mostly about bike racing

Velochrono Article on Joe Dombrowski Translated

2011-09-20T04:01:00.000-04:00

http://www.velochrono.fr/actu/2011/dombrowski-graine-de-grimpeur/

The young American cyclists need to know the history of cycling in Europe. The essence of the sport is in Europe and not in the United States. Second, they must harden themselves in a race program where they will meet the best in high level competitions. In the United States does not exist. Only in Europe can you see if a young American will succeed or not. There he can complete his basic assertiveness on races and difficult to form a mental. "

These words are those of Christmas Dejonckheere, former head of the United States Cycling program and replaced by Marcello Albasini in World Cycling. Among the European races, justices of the future stars of world cycling, one could mention several. But one of the most interesting is undoubtedly the Tour du Val d'Aosta. Many observers like to go on this competition at the Franco-Italian accents to see the talent in the rough fight on the Alpine slopes and the open hatch.

If the final winner of the 2011 edition, Fabio Aru, is a well-known face in the bunch, the name of the American Joseph Dombrowski appears out of nowhere. The young American, barely 20 years old, has impressed in his first participation in the Italian race. "I was there with the American team with no real goals, says he Velochrono. I prepared especially for the Tour de l'Avenir. In the end, I won the fifth stage, and in the end I placed second overall and I won the young rider classification. I must admit I'm pretty happy. "

For this first season in Europe, I am more than well content.Ce runner from Virginia, slender physique of a teenager growing, has rightly pointed out in his first season in European competition and his second season the road. In addition to his splendid performance in the Tour du Val d'Aosta, the resident of Trek-Livestrong has offered two tops on the Round 5 of the Isard, and another on the Arrow of the South. And that is on European soil. "Honestly, for this first season in Europe, I am more than happy well, he admits. I did not know what to expect at any point of view. I knew that each departure, I was in great shape. But there is a difference between working on European and American trials. "

Although there is a difference, yet the young man distinguished in his native country. On a difficult test that appeals especially to Lance Armstrong, the big boss of his team: the Tour of Gila. At the last edition, Axel Merckx, the team manager Trek-Livestrong, immediately saw in this young guy from the cross the huge opportunities it gave off. "He has an impressive power to weight ratio. He has the physique to become an excellent climber. "Last April, the Tour of Gila was only his third race in the jersey of the reserve team of Radio Shack. And that's without embarrassment that has established itself as leader with splendid performances. The first step, it ranks third on arrival at the top of the Mogollon. He took the opportunity to take the jersey of best young rider. If he loses at the chrono, Joseph Dombrowski repeat performance on the last step in taking back a third and final ranking in the sixth. Benefits to which the boy, who discovered cycling through friends mountain-bikers, do not expect. "I could not imagine finishing on the podium. Then twice, I'm speechless. My goal was to finish in the top 10. So all that came was a bonus. "

Merckx: "It can become a great international runner"
Since then, all the young runaway climber who is already predicted a bright future. Last year, it was a complete stranger on the road cycling. However, one of the best weapons on the mountains of American cycling was coming. After its inception in 2007, he moved to cyclo-cross, where he is fast on major events, as well as mountain biking. As for the great leap into the road, it has long declined. "I was amused by the ATV. The road, it seemed really boring. But when I started, I really enjoyed it. "

Axel Merckx have as a manager is génial.Universitaire in Economics in 2009, Joseph Dombrowski had initially wanted to be a regular on the school benches. Yet the results are encouraging in the saddle. Of course, it's a regional level, including a victory at Virginia State Hill Climb Championship. On this test, it is necessary to the professional mountain biker Jeremiah Bishop, now his coach. "It gives me my training plan and it helps me in my preparation. I love to use the settings of drives and take notes on what I feel. It's always very indicative. "

As if he still needs to prove to himself, in July 2010 is another important date in the birth of Joseph Domborwski. The difficult Cascade Cycling Classic, he hung two 20 tops, without the support of a team. Meanwhile, mutual friends had sent his CV to the Director General Trek-Livestrong, Bart Knaggs. He was offered the opportunity to race the Tour of Utah as a trainee. "I was looking for a runner with his profile. He hit me input on Velonews says Merckx. We are like that. We are a team that provides opportunities to young unknown, those that people may know it. "And impressed by his sacrifice for the team, the staff of Trek-Livestrong commits for 2011. "Having Axel Merckx as a manager is great, regales Dombrowski. It was an incredible experience, he advises you. Second, I do not hide it, it has a lot of contact for us into pro teams. I can not ask for better. "

Everything happens so fast I did not even realize. I would not be here believe there is a an.Avec just one full season on the road, the talent of this guy from Virginia is still raw. He and his team manager know that it is perfectible. "He must understand the tactics of racing but also better manage, J. Merckx. Joseph can be excellent on stage races, but it is imperative to work on the clock because it aligned itself with only three races against time to date. If we can get started now, Joseph can become a great runner internationally. It all depends on him. "Gaps whose rider is conscious. "I have more experience racing, mainly in Europe. Then, it is imperative that I work my position on the bike. One year I will be among the Hopes the greater good because it will allow me to stay in an excellent logic to try to correct the little things improved. "

From this perspective, the United States Cycling Program is ideal for improving. Joseph Dombrowski, also a violinist in his spare time, is proud to participate in this program. "It's a huge opportunity. It gives you the ability to run on tough races in Europe. It's very high level here. It's very different United States. Although I have the chance to be part of one of the best youth teams in the United States, Trek-Livestrong. The support and advice you will receive are incredible. "

Before you do take the plunge into the world in 2013 pro. "Everything happens so fast that I did not even realize. I would not be felt here a year ago, he confided to the start of the Tour de l'Avenir. I am surprised by myself. It's hard to say what the future holds in store for you. My dream is obviously to become a pro cyclist in an American team as BMC or Radio Shack. But now I think especially in 2012, which will be an important year. I want to improve and continue what I started this year. I'll be back in Europe on these races to be

Charm City Cyclocross

2011-09-18T08:05:00.007-04:00

The cyclocross season has begun! For me, this is a time to enjoy the crisp afternoons as Fall sets in outside on the bike with my son, teammates and friends. Suzi and I have 3 children all having their own activities and so because I live my life from week to week I typically sign up race day or on the week prior to the race. Because the start order is based on registration, I start at the back. If you know anything about cyclocross, that means you never have a chance to win unless your name is Jared Nieters, Joe Dombrowski or maybe Chris Hayes. So it's about getting out, having some fun on the courses, maintaining fitness, and drinking a beer after the race.

