Save the Date: Dec 17 !!

Wayne's & Meltzer's Syracuse Bicycle and Team SCARR-Ommegang will be hosting the 2nd "Bikes & Brews" event on December 17 from 6 to 9 pm at the Syracuse Bicycle location on Erie Blvd. "Bikes & Brews" is an event to benefit the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation as well as a chance to hang out with your cycling & tri-buddies before going into winter hibernation. Come trade a few race tales from 2009 and yes, sample some of Brewery Ommegang's finest offerings.

The price of admission for "Bikes & Brews is an unwrapped toy (or two).

More details to come as we get closer.

Soul Cycles Sexiness

Check out some of the new sexiness from Soul Cycles ... ooooh, ahhhhh, nice. And these are just pictures of the new eccentric bottom brackets and forks. You should check out their blog (http://blog.ridesoul.com) to get a peek at the new Gen 3 Dillinger 29er frames with the new color offerings. (I kinda like the root beer, but the scotchbrite is pretty sweeeet too.) They've also got some pics of the new "Hero" frame as well if you really want to explore your inner ride creativity and desires.

So if you've grown "road" weary, or perhaps "cross"-eyed from your current ride and need to change things up a bit, it's time for a little "Soul" searching. It's pretty hard to go wrong here kids, you're getting great value for the buck and Chad at Soul Cycles will surely hook you up with a great deal as a member of Team SCARR-Ommegang. Ride Soul my friends, Ride Soul!


http://blog.ridesoul.com/

Dave Panella KX -- Race Director's Report

Race report for the Dave Panella Memorial Cyclocross

Race morning found the Kingdom of Kross blanketed in a thick fog. The course sorcerers descended on their sections of the course to add its unique features and become the longest course we’ve had yet. Something for all from fast wide open to technical sections a touch of mud and slippery grass in the first race.

As the riders grooved in the course and the sun began to shine. Sixty four degrees? This is Kross weather? The Belgians sought out the sunscreen, while others shed layers.

Twenty nine masters toed the line for the start. Fresh off the red-eye Greg Drumm took the holeshot as they wound their way through the first chicanes. When it opened up the “King” hit the gas in the mower section and took the lead holding it through the first lap and opening a gap after the spiral. The “Train of talent” formed behind him. Glenn, Ernie, AJ, Greg, Ad and Andy. The King tried to force his hand in technical sections as the Train would draw him back on the horsepower sections for the first three laps. Drumm and Swan fired the first attacks as the King latched onto the fast moving train. As crashes would split the group it would regroup with a new leader. Then a split happened. Glenn towed me back up to retake the lead in the spiral only to be outgunned by the tough accelerations of Drumm on the straights. The battle waged right till the finish where Drumm and AJ were neck and neck. Then disaster struck for AJ. A washout and dropped chain forced him to run to the finish. Drumm scores another win and Swan’s late race aggression nets him second. Ernie Bayles scores third. He later emailed me and told me he was worried I was going to ride away with it. Trust me I was trying. It was a great race. The hour was a good thing. Let’s see more races come back to that. All in all a good show of the colors for the Ommegangsters with a 1st and 6th.

Open Men now had the stage; Josh “West Coast” Miner has been progresing rapidly this season. Always near the front and aggressive. A 5^th, 4th, 3rd and a second had him focused for a win at the DPM. We saved number one for him. A fast start saw Ramon, Josh and Felix breakaway early. Another seesaw battle followed till Ramon hit the afterburners and was gone. Josh fought valiantly and hung onto second. The rest of the field strung and were all over the course having their own private hell in the one hour plus one lap.

Beer hand ups were seen. The hecklers turned nice and offered encouragement as the laps wound down. Ramon took a convincing win with Ommegangsters Cory P back at it after a long layoff and Mike (Huggies) K fisnishing strong in 5th.

Next up was the first annual Kross Relay dash for cash. The riders were assembled and drew their team mates. They then went to their respective sides for the LeMans start. Only to find while their backs were turned. Their bikes were switched around. The pack all got off sort of together. Dave Yacobelli lead out of mower and was gone. Have missed the earlier races with a mechanical. He had the freshest legs in the bunch. Dave gave a display of his power in that lap and tagged the King for the relay. The King downed the beer and was harassed about “How did those two end up together? Rigged? Pay offs? No just a random draw. The King extended the gap and rounding the third to last lap was facing a wall of the other team riders who grabbed him and held him while Ruth closed the gap. They even let the air out of his front tire. Ruth cut the course and they let him go. He dove back into the fray almost crashing on the flat tire in the last turn, hung on for the win.

Many stayed for chili and the awards. Where prizes and Ommegang flowed freely.

Thanks to all who picked up the course while I handed out prizes and tried to get it all together.

In all it was an incredible day in the Kingdom of Kross. Blue skies, warm temps, great riders, fans, and delicious food.

See you next year. The King

Results: http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2009/11/15-Dave-Panella-CX.asp

NYCross.com Series Finale at Bethlehem 11/15/09

A few Ommegangsters rolled out towards the Albany area for race #9 in the NYCross.com series to participate in The Bethlehem Cup. This event also served as the finale in the NYCross.com series. Jeff W and Skinny Phil were hoping to hold onto the mythical "cycling form" one more week as they were looking at possible podium spots in the overall NYCross.com series. Eric G also accompaied Jeff & Phil in trying to squeeze in just one more race for the year.
In the 3/4 field, Skinny Phil had a "good ride" and ended up placing 2nd in the field of 24 while Eric G powered to a mid pack finish.
In the 45+ field, Jeff W finished a very respectable 3rd again showing great consistency with yet another podium finish. Results may be found at: http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2009/11/15-Bethlehem-Cup-CX.asp

Some race pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/PhilRebecca/BethlehemCX#

Thus with the final race in the books, the overall NYCross.com series points were tallied. The Ommegangsters did us proud with Skinny Phil ending up 3rd overall in his division while Jeff W placed 1st in his. A closer examination of the points will show Jeff frequently on the podium week to week while Phil still managed a 3rd while missing three of the nine races. It was also great to see Phil have a total breakthrough CX season (especially with the Ommegang colors on his back). Also a shout out to the lovely Mrs Jeff W as she took overall honors in the elite women's points series. Series points at
http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2009/11/16-NYCross-Overall.asp

Congrats Skinny & Jeff !!

Winding Down? November 7-8 Weekend Recap:

For most of us, the season’s sadly yet ironically gladly winding down. Nearly two months straight of CX racing on top of a road and/or MTB season that probably started back around April can do that to you. The body and the mind seem to be getting ready for a little R&R (maybe Rare Vos & Recovery?). But there’s still some racing to be had. With the cancellation of the Greene CX event, the Ommegangsters found a couple of CX alternatives to keep the ‘cross fires stoked a bit longer

Chenango Tango?
One alternative CX outlet came in the form of a last minute, informal CX event down near Bingo land in Chenango Forks – the Chenango Forks Crossfire. King Karl mixed it up with the Swan-man and a few other strong south-towners in the “mature dudes” division winding up with a 2nd place spot. You best be ready if you’re headed to the Dave Panella Memorial “KX” event this weekend as the Bingo-landarians found a way to keep some race fitness in the legs on what was looking like a down weekend.

Road Trip
Ommegangsters Drummroll and Eric the Bolt, along with Omme-buddy Bryan B headed east to the Cycle Smart Invitational (CSI) in Northampton, MA to see what one of the big time New England Verge CX series events was like. We rolled in Friday eve to the number pick-up location where they had a nice little spread set-up complete with a variety of munchies and brews (including some Omme’s!!) as weel as some CX race vids on the tele. We actually had a chance to chat with Adam Myerson a little and he said to tell Skinny Phil he said hello. He was psyched to hear Skinny was having a great season. We didn’t even notice, until Adam said “hey Jeremy”, that J-Pow himself was in the room watching the CX vids.

Next morning we got to the race and we chuckled as various people were asking us if we brought any Ommegang. One dude even asked if we brought any Adoration. Soon enough it’s time to line up for the 35+ Masters event. After all numbers were called up, we looked behind us and ummm, we were wayyyyyyy in the back – there were probably 60-70 people in front of us and probably not even a full row behind us. A look at the race results will show we got our arses kicked (placing in the 50’s/60’s out of a finishing field of 74) but there’s a story within the story. We learned that with a field that big, you have rather limited chances starting in the back. On the first lap, the start bottle-necked, the run-up bottle-necked, and the sand pit bottle-necked. After a lap or two, things spread out a bit and you were now relegated to pretty much battling with the 5-10 guys in front of you and the 5-10 behind you. Afterward, we cleaned up and stuck around and watched some of the other races where we saw our Spokeposter friends Sarah & Wayne. In the pro men’s race, about 125 meters into a vicious start they stacked it up right in front of us with bikes and bodies flopping all over. We quickly backed away from the barricade tape as we realized getting clipped by a bike (with or without a rider on it) would not be a good thing.

Day two found a course with a few different twists and turns while sharing some of the same features from the day before. Drumroll raced the 45+ this day and then cheered/heckled his road trip companions when they raced the 35+ right after. Results on day two were somewhat similar with Drumroll taking 24th in a field of 46 while Eric & Bryan fought once again to be in the 50’s. Not sure if Eric got scored correctly but seemed like he was up a bit further.

All in all it was a cool experience. Good people, good food, good brews, and a pretty damn good event. We each noted that if we get back to a Verge or similar “big event” in the future, we either had to sign up really early to start closer to the front or we would have to use some of our new experience and knowledge to hopefully grab a few more spots when starting in the back.

This weekend on deck: Dave Panella Memorial in Bingo-land and the final installment in the NYCross series in Delmar, NY

Halloween Weekend Recap

Yes it's Friday but it's Beer Week. So here's a real quick recap of this past weekend which found some Ommegangsters at the NYCross series event Wicked Creepy CX in Bennington, VT while others headed west to Ellison Park CX in Rochester.

Wicked Creepy: Jeff W managed a second place in a tough Masters field and Skinny Phil managed a top 10 in a 30+ cat 3/4 field. Skinny maintains 3rd spot overall in his division in the NYCross series while Jeff's consistency has him in first for the 45+ masters series. (Jeff;s lovely wife also has the Elite Womens lead in the NYCross series.)

Ellision Park; Drumroll, Jeremy K & Gordon S all went west. Drumroll overcame a poor first lap to climb back into a second place finish in the guys 40+ while Jeremy & Gordon raced the huge & stacked open mens race. In this field of 70 finishers, Gordon manged the top half while Jeremy rolled in a few spots behind Gordon.

We've also got some informal reports that AJ has been putting up some real respectable results down near his new home in MD.

Get on board before it's all gone -- only a couple weekends of racing left.

CX Training on Hold, It's Beer Week !!

Beer Week. Think about those two words. How can one not be intrigued? Anywho ... you should get out & support this event, even if it's stopping by a Wegman's or your fav local "establishment" for a sample or two. Details here: Syracuse Beer Week 2009.

And if you're truly intrigued, a search of the event calendar will show you several Ommegang events. You might even find me at the Brewmaster dinner at the Dinosaur on Thurs. Would be great to hook up with Ommegang's own brewmaster (Phil .. or maybe for our sake, "Brewmaster Phil") who also happens to be a cycling minded dude.

Weekend race reports coming. Ommegangsters in a multi-state assault this time .. VT, MD, and NY.