By Travis | 7/16/08 | 6:35 AM
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S&S trails - Ohio Mountain Bike Series
What do you do for the future of cycling? I know we all don’t have time or property to promote a race but Chris Skinner has made a name for himself in the Ohio area by providing both. First by being a multi year OMBC Champion and now by promoting the S&S trails race on his almost 100 acres. Add to this the fact that Chris manages a Jr team of cyclists from his school and a championship Archery Team and you almost feel embarrassed that your not pulling your weight. I’m pictured here with Chris @ S&S trails LeMans start.
Chris gets less time to train with all his other commitments but still rolls up to the start line prepared to have fun. I love to compete with Chris and he was one of the first individuals I meet when coming into the mountain bike scene a few years back. A class act from day one and it took me years to chase him down in the woods. Always dressed in the Trek Family colors and racing for our local rep Bob Myers, Chris displays the most positive manners and is always seen encouraging others. His group of High School students can be found at every race, some brought by their parents and others in the “Skinner Express”. Not only has he provided knowledge, training, trails & bikes for these young riders but he’s also instilled his polite demeanor & humbleness in everyone of them but don’t be fooled they also have his competitive drive and racing is racing which is done to win. I have to say that by taking a minute to speak with anyone of them and you’ll see what I mean.
Anyway A big thanks to Chris and his wife Colleen for the wonderful race last weekend and Congrats to the full Fisher podium in the expert classes! Vet and Womens expert classes both won on Superflies! For photos from the race go here
stork
By Michael | 7/14/08 | 10:59 AM
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Day off here so I will catch up a bit with racing, weird having time to actually write and post. Moody park was on6/29 in Claremont, NH usually a pretty fast, yet technical course I was looking forward to the event. 1-2 inches of rain the day before changed things just a bit, here is a post race mud shot of the ride. This was after driving home in the rain for two and a half hours, gotta love New England.
Our class was small as some riders chose to do the Mt Snow pre-race that was held on the same day but still all very fast racers. Matt Boobar, Chris Gagnon and Noah Taylor had also shown up to race in the mud fest.
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By Michael | 7/07/08 | 10:11 PM
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6/24/08
A bit late but just got the time to add it, bit quick but here is a race report.
Headed out to Maine to do Clifford Park EFTA # 3 the day before race, great course! Just an old time New England mtb race that is well known for its technical setup. It contains a lot of rocks, ledge, roots along with off camber and just some other insane sections. If you can manage to ride through those crazy ones without touching down it makes you smile.
We had a tough Elite/Pro class show up Matt, Drew, Jon, Paul, Chris, Todd, Skip and yes another Chris.
Started out and just hung with the guys as they hammered up the road and passed a couple of guys as we entered single track, rode with Paul and John for bit then made way by as spots opened up in order to go after Matt and Drew.
Hammered along with Drew and passed at left turn that had a hidden line found the day before while pre-riding, and chased after Matt from there. Got by Matt in a new single track section on second lap and just rode hard trying to make time knowing that traffic would soon be an issue.
Lap three I was working along at a decent but “don’t kill yourself” pace when I heard someone yell for Drew behind me, dumb ass mikey looked back and fell on left side hard, my bars had twisted left and there was no time to fix, just got up and rode with Drew whom had caught me after that brainiac stunt of mine.
We fought through traffic together and after falling again in the same spot on lap four I just got angry and started moving and getting some riders between us before the last climb and open section.
Tactic worked and the people between us held Drew where I wanted him to stay, attacked at the right place also felt stronger at the end, Odd.
Great race with Drew, Matt and everyone can’t wait to get to Moody Park!
By Veronique | 7/07/08 | 6:26 PM
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I had this good news a couple days ago with my qualification for the 2 World Cup held in Quebec (Mont Ste-Anne July 27th and Bromont August 3rd). I did enough UCI points to meet the criteria. I know it will be hard to race against the best girls of the world but it will be at the same time very challenging. To be there, for me it is already a big accomplishment. I never thought one day to take part to that.
With no major races since 2 weeks ago and for the next 2 weeks, I am preparing myself with some hard training in the hills with my boyfriend and mountain biking to increase my technical skill. This hard training (focus on long hill climb intervals – my weakness) will help to build my mental. I can say it is already paying off. I did a week race last wednesday and I pushed myself to the limit. I won this race with a comfortable advances and I was feeling strong. Good legs, good confidence!!
Performance is a lot related to mental toughness. At the start line you have to be ready to suffer and take confidence over your competitors. That’s where I want to be for the Nationals and World Cups beginning on July 19th. With 2 weeks ahead of the 3 big weekends, I will decrease training to be well rested physically and mentally.
By Bruno | 7/07/08 | 6:14 PM
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Last week was my first experience in duathlon held by my unit at my job (12 RBC-Canadian Forces). It was not my choice to take part to this challenge, it was a ‘’must do’’ and everybody who completed it had a free day off the next monday.
For me it was not a big challenge because in cycling we are use to do 2h + races. The duathlon was consisting of 6.5 km jog, 34 km bike and 6.5 km jog. My goal was to win it as I am good runner and cyclist. After the start, (At the start) I just took a race pace beat and only after 1 km I was already the leader and after I never looked back until the end. I increased my lead in each part. First jog leg was booked in about 22 min, bike in about 54 min and last jog leg in about 25 min. I have to say the last transition is very hard for the legs. Obviously, I was not so fluid as my legs was feeling really heavy. Anyway, I won my bet with a time of 1h42 min and with an advance of 10 min over the 2nd.
It was a fun challenge and I was impressed by everyone there because almost everybody finished the race.
By Kyle | 7/07/08 | 7:53 AM
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Dispatches from the Tour to end all Tours
“a sick and demented clown played puppet master to a peloton of 42 riders.”
“Look for Carpong to continue clowning around the peloton as the tour continues. The esteemed director is sporting a crisp-E the clown hairdoo for le tour.”
“The prologue shocker was Dirty D.”
“The team that probably took the biggest hit was Team Cupcake”
“Keiffer stumbled off the mountain with a mouth full of dirt which had been mistaken by many riders as cupcake filling.”
“reinforcements in the form of fresh ponies, the tour has shown in the past that cupcakes go stale after three days”
“Damn Son, they don’t have turns like that in Richmond.”
“it was Ryan and Bryan coming in together with the pudgy edging out the chicken.” More »
By Travis | 7/07/08 | 4:19 AM
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29″ wheels and full carbon made for a comfortable day on two wheels in the forests of Clear Creek State Park PA. With quit a few other guys showing up to push the pace I would have my work ahead of me if I wished to podium. Ok so I had excepted the fact that I wasn’t the fastest guy there for the day but riding smart once again paid off for me this year. Since pre riding with the group responsible for this event I had made the choice of ACX tires. More »
By Jim | 6/30/08 | 6:18 PM
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Yesterday was race #5 in the Campmor H2H series, The Bulldog Romp, put on by the fine fellows of Team Bulldog. In addition to being part of our regional series it was also the NJ State Championships and last chance qualifier for Nationals at Mount Snow, so needless to say, there was no pressure;) More »