I frequently take video of the races while I am out so in the off chance that I make to the races, I'll do my best to compile some video of the races and post them here...enjoy!

Saturday 11am Amateur Women and U19

Saturday 3:30pm Men's B Race

Saturday 12pm Masters 35+ 1/2/3/4

I raced this one...I'm the one with the mismatched orange shorts w the Haymarket Bicycles jersey. Looking way bigger and slower than the fast guys

Charm City Masters 35+ from Jackson Burns on Vimeo.

Race Recap : 2010 Shenadoah Mountain 100

2010-12-24T08:48:00.001-05:00

I was thinking about this as I was driving the kids around getting the last of the 'back to school' stuff today. Imagine that you LOVE ice cream. Wouldn't it be really fun to have all day access to Cold Stone Creamery? You would eat ice cream until your body hurt and then you might have a little more until you don't want ANY more. The SM100 is sort of like a Mountain Bike Binge day I guess. After you are done, you absolutely don't want any more. But then, like eating too much ice cream, quickly after your stomach settles down, you wouldn't mind having a bit more.

The 2010 Shenandoah 100 brought a unique combination of camaraderie, pain, pleasure and everything in between. As a last minute entry, Chris Hayes decided to enter the race for the first time and we rode down together and ended up riding the first part of the course at the same pace. Chris had done a bit of reconnaissance on the course with his wife Sherry and knew more about the course than I could recall from my participation in the 2009 course. So I decided to try to jot down some notes on the course as it is fresh in my mind.

Even now, it is difficult to recall the specifics of each climb / descent. I think my mind just tells me...forget where you are, you are not in purgatory, just keep moving the pedals in circles, don't look up, just look 5 feet in front of you and keep pedaling. Think of doing that for 10 hours on a course of varying terrain and somebody asks something specific about the race. "It was the effing hardest race I've ever done" is the first thing that comes to mind. So, I will apologize in advance for any parts of the course that I don't get right and would appreciate any comments that folks have to add clarification.

Climb 1 :

The first climb just sort of happens. Everyone is still relatively together. The coordinator asked folks to line up according to the time they expect to have. So the guys up front probably put a good 10 minutes into the field even before the first climb. This climb is by far the easiest climb, but it still steep enough to force people off of the bike to walk. I recall the first steep pitch as a rutted out fire road, looking up and seeing people slow down to a crawl, some people getting off, finding my gear and just grinding up past the walkers. The first separation happens here based on climbing ability. But still, this climb is by far the shortest and least technical of the climbs. It is on fire road for the most part, albeit rutty here and there. As you crest this climb, I recall looking to the right and seeing a nice view of the mountains. A special sight so early in the morning on top of a mountain in the GW forest. I don't recall much about the descent from Climb 1.

Climb 2 :

This one hits hard fast. This the first technical climb in that the grade is steep and it is all single track. So no room to ride to the left or right to correct your balance. Keep your balance and pedal hard to make it to the top on your bike. And if you have to pass the walkers, it adds another challenge of letting people know you're coming and hoping that they get out off the trail as you pass them. As I recall, you leave a fire road, enter single track and the ascent comes quickly. This section is rideable if you are near the front of the pack, but selections haven't been enough to split people up just yet and so if you are anywhere but near the front, most of the riders get off of the bike and walk large sections of this climb. It is the first time that I got off the bike and mostly just because everyone else did. I followed Chris up this section and felt like the walking pace was a bit faster than I would prefer, but I didn't want to make people behind me edgy so I kept pace. I recall having to lean significantly uphill pushing the handlebars of my bike and then switching back and forth between putting one hand on the saddle and the other on the left handlebar. At various points of the climb people decide to jump on their bikes and pedal. Invariably, these attempts are futile and people can't find the momentum to move the bike forward and end up falling back to pushing and sometimes falling over partially clipped in. A special sort of hell when you are exhausted. But we aren't quite there yet...this is just climb 2.

The descent off climb 2 is very rocky and technical. Many 1-2 foot drops here. Get ready to put your butt behind the seat on this one otherwise your flying end over end. I forgot my gloves and also forgot to unlock my front shocks. I was ended up descending one of the more technical downhills that I've done this year on a GF hardtail 29er with no shocks and no gloves. You can image how that must have felt. My triceps are very sore this morning.

Climb 3 :

Again, the descent from climb 3 was very technical. Although the terrain profile looks less of a pitch downward than climb 2, there are several challenging drops that have you locking up both breaks while navigating very technical rocky sections. Half way down this descent I came to the realization that my front shocks were locked out and I fixed them. I immediately noticed that it was much better descending with shocks and I felt a bit relieved, hoping that I would be able to move a little better and with less pain. It was true to a point.

Climb 4 :

The single track climb #4 is etched into the mountain side. Off camber on both sides. If you stop and lose your balance to the right (downhill) you better get your foot down quickly or your going for a ride. That happened to me last year and I have a vivid memory of falling down the hill, eventually finding my feet only to experience a full tower torso cramping experience worse than any other cramping I recall. After something like that you have to get it out of your head otherwise you tend to do it again. It's sort of like golfing in that way...ignore the pond, otherwise the ball goes right in every time. Get it out of your head and imagine that the path is on a level climb. There are also some unexpected rocky sections (maybe 3 or 4) but if you keep your speed up you can just ride over them. This section is mostly rideable, but the first part of the climb is a carry your bike section. Too steep to even push the bike. The descent from 4 is much like the climb except the downhill is to the left, so again, don't think about riding off the trail to the left. I am very conservative on the descents and am amazed at the skill that riders passing me have. Guys just fly down these technical descents.

Climb 5 :

20 miles of non-technical climbing...It just doesn't end. Just find your climbing gear and settle in. This is the only hilltop aid station and it is more than welcome to find all the food, Heed, water, electrolytes, bike techs that you could ever want.

Video of descent off of climb 5

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=432836823727&ref=mf

Climb 6 :

Climb 6 is half of what climb 3 is just half way. It hurts, but you're comforted by the fact that this is the LAST ONE! and you can just picture yourself riding into camp.

The descent is once again fairly technical at the start but then turns into undulating hills that become a fun way to end the ride. You begin to see tents scattered amongst the trails as you head into camp and you know that you are home.

