Mid July Race Reports

Someudda boys hit the Owasco Stage Race (albeit a one stage RR) & The Jeffina layed another smackdown in the dirt up in the land 'O Ben & Jerry's and Magic Hat Brewery over the mid-July weekends. Skinny P, The Rotterer, The Plan, Aaron J and The Law Behrman suffered at Owasco bringin in a top 5 and a couple of top 15-20's.

On the dirty side of things Jeff W (and his lovely wife Katina) headed up to VT to do the MTB thing at Mt Snow on a sloppy (with a capital SLOP) course. Once again they came away w/stellar results ... Jeff with a 3rd in the toughman singlespeed division & Katina in 2nd in the supachick division.

Locally we have the Highland Forest Classic MTB race coming up this weekend with the Ommegangsters looking to make a good showing. Lots of mountain bike action for August (Mt. Snow, Windham, Darkhorse 40) with the Big Indian Epic RR at the end of the month for a likely last bit of road action as the 'gansters will have CX on the mind as Sept. approaches.

Race for Sight -- Sat July 11 Race Report

A couple Ommegangters rolled southward to Winsdor, NY to mix it up on the road at the AVRE Race for Sight. 'Gangsters sporting the Ommegang colors included Eric G and Emory C.

Eric G's report: It was a well attended event for the A race with some good quality riders from the Southern Tier. As Emory predicted, there were lots of attacks and break away attempts because of the course. Lots of rollers, but no major climbs. For the first lap and a half all of the breakaways were reeled in. Emory must have just hit the wall sometime late in the race because he was strong in the lead field on the first lap. For some reason, against my better judgement I made a move with about 12 miles to go. The field seemed rather content to let me go and I was able to put some distance on the peloton before the first KOM Prime. Then Glen S (will he ever slow down) and a pretty strong rider from Corning bridged up to me and we worked a three man break for about 7 miles. After racing at Swan speed for 7 miles I knew I was pretty close to being cooked so I said thank you and popped my chute and drifted back until the main field caught me and I rejoined them. The next 5 miles I stayed with the field and tried to recover as much as I could before the finish. As we entered the town and approached the finish the pace picked up pretty good and the field thinned out. I stayed in the top five as we turned to the finishing climb. I started to find a good tempo for the "big finish" but should have had a clue the finish line was approaching as riders started to come around me. By the time I realized what was going on I had about 40 yards to the line and I was able to give it a quick push to regain a couple of spots. I finished 10th, while part timer Mike K took 3rd, and Glen S 1st and his breakaway partner from Corning held on for 2nd. It was a good race with good race support, marshalling, and road markings.

Fireworks Weekend -- 5k's & TKD tournys?

Kind of a quiet weekend for the bike racing scene but a few Ommegangsters did manage to get out and get 'er done. Jeffina ventured down to Jersey for some MTB action with Katina kickin some butt again coming in 2nd. Jeff tried to race w/some serious stomach issues but decided to back it off as he wasn't quite finding his groove. Get well soon dude, we need ya to keep us honest and humbled.

On the road side, Fitchster (aka The Plan) in Fitchburg for a stage race for us "normal" folk. The Plan hang tough and made it through the 4 stages in one piece. Simply put ... The Plan noted, "I made the time cut each day so I got to finish the race."

On a non-cycling note, the Ommegangsters did stay active over the weekend. Skinny P won his age group in a 5k (guessing that wasn't in the training plan but ...). And a big formal congrats to Jim R who won the US Nationals title for his division in Tae Kwon Do. (Hint, if he wants in the paceline, let him in or you could be in trouble.)

The rest of us, drank Ommegang and chilled with a little down time. Unsanctioned race locally this weekend (where even the Creel threatened to show up) followed by the Owasco stage race that is now just a road race the following weekend. Lot's of CX chatter recently but I'm still waiting for a little summer weather first.

Raccoons & The Flyer

G Stevens (GS) headed down to the Raccoon Rally ...

Did the beginners short course (mtn bike) along
with the wife & 7 yr old son on a trail-a-bike. 
The trail-a-bike hitches to a clamping mech on
the daddy bike's seatpost so that it looks
like a three wheel tandem rig.  GS rode his
Soul Cycles Dillinger converted from its'
preferred single speed status to a 1x9 most
of the time in the 32x32!

The boy did a great job of pushing GS up the
hills and the wife kept reminding GS to pedal too. 
It took Team Stevens 1:49 to finish and actually
beat a few people in spite of pee breaks,
warm-up stops, drink breaks, snack breaks... 
The tops was that after pushing Dad around, the
boy went on to race in the kids race too!

Owasco Flyer ... 

Skinny Phil, Dan the Plan, new guy Brian, and
Sean B wore the Ommegang colors with some decent
results from the field of 240+.  Skinny Phil
finished with the lead pack in 15th for team
honors with the rest of the crew close behind. 
Good showing by new guy Brian getting his feet
wet in a road (citizen) event. 

Congrats to Omme friend Ben S (we'll save a cold one
for ya (when your old enuf!)