WVMBA #1 Big Bear Lake Classic

While the rest of the team was road racing down at Conference Champs, a solid group of WVU cycling members made the short jump up the road to Big Bear Lake for the first of the 2009 WVMBA series races.



A total of 209 racers were in attendance, and the WVU squad consisted of Steve, Robbie, Laura, Team Talbot, Larry, Bala, Chad, James, Andrew, Lemma, and myself! Of course there were tons of other well known locals there to dominate.


Liew, Andrew, and I made the jump to expert with Bala sandbagging for the day in Sport class. I guess he didn't really sand bag since he finished third, of course this was after having the change a flat tire.

A lot of podium finishes for the ladies, Laura, Seira, and Lemma, as well as from Bala.

Everyone had great rides, no series mechanicals, Bala and Robbie both suffered from flats, but both were able to recover quickly and have fine finishes.

Liew did his usual super fast hole-shot crazy start which offered up a lot of excitement.

The weather was really nice for the day, with some light misting raing coming towards the end of the race to offer a cool reprieve just before the finish.

Results

Good job to all who raced! Anyone else interested, check out www.wvmba.com for more series races!

Here is some picture from Liew,


Ramp festival at Mt. Morris after skipping prize award at Big bear


Met alpacasss...

-Liew

- Jake

Road Conference Championships

What a weekend!!! I was afraid when the trip began that we might have the same bad luck as last year but it turned out to be a great weekend for everyone.
Saturday was a sunny and warm day, Brock had Elliott and myself up at 5:30 in the morning, and we hit were ready to race. The road race was an extremely flat course with less then 500 feet vertical over 65 miles of racing. With a flat and narrow course this course definately favored the sprinters and put me at a disadvantage and gave Brock a great chance. The Men's A and Men's B fields finished as a group sprint, with both having 1-2 people off the front. Brock positioned himself well and took 3rd overall and won the field sprint for the Men's B. I was getting set-up but was uhnlucky and got boxed in, and finished 23rd in the field sprint. The Men's D field shattered and Elliott has his best ever finished and placed 7th, after getting pimped shortly before the sprint.

Since we did not have a TTT team, we headed back to the hotel for a shower and a great nap. We woke and then attended the conference Banquet, we ate a ton of food!! Then Ryan and I stayed for the conference meeting. We won the bid for the Conference Mountain Bike Race for Fall 2009, and our Race weekend for road 2010 is April 10-11, the weekend before Champs at Virginia Tech.

Sunday, elliott woke up early, walked out the hotel door and hoped on his bike for the crit. With me sitting on the course and Brock watching from the hotel room, Elliot started the Downtown crit, he complains of a car on course but was able to finish in 13th place.
Hours later Brock jumped on his bike and was ready to terrorize the Men's B field. He went early and attemped a break in lap one, after a few laps of all out effort he was a caught by a small group and sat in for the rest of the race. He made a great move for the "W" at the finish and took about half a bike length in the sprint. Giving Brock a great Championship weekend. Then it was Emily's turn with the Women's A. She's not a WVU member currently but she'll be here next year, in a stiff compitition for 1st place in D2, Emily was able to pull it off, and even though she did not win, she was able to take the overall conference point and earn herself a pretty pink jersey. Finally, it was my turn to push the pedals. After a rough day on Saturday and still being sore from the dog incident, my game plan was to sit in, and just enjoy the ride. Brock was very nervous watching me sit in the back of the peleton for the first 15-20 minutes of the race. I saw a small break start to happen on the backside of the course and I knew it would be able to stick, and my adrenaline picked up and I wanted in that group, the pelton came around corner 6 and no one was responding to the break, so in one move I jump from the back and came around the peleton, and was chasing solo to the break, I caught in b3 turn 3, and started in rotations, Wake Forest was trying to block to break and bring it back, but after a few others joined the break, it was home free. I was able to take a 4th and a 1st in primes (my first ever 1st place prime) and then with 4 laps to go, the break could see the peleton just ahead. About half of us wanted to stay out of the peleton and our pace slowed, until a WF rider jumped and forced all of us to chase, mixed into the group, it was an intense final lap, I missed the jump through the pack, and sprinted in the group, grabbing a 7th place finish overall.

While cooling down, about 90 seconds into it actually, I noticed my rear wheel felt weird and found a large splinter through my tire, luckily I was able to finish the race before the flat occured.

It was a great Weekend for all of us, and I am ready for a great summer season now.

Dogs are dangerous

After becoming a cyclist I gained a person issue with dogs. Not all dogs and hopefully not your dog.
LEASHES, CHAINS, INVISIBLE FENCES, properly taking care of dogs all good things, but the dog that runs into the road VERY BAD.
This is my second crash in 6 months on the road bike, and this is the second time in 6 months a dog has been the reason for the crash. The first time was in the fall, I was riding with Mon Bike club, a few dogs came into the road and one ran into my front wheel, knocking me down and causing me to break my saddle.
Today, While I was riding alone in Preston County, I took my usual ride out McKinney Cave Rd. This road in my eyes is known for it's dogs. When making the turn onto the road a dog came into the road and barked at me, I yelled "NO, STOP" and the pup went back into it's grass. I came across a few other dogs who have an invisible fence, who barked but had nothing on me. I was about 3/4 of the way complete with the road and out came a German Sheperd, I yelled "NO, STOP, NO," this did not phase the dog. I was trying to go fast to get away, but I grabbed my water bottle, and sqirted the dog in the face, he paused for a moment and came again, this time moving to the opposite side of the road, so I squirted again, did nothing to the dog, I was out of water, and hoped fetch might work, I throw my water bottle, dog still kept comming.
The dog caught my foot, I started to look back, and nnext thing I know I am going over my bars. My face hit the asphalt/rocks first, and my hand shoulder and hip all on the right side also too impact with the road. I found my bottle cage broken and the dog had ran off. I slowly got onto
my bike, and pedaled away. At the end of the road, I checked my equipement and everything was ok.