Flats :

As you can see by the terrain profile, there are a bunch of flat sections of the course. Lots of pace lining going on here. A good place to make up some ground on the pure mountain bikers for those with road fitness. I was passed by the same guys on the descents on every mountain, but I caught back up on every flat. Flats are on mixed terrain, concrete public roads, gravel fire roads, mountain top single track through fields, etc.

Aid Stations :

I can't say enough about how well supported this race is. At every aid station I was greeted with "Hello Bryan (your number plate has your name on it), how can I help you...need a bike check? Heed refill?" The answer is typically YES...PLEASE...and...YES...PLEASE Tables with everything you can imagine, small cups of soda, electrolyte drinks, boxes of electrolyte pills, PB&J sandwiches, bananas, ambulances, whatever you can think of...it is there at the aid stations. There are 6 aid stations throughout the race. If you don't feel like riding this epic race, you can get pretty close to the experience by volunteering at aid station.

Short Video from the Promoter :

http://www.mtntouring.com/imgs/SMT-video/smt100b.mov

2009 Shenandoah Mountain 100

2010-12-24T08:35:00.000-05:00

The Shenandoah Mountain 100 could easily become my favorite race of the year. It is without a doubt the most epic race in the state of Virginia. The race begins and ends at the Stokesville campground, or west of what most people may be familiar with - Harrisonburg, VA. The race is in the George Washington National Forest. Approaching the campsite, it becomes clear that you're headed into a mountainous region. The race meanders through these mountains and contains 6 major climbs over 100 miles. If you look at the terrain profile below, you'll see that one of the minor climbs is 1000 ft and the biggest climb is slightly over 2000 ft for a total climbing elevation of 12,000 ft.

The venue itself is superior to that of any race that I've participated in. The entire Stokesville campground is reserved for over 500 participants in the race. Dinner, which consists of pasta, bread, salad, drinks (including a limitless supply of beer) is served on Saturday evening and race packet pickup is done the night prior to the race. I took my ultralight 2 man tent and slept fine with the aid of a couple of sleeping pills and woke to the sound of firecrackers and random yelling whoops and yaws on Sunday morning at about 5:30 or so. Breakfast is on your own, so I downed as much as my stomach could hold and snagged a cup of coffee, provided by the event coordinators. The riders were corralled at a designated area in the campground and at 6:30, we were off.

It is a neat experience to be racing through the woods on the top of a ridge in backwoods Virginia before most people wake up. I didn't enter the race to really "race", but more to survive and finish with a respectable time and at the very least FINISH the race in the daylight. I've only been racing mountain bikes for less than 3 months after purchasing a mountain bike just shortly prior to entering my first race and I think I've raced a grand total of 3 events, so I wasn't looking to set the world on fire, but more to experience the event while not embarrassing myself. mission accomplished, with caveats.

I'd guess that half of the event is on fire roads and the other half of the event is on single track through the woods. If it doesn't work out that way in terms of mileage, it definitely works out that way in terms of time. There were 6 aid stations, pretty much positioned inbetween the climbs. The aid stations were littered with people to help, mechanics, pb&j, goo, cliff bars, heed, gatorade, water, pizza, skittles, potato chips, etc, etc. So you really just needed to take enough food to get you to the first real aid station @ 30 miles.

The best part of the race for me was between aid stations 2 and 3, where there was a non-technical descent that had a bunch of twists turns and jumps, that was like a roller coaster made out an abandoned undriveable fire road. Two other mountain descents were a blast and I only wish I had a helmet cam to capture that experience. For me, the hardest part of the race was the climb between aid stations 3&4. This was hell, physically but mostly mentally. This was a narrow off camber climb, with the trail cut into the side of the mountain. On several occasions, I found myself headed off the trail towards the downhill side of the trail and had to put the brakes on full to accomplish a dead stop. This happened to me repeatedly and when I stopped, clipped into my pedals, the objective was to fall towards the uphill side of the trail, but on 3 occasions, I fell on the downhill side. That's no fun and one of the times after luckily landing on my feet, my legs cramped seriously for about 2 minutes where I found them completely immobile. Mentally, after experiencing this once, it seemed inevitable that it would happen again if I decided to try to ride the sucker. So, it was a combination of mental torture and having to just give in and walk the more difficult sections of that climb. On the descent from that climb, I found myself headed straight for a tree. Seeing that coming, I slammed on the brakes, decreasing my speed to some degree, but ended up slamming my right shoulder into the the tree (like getting hit by a linebacker) which threw me horizontal only to fall back first onto my rear wheel, which had a bit of a wobble for the remainder of the race.

Shortly after those episodes of setbacks between aid stations 3&4, I was caught by Terry, my friend and teammate, who had suffered from a broken chain on the the second climb of the day. Terry and I ended up riding the remainder of the race together and crossed the finish line at the EXACT same time of 11 hours, each of us telling the other that they should cross first. We were mostly concerned with conserving enough energy to get us through the day. So, you can't say that we really "raced" the race, more like "rode" the race. Terry's climbing ability is superior to mine, tipping the scales at 130, and my descending skills seemed to be slightly better than Terry's, myself tipping the scales at 185, so he waited for me at the top of the hills and I helped him find the lines to make up some time on the descents. We didn't plan it this way, but I was glad to have Terry to get me thru the long day of suffering and take my mind off of the ride every now and then.

Jeremiah Bishop, arguably the best mountain bike rider in the US, broke the course record and finished under 7 hours. My other teammate, "Joseph" Dombrowski, finished 15th, beating his time from last year by 50 minutes. Official results haven't been posted yet, but I'll point to them when they are out.

Thanks to Joseph for convincing me to ride this event and showing me the ropes a bit.

Joe's Playground

2010-12-24T08:31:00.002-05:00

Shortly after purchasing a mountain bike and doing a couple of races down at Wakefield Park in Annandale, Joe Dombrowski convinced me to race the Shenandoah Mountain 100. This race, I suspect will be the hardest ride or race that I will have ever done. It is 100 miles, 12,000 ft of climbing on a combination of single track and fire roads. The top riders like Jeremiah Bishop, Chris Eatough, Floyd Landis finish this in something more than 7 hours. It takes some 12 hours and many never get to the finish. Lance just won a like event in Colorado, the Leadville 100. He and Floyd were joking around that the Tour De France was just training for the Leadville 100. It would be cool to see Lance attend the SM100.

