Dash for Cash

...is a great x-Country MTB course, open only ONCE a year... where only 3 people have been swept away in the waist deep river crossing.  Then again, maybe I am exagerating(?)

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Fable by Mike Maher

Fire, Plague, and Petulance

Well we didn’t actually have any fire plague or petulance, but we did have some biblical proportion rain and hail the size of grapes!

Of course this just made an already challenging course that much more fun. The course was slick, rocky, rooty and frankly pretty treacherous. Couple NASTY downhills and some brutal uphills made a course that never allowed you a moment to relax or let your guard down. Exactly what you want when you sign up for a mountain bike race.

Hell if you want smooth sailing….stay on the road or your couch!

Another cool thing about this race is the time trial format. LOVE it!   Carrots all race long.

This is the first time I’ve done this race seeming to always have a conflict. This course is so fun and the vibe so cool, then throw in a post race PARTY with free BBQ, BEER and live music and, …I will not miss it again!

Rich Allen and Hanna Brewer met me at the race. Hannah true to my predictions is becoming THE mountain biker on our team. She absolutely shredded this tortuous course to take second place overall for the women. Those hours at Moraine are paying bid dividends cause on a course that had grown men whimpering…she absolutely rocked it.

Hannah Brewer - 2nd Place Woman, 28th Place Overall

Rich also tore it up and is riding as well as I’ve ever seen him . His hard work and pushing till the end earned him a solid second in the 50+ category. Amazed that someone beat him as well as he’s riding.

Rich Allen - 2nd Place 50+, 10 Place Overall

Yours truly WON the 46 year old, SingleSpeed w/ Camelback division for the third consecutive week and wound up 14th overall with two chain issues. BTW this is supposed to be the reason your run SS. HAHA!

Mike Maher - 5th Place 40-50, 14th Place Overall

I did not get any pictures but hope to find a few on the net. If I do, I’ll send them over!

http://www.smileymiles.com/2012/RES12%20DASH%20FOR%20CASH%20TRAIL%20BIKE%20RACE%20LONG%20OA.HTM

Mike Maher

Yella Crick

Well...that's how we say it in these-here parts.  Others of you may pronounce the race the YELLOW CREEK Park Grassroots Racing X-County!  This month, the race was held on the South Shore course.

Six Ag3r-ButlerHealthSystem riders accompanied our "expatriate" Gear Movement/Epic Pro Cycling Team members Sam Morrison & Deidre York. 

By the end of the day, we soon realized that, as roadies in the dirt...

photo by Steve Brewer

..."we" were only there to take podium pictures ...and carry their luggage!

Steve Brewer - 9th Place

Rich Allen - 13th Place

Mike Maher - 17th Place

Hannah Brewer - 18th Place

Kirk Morrison - 19th Place

Henry Dimmick - 22nd Place

Because Deidre and Sam both WON (...top girl and top boy, in case you didn't figure that one out on your own!)  Obviously, the result of high altitude training.  Yup, that's the story we are sticking with...!!!

BTW, Sam & Deidre say "Hi"!

For winning the overall race, Sam got to put on the coveted "Green Jacket"...

...and take home the hotly sought after Cherry Pie.  Ask Leslie how good it was!

Thanks to Kirk Morrison & Steve Brewer for their photos!

The World according to Garmin

Here are two of my favorite recently ridden sections of "road"....!

Wisp XC

....and with a WISP of dust, Richy was GONE...!

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Story by Kirk Morrison:

This past Sunday, Rich Allen and I met at the Wisp Resort in McHenry, MD (near Deep Creek Lake) for JR’s series opening, ABRA Wisp XC Challenge Mtb race. The weather was great with sunny skies, a light breeze and temperatures in the low 80’s.

The race started (and ended) from the top of the mountain, near the ski lift. The course was great with nice a mix of loose rocky down hills, challenging rock gardens, flowing single track and lengthy double track climbs (which resulted in a relatively high # of DNF’s)

The Sport Class race was almost 18 miles (two – 9 mile loops) with a total of almost 2,500 feet of climbing. I was happy about the “loop” format since it gave me a chance to pick up a few full water bottles in between laps (Unfortunately, I ejected one of my water bottles during a tumble on lap 2).

In spite of any mishaps, we were both able to finish with podium positions:

Rich – 2nd place in the Sports Masters 55+

Kirk – 5th place in the Sports Masters 45+ (1st Cat 3)

This is a great venue with a coffee shop (including espresso shots) and (real) hot showers near the start/finish line. The organization was fantastic with quick registration, on-time start, quick posting of results and an early podium.

