WVMBA Big Bear

Kirk Morrison and Rich Allen heard there might be miserable conditions in West Virginia, so they drove clear down there to race mountain bikes!

Rich - 2nd Place (Men's 55+) / 10th Place Overall Sport

Kirk - 8th Place (Men's 45+) / 41st Overall Sport

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As Kronickled-by-Kirk:

The temperature at race time (12:30pm) was 42F with overcast skies a light breeze and a forecast of rain in the 1pm timeframe. Fortunately, the rain held off but the trails were still wet from the previous nights rain. This resulted in quite a few slick spots including the log crossings, bridges and roots.

One of the race highlights was “Crack Trail” which included a narrow path through a 20’ deep “crack” in some massive boulders. The path was about 50’ long and barely wide enough allow handlebar clearance (including a 90 degree turn in the crevice as well as a 2’ dropoff at the boulder exit).

Our 13 mile course included a nice mix of smooth singletrack, 1500’ of climbing and a few challenging technical sections (sketchy descents and rock gardens).

I was happy to move into the top 10 after last weeks #12 finish.

This “no shoes, no dancing” sign was posted at the door of the community center which housed registration, the post race spaghetti dinner, as well as the awards presentation!

This was a well run race with good organization, well marked trails and a total of 172 racers. Highly recommended !

Green County Road Race

Dan Schar headed for the hills...of the Green County Road Race in Fairchance, Pa.

You can read all about his exploits HERE - "It isn't easy being green in Greene County"  - On the Schardar

Criterium Weekend

Steve Brewer did back to back days of criteriums... with him spending ~10 hours in the car to make it happen!

Clarksburg Crit (W.Va.) - 12th Place, including he & 80% of the field crashing at one corner or another during the rain soaked race.

ECBC Criterium (Erie, Pa.) - 2nd Place, winning the field sprint.  Yea!!!

UPDATE: 
Following these races, "Steve" cracked this frame...and then CUT his hair...and shaved. So, this is THE LAST PIC of "the old Steve"!!!

WVMBA #1 @ Mountwood

Kirk Morrison kicked off his entire 2012 Racing Season where no one would ever think to look for him...

...in West Virginia on a Mountain Bike!!!

Kirk has set a goal to become the best DIRT WORM he can be! 

YOU GO KIRK :)
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The following was Kronicled-by-Kirk:

This past weekend I entered my first mountain bike race of the season at Mountwood Park (near Parkersburg, WV). Unfortunately, Richey didn’t make the trip since he needed to be back for work at 3pm on Sunday.

While its quite a drive (200 miles or about 3.5 hrs … each way) the attendance was huge with over 220 racers. This high level was due to this being a joint race for both the West Virginia Mountain Bike Association (WVMBA) Points Series and the Ohio Mountain Bike Championship (OMBC) Series.

The weather was good with sunny skies, a stiff breeze and 82F temperatures (!). The course at Mountwood was fast with an early morning rain giving the trails an almost “tacky” feel.  Since I’ve been working to improve my mtn bike skills, I was interested to see how I would fare in the Sport Masters (45+) category.

Photo by Mountaineer Extreme Productions LLC

After making a few rookie mistakes I ended up finishing in 12th place in this 16 mile race. While struggling to pass dozens of riders on the trail, I started to understand the importance of getting into a good position before the start of the single track section ! 

The organization for this race was great and the course marshalling was very good. I especially enjoyed the pizza at the finish.

Results link: http://www.iplayoutside.com/Events/?eid=2012/04/13899r.html

Future plans: I’m hoping to race the WVMBA #2 race next Sunday (4/22) at Big Bear Lake (http://www.iplayoutside.com/Events/2012/04/13890.html)

Kirk

Morgantown RR

Mark Briercheck, Dan Schar and Dave Shaffer took on the Morgantown Road Race.

You can read all about their day HERE, on Dan Schar's Blog.

Yellow Creek MTB

If you would have told me that one of Ag3r's opening races of the 2012 season was going to be a DIRT race, I would have told you to "Go Eat Worms"!!!

Truth be told, Mike Maher and Dave Shaffer attended the Yellow Creek State Park Grassroots Racing opening event on the North Course.

Mike finished in 16th Place
Dave finished in 19th Place