In preperation for the SM100, Joe took me out to some of his favorite training grounds out west of Front Royal in the National Forest. He's done these rides solo before, but doesn't like to as there are trails on this route that take you 15 miles away from something other than trails and it wouldn't be good to be stranded in the National Forest 15 miles away from any sort of road. The trails were brutal, rocky as all get out and some of them were simply unrideable. There was one point where I lost all anaerobic punch required to navigate one of the more technical sections after about 3.5 hours on the bike and I got a feel for how the SM100 could go if I'm not prepared. Nothing like being in the middle of the forest, void of both physical and mental capacity required to continue. This is when you just look at the rocks in front of you and slowly move your bike in the right direction. After 5.5 hours on the bike, we reached a ridge that was mostly unrideable and I had to walk my bike for what seemed like a mile. The final downhill stretch was windy with several switchbacks, sort of like Wakefield and fast. We ended up getting back to the car after 6.5 hours of riding and about 10 minutes before the sun went down. In hindsight, if anything would have gone wrong on the ride to delay us even 1/2 hour, it could have meant some trouble as I wasn't packing lights...mental note...bring lights next time...

This ride was by far the most technical and physically challenging rides that I've done. Joe claims to have done this particular ride over 30 times previously.

Joe's had a good run lately, placing top 10 (9th and 6th) in 2 junior national championship mtb races, 3rd at Mt Snow and he won the cat 3 sr road race championships at Page Valley last week after only ever racing a handful of races on the road.

Learn How To Lose

2009-03-21T06:14:00.007-04:00

I was inspired by Terry's post, passing on his knowlege and experience that he's gained as an athlete and a coach and some of the key messages that he has been preaching to the kids. I have been coaching an elementary wrestling program over the winter and have been reminded of what we learn from sports, how to talk to different levels of athletes and what we can take away from sports, win or lose. I thought that I'd also take a moment to share some thoughts, but also to give our friend Kyle some retribution, as I think that Kyle is a good example of how to keep fighting and never give up. I've truly enjoyed my coaching experience this winter and coaching with Jamie Carayiannis, a veteran coach of Annandale High School, has been preaching many of the messages that I'll discuss on this post for years.

The topic here is failure and what we learn from it. In the sport of elementary wrestling, many of the lessons are about how to react to losing. Imagine that you're in first grade ... you step out onto a wrestling mat and some other kid is looking into your eyes like he wants to rip your head off with his parents standing behind him reinforcing what is clearly going thru his mind, screaming at the top of their lungs. Then you get pummeled, feel humiliated in front of your friends and family, go to the center of the mat, the ref raises the other kids hand ... and to do that week after week is not easy. One of the challenging thing about coaching these kids is to keep them from quitting.

Success or Failure at a particular event is just a snapshot of an athlete a particular moment in time. Kids mature physically at different ages. Some kids are great in elementary school, and fade away later. Other kids don't mature until high school or even later. Some kids are in the middle of a growth spurt with lanky limbs and haven't grown into themselves just yet. As a kid in a sport, it's difficult to take these things into consideration, because they don't always view themselves on a journey, mostly it's all about the one match that they just wrestled and have been preparing for, but we have to remind them that it's not just about winning or losing, but more about the journey and what they can learn about the match, take away and come back next time better prepared.

When I wrestled in college, there was a kid on the team named "Goldy". He wrestled all 4 years of college, went thru hell with the rest of us...every practice, every weight training session, but NEVER won a match. Goldy was looked up to by everyone on the team with some sort of god-like status, because what kind of person could put themself thru that sort of torture repeatedly, only to never reap the rewards of victory? Well, Goldy did. That made him pretty special and well respected. I remember one tournament match in particular at Cornell University, when Goldy was up in the 3rd period and the news quickly spread across the floor and before you knew it, every teammate was crowded around the mat cheering on Goldy as it seemed that he would pull this one out and we could all celebrate victoriously. Alas, something happened like it always did and Goldy ended up losing somehow. Goldy just didn't know how to win. But the one thing that Goldy had more of than anyone else was perseverence. Granted, Goldy didn't possess the losing skills that enabled him to learn from his loss and turn those weaknesses into strengths, but he did possess the admirable quality of perseverence. Sometimes, we just need to pick ourselves up and keep going. Don't give up.

My personal experience is that I'd wrestled since second grade and after 10 years, I finally made varsity at the High School level only to lose in the sectional tournament at 132 lbs. But, I didn't give up and 2 years later I was the ECC champ at 190 lbs as a walk on student at Bucknell. Later, I repeated that 3 times and became an all american.

How we react to losing is much more important than anything else. This is espescially relevant in cycling. A hundred riders line up and only one rider wins the race. Everyone else loses. 2nd place is first loser. So, what to do? Well, we don't hang up our cleats and give up, right? We rethink our training plan, think about the implications of weight, time on the bike, training intensity, time of the year, our diet, etc, etc, etc. Geez, even if we don't end up getting across the finish line first next time around, look at all of the side benefits that we get from focussing our brains on how to get across the finish line in terms of general fitness. That benefit alone is worth pinning a number on and lining up at the race.

Milton Harvest Festival Bike Race

2008-10-02T20:01:00.012-04:00

Chris Jones : Your buddy Kyle pipped me at the line, well that's the way I saw it anyway! Fanny : Thanks for sending me the newspaper clipping!

Kodiak : Index

2008-09-27T11:04:00.004-04:00

Links of Fishing Trip to Kodiak Alaska

The Island

The People

The Bear Camp

Isolated Living

The Eagles

The Bears

The Fishing

Interviewing The Crew

Kodiak : Isolated Living

2008-09-27T10:44:00.006-04:00

When Jeannie was in grade school, people asked her the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" She says that question was annoying to her and so she would answer "A Hermit". Little did those folks know that she was right. Jeannie lives on Uganik Bay in remote Kodiak Island, Alaska with no power, no running water and no neighbors aside from the occasional Bears who have discovered her Rasberry Garden. Jeannie was our cook and she didn't mind us poking around her place, so we did the short hike down the coast of the Bay to her place and took some pictures.

Chris, Jeannie's friend with a plane was visiting.

A 6 foot chain fence surrounds the property to protect from the bears.It's the little things that matter - a flower box.
quite an elaborate garden and greenhouse.
cabbage
Rasberry and Gooseberry Bushes and
View of the house. Lots of amenities here for such a remote location.

