Tripel

Tripel your pleasure?  Team Ommegang-Syracuse Bicycle 'cross racers were working it at 3 separate 'cross venues this past weekend with some great results.   West Point, Parma and Saratoga were the venues with Ommegangsters taking top honours in their respective divisions at West Point and Parma. 

King Karl picked up the top spot in his division at West Point while Aaron J did the same at Parma.  Ommegangsters also picked up some additional podium photo ops at Parma as well.  Spa racers also represented well in some pretty sizeable fields and a reportedly challenging course.  Nice work gents. 

All results are at BikeReg:    Saratoga   West Point   Parma

Syracross up next at Highland in our backyard hosted by our Mello Velo friends -- let's represent! 

Troy, Syracuse, and more Troy

With the CX season in full swing, this past weekend brought about a couple racing options on the local scene.  The two-day NYCross.com event in Troy and the Syracuse Grand Prix on Sunday.  Some split their Sat & Sun between the two, some did just Troy and others did just the Syracuse event. 

All in all a great weekend all around with some of the Ommegangsters picking up some podium style accolades while may others placed well in some pretty stacked fields.  The Troy events saw Skinny Phil, Ray W, Tim O, Jeremy K, and King Karl in attendance on one or both days while a strong showing at Syracuse included Jason H, Aaron J, Jim R, Greg D, AJ F, Fred H, K I, Joe Mag, Skinny Phil, and Tim O. 

The Troy events reportedly featured some new twists and turns which was also the theme at Syracuse as they too sported a revamped course and perhaps one of the muddiest editions in memory. A bonus at Syracuse in the P/1/2/3 race was getting to see Dan Timmerman in action -- the dude makes it look too easy.

Coming up regionally this weekend .... again choices .... Parma/Rochester or Saratoga?   Either way your likely to see some Ommegangsters there.  Good luck to all.

Results for Troy & Syracuse below ....


http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2011/10/16-Syracuse-Grand-Prix.asp




http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2011/10/15-Uncle-Sam-GP-Day-1.asp

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2011/10/16-Uncle-Sam-GP-Day-2.asp

Cobbs Hill, Iron Cross & A Charity Ride

A good batch of Ommegangsters headed off to Rochester to take on Cobbs Hill this past Sunday.    Upon arrival, a course pre-ride revealed that the course seemed a bit shorter with the crazy lllloooonnnggg hill climb being only about half of what it had been in previous editions.   With a few days of no precip prior and temps also pushing over 70 degrees on race day,  it made for a pretty fast course. 

Ommegangsters posted some great results with Aaron J picking up the win in the Cat 4 race (it's about time to upgrade isn't it?) and Tim O missing the win by a whisker in the 35+.   There were also some pretty good performances by a number of others with respectable placings. 

A lone Ommegangster, perhaps using some of is IronMan Lake Placid base, headed down to PA to participate in IronCross. Here's "K's" race report: 

I just came back from Iron Cross, and just wanted to say the race was
a BLAST. It was the funnest race I've done, by far, and the scenery
was stunningly beautiful! If you like Rambler, you MUST do this race.
The course is just like Rambler: a mixture of pavement, dirt roads,
gravels, single track trails, and mud, except there are more climbing,
and the course is twice is long (60miles), ... and it's sunny and dry.
Oh, and there is a long, long, walk-up which they call "hike-a-bike"
or something. There are a few short sections where you would want a
Mt. bike but the course definitely favors CX bikes. (I wouldn't be
able to shoulder my 29er for the long hike-up anyway.) I think CX
bikes with disk brakes are the ideal (Joe???).

The only downside(?) I found were 1) the start/finish was at a state
park, so it's strictly no alcohol :-(  and 2) the mass start is very
congested, so if you want to race, you have to start from the front,
otherwise, you will loose good 5 mins by mile 2; and 3) the burritos
they served were amazingly bad.

I got a flat 10 miles to go, only to find I brought a 20 year-old tube
with 7 patches on it (, which apparently didn't hold air), but thanks
to the neutral support, I got a brand-new tube and managed to finish
the race. Still enjoyed the every minute. Given my fitness and
handling skills, I would never want to "race" it, but definitely would
love to do it again.

While there was racing scheduled for Sunday (as noted above), a batch of Ommegangsters participated in the Trek Womens Breast Cancer Awareness Ride put on by Syracuse Bicycle the day before on Saturday.  While these events were held nationwide by Trek retailers, the Syracuse event somehow arranged for a beautiful fall day with a sunny 70+ degrees which only added to the festival atmosphere.  Some Ommegangsters hung with the family on the 10 mile route while others pushed the pace in the flat 25 mile ride.  As a nod to the cause and show the team's support for the event, all Ommegangsters present sported hot pink socks. 

Syracuse Bicycle put on a first class event with tons of food, bountiful swag and draw prizes and an incredible good karma vibe.  While official word has yet to be received,  the Syracuse ride was most likely the largest ride in the U.S. with over 400 participants.   Huge props and congrats go out to Syracuse Bicycle.

Cobbs & Iron Cross results here:

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2011/10/09-Cobbs-Hill-Cyclocross.asp

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2011/10/09-Iron-Cross-IX.asp

CX @ Brewery Ommegang 2011

Phew, another one in the books ... where to begin? .... Maybe start out by hoping all the racers, volunteers, and spectators have got all (or most) of the mud out and off their bikes, bodies and clothing.  The mud certainly made the race a whole different beast than previous editions .. maybe even a little more Belgian-esque?

First we need to give a hearty shout out to the racers for coming out and making the event a success.  Next, a big thanks to the many behind the scenes helpers that sacrificed their time and efforts in those critical "little" things like course set-up & teardown, registration, scoring,and various other aspects that get overlooked -- without these folks, there would be no event.  We also need to thank our supporters that included a few new faces and some that have been with us from the beginning.  It was an honour to welcome our new supporters Chobani and WoolSports -- both these folks totally mesh with the CX scene.  It was also a pleasure to have Endurance Factor and Road ID  supporting us again this year.  We also need to give props to our musical guru William Nicholson who provided the proper post race, recovery beverage enjoying vibe.  Lastly, we owe a huge amount of gratitude to Syracuse Bicycle and Brewery Ommegang for their support of our team as well as to this event.  We've probably forgot some folks in our post race delirium but we want to say thanks to all and everyone that had a hand in this event.

There's lots of pictures and some vids (and links thereof) at various FaceBook pages including those of Team-Ommegang Syracuse Bicycle, Syracuse Cycling and Central NY Cyclocross. 

Race results:  http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2011/10/02-ommegang-cx.asp

CX @ Brewery Ommegang - 2011

A little vid action of a couple of the 'cross kids at CX @ Brewery Ommegang.

Another great success at Brewery Ommegang.  A detailed recap to come but want to get the results out there .....

Results:  http://www.yellowjacketracing.com/2011