Centrifuge of Fun...Riding in Circles in Marysville, PA

[Disclaimer: This will be mostly a photoblog as I'm busy today and because of the sheer awesomeness of the event there is too much to discuss. Ronaldo]

June 26, 27, and 28 marked visitpa.com's Mid-Atlantic Super Series Mountain Bike Festival Weekend. Honestly, if the Neshaminy race hadn't been cancelled I'm not sure that Team LoweRiders (TLR) would have made an appearance, but it was, so we did with more than 15 racers, and I'm glad we did because Mike Kuhn and the vistiPA.com guys put on an awesome event. The festival was held at the Oesterling's Farm in Marysville, PA and consisted of a night time trial (NTT) (team or solo) on Friday night, endurance event (9-hour solo or 12-hour relay) on Saturday, and a short track race on Sunday. There really isn't a better more versatile venue for a multiple day mountain bike race/festival. The NTT consisted of a twisty 6.5 mile loop with multiple low hanging branches, logs, and other various technical obstacles. The endurance loop was an 8 mile backwards hybrid of the NTT loop. And the short track was a 1 mile flat and fast loop around the camping and "festivities" area.

TLR's Tent City (located ~5 miles into the ~8 mile endurance loop)

TLR's "Pit"


Le Mans Start of the Endurance Event

Campbell, Ktown, and Bshow at the start


"Oddly" BShow was first to his bike and started the clock

AJoelsen and Ktown finding their bikes

Jason Grant after putting in a loop for his duo

Mr. Showers Spectating in the shade from the pit

BShow and Adam calling it a day after six laps each in the 9-hour solo

The short track crew before the race

Ktown railing a corner



BShow, me, and Adam taking the same corner

TLR participants and results are listed below:

Night Time Trial:

Bill Showers - Fourth Place, Solo Men

Michael Campbell - Seventh Place, Solo Men

John Engle - Thirteenth Place, Solo Men

Travis Cardoza - Fifteenth Place, Solo Men

Kevin Mertz - Seventeenth Place, Solo Men

Ron and Kathleen Harding - First Place, Duo Coed

Endurance Event:

Bill Federer - Eigth Place, Solo Men

Travis Cardoza - Fourteenth Place, Solo Men

Bill Showers - Nineteenth Place, Solo Men

Adam Joelsson - Twentieth Place, Solo Men

Michael Campbell - Twenty-Second Place, Solo Men

Kevin Mertz - Twenty-Seventh Place, Solo Men

John Engle - Thirty-First Place, Solo Men

Martin Eckberg - Second Place, Solo Masters Men

Jessica Eckberg - Fourth Place, Solo Women

Ron and Kathleen Harding - First Place, Duo Coed

Jason Grant and Dan Joelsson - Seventh Place, Duo Men

Dan Williams, Toni Ogborn, and Joel Flambaum - Fourth Place, Trio Coed

Tommy Oneil, John Plewa, and "He who shall not be named because he rides for bikeline" - Second Place, Trio Master Men

Short Track

Ron Harding - Seventh Place, Expert Men

Bill Showers - Ninth Place, Expert Men

Adam Joelsson - Fourteenth Place, Expert Men

Kathleen Harding - Third Place, Expert Women

That is quite enough (can't wait until next year),

Ronaldo

Vitamin D Feels Good...

Its finally sunny today...for now. The sun is out and it feels good, but I find myself constantly checking the horizon for the inevitable black rain clouds. My handy-dandy weather channel desktop updater (getting my weather from a "faceless" entity somehow makes it less frustrating when its wrong 90% of the time) is predicting partly cloudy skies for most of the week with isolated thunderstorms 2-3 days this week. Hopefully this will be one of those 10% instances where the meteorological shamans at www.theweatherchannel.com are correct. In any event the partly cloudy skies should give the trails some time to dry out. Which will be nice for this weekend's Mountain Bike Festival in Marysville, PA. I'm not exactly sure how to prepare for an endurance event like the 12-hour relay. But there will be plenty of LoweRiders there to help out all around so it should be fine.