Kodiak : The Eagles

2008-09-27T10:06:00.004-04:00

I have never seen so many Eagles as I did while on Kodiak Island. The number of Eagles in Alaska are comprable to the number of Turkey Buzzards in Virginia. They are scavengers just the same. You could look up and see 10 Eagles circling. On one occasion, we came across an Eagle with a broken wing. I could have walked right up to it, but I decided to give him some space. I sneaked around a rock to get as close as possible, but not so to spook him too much and hurt himself even more. Although our guide said that he saw the same eagle defending himself against a bear the previous day.

Kodiak : The Bears

2008-09-22T20:18:00.005-04:00

Lots of big animals like to eat Salmon. The bears, which normally spend their time up in the mountains come down to eat salmon before they go back up into the colder elevations to hibernate. At one point, we saw 28 bears at one time. The bears make all sorts of paths thru the high grass surrounding the river. We use these bear path to get from one fishing hole to other fishing holes. On many occasions, we encountered bears across the river, in the river on our side of the river...all over. They were more interested in the salmon than us. Some bears were very comfortable with us being there and others were very skiddish. Sows, Boars, and cubs....we saw them all. Some of the larger Boars stay up in the mountains and are content with berries. Here are some pictures of the bears.

Bear video:

Kodiak : Interviewing The Crew

2008-09-22T19:32:00.010-04:00

Sean

Bill

Frick and Frack

Curious George and the Grizzly Bear

as George says in not so many words ... We all have our own Grizzly Bear.

Kodiak : The Fishing

2008-09-22T19:09:00.007-04:00

George says that our week of fishing is the worst week that he's ever had on Kodiak. Since it was my best week of fishing ever, I can't imagine a good week. It rained every day, which made the water a bit murkier than normal. In spite of that, I caught the biggest fish that I've ever caught on a fly rod. Here is a video and some pictures of the fishing.

Kodiak : The Bear Camp

2008-09-22T18:58:00.006-04:00

The View From the Bay.

Coffee To Start The Day
Dick Rohrer's Bear Camp is the "Waldorf" of camps on this side of the island. The basically consists of the basics. There are 3 cabins that consist of bunk beds and a propane heater. There are 2 outhouses and 1 common room cabin for cooking, eating and cribbage (the preferred card game of all commercial canneries in Alaska).

Kodiak : The People

2008-09-22T18:29:00.011-04:00

We met some very interesting people during our trip.

Trevor Dunbar and his father (coach of the Kodiak Cross Country Team) were returning from a 21 team competition just North of Anchorage. Trevor had just beat the state record time for the 5k, with a time of 15:17. (pretty damn fast) Look for Trevor in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Jeanie lives on Island paradise and I will do a seperate entry on the wonderful place where she lives. In addition to being a very self sufficient woman who lives in a remote part of Kodiak Island, she was also our cook for the week. She knows how to cook fish as well as other things like Gooseberry pie, cornbread and rasberry scones to name a few.

Sam (left) and Dick (right) Rohrer are the owners and guides behind Dick Rohrers Bear Camp, which was the outfit behind our trip. Dick grew up in Lancaster, PA and found his way to settle down in Kodiak and operate his camp. His son, Sam, is a native of Kodiak. Their operation includes Bear, Goat and Deer hunts as well as fishing and wildlife viewing expeditions.

David is from East Texas and operates heavy machinery in Valdeze. During his first week on the job, he became friends with Floyd (the guy who has recently become engaged to the Republican VP Candidate's daughter). We made a lot of inquiries into the local pulse on Sarah Palin's nomination and we'd estimate an 80% approval rating. We thought that he was important enough to profile here. He also thought that George was the funniest person on the planet.
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Isaac is an enforcement officer that works for the State of Alaska. He was in the area patrolling the status of guiding on the river and checking out various camps set up on the river to ensure compliance with the law. He flew in to Mush Lake, set up camp and we met him as he was just heading down the river in his 5 lb inflatable raft (which was the envy our our guide Sam). He made it down to the lake around 7pm, just when the rain started and it was starting to get dark. We were thinking of him as we got back to our propane heated cabins and Sam went out to look for him, but by the time he made it up to the mouth of the river, Isaac was gone. We saw him the next day again, so apparently he somehow found bear trails to hike back up the river to his camp several miles up the river.

Kodiak : The Island

2008-09-22T18:13:00.001-04:00

Kodiak Island is SW of Anchorage. There are 2 ways to get there 1) by plane 2) by ferry. The Ferry is less expensive, but it is a 10 hour trip - we flew. The island has about 14,000 residents, mostly centered around the township of Kodiak on the East side of the island. There is one road on the island, which is about 80 miles long and doesn't get to the West side of the Island. There are 2 significant activities on the island, fishing and the military. The largest coast guard base in the USA is located on Kodiak Island which accounts for about 2000 of the residents. About 12000 people live in the town of Kodiak, where the largest occupation is commercial fishing. They fish for everything in the ocean - salmon, king crab, red snapper, etc, etc. These operations are known as canneries and they do everything from catch the fish to packaging and distribution to retailers like Costco.

The island came to be out of ancient volcanos that erupted and formed the numerous mountain peaks that make of the island today. The highest mountain peak on the island is something like 6000 ft and the rock is black, clearly a product of hardened molten lava. Snow and ice on the mountain peaks are visible and are the source of the many streams, and rivers that flow from the melting glacial ice into the oceans. These rivers are the spawning grounds for the Pacific Salmon that frequent the waters during the months of August and September. We hit the Uganic River during the peak of the Salmon runs. In the prophetic words of our friend George Durwachter, "A Hell of alot depends on those damn Salmon". The fishing industry, the bears, the eagles, and the seagulls to name a few.

From the town of Kodiak, we took a pontoon plane to the west side of the Island and landed in Uganik Bay, where we spent a week fishing on Uganic River. This part of the island is not accessible by car and there is no power, no telephones, no running water, no WIFI, no Starbucks.

Into The Wild

2008-09-11T22:14:00.003-04:00

I think the story may have even started on the east coast and ended in Alaska...although it's been many years since I read the book. Such may be my fate as I leave on Sunday to fish for Salmon in Kodiak, Alaska. I am about to embark on this fishing trip to Kodiak with my dad, uncle, and some close family and friends. It should be a very unique experience and I will take some pictures and try to keep a daily journal of my travels. Although there won't be internet access where I'm headed...not even electricity. Just us, the salmon, the grizzly bears, and the Alaskan wilderness.