I made it home, went to Med-Express, had my wounds cleaned, and had X-Rays of shoulder and face. No Stitches needed and no broken bones. I am thankful for this, and plan to be back in the saddle soon.

Easter Weekend

Hope everyone that raced the Morgantown RR did well and had fun!

I took the weekend to come home to Charleston and spend time with family and old friends. Of course I brought a bike home too! I wanted to just get out on the roadie for awhile and have some fun. No chasing, no attacks, no pulls, no intervals, no sprints... just some fun, fast solo riding.

Roads were fairly empty Saturday, so I set out for about 50miles, riding from my house, through the mountains of the South Hills area and back. I got lots of thumbs up waves from cars, pedestrians, and other cyclists. The team bike is a huge hit and people as lots of questions. The roads in South Hills are amazing for cycling. Beautiful views, low traffic, perfectly maintained two lane roads. There's also an awesome carriage path to ride on cyclocross style. I snapped some pics of the team hotness to share.







47 Miles. 3,328ft of climbing. Total time: 2hr 52min. Avg. Speed: 16.5

GPS LINK

Happy Easter everyone, go ride!

-Chad

WV RR 1

Yesterday was the first race of the WV Road Race Series.
It was a cold and wet morning when I woke up. I put the final touches on the bike and headed out to Core, WV going to Historical Mason-Dixon Park. The race was a big one, with over 60 riders pre-registered I knew it was going to be hectic (as we usually only have 60 total riders). Approximately 200 riders across all categories registered and the racing got under way. Luckily the temp. raised and the sun was attempting to come out.
The race started by going out route 7, and was relatively flat for the first 12 or so miles. In the mens 1/2/3 field the pace started slow as no one was ready to chase down the break in the heavy wind. Then the climbing started, I do not know the numbers but the first climb hurt and the field was shattered. A group of just over 10 riders crested and started the descent fully comming together at the bottom. It was not long and the second climb began. This time shattering the group even more. I made it over with two other riders, and having 3 riders ahead in sight. The three of us were chasing the three in front and were unsuccessful, and caught be 6 other riders. This group of 9 stayed together over the next two climbs and at the final K or so two riders (GUnnar and Adam A.) got away. I took 2nd in the sprint (I'll holdmy peace about the winner) ad 9th overall.

I do not know how the Team riders official placings at this point in time, but it seemed that everyone had a good time racing and did well.

SRAM

After months of anticipation the SRAM order finally arrive.
At 1:30 pm on Good Friday the Ryan Post alerted everyone to the excitement, after he finished with lab, he and I ventured to Pathfinder to collect the 9 boxes of goodies.
With Thousands of Dollars of Shiny new Parts, Bala, Ryan, and myself unpacked and organized everything.
After completion I promptly went home and put my SRAM RED Shifters and Derailleurs onto my bike. (Details on the debut ride to come.)

Snake Hill doesn't bite

For some reason Chad decided he wanted to over train again and do Snake Hill after get nailed on yesterday's hammer ride. When Elliott said he'd go, I figured it couldn't be so bad from all the smack talk everyone says about the poor cucumber.
So Chad, Bob, Elliott and Ryan headed out. Chad got dropped like he had a parachute on the first climb of Dug Hill. We waited up around the turn until we decided he Brock'd out and went home. Then we get to the 4way of Dug and there's Chad.
Forgetting how much of a cat 6 Bob was, he swings left to turn onto snake, sketched out Elliott, flipped me out, and we drilled it onto whatever that road is to Snake Hill. Not far in, Chad chose the absolute worst line, apparently trying to test his bike's worth and his MTB skills. He survived, nearly killing me with a flying bottle. Ironic that the bottle was flying, since it has some queer bird pic on it anyway. I practiced my skills and kicked it clean of the road.
Up the hill, Elliott and Bob put some pressure on, as Chad tried his best imitation of Martino. I definitely felt the day before while riding tempo feeling generally good, except the legs were lacking a bit.
Heading out the top, Elliot begins his begging of not riding the "dirt road". Then pulls this crap about our coach saying to only work on 1 thing at a time, and he's working on climbing, not technical. When we get to the end, he's out voted, and we do the normal road to the top of Summer School Rd, while Bob and Elliott exclaim that we're going the wrong way. I still have no idea what the heck Steve was doing taking them on a real dirt road...stupid, but what we ended up on, the whole group thought was fine.
Nothing too eventful after that, the cucumber descended pretty fast, and really likes to take the turns from the middle of the road. I think he's trying to sweep the gravel out with his tires.