We'll see...

Ronaldo

I Just Waved at Noah...

The weather "mystics" were calling for scattered thunderstorms today (Saturday), and so it rained for eight straight hours. It wasn't just drizzling for eight hours, it rained...with intermittent periods where it poured. The meteorologists' [what a freaking joke that occupation is] magic eight balls must all be on the fritz lately, and by lately I mean a little period I like to call 2009.

I'm going to start gathering woodland creatures in pairs...just in case...

I'm starting to feel like the little girl in "All Summer in a Day."

Remember that story from elementary school?

Man the rain is messing with my head.

Ktown and I are talking about moving to Seattle because its sunnier there.

Ronaldo

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

...come on back another day, which, if the first six months of 2009 are any indication will undoubtedly be a Wednesday since it literally has rained 90% of 2009's Wednesdays. What is the deal with rainy Wednesdays?!? If the team ride wasn't on Wednesday night I obviously wouldn't care much, but it is, so I do, and so it rains...every...single...Wednesday. Maybe we should switch the team ride night to Thursday to see if the black cloud of ride ruining rain repositions itself righteously on Thursday [alliteration cha cha cha...]. Actually it pretty much rains all the time in Southeastern PA now. I must have missed the memo, but apparently southeastern PA is currently Seattle, weather wise anyway. The team didn't even try to ride last night. We made the decision fairly early on to forgo the ride in favor of going to Sly Fox for dinner. Ktown, Campbell, BShow, Newbie Jim, and I had a nice dinner. The Keeb, his lady friend Kim, and a couple of their friends showed up later. The evening was still fun, if soggy.

Looking forward to sunshine and dry trails,

Ronaldo

Tour de Tykes (a.k.a. Danville) Race Report

It's been a while since I've posted a race report. To my adoring fan I apologize (Sorry B). To my detractors (i.e., Campbell) I humbly say, "Shut your hole or do it yourself ." Anyway...

Sunday June 7, 2009 marked the 4th race in the MASS XC series; the fabled Tour de Tykes race in Danville, PA. The racing field was definitely smaller this year than in past years, which is especially odd considering that the temperature this year at 80 degrees was 21 degrees cooler (yeah that's right 21 degrees) than last year's race temperature and last year's race was one of the most attended Danville has ever seen. June 7, 2009 was also the day of the "Philly Bike Race," and the associated party, which probably accounts for a large portion of the absent racers.

In any event, Team LoweRiders again fielded a strong group of racers. Most TLR racers traveled to Danville the day before the race and camped at Hess field in anticipation of participating in the "Hess Fest", which will hitherto be referred to as the Hess Unfest as aside from the camping racers there really wasn't anyone else around "festing". We "carbo-loaded," hung out, ate dinner, worked on our rigs, and Ktown and Sandra danced on stage with the Salamanders (click here for more information/incriminating evidence on that little tid bit). A fun time was had by all.

I have to give the Salamanders credit; no one, I mean no one, was watching them, and they just kept on rocking. That takes an extra special kind of self-delusion and for that I applaud them.

We could not have asked for better camping weather, cool, comfortable, quiet, and flat. The race course, however, was anything but flat. With 3,600 ft. of climbing over the 18 mile Exlite/Expert course, I found myself wondering if the race promoters had actually ever ridden the race course (it turns out they have/had) because of how difficult it was. Riding a single-speed I also found myself playing a little game I'll refer to as, "What I Would Give Right Now for Gears". Kidney? Sure why not I've got two anyway. Fingers? Okay, technically I only need a couple on each hand to pull the break lever and hold the bar. Left testicle? Well, Lance seems to be doing alright with one and my knees and back are killing me, give me the knife I'll do it myself. Uhuh...

Aside from the relentless climbing the course was awesome and the race was well run. TLR's results are provided below.

Podium Finishers:

Ron Harding - First Place, Expert Singlespeed Open (Hmmmm...)

Adam Joellsson - Third Place, Expert Singlespeed Open (Nice work, nice work...)