It takes a bit more preparation to spend a week in Alaska than it does to plan my weekly commute to the office. I've decided that since my arm and leg warmers keep me quite warm on a bike in 30 degree weather, they should do me fine in place of long underwear in 40 degree Alaskan weather. I figure, I'll be around water most of the time, and they'll clean fairly easily via the Dave Z method. I've got my layering strategy all planned out. But aside from the fancy swimsuit that looks like biking shorts, my arm and leg warmers, I'll be stocked like most of the other fishermen. I've been gathering all of my stuff into little piles that will go into little stuff bags, which will then go into bigger stuff bags.

I'll be off the bike for a week, but perhaps I'll lose a couple of pounds by limiting my input to fresh Pacific Salmon.

If I don't make it back, I will turn my blog over to the then to be true bike widow...

Bobke's Tour De Millersburg

2008-08-21T06:03:00.009-04:00

Millersburg is a very cool little town set on the east side of the susquehanna river north of Harrisburg. If you know PA well, then you know that Rt 11 goes north along the west side of the river and so to get to Millersburg, you have to go very far north or south and then backtrack or take a ferry across the river. It's not easy to get to, which is bad for motorists, good for cyclists. Before the race, we were cruising around town and came across a waterfront park off the beaten path on the river just 1 block away from the main street of town. As Terry was soaking in the beauty, he just about ran straight into a blue haired lady driving a 1975 plymouth. The lady was all smiles and waving, little did we know that she was thinking 'if you take one step closer I'm pulling out my baseball bat'. Between races, we ate at the Wooden Nickel for lunch which seemed to be the only option, but a good one at that! The service was excellent and the food was great. I even had a beer between races to 'carb up' and recover from the TT - maybe that's why I was riding a bit sketchy in the crit? The town was VERY supportive. Entire streets where people normally park their cars in front of their homes were cleared for the event.

Bobke was at the race doing pre race recognition and coordinating the stages. Below is a video of Bobke calling up the women's elite riders.

After the call ups, he was pretty much hanging out, so it was a great time to meander over and catch up with my old buddy, Bob Roll. Nusbaum and I stopped by and got to spend about 5 minutes chatting with him. Pretty cool to be able to small talk with Bob Roll in this setting. We talked about his tour experience, frustration about travel and airlines and I thought it would be entertaining to run my race strategy by him for the crit (just try to hold on to the back - what do you think?) Bobke laughed and said, well - you might want to get up to the front at some point. Then he thought about it and said being at the back wouldn't be the worst thing on a course like this one, but you'll want to start working up on the last 2 laps. Anyway, very cool to have Bob Roll at the event and kudos to race coordinator for getting him out. I asked him what brought him to the event and he said, well, the race coordinator just called him up and Bobke accepted.

This was the first TT for Terry and I, so we didn't know what to expect. We did our best to get aero and all...I had an old TT bar that I managed to mount onto my road bike, but that was it. We did OK, but we didn't break any records that's for sure. When I got passed halfway thru the course, I was trying to tell myself that the guy must be in contention for the stage win or something, then 2 other guys passed me, I realized that I suck (relative to the competition). My average speed on the 20k TT was 25 mph (12.43 miles / (29.27 minutes / 60 minutes)) Now I am in a dilemma...to buy a TT bike and aero equipment for thousands of dollars to use it only twice a year...or not! I am thinking that my ego isn't that fragile. But I did enjoy the race against the clock and perhaps I can find something cheap somewhere.

I underperformed in both the crit and the road race. I had the legs, and in the road race, I would have been ready to go but miscounted the laps. I had it in my head that we were doing 4 12 mile loops, not 3 18 mile loops, so I ignored everything else and when the pace picked up on lap 3 it was too late. That was my day for a good finish and I missed it. No matter, it was worth the trip.

Commuting Cyclist Speeds Past Drivers, Rescues Motorist

2008-08-05T19:25:00.006-04:00

Submitted by Suzi Burns, tolerant spouse

[Herndon, VA] - On Monday, August 4th motorists driving home on Rt. 29 in Northern Virginia witnessed an almost superhuman feat of strength and endurance. As their vehicles crept forward toward their homes at turtle speed, a man in white ( aren't all heroes dressed in white? ) and blue dashed by them on their right, pedaling his bike faster than their gas-guzzling yuppie-mobiles were driving.

Who was this crazy person? How can he go so fast? How far is he riding? Where is he storing his laptop? Is that a Blackberry hanging out of the back of his jersey? Does he have Starbucks in those water bottles? Does he wear that silly outfit all day long in meetings?

So many questions, yet no way to have them answered, as this cyclist sped past them...his legs pumping faster than their fists to the beat of the hip hop of 99.5 that was blaring on their car radios.

Suddenly however, the tempo of this elite executive cyclist came to a halt. Blocking his way was a dead car and a distraught, overweight driver. Seeing help on the horizon coming toward him on a bike, this driver requested help moving his car off the road and out of danger.

Never one to shrink from helping those in need, and also having firsthand experience of the dangers of the road ( see blog on Road Rash and Lessons Learned ), our cyclist hero chucked his clips aside and, in the true spirit of helping his fellow man, dug his feet ( literally) into the blacktop and , using the immense upper body strength that all elite cyclist have, pushed the SUV ( ok, it was a small Toyota commuter, but SUV sounds better ) to the side of the road and away from harm.

"Thank you, Spandex man", said the helpless driver. "No problem," our cyclist hero replied, as he rode off toward home with lightning speed.

The AAA tow truck pulled up, as the dust of an orange and black Orbea road bike settled on the SUV/small Toyota commuter. " Who was that guy? " the fat tow truck driver asked?

" I don't know," said the weary and thankful commuter, " but I'll tell you this..... I will never try to scare the shit out of a road biker again."

They looked off into the distance where our skinny hero was disappearing into the sunset and nodded in agreement.

30 MINUTES LATER...

As Avid Cyclist man coasted into his driveway ( 20 minutes faster than if he had driven ), his dogs and children came out to greet him. He walked inside the house,visited with his wife and watched while she cooked the evening meal.

He ate everything in the pantry, fridge and fruit bowl, polished off the orange juice and soymilk (right from the carton) and cracked open a beer. Then, after breathing, he asked what was for dinner.

As she set the table and he partially undressed in the kitchen, carefully laying sweaty socks, jersey and blackberry on the counter ( much to the annoyance of his lovely wife, btw ), he relayed his story of superhuman strength and speed to her.

