Morgantown Cyclo-cross

This morning dawned at something like 75degrees as I awoke earlier than I ever do for class to get ready for some CX action. I was burning up in my t-shirt at 8am on the rail-trail ride to Marilla Park, no need for hoodies or rain jackets.

The first race was Womens,Masters and Single speeds and had the biggest variety of skill levels I've ever seen on the same course. Steve Rowand took the lead early, and just kept enlarging the gap on his SS, lapping some of the "never raced before gals"-which was awesome that they were there...smiling like all women do when they race. Then right at the end of the race, came the rain and with it, a 15degree temperature drop.

I left my post at the scoring line to race in the Mens B, on the nicely watered course...and got beat by Gunnar and Betsy, but thats OK, because it was 2v1 and I stayed with 'em for the first 3 laps before my asthma...ya asthma, sure. Really, I don't think the grass needed watered, it was wet enough already...but someone insisted. We prepped the course as best we could in our 45min of racing for the Mens A...

I think you need only see some photos of that race to know what happened there.

JR Petsko, Natures Essence Photography

 

Mr. President rollin' fast!

 

More fall riding awesomeness!

Today Jimmy and I set out to explore some roads we had both never been on and do some nicely paced long distance. The weather was absolutely perfect in every way and the fall colors were as striking as ever.



My original plan was to go over Cooper's on Quarry Run the take a left in Bruceton and another left onto Wharton Furnace/Clifton Mills Rd. to Rt. 40, then take a left and another left onto Skyline drive, down Mud Pike, and back into town some way. I had never done any of the stated roads past Bruceton, so it was going to surely be an adventure.

Wharton Furnace road turned out to be a real treat. Amazing new pavement that rolled through farmland and open valleys. Perfect scenery and perfect pavement abounded. We ended up taking a left much before Rt. 40 onto Wirsing Rd. After about a mile or two the road turned into gravel, cut through a corn field, descended into a very narrow valley. The road turned into dirt/gravel/some mud/then back to gravel but was all still ridable (by WVU cycling standards at least). I did flat on a large rock though. Bummer.





Kept on cranking on the dirt road for about 4/5 miles until we hit a large climb upto Skyline Dr. We then headed left to descend Mud Pike, peaking out at 2,700ft max elevation. The views were amazing as was the road.



We cautiously descended Mud Pike and stopped at the bottom for a sandwich at some gas station. Mmmmm. We were about 50 miles or so into the ride at this point and at about 5,500ft of elevation gain, so we were both getting quite parched.



We went South on 857 and then across Rt 43 (the abandoned, but not so abandoned at that end, highway). Then to 119 and Pt Marion where we bailed back on the rail trail. The rail trail bailing was at my request. I recently dropped my stem way down and I'm still getting used to it. I carried too much weight on my shoulders today (literally) and was feeling the other 70 miler I had done on Sunday. No Bakers Ridge climb for us!

Hopefully everyone's enjoying the nice weathers' last big push for awhile. Go ride and explore. Go some place you haven't been before and take roads you haven't heard of. It pays off.

Ride GPS

Fall Post Season Riding

I think everyone on the team is certainly enjoying some downtime after a long and hard fought race season. Rest, rest, and more rest has been the theme of the past two weeks (and catching up with all the school stuff we've pushed aside in order to be kick ass mountain bikers).

Today I finally decided to head out and get some chamois time in. 6 hours of it, actually. The fall colors are truly spectacular in and around town, with most saying that the leaves will be peaking throughout the week. My time left in the mountains in short, and I want to take advantage of it the best that I can.

I opted to go for a ride I had never done before. Morgantown->Bruceton->Albright->Kingwood->Reevsville-> back into town. Jimmy lead a ride on this route in reverse last year but I bailed along with Liew on the climb up Summers School, citing various reasons and excuses. Ride distance was about 70 miles total, and the scenery was absolutely gorgeous, Quarry Run Road especially.





Also on the way into town the cloud cover that plagued the day broke just slightly on the horizon, giving way to the best sunset I've ever seen in this town. Cars were pulling off on the sides of Summers School Rd. to take photos of the colorful sunset as I descended. The bright orange/red glow lit up the colorful trees and washed the mountains in color as if they were on fire. It was truly amazing.

Hope everyone is enjoying their rest time and getting ready for some cyclocross, which is already in full swing. I plan on racing the Morgantown race and helping out, so I'll see everyone there! Also, don't forget about the Motown Throwdown that evening sponsored by Pathfinder... should be quite the show!

Ride GPS

10 times ACCC D1 Conference Champs!!!

 

 

 

d

Great job this weekend everyone! The competition was stiff, and everyone came out and put in a great effort to achieve this win.