Attached are a few pics that I was able to gather (sorry, couldn’t find any of Richy). Unfortunately, Rich also missed his podium since he needed to leave quickly to pick his wife up at the airport (?!).

The results link is: https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2012-690

ABRA at the Oval

The Appalachian Bicycle Racing Association (ABRA) has added to it's calendar this year with a series of Criteriums at the Bud Harris Oval on Washington Blvd in Pittsburgh, Pa.

This past weekend, Steve Marlette and Dan Schar jumped into the Men's 40+ race...

Steve Marlette - 8th Place

Dan Schar - THE WHINER, I mean WINNER!!! - 1st Place!!!

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Steve Marlette tells the story:

If Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin were commentators for the Master's crit race at the oval today they would have picked Dan’s attack on the final lap as the big move of the day! It was brilliant!

The promoter chose the bullet course, featuring two 90 degree turns at the Bud Harris oval. This made for a tricky slow-down-and-accelerate situation for turns 3 and 4. Dan took advantage of this by not waiting to sprint after turn 4, but instead attacking after turn 2 on the final lap. The result was a first place for Dan!!

I'm glad I decided to do the race this morning. It was a thing of beauty!

Presque Isle TT

"Back in the Day", the Presque Isle Individual Time Trial used to mark the beginning of the racing season.  Leaping forward to 2012, there has been racing going on now for almost 6 weeks!  My how times have changed.

The day always starts the same...waking at 4:00 am to get to Erie by 6:30 am in order to register and get warmed up before our individual start times.

Part of the fun of TTs is checking out all the interesting "new" equipment...some readily available and some "custom"...and questionable!

Once all the "talking with our legs" was over, Ag3r-ButlerHealthSystem again went home with our fair share of the Awards :)

Steve Brewer - 3rd Place OVERALL, setting a new Personal Record.

Steve Marlette - 8th Place OVERALL, 3rd Place Men's 40-49 yrs

Hannah Brewer - 1st Place Women's 20-29 yrs, setting new Personal Record

NEW Ag3r GUY Tim Bauer, celebrating his 21st Birthday this very day - 2nd Place Men's 20-29, 34th Place Overall


Henry Dimmick - 7th Place Men's 50-59 yrs, 33rd Place Overall,

Ray Sielski - 15th Place Men's 50-59, 64th Place Overall

...and FoxVelo Club rider Randy McCracken - 8th Place Men's 50-59, 35th Place Overall.


Modern times aside, we remained true to our heritage, by being the LAST PEOPLE to leave the parking lot after the race...hanging out to socialize with our teammates in excited anticipation of the racing season ahead.  However, THIS time, no one was "brave" enough to go for a swim in Lake Erie after the race!



Afterwards, both Hannah & Steve Brewer, Ray and Henry headed to Steve's favorite 6-pack (and food!) shop for some "fine dining"!

...and were still home in time to cut the grass!

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

ABRA Spring Series Race #2

Story by Mark Briercheck
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Dan Schar and I stumbled out for one of JR Petsko's beautiful ABRA Spring races in Fairchance, PA.  With temps in the high 50's / low 60's and a nice breeze on a fast course it was going to be a day of hard work just trying to sit in let alone win.

I opted for the earlier Cat 1-2-3 race that started at 12:30. The race quickly went from comfortable.... to painful... to DNF in the span of about 45 minutes.

Schar faired quite a bit better in the 2:30pm Master's race and laid down the hammer and came home with a 5th Place finish!  Awesome work Dan!

All I can say is 'Ouch - welcome to road racing season 2012' !

Always Competing

Recently, Kirk Morrison....

...WON a beard growing contest.  For his efforts, he received the following "Very Important Award"!

Congratulations KIRK   :)

Keeping Tabs

Sam Morrison may have moved from Butler, and may no longer be racing in Ag3r kit, but we still think of him as one of our own...and follow his exploits.

You can too, by clicking HERE to read about the Gear Movement/Epic Pro Cycling Team WIN at the 24 hours of Old Pueblo.

S.A.M.'s first ProTeam WIN reminds us of his first Ag3r WIN back in 2008 :)

Also, Deidre York set the Women's KOM on two (2) STRAVA segments of the Old Pueblo course.  You can see more about her efforts HERE.

"Winter" Riding

During our "off season" from racing, we get the chance to ride just for FUN ...helping to refresh the "kid" in all of us. ENJOY :)