He also revealed to her, in very dramatic fashion, that he was injured in this act of kindness, for as he was pushing the Monster Truck ( things always get bigger as you tell the story over and over and over ),barefoot, singlehandedly , in the rain.... uphill.......he managed to get blisters the size of Delaware on the bottom of his feet.

After the appropriate oohing, ahhhhing from every angle and a heartfelt "wow that looks bad, hon",from the wife, they ate.

As he wolfed down his food, his wife got to thinking:
Oddly enough, he could ride his bike at lighting speed, push cars out of harm's way, and conduct a conference call on his blackberry all at the same time.... but once home, it was all he could do to walk. And hanging a shelf? Why how could one hang a shelf with a blister on his foot?

It would have to wait until tomorrow.

As she watched him sleep that night, a bottle of advil standing vigil over him on the nightstand, she thought to herself, "yes, I am married to a super hero all right : Incredibly Tired Man."

And as he dreamt of podium wins and fancy bikes, she went downstairs to toss his jersey and bibs into the washer for the next day's cycling adventure.

How To Win

2008-08-01T11:11:00.006-04:00

I thought that the title might get people's attention but you'll quickly realize that I am simply passing on a message that was given to me. This poem was placed on my wall by my father when I was in Jr High School. It's still on my wall today and I thought I'd share it with others.

If you think you are beaten you are,
If you think you dare not you don't,
If you'd like to win but think you can't, it's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost.
For out in the world we find success begins with a fellows heart.
It's all in the state of the mind.

The poem was discovered by my father when we were traveling in Europe playing soccer against the Brits. It was posted at the entrance to Grimbsy Football Club, Lincolnshire, on June 30, 1984.

Rey

2008-07-21T22:21:00.001-04:00

Rey made it to Virginia!

http://reysrideacrossamerica.blogspot.com/

check out the daily miles from his entries...

Rey's Ride Across America

2008-06-12T19:54:00.003-04:00

This crazy sport of cycling has a cool way of bringing people together. Friends are made on the road. One such friend, who helped re-introduce me to the bike is Rey Roy. I tell you this because he has an interesting story that he is in the process of writing. You can follow it here.

http://reysrideacrossamerica.blogspot.com/

Over the next several months, Rey will be riding his bike across the United States. If only for lack of planning on my part, I haven't selected a portion of the ride to ride with him. I still intend to do so, but we'll see what works out.

It's pretty cool that he's sponsoring 2 charities and has already raised over $10,000.

Goal Tracking

2008-05-05T21:24:00.008-04:00

My personal goal for the season is to cat up to 3 and then pack finish in a 1/2/3 race. I seem to be on track for at least the first portion of my goal...not sure about the second.

We all have different goals, but for the most part everyone who is on the course racing does so for one reason - to win, and for those of us who are relatively new to the sport, we are obsessed with justifying all of the time that we've put into training by seeing the fruits of our labor result in a promotion to the next category...referred to as cat'ing'-up. Some people prefer to ride an entire season in the category that they start out in. In fact, the MABRA tracks results by category and so people who win enough races to cat up and don't... have a better chance of placing high in the MABRA ranking for their category. Others "cat up" as soon as they possibly can. I think that I fall into the later category. I want to cat up as soon as I possibly can. I could be off in my points calculation, but this is where I calculate that I am to date.

Total Points Season To Date : 16 points
Top 10 Finishes : 4

3/29, Kirkwood Road Race (cat 4), 3rd, 7 points
3/30, Jefferson Cup Road Race (cat 4), 12th, no points
4/6, Tyson's Corner Criterium (cat 4), 5th, 2 points
5/3, Poolesville Road Race (cat 4/5), 4th, 6 points
5/18, So MD Criterium (cat 4), 6th, 1 point

There are 2 ways to upgrade from cat 4 to cat 3. One must either finish (10) races with top 10 finishes, or accumulate 20 points. What is a bit concerning to me is that I'm having fun in my quest and it seems to be nearly complete. Then, once again, the Peter Principle will set in. I will have been promoted to a level where I am less competent and it will start all over again. What sick person created this system ? LOL My goals haven't changed since last season. Last season, however, I was unable to finish even a single cat 4 event in the top 10.

unsolicited advice:
My explanation for the change in results this year is simply that it takes time for your body to catch up to your goals sometimes. Fitness levels and muscular endurance don't improve in weeks...it takes months and sometimes years. Experience in racing helps too...there is more to racing bikes than one may think...lots of different training methods...a bit of strategy and a bit of luck involved...although keep this in mind...."the harder you work, the luckier you get"

Introspective:
I wonder how long I can keep my motivation to race. This is not a sport that you do "to finish", it is racing. So as long as I am in the hunt, I suppose that I will have a chance to win, and that should keep me motivated. The obsession to upgrade will wane, my goals will change. On the last wednesday night ride, I was actually satisfied with my own moderate pace...wasn't concerned a bit as I watched the group ride off ahead of me down the road...was content to enjoy the solitude of my work at my own pace...of course, to stay with the group would have meant "bleeding from my eyeballs"...which is what I normally do on our wed night group rides. Which got me thinking...most folks don't have a desire to punish themselves on a regular basis. Are cyclists wired differently? I think we do this because we think that if we want to achieve our goal of winning the race, hard work is required. The goal is to win and to win a race means finishing ahead of everyone else in the race, which requires training harder and smarter than everyone else in the race. After all, this is racing.

Perhaps there will come a day when I am not motivated to win the race. I hope that is the day that I am put to rest.

Wintergreen Ascent

2008-05-05T06:07:00.002-04:00

Our newest member to the Haymarket Team, Joe Dombrosky, won the Junior division with a time of 37:37. In reviewing the results, this time would have placed Joe in second place in the most elite division.

warning : highly technical section

Since this was a hill climb time trial, I thought that I would put my power calculator to the test. I am interested in it's accuracy, so if anyone reading this blog participated in the event and measured their power during the event, I'd like to see the comparison of the straight physics against the actual measurement...

Inputs: Joe's weight - 140lbs, elevation - 2626ft, time - 2257 seconds (37:37)

Based on these inputs, Joe's sustained average power during the event was 250 watts.

Steve Gordon - ACC Champion

2008-04-21T21:23:00.004-04:00

Steve Gordon, Warrenton, VA just won the ACC Championships at Wakeforest in Winston-Salem, NC. Steve is a good example of what happens when you combine ability, hard work and desire.

