Cross Crit, 10/10 Results

I'd hesitate to call it a cross course or a mountain bike course - really a hybrid of the two. It consisted of a big field lap followed by some off camber turns, singletrack, and then finally the DFU finish. Suffice it to say it was punishing, especially with so many close finishes and packing the 5 top spots into a free-for-all, 30 second window. Good racing.

1) Jeremy 23:25
2) Steve 23:30
3) Mike 23:40
4) Dave Same Time
5) Kyle 23:50
6) Shawn 27:10
7) Ted 27:30
8) Jason 28:28
9) John Neil Same Time
10) Scott 28:42
11) Will 32:02
12) Blake 35:05
13) Kate DNF

Fingers crossed for a LITTLE rain before the paranormal - sure is dusty out there.

Race this weekend.

Last night was a Brownie Crit on the farm. It was a hybrid cross/mtb style course. Made for some really great riding. Did not totally favor either machine, but allowed both to still be raced well. A Single Speeded Mtb. won it (Jeremy, go figure) with a cross rider in second (Steve Delisle). Overall it made for a good workout for most people. Just prior to the crit I had my last batch of intervals prior to this weekends race in DC. so I was a bit blasted going into it, but had a great time anyway.
This weekends race is shaping up to be a good time. A large portion of the team is going to race, and we are going to give the Team Trailer a first shake down use......so that will be good as well.
We got a new sponsor in the last few days also. Boca Bearings (www.bocabearings.com). They are a manufacturer of high-end ceramic bearings for all kinds of applications, so we are gonna be faster thanks to this one. The first order of Wheel and Pedal bearings arrived this week, they seem really smooth, now I gotta figure out how to install them....although it looks really simple.

Racers for this weekend:
Dave T.
Kevin M.
Denelle G.
Luther B.
Chris S.
Shawn T.

hopefully at least one of us will podium.......most likely Denelle......

On the road/off the road

Not the good kind of on the road. I've been travelling for work for edging up on 10 days. Starting to lose my mind from not being off the bike. Highlight of the week, I saw an old lifted F-250 with an AC/DC custom paint job for sale outside of Richmond. Probably from the early 80s. Get pumped for Dave's next ill-advised automobile purchase.

To the point though, rumors of my demise in a smoke-filled bar in NYC are unsubstantiated and incorrect. I shall return. Wednesday. To the brownie crit. And I'm bringing my 2-weeks-of-cheap-cocktails-in-the-making beer gut with me. Again, Get pumped.

Seriously, I'm psyched about our riders and our sponsors and ready to put in some serious time on the bike again. Next year should be a great year.

A Weekend of Goodness

Wow,
A bunch of great stuff this weekend. Denelle raced at Xterra nationals in Tahoe and took 5th place in her age group. A huge congrats to here on that one. She tore apart the bike leg and was in the times of the top pro riders in that leg.....doubly impressive considering that Jenny Smith and some other Trek-VW riders from the Rocky Mountain Squad were there as well.
On a great note for the team, Albemarle Baking Company let me know they are on board to sponsor the team for the 2008 season as well. Jerry is one of those really giving guys, so a huge thanks to him for this.......that and now I have an even better excuse to go by his shop and get some carbs.
Also Francesca from the Charlottesville Running Company let me know she is on board to support our team for the 2008 season. Things are really starting to come together for us all, I am excited, and ready to train hard all winter to make next season a great one.

