16 year old age group that was in front of me was Nate Brown. He finished 6th. Nick Bax, the reigning USA national champ, won it.

Avery Trace RR/ CRIT

This was a very encouraging weekend. In the road race I played it fairly conservative in the first half. I made it over the day's toughest climb which had me worried. After that there was about a group of 20. On the second to last climb I attacked and got a gap. about 3/4's of the way in the climb Eric Murphy came up to me. Over the top three more people came across. They were Dirk Polmun, Spencer Beamer, and some other dude. I really felt like this was the move that was going to stick.......After all we had four of the strongest guys in the race in the move. But for some reason nobody would work, and we got caught about 8 miles from the finish. When we got caught, I went again on the flats before the climb........I was joined by Spencer Beamer, and we stayed out there for about 2 miles, we were brought back with around 4 miles to go. We hit the finishing hill and I was blown of the back.....I still managed to get 17th place which was good for 35 dollars. The crit was a very good race for me. In the beginning I was once again playing it Conservative, and almost immediately a break of four got clear......Including my teammate Geri Mewwit. Once it was clear that they wouldn't be brought back. I made multiple break-away attempts......Finally a group of six of us got clear. We stayed away for the rest of the time. With 2 laps to go I made a move but the was reeled in just short of one to go. A ended up taking 5th out of our group, and 9th overall, which was good for 85 dollars. Geri took 2nd....So it was a great day for the team. Tuesday I'm heading up to Fitchburg.......My form is really coming on strong so I am really looking forward to nats this year. By the way......I am officially going to Belgium after Nats.

Europe Again?

Well It looks like I'm heading back to Europe again this year........I got an invitation this morning from the USA national team inviting me to do 8 races with them in Europe. I'm going to be gone from July till August.......So much for having a normal summer...........I'm still not positive that I'll except the invitation, but considering that this is a vital move for my future career, I'm not sure that I have much of a choice since I want to continue to progress my career towards being a professional cyclist.
Viva La Belgium Baby

115 mile ride

Today I went and did the Cherohala Challenge. Which is a 115 mile ride, with 10,000 feet of climbing. A lot of people race it as well. The group started out with probably over 200 riders in it. On the first climb me, Spencer Beamer, and Ron Swope set a hard tempo (over 300 watts avg) and brought the group down to 15 riders. The pace was solid until the last climb which was 15 miles long. The first 3 miles I felt great, It was me Swope, Spencer, and Jon off the front. Then I absolutly hit the wall. I guess the hard week I had this week caught up to me, because I bonked hard. I just cruised in after that...........115 miles......avg 19mph.....170avg watts for 6hrs........3700 calories burnt..........All in all a good training day.

Roan Groan TT and CRIT

Well the Time Trial went alot better then I expected. I ended up 16th in the pros with a time of 11:16, with an avg. speed of 26mph, not bad considering it was in a head wind, and mostly uphill. The crit was a great day for our team, we were in all the breaks. My first break came at around 10 minuets and we stayed out for around 5 minuets. Then came the winning break. I don't know how, but i found myself in a break of 7, including Eric Murphy( 2nd to George Hincapie in the ATL 100K Classic), Mark Hekmen( Winner of the 2007 Athens Twilight Crit) and some others. The best part of it was that our team had 3 men in the break!!! It was myself, Chris Harkey, and Geri Mewwit. Mark Hekmen wasn't to happy with the situation, and launched many attacks out of the group. Finally Harkey latched on the one with Eric Murphy............Those three stayed away the entire race and Chris took 3rd. Our break got caught by the field 50 minuets into the crit, but neither me or Geri could drive it since Chris was up the road. I ended up taking 9th in the field sprint, or 12th overall. A great day for the team. I'm really happy with my form after this weekend. I felt great all day in the crit. I have alot of work to do before Nationals, but my dream of being on the podium at Nats. is looking better every week.

btw.......Chris also got 2nd in the tt!!!!

Roan Groan RR

Well the RR was a lot harder then I thought. Normally there are only around 30-40 pro riders that do this race, but this year for whatever reason there were probably around 80 guys, including some pretty damn good pro teams like VMG, Jittry Joes, AEG TOSHIBA......just to name a few. One of our guys got in an early break that stayed away till the final climb. I was able to stay with the leaders on the climb until like 4 miles to go..... I think I might have got top 25 if i'm lucky. Geri had the top finish for our team with top 15. My climbing is certinly not were I need it to be, but it's getting better. I'll post after the tt later

The Eve Of Roan

So tomorrow is Roan Groan, which is a very hard race........It finishes on Roan Mountain, which is a 10 mile climb at 8%. I'm not sure what to expect, if my climbing is as bad as it has been lately then I'm not gonna do very well. But I have dropped close to six pounds, and trained very hard in the mountain lately......... so we will see what happens. I'll give the race report after the RR and tt.

Season So Far

Well since its the middle of the season I figured I would recap my season so far. This year started out with a new team. Hincapie-Binanchi picked me up, and I can honestly say that there the best team in the world! Really the guys are so supportive and strong as hell. Well I raced alot in the begging of the year at the Greenville training series. I had a couple of top 15 finishes there. Then my only decent result at the begging of the year came at the Rock Hill junior crit, which I won despite being sick. After that I went to panama city on vacation, and lost alot of fitness. I then went to tour of virgina, where I was elimnated on the 3rd stage along with hafe the field. My next race was Athens Twilight, where I probably had my best result of the year, finishing 5th in a field of over a 100 riders, ranging from juniors to cat 1's. I got tenth place in roswell the next day. My only result in may was 1st place in the junior crit at highland rim, then I went on to finish tenth in the pro crit and 12th in the pro ominium. Now that june has rolled around, i'm really looking for some good results, I have really stepped up my training. The 15-16 nats, is what i want to peak for. Im training hard and my weight is finally starting to come around, so all you juniors out the better watch out!

CYCLING

Well anyone who hasn't been living on the moon knows that cycling has had some serious problems with doping. That got worse today, the police raided the quikstep houses and it looks like they found alot of crap........I honestly thought that ever since the Puerto crap that cycling was cleaned up, but now it looks like it hasn't changed. Oh well, hopefully all my competitors at Roan Groan this weekend will be clean...lol.
But yea, this weekend is Roan Groan, probably the hardest mountain race in TN. I'm really not exspecting much since I'm not much of a climber. Who knows though, I have really been working hard on my climbing since I got my ass dropped on the climb at Soto, of course Cesar was driving the pace, with Frank Pipp, and big Karl from Health Net, but thats no exscuse is it? Only like three more weekends until nats. After all my mountain training my wieght is now 145, which is encouraging.