I recall just 2 years ago riding some of my first group rides in Warrenton with Steve on the Tuesday night rides from the old Bike Stop. At the time, Steve was talking about just entering college, majoring in Engineering and talking about how out of place he felt around the cycling team at VT. He thought everyone seemed to look down on him...didn't have all of the right equipment and wasn't as fast as perhaps the average team rider.

Contrast that image of Steevo with the one below...something happened in a couple of years???

Way to go Steeeeeevooooo!!!!

link to Steve's Blog.

Dollars Per Mile

2008-03-21T05:32:00.001-04:00

Terry's post about how cyclists are more efficient than Salmon got me thinking...how efficient are we? So, in that thought process, I decided to give a number to it. The number that I decided was most interesting was dollars per mile. Of course Salmon and Eagles don't pay for their food, so that makes it difficult to calculate. I decided to compare the efficiency of a person riding a bike to a person driving a car.

Conclusion : a person riding a bike costs $.07 / mile, while a car trip costs $.14 / mile.

Now, of course these numbers change quickly when the person starts eating more expensive food. Anyway, the 3000 miles that Jared has put in over the past couple of months has cost him at least $210. Assuming that took 3 months, he spent $70 per month to fuel his workouts.

Assumptions :

the person only eats king size snickers bars
a person driving a car burns no calories
gallon of gas costs $3.00
snickers bar costs $1.25
500 calories in a snickers bar
car does 22 miles per gallon
a person riding 20 miles burns 600 calories

more numbers

2008-01-25T22:22:00.000-05:00

based on the same formulas below, here are some additional insights.

1 lb of weight loss is equivalent to 1.5 watts of power gain. If you want to make a formula out of it ...

(weight difference) * 1.5 = power difference

Every pound of weight lost equates to a .46% time gain. So, 10 pounds should almost net a 5% time bonus.

(time at old weight) / (1 - weight loss in pounds * .0046) = time at new weight

an overall sustained gain of 1 watt increases overall time by .31% and so a 10 watt gain yields a 3% time bonus.

(time at old power) / (1 - power gain in watts * .0031) = time at new power

Pedal Harder or Lose Weight

2008-01-22T21:13:00.001-05:00

A wise man once told me that there are 2 ways to get rich, make more or spend less. The simplicity of the statement makes it powerful. I've decided that there is an equally simple statement to be made about cycling.

"There are two ways to go faster on a bike, pedal harder or lose weight." You heard it here first.

Physics of Cycling

2008-01-21T10:37:00.000-05:00

holding power constant @300watts, varying weight from 175 lbs to 190 lbs

holding weight constant @ 190lbs, varying power from 300 to 350 watts

Using the formula from the online calculator, I decided to chart the effects of both a sustained power increase and the effect of weight loss. I used a 500 ft elevation climb as a constant and assumed that my bike weighs 18 lbs. The starting point for my weight is 190lbs, which was the weight that I raced at last season, for the most part. Without increasing fitness, assuming no power loss, it is possible to reduce overall climb time by more than 30 seconds. By increasing sustained power by 50 watts, the time gain would be more than 1 minute. I don't have a power meter and therefore don't know what my actual sustained power is on 500 ft climb and I also don't have an appreciation for the sort of fitness gains required to increase sustained power for 7-10 minutes. I would be interested in anyones comments regarding the topic. I do have a feel for how much discipline it takes to lose 10 to 15 lbs.

Climbing Calculator

2008-01-21T08:03:00.000-05:00

I took the formula for calculating time, weight and power on Joe Friel's blog and used it to create the calculator below.

You can use this to understand how power and weight gains or losses impact climbing speed.

WSJ Weekend Journal - Page W9 (Dec 1-2)

2007-12-02T12:25:00.000-05:00

I was browsing thru the wall street journal only to find a picture of super model Terrible Terry Anderson. If you weren't before, your famous! I was wondering if you even knew that WSJ was running this. I figured not...that Garmin just did the deal with WSJ. Was this picture from your latest supermodel trip?

For those not familiar with Mr. Anderson, his collegiate NCAA team at Iowa State won the national championships for track and field during his tenure, and he was 10th at the olympic trials with a time of 2:18 in the marathon event. (or something like that) So, he isn't just fit to be in pictures. His wife, Lyuda was an elite marathoner and competed in the olympic games.

playing both ends against the middle

2007-11-25T09:58:00.001-05:00

Jackson and his friend spent yesterday raking up leaves in the neighbors yards for a couple of dollars a piece. Jackson ended up making around $15. Thankfully, I've convinced him that buying Webkinz is a waste of money. I told him that money can actually grow if you keep it in a bank and he looked at me quizzically with a smirky smile..."really???", he said! I finally caught on with the scam as I saw the pile leaves grow in our yard. This was a scheme to amass a large pile of leaves in OUR yard so that all of the kids could jump in the biggest pile of leaves ever. He wanted to see if his pile could make the internet on the http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/, and didn't want to move the pile until guinness had put him on the internet. I told him that I could put his picture on the internet and so here it is! I am paying him $5 to move the leaves that was already paid to move to our yard from our yard into the trash.

In the case that Guinness needs the measurements of the pile, the pile is 3 ft high and 12 ft in circumference.

2007 Lilipons CX Race

2007-09-30T18:01:00.001-04:00

The coolest thing about today's Cyclocross race was that Jackson won his first ever race...the "Lil Belgian Race", which was 3 laps around a mini course at Lilipons. He started out in about 5th place and quickly fell into 3rd and then worked his way into first place at the bunny hop obstacle. He is VERY proud of his medal. He was in the 7-8 year old race and won as a 7 year old. I suppose we'll have to wait 3 years until he can compete in the junior races in the 10-12 year junior categories. Thanks to Darren for taking the video and posting it on youtube, Dawn for providing audio race commentary, Curtis for giving us a sweet deal on the bike & Jared for shooting me the link this video!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOtXNDF5Bo4

His father, on the other hand, true to form for this year's racing season did an end-over on the end-over obstacle. I suppose that's why they call it an "end over" obstacle. If you try to ride over it you do one...which I proved today. In the process, I bent my rear derailler into a shape that wouldn't allow me to finish the race. I suppose that is what I should expect for my first cross race of the season (4th ever) with absolutely NO bike handling practise this year. I'll try to be better prepared for the next race. I will also be a bit more conservative on the obstacles...

Darren Bernard had the best day for Haymarket today, placing 7th in the masters B race.