4/10/2008

The 9th Annual ABD TT Series Wrap-Up!

An ENORMOUS THANK YOU to all the riders, volunteers, sponsors and
officials who were a part of the 9th Annual ABD Time Trial Series.
Close to 300 riders joined us for the John Fraser Memorial TT finale
in Maple Park, making it over 450 different riders that participated
in this year's series.

Congratulations to our overall category winners:
Women 15 & Under: Jennifer Howland, Multisport Madness Kids
Men 15 & Under: Lukas Verzbikcas, Multisport Madness Kids
Men 15 & Under-5k: Jon Stehlik, ABD
Women 16+: Jessica Clay, Multisport Madness Kids
Men 16+: Josh Bobka, Spin Doctors Cyclewersks CC
Women Open: Leigh Thompson, VisionQuest
Men 1/2: Mark Swartzendruber, Scarletfire Racing
Men 3: Tomasz Boba, WDT
Women 4: Elizabeth Waterstraat, The Bike Shop
Men 4: Michael Stodden, North Branch Cycle Club
Men 30+: Mark Swartzendruber, Scarletfire Racing
Men 40+: Mark Swartzendruber, Scarletfire Racing
Women 50+: Jean Tschampa, PACT-Dishnetwork
Men 50+: Josh Mallan, MetLife
Women 60+: Nancy Beck, Midwest Masters
Men 60+: Bill Kallas, ABD
Men 65+: Steve Holland, Wheeling Wheelmen
Women 70+: Patricia Beam, Team RVO
Men 70+: Bob Beck, Midwest Masters
Men 75+: Pat Murphy, ABD
Citizen Men 30-39: Jonathan Culli, ABD
Citizen Women 40-49: Lori Miller, ABD
Citizen Men 40-49: Alan Hemminger, Unattached
Citizen Men 50+: Scott Fiegleson, ABD
Complete overall standings and results for the John Fraser Memorial
Time Trial are posted at www.ABDcycling.com

4/02/2008

Gina Kenny Report: Hillsboro Roubaix

Wow. Not only has Jessi’s riding improved, bringining her to “prominent name” status, her race reports have improved as well. Thanks for the entertaining read! = )

As for the Women’s 4’s race– We actually had nearly 50 starters. Pretty unbelievable. Pretty soon into the race, there was a crash — I heard some loose gravel but didn’t see it. I just all of a sudden saw girls going down everywhere. I was far enough back that I was able to break before adding to the pile but was right smack in the middle of a row and couldn’t get to either the left or right. I couldn’t latch back on to the group. I passed some girls and worked with some others for most of the race. I’m still slow as heck on the hills but do seem to be improving — even passing a few girls! = ) Dawn was able to get around the tangle of girls and bikes quicker than I was but she, unfortunately, ended up spending the majority of the race riding by herself which had to suck with those windy sections. Myself and three other girls were working together until the last hill, two passed me, I passed one. The two that passed me slowed way down for the cobblestones so I barreled past them and finally caught up to Dawn. She latched on and passed me right before the finish line making her 24th and me 25th.

4/01/2008

Jessi's Hillsboro Report

My trip down to Hillsboro indeed brought back many interesting memories. I could again envision myself age thirteen laying by the side of the road getting a back rub from my mother just 10 miles from the finish line, crying tears of pain as all the cat 4 women I had worked so hard to drop slowly passed me again. Another image, a year later, of a dark, dreary, freezing wet day shivering at the start line with 20 other juniors (I was the lone girl of course) and riding by myself for hour after hour after being popped from the pack.

All these past memories of the hilly road race only left me in a quandary at what today’s fresh, new Hillsboro experience might bring.

The day started at chilly low temperatures, and after circling the small loop in town twice I was forced to resort to jumping jacks as a final desperate attempt at a warm-up. This year was the first year I would be riding with the big girls, the catty 1,2,3s, and I wanted to prove myself as a persevering rider with greater potential than they could have ever though possible. As of this moment, I just looked like a scrappy teenager doing jumping jacks in the middle of the road.

As I looked around, I calculated my chances of victory. If there are 30 riders in a bike race and one rider is dropped per mile for 44 miles, what is the probability of Jessi winning the bike race? I’ll give a free powerbar to anyone who can figure that one out.

Today’s race would definitely be no cup of tea; just looking around I could spot prominent names of some of the most ruthless women in the Midwest. Sure, I’d competed against a few of these strong women here and there, but today it was as if the Prominent Name Convention had come to town and every single prominent name in the Midwest decided to show up.

I was still yapping my trap off to Sue as the starter whistle blew, and I scrambled to get my feet clipped in as the race began. It only took about 4 miles into the race for the attacks to begin; I guess Prominent Names don’t like to stay together that often. None of the attacks lasted longer than a minute, or gained more than a few feet. For the first time in my life I used my brain, and figured that if the Prominent Names’ attacks weren’t working, than mine probably wouldn’t either, so I became a wheelsucker for most of the first lap.

You know the saying "When the going gets tough, the tough get going"? It goes something like that. Well, the same applied for this race. The race soon turned into Café Ride Gone Wild with attack groups catapulting themselves at every opportunity. Everyone knew this was the moment of truth: this was the decisive moment of who would make the break and who would get whisked out into the empty cornfields of Illinois, forced to take the scraps left behind after the riders up the road got first dibs on podium. The terrain turned to a grade steep enough to deliver the final blow needed to splinter the pack. Just seven of us came out together. And I was one of them.

The paceline began immediately, all of us working together swiftly and efficiently to insure no stragglers clawed their way back on. I could name every face in the pack and match at least one first place victory with each face as well (except one gal from St. Louis).

The race continued on this way for the rest of the first lap and the entirety of the second lap. Near the end of the second lap, another lady somehow conjured up the Herculean effort to ride herself back into our group, increasing the number to eight. After so many miles of such brutal pacelining, I was beginning to fatigue, and each hill I would fall back farther and farther.

Finally, as the last hill loomed overhead, I scraped together what little power remained from the far reaches of my being, and stood up in a mad frenzy to just stay in contact with the other riders in the group, knowing there was just one mile to the finish line. It was to no avail, though, because I quickly became gapped by five who hammered their way out of my reