A New York City Based Cycling Team

TEAM

ROSTER: (click links to go to individual bios)

BREAN SHEA

Brean Shea has been racing alleycats forever (with palmares too long to note) and racing on the track since 2003 when Puma sponsored a messenger series at Kissena. Injury and time away from USAC cycling venues have kept him a Cat 4 racer for too long. He will be upgrading to a USAC Cat 3 on both road and track this season.

Brean has been a member of two highly successful teams; XXX/Athletico and Chicago Cuttin’ Crew. He also co-founded, coached and managed Yojimbo’s Track Cats, a track racing program for teens in Chicago.

“95% of winning is showing up… but for everything.”

Category: ATRA 3, USAC 4, Masters


DAVID BACHMAN

San Francisco, 1967, the Summer Of Love. This  was the setting for my first fixed gear racing experiences.  I was on an old rusted red tricycle.  The gearing seemed just right for my 3 year-old legs, and going endlessly around the block was my first real “velodrome” experience.  

Luckily, I’ve gotten to live in some amazing places around the country for riding-Wisconsin, Virginia, Illinois, Massachusetts, and now New York. Racing for me came later in life, after reading an article in Bicycling Magazine about the old velodrome in Queens (Kissena)…had to try it for myself. Got hooked around 2007. 

Racing around the track is amazing.  You train hard for just a few minutes of intense racing. Racing? No, it’s more like a mad school of sharks fighting for the finish line. It takes courage, strength, tactics, and the willingness to turn your body inside-out using every ounce of energy you have and then some.  You’ve got to want it to win, and you’ve got to work for it. Winning is simple-you earn it.  Being on a team of successful, experienced racers definitely makes you go faster!  

Being part of Pink Rhino Racing is great for me, as the racers involved all are great people who are like-minded—we all want to be part of the New York cycling community, and actively encourage the sport.  See you at the races!  

GILBERT NG

Back in 2010, Gilbert started racing during Boogie Nights - a track bike race series that takes place late evenings at Prospect Park. Here he came in next to last in his first scratch race. In the next event, he was picked up by a couple of strangers for the team sprint race where he and his team finished in a much improved 3rd place. One of the guys on that team is now a fellow Pink Rhino Racing teammate - Keith Garrison. 

Having been bitten by the racing bug Gilbert later went on to race the Red Hook Crit IV without being caught up in the numerous crashes that took place. Following that, he raced the entire spring/summer season at Kissena Velodrome where he started as a cat 5 and moved up to a cat 4.
Shortly after the end of track season, Gilbert’s love for cycling led him to Michigan where he studied with master frame-builders Doug Fattic and Herbie Helm. Here he learned both lugged and fillet brazing methods. He now lives in Melbourne, Australia, where he is now racing in Class C (equivalent of Cat 3 in USA) in track and Class D in road. His goal is to move up to Class B in track and Class C in road next season.

Category: USAC: Track:4, Cycling Australia (CA): Track:C, Road:D 

JEN NORDHEM

Jen Nordhem got her first taste of racing when she was a bike messenger in Chicago in 2006 in a race called Cranksgiving organized by Brean Shea, earning a 3rd place trophy made her want more. Through her four years as a bicycle courier she traveled as far as Dublin, Ireland to race. After retiring as a courier in 2009 she went on a cross country bicycle tour from NYC to LA called 42 Ride. On that tour she tried her first sanctioned race, a crit in Illinois, and got third place in a field of experienced Cat 3 racers. When she returned she picked up teaching spin classes until she moved to NYC in 2011 where she started her first full racing season, starting on the road for the first few months until being introduced to track racing.
Her first track season was short, but strong. In just 8 weeks she went from never having ridden on a velodrome to earning four State Championship medals and Second Overall in NY State. In August she was invited to race at The Valley Preferred Cycling Center’s Elite Women’s Pro/Am “Super Tuesday” nights and their final Pro/1/2 Friday night of the season, competing against World Champions and Olympians. Early this September she earned her Cat 3 upgrade on the track and is looking forward to racing CX and training for the track this winter, returning in 2013 even stronger.

Category: USAC Track:3 Road:4 Cyclocross: 3

JOSHUA THIEL

A cycling fanatic from the very beginning, Joshua Thiel spent his early years riding the technical mountain bike trails of Southern and Central Florida. After moving to NYC in 2009, he caught the “fixie” bug which quickly evolved into the “track racing” bug. Currently a Cat 4 on the track, Joshua is looking forward setting new PRs in the gym and pissing off the neighbors with the steady whir of his rollers until the snow thaws and he can earn his Cat 3 upgrade as a Pink Rhino.

Category: USAC: Track:4

LUCAS KOEHLER

Lucas earned the nickname “The Vominator” as a quarter and half-mile runner in high school.  He maintained the reputation as a hurdler in college.  Lucas got into cycling by way of commuting and then triathlon.  He has placed in the top ten of several sprint triathlons in the last three years but has rediscovered his love for the “go-fast-turn-left” simplicity of track racing and is happy doing it on two wheels.  PRR is Lucas’s first bike team, and he’s very excited about being on it.

Category: USAC: Track:3

SHANE FERRO
Shane Ferro began racing bikes in college when a friend convinced her than a 2-mile uphill time trial (on no training) would be a good idea. It turned out to be a terrible idea, but she was hooked on bike racing anyway. She spent three seasons racing on the road for Columbia University. Gradually, she has shifted her focus to cyclocross and track, preferring mud, strategy, and steep banking to anything that could be considered a hill (scars remain from her first TT experience). Her focus over the next year will be honing her track skills and eventually upgrading in order to be able to race the Friday night Pro/Am events at The Valley Preferred Cycling Center.
Category: USAC Track: Cat 4 Road: Cat 3 CX: Cat 4

Achievements:

  • 3rd Place – NYS Track Championships 2012 - Omnium - Women’s Category
  • 1st Place - NYS Championships 2012 - Match Sprint - Women’s Category
  • 1st Place - CRCA Track Race 2012 - Omnium - Women’s Category
  • 2nd Place - NYS Championships 2012 - Team Sprints - Women’s Category
  • 3rd Place - NY State Championships 2012 - Scratch Race - Women’s Category
  • 5th Place - New Britain Criterium 2012 - Women’s 3/4
  • 2nd Place - Strasburg Road Race 2013 - Women’s 3/4

STEPHEN FRATTINI
Stephen “THE Sturgeon General” Frattini has been a competitive cyclist since the tender age of 15.  After a brief respite from the bike to run track and field at NYU he returned to the NYC track cycling scene in 2004.  But in 2005 Steve left the city to attend Veterinary School at Cornell University where he advised the team and raced Cat 3 on the road, specializing in road races with long climbs. While at Cornell he piloted “BIG RED’s” Big Red Tandem to a 5th place national ranking and became a crowd favorite in the tandem mass start events.   
In 2011 the prodigal son returned to the Kissena Velodrome where he rose from a 4 to 3, in a season of unbridled, from the gun racing. He hopes that the 2012 season will lead to continued success at Kissena and Trexlertown, where he hopes to motivate races and make sure the fans always have a great show. Stephen is the ultimate teammate, always willing to open up a race or sacrifice himself.
Stephen’s specialties are suicide attacks and tandem bike piloting.
Category: USAC Track: Cat 3 Road: Cat 3

Category: USAC: Track:4 Road:3 CX:4