Sunday, July 19, 2009

Midnight at Marsh Creek State Park

Late last night, Lowe Riders and Trestle Bridge Racing put on the Midnight at the Marsh night XC race. The concept was good... Night racing=FUN. XC racing (for the most part)=FUN. The real test would be the actual event. I admit I was a bit skeptical about this and figured it would be a 50/50 event. It could go either way...good or bad. I can say the LoweRiders did a bang up job for a first time event.

Vegan Rob and I showed up for the VisitPA.com team. After kitting up we rolled out to preride the lap. 5 miles long with a great mix of tight twisty sections and technical uphills combined with great downhills and recovery sections, the course was perfect for a night race. At 11pm, the race got off to a quick start and about halfway through the 4 mile prologue loop, Rob and I went to the front and never looked back. After trying to stay on Rob's wheel for a little too long, I dropped off the pace and rode by myself. With both the Elite/Expert and Sport racers on the course at the same time, you had to stay on the gas and hope that the person behind you wasn't in your category. Rob took the victory and I took 2nd about a minute behind.

After the race, the comments I overheard were all positive from racers about the course and event. Kudos to the promoters for a great event and thanks to the Marsh Creek State Park for allowing this event to happen.

No rest for the victor, Rob took off at 2am to drive 3 hrs to Michaux for the Curse of Dark Hollow today where he took 5th. Sick

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Fair Hill

Raced the Fair Hill XC race today. Pretty solid field in the Elites with me, Brandon Draguelis, Chris Beck, the twins, Martin Kell, Kyle Hammaker, and John Gwadcik. 27 miles of dusty, rooty and fast singletrack in the Fair Hill Resource Area.

After establishing the lead group, I proceeded to fall off the pace about 6 miles into the race. With the tight and twisty nature of the course it was easy to lose sight of the others and that was the end of the day for me. I rode my own pace and managed to pick off Martin who was having trouble with all the turns and John G. who was having shoe issues. After riding the majority of the course by myself I managed to crash and let John pass me back for the 5th spot.

Congrats to the Delaware Trail Spinners for promoting a great race with a fantastic venue.

Thanks to all the VisitPA.com team sponsors as well:
VisitPA.com
Cannondale
Deuter
Rudy Project
Deuter
Sunnto

Monday, July 6, 2009

The disease is spreading

Thinking back to the last decade i like to think of some peoples lives i have helped change for the better from quitting certain bad habits, to help learning to ride, to even losing weight to get a better quality of health. I'm not bragging here(maybe a little), just a preface to my story.
Yesterday i raced a h2h race in Jersey on the way home from the beach. Always exciting to race somewhere new which has been a theme this season. So i'm warming up and a familiar face approaches me and makes some small talk. I usually rely on Matt Miller or Motormouth Matt to fill me in on names since i have a horrible memory but i was on my own. They were nowhere in sight. Turns out it was last years 24 hours of Allamuchy solo winner Emrah Ayhan. Last year my wife, Sarah , and i raced on a tandem Cannondale Mountain bike at the same race. Point of the story is he thought the tandem thing was so cool that this year he will be entering the tandem division with his son who looks only 12 or so. How cool is that??? Makes me wonder where i'd be now in racing if my father had me riding at 12 instead of breathing second hand smoke at the Beef House . Maybe Sarah and i will see you out there. Way to be a cool father and good luck to you and your son!!!!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Marysville/rb winter tri


The 12 hour team relay (9hr solo) at the farm was a blast! Thanks to all who made it possible. From Mike's generous in-laws to Bill at gretna bikes for the light demos to all who even rolled up one strand of tape. It all helps the event . To those who missed it , to bad for you. my wife thought it was the best vibe she ever felt at a race. Very fun. In the end for the visitpa team , nancy rocked 3rd in the women solo, while ray and i took the top spot for duo , and wes and yozell got second. Coach Kuhn rocked a duo team also with Chris(From Deuter). They did awesome too with coach doing back to back laps while probably running on zero sleep. For those who stayed up long enough there was an educational q+a at rays camp site which was focused in slogans for your day to day life. Very inspiring. I even learned a thing or too. And oh yeah , the night time trial and short track went off without a hitch too. See you next year !!

While most of the team was racing at the farm , hebe was resting up on the mic for sundays exterra at rb winter. He did a top ten swim overall (yeas my wife beat him) , then crushed it on the bike which gave him a two minute lead overall. IN the end he got passed in the very technical run and lost the overall by only 10 seconds. WOW. He still won his age group by , i'm sure , a significant amount. Way to kill it hebe!!!
.