-Shawn

Rattlesnake 50

AWESOME RACE!! This one was well worth the 45 dollar entry fee.
Nolan and I met at the Blue Ridge School at 5 am to head the 3 hours to Davis, West Virginia. Bikes loaded and lacking coffee we stopped in H-burg for the mandatory fill up of us and the Suburban. We made great time to West Virginia and on arriving there were a bit astounded that it was only 41 degrees. We both hoped for a quick warming of the air prior to the 10 am start time.
For the race start they closed Main Street in Davis, WV. We all lined up across the two lanes of the road way, and on a shout from the promoter, we were off. No one hit it really hard from the start and we were rolling down the paved road at about 25 mph. Across a bridge and a sharp right onto an old railroad grade. The pace was upped at this point as people started jockeying for position in the 4x4 tracks on the trail. That combined with the puddles of muddy WV. liquid and all of the sudden we are all surging forward trying to find clear ground to ride. I finally settled into a position behind Sue Haywood and we were rolling along strong. After the Railroad grade it was a sharp right onto a short section of pavement, and then the single track started. The best way I can describe this place is Pisgah, NC. Soaked in water.....and i do mean soaked. The rock gardens were great for riding, some of them had well established lines through the moss beds that were easily seen, others had no lines, and were a pure, "pull the front wheel up and hope you ride it out" sort of thing. Many of the local racers were on all mountain style bike, even Sue was on a Fuel EX with a Pike front fork and 2.3 Jones tires.....I felt undergunned at first on my Top Fuel with 2.0 Revolt Super X's. After about 6 miles of epic single track with some great technical sections and some awesome rooty climbs, we were back on pavement for a short time, more railroad grade followed, and then a long road climb of about 4 miles at about 6% or so....nothing killer, unless you had just blown too much energy in the previous rocky stuff. Off the pavement we were straight onto a killer descent. The type of descent that all of us wish we could have in our back yard. Large rocks to dodge, small logs to jump, big drops that when approached at 20 mph, become mandatory hucks. Several stream crossings and I was climbing back out in front of a group on some gnarly single track rock and root garden. Things were feeling great. Then I got that familiar "hiss" from the back tire combined with Stan's spraying everywhere. I had taken something through the tread of the tire and even dear old Stan could not heal this one. I stopped to fix it, placed a tube in, and discovered that my Big Air was empty and I had forgotten my hand pump for the day. So running I went for about 2 miles. Finally a passing racer had a 12 gram CO2 he could spare, I hit the tire with it, and was riding again. But 12 grams won't fill a MTB tube to where it doesn't pinch flat in West Virginia, and soon enough that happened. Now, out of cartridges and with out a pump or additional tube, I was running again. A little over 3 miles later I came out onto the road way and found the check station. My drop bag was there with a tube and some CO2 cylinders. I fixed my flat and was off. By this point I had dropped from 3rd or 4th in the overall and 2nd in my field to about 10th-12th place. The trails only got wetter from here: boggy, West Virginia swamp trail yielded to short sections of burly rock garden and then back again.......awesome stuff to try and ride. Average pace to this point only 7 mph!!!!
I managed to recover a bit from my running through the woods episode and got a good second wind on the bike which allowed me to pull back to a final placing of 7th. I am really pleased with this one. I know that without my mechanical stuff and the three wrong turns that gave me an extra five miles on the day, I would have placed much higher. My legs felt great, I climbed well, and the bike rode great....proof that a Top Fuel can out do most All Mountain Style bikes.
Total Damage for the day:
3 tubes
1 tire
5 CO2 cartridges
one Seat -broke the right rail at about 30 miles or so....made it less comfortable than I like
one set of shoes- I shattered the bottom of the left one into about 3 pieces of carbon. Was still able to pedal, but they are done now.

Nolan's race ended much earlier when he broke BOTH of his Egg Beater Pedals. We gotta get that guy on some mallet down hill pedals or something.

Planning the next Season

So it is that time of year when we all have to look back on what we did this year and what we want to do next year. Coaches want goals and plans and ideas of what to do for the next year.
My ideas:
1-Race more events close to home
2-Get in more quality training time.
3-Don't taper for so many races next season
4-In stark contrast to number 1 above- Race the Crocodile Trophy.
This is an epic race across Australia- 13 stages total.

http://www.crocodile-trophy.com/crocodiletrophy/en/index_en.htm

Events on the local front for this week:
Wednesday- Brownie Crit on our farm.
Thursday will see some trail work on the farm.
Saturday is a 50 mile race in West Virginia
Sunday is a 100 mile Road Century.

This is looking like a great weekend.

BTW- Bike Factory is having a big blowout sale on Forks. All sorts of stuff at killer prices. If ya need something, you should go look.

-Shawn

Paranormal Preview Crit

What a great Brownie Crit that one turned out to be. The course is the same that will be used for the Paranormal race on October 20th with just one tiny reroute. We had a huge turn out, and everyone was psyched by how great the trails were. Times are listed below, this was roughly a 6.5 mile loop----I think. I flagged the single speeders that I knew of as well.

Place Name Time
1 Jeremy S. 29:52 (ss)
2 Mike W. 30:15
3 Shawn T. 31:29
4 Dave T. 31:46
5 Matt H. 33:33 (ss)
6 Jeff 35:33 (ss)
7 Al I. 36:08
8 Scott R. 37:08
9 Tim H 38:13
10 Paul 38:21
11 David P. 38:23
12 James G. 39:56
13 Matt H. 40:10
14 Dennis 41:20
15 Carl 43:23 (in shoes 3 sizes too small)
16 Caleb 47:09
17 Isaac 49:03
18 Mark 53:50
19 Anna 54:48
20 Dave W. 65:04

A big thanks to Denelle for timing us and cheering loudly as we finished.....hope she feels better soon.


-Shawn