Kathleen Harding - First Place, Elite Women (Yeah! Ktown...money, money, money...)

Daniel Stein - Third Place, Sport Junior - 18 & Under (Dan has been tearing it up.)

Dan Dix - First Place, Sport Senior II Men - 30-34 (You are such a freaking sandbagger, man up already...)

Michael Campbell - Second Place, Sport Senior II Men - 30-34 (Nice work Campbell, seriously though shut your hole.)

Linda Mattioni - First Place, Sport Women I - 19-34 (Since you finished smiling and confessing that it was, "easy," me thinks a female sandbagger is amongst us.)

Douglas Morrell - Second Place, Sport Singlespeed Open (Nice work man keep it up.)

Jason Koenig - Third Place, Sport Singlespeed Open (Jay is new and already tearing it up.)

Finishers:

Bill Showers - Tenth Place, Elite Open (Tenth place elite, freaking-a right!)

Larry Distefano - Eighth Place, Expert Master 1 Men 45-49 (Master Experts are inspiring.)

Steve Collina - Sixth Place, Sport Veteran II Men (Too bad you're too old to race in Sport Senior II, yet another reason not to get old.)

Joel Flambaum - Eighteenth Place, Sport Veteran II Men (Way to bump up to sport buddy, keep it up.)

Gary Witmer - Eighth Place, Sport Clydesdale Men (Nice work man.)

Jason Vliet - Thirteenth Place, Sport Clydesdale Men (Jason's from Ithaca, NY always a trooper.)

James Brower - Fourth Place, Beginner Senior I Men 19-29 (Newbie...camped and raced, diving right in.)

Those that DNF'd:

Todd Strauss (a.k.a. El Presidente)

Ronaldo

Iron Hill Race Report

Team LoweRiders (TLR) had another good showing at MASS Race "No. 4" (Its actually No. 3 as French Creek was postponed) Iron Hill on May 31, 2009. Fielding 25 racers and several podium finishes, (TLR) continues its unofficial quest for the Cannondale Team Cup overall victory for large teams. The weather mystics were calling for perfect weather all weekend, and so, to no one's surprise it poured rain for an hour and a half directly before the Beginner/Enduro start. The trails were ridden dry throughout the day and by the time the Elite/Expert riders were let loose they were more or less dry.

Bottom line, we tore it up. Results from the race are as follows:

Podium Finishes:

Steven Havrilla - First Place, Beginner Senior II Men

Michael Campbell - Second Place, Sport Senior II Men

John Plewa - First Place, Sport Veteran II Men

Linda Mattioni - First Place, Sport Women I

Douglas Morrel - First Place, Sport Singlespeed

Ron Harding - First Place, Expert Singlespeed

Adam Joelssen - Third Place, Expert Singlespeed

Kathleen Harding - Second Place, Elite Women

Bill Showers - Third Place, Enduro Men

Finishers:

Daniel Stein - Fifth Place, Sport Juni0r

Mike Patton - Eigth Place, Sport Senior II Men

Neil Young - Eleventh Place, Sport Senior II Men

Danny Deao - Fourteenth Place, Sport Veteran I Men

Steven Collina - Fifth Place, Sport Veteran II Men

Kevin Mertz - Eleventh Place, Sport Master I Men

Travis Cordoza - Fifth Place, Sport Singlespeed

Bud Mauger - Seventh Place, Sport Singlespeed

Gary Whitemer - Fourth Place, Sport Clydesdale

Jason Grant - Eigth Place, Sport Clydesdale

Jason Vliet - Fourteenth Place, Sport Clydesdale

Jason Matthews - Sixteenth Place, Expert Senior Men

Nicholas Cappriotti - Tenth Place, Expert Singlespeed

John Engle - Twelth Place, Enduro Men

Daniel Joelsson - Nineteenth Place, Enduro Men

Those that DNF'd:

Larry Distefano

Pictures of the race can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitaldanger/

and

Iron Hill 2009

Ronaldo