He, more than most, gets the drinking-coffee-with-a-straw rule that I strictly enforce, and has evangelically spread the word to his Nerac teammates during the pre-season (more commonly known as road racing). If you see skinny people with tan lines in Lycra who have 'Starbucks and straws', the trend started with us yo.

In Brian's own words:
 

My name is Brian Hayes, I'm 21 years old and live in Connecticut.

Unlike the last entries that you have read I'm relatively new to the sport of cyclocross. I started my racing career as a junior racing mountain bikes. After less than a year I made the switch to road racing.

In high school I never fully committed to racing and it was more or less something that I would do with friends for fun. We would go on epic road or mountain bike rides only to come home at dark tired and covered in mud. It wasn't until after my freshman year in college that I began to really start to train and race competitively.

That fall I was working with my coach, Justin Spinelli, to find something that I could do in the "off-season". He suggested that I try cyclocross and I said why not, it seemed like fun. I got a bike and started to learn the fundamentals of cyclocross. That season I worked my way up from men's C races (sometimes racing on the course at the same time as Richard and Dave) all the way to the U23/men's elite races.

At each race I slowly started to learn why people love cyclocross so much. You have a great group of friends and competitors, and it combines all of the physical stamina of road racing with the nuances, and mud, of mountain bike racing. That season I developed a strong passion for 'cross and new that next season it would be something other than just off-season racing.

During the course of the season I had come to learn about the team that Richard runs and really came respect that it is one of, if not the best cyclocross teams in the country. That spring I got an e-mail from Richard asking if I would like to join his team. I was completely beside myself, to think that I would be racing in RED that fall was a huge boost in motivation for me.

This past cyclocross season was one of the best seasons that I have ever had. I placed second to Jesse Anthony in the U23 Verge New England series, and had a few other U23 results.

More importantly I have made new friends and have a huge amount of respect for the time that Richard, and our sponsors, take to make this team one of the best.

Like you have heard already and probably will continue to hear from everyone else, racing with Team Richard Sachs is perhaps one of my favorite things to do and I look forward to cyclocross season every year!

Richard Sachs is a craftsman framebuilder who has been refining his skills for over a quarter-century.  For more information, please contact: