Tour de Loop Recap

 Six Ommegangsters headed up to Oswego for the Tour de Loop Sat. morning for an unusually early start (bike racing at 8:15 am?).  Lot's of familiar faces from the TNTS series there as well as the recent OCC Weds eve ride entering both the 30 mile and 50 mile events.

This race circuit seems to bring a somewhat unique flavor for the area in that there is not a big deciding climb, nor is it flat by any means --  it sort of just keeps slowly jabbing away at you with each cumulative hill or roller to slowly add an extra ounce or two of lead to the legs.

Ray W and Big Dave M represented in the 30 mile field which had over 200 people with decent finishes in the top quarter of the field.  For the 50 miler, Drummroll pointed out a very strong regional rider to the other Ommegnagsters Fred H, Craig N and Eric K as they lined up for the start.  About half way through, Craig made a move on one of the tougher hills with this "strong" rider and one other guy for a three-man break.  Behind the break, Drummroll, Eric, and Fred sat in a 15 or so person chase group covering any attempts to pop off and close in on the break.  The break lasted the whole way with Craig taking the honors of first overall across the line in a well executed sprint.  Behind the break, the chase group was winding it up about a mile out when they came upon a fire truck moving very slowly as a follow vehicle for the 30 mile event (definitely an "Oh Sh*t" moment).  A bit of scrambling and reshuffling around the fire truck and a big field sprint with two more Ommegangsters making the top 10.

Results here ..... http://www.yellowjacketracing.com/2010

Post race included the usual retelling of the days battle stories with teammates and friends even including Fred's daughter recounting the kid's race.  Excellent post race assortment of fruit, muffins, local cider and even a kids bouncy house just steps from the lake front capped off a pretty darn good start to the weekend.

Critz Registration is Open !!

Congrats to Eric "The Mudstomper" Behrman (Team Stegosaurus) for being the first official registrant.

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=11574

Critz Farms Kermis -- September 18

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=11574

Registration opening any day now.  All details and info at the BikeReg.com registration page.  Bring the family as it could be a fun family day (where you can sneak in a quick bike race).  This will be sanctioned as a CX event this year.  Low key, fun event to mix things up and transition into the CX or fall MTB season.  Hope you can be there.

Zucchini Days & Summer Time Brews

Days starting to get a bit shorter, occasional thunderstorm welcomed to beat down the humidity, corn is really tall and has that sticky sweet smell when you ride by, tired of mowing the lawn, and while there's still some summertime racing still to be had, the true sign of the summer winding down ....neighbors pawning off their extra zucchini.

Squash or no squash, four Ommegangsters did their good deed to support Endurance Factor and Syracuse Bicycle (team sponsors btw) on Saturday by helping shepherd some tri types on the Syracuse 70.3 bike course as part of a training camp.  Crazy windy along the 56 mile course made it a bit challenging but all survived with the Ommegangsters presence much appreciated by the organizers and many of the tri folks.

Another four Ommegangsters rolled out Albany way to participate in the Capital Region Road Race this past weekend.  Rooster Mike & Dan the Plan doing the Masters thing and Dave Y and Craig N hitting some 3/4 action with Craig again pulling a podium spot -- nice work.

On a whim, Drumroll stopped off in Little Falls Sunday am on a return trip from his parents after attending a charity type event the night before.  The Canal Classic was on tap (beer pun) and he saw lots of familiar faces lining up.  In the end Wayne B destroyed the field while Drumroll battled with a couple MaxPower dudes in the first chase group to wind up 5th. 

Tour de Loop coming up this weekend and then a few other events like Thater, a MTB World Cup event at Windham (World Cup in our back yard folks -- not just the best MTBers domestically but the best in the world).

Planning for Critz Farms Kermis is coming along (Sept 18) as well as the CX event at Brewery Ommegang (Oct 3).  More details soon.

Deacons de la Dirt

Ommegangsters done got dirty this weekend.  A trio of the boys headed down to the Catskills (ok, so maybe one walked out his front door) for some off road action.  Two hit the Belleayre Mtn stop of the NYS MTB series while the crazy man of the bunch decided he wanted to do a 2-day MTB stage race that covered oh, like 50 miles both days.

From Belleayre, Paul S podiumed in his division while the Rooster (who likely begged, borrowed or stole a MTB to race ) also ended up on the podium in his division. Awesome guys !!  (Props to Omme friends the Jeffina for a demo of dual domination in their respective divisions as well.)

So Jason H (aka Bob in some circles), figured putting in a 100 mi on the road over a weekend wasn't enough and went on to race the Wildcat Epic.  Not sure if ya'll have ever done 50 miles on a MTB at once but 2 days of 50 back to back is, well, kinda epic I guess.  He may still be recovering (that's alot of saddle time on a MTB if ya know what I mean) but deserves a congrats for his efforts.

You can tell the road seasons quieting down as there seems to be a slight uptick in CX talk on the group rides and such the past week or two -- Kirkland CX is just a month away.

Tour of Catskills Horsegate ..... Roostah, is that You?

So the Ommegangsters headed down to Rip Van Winkle land and pulled out some pretty awesome results at the Tour of the Catskills ... a 1-2 on the podium for stage 1 by Craig N and Eric K.  with Dave Y also placing well.  When the Tour of the Catskills was done and over, three Ommegangsters in the top 15 with a 5th, 9th and 14th out of pretty sizeable field.  Rooster flew the Omme colors (who new this Rooster could fly) w/a good result and Fast Freddie H doing the Assault on Devil's Kitchen for a 3rd.

On to the dirt at Highland, The King Karl F and Jason H on the podium in their respective divisions with a 2nd & 3rd.  Drummroll had pulled out a nice lead in his division on his SS until his chain quit and decided to lay on the ground after about 3/4 of his race ending with an unfortunate DNF.  (Props to Ommegangster bud Dave F on a successful foray back onto the dirt with a win in his division).

So back to Tour of the Catskills ... Was it true there was a horse named Cavendish out there .... ya gotta see it to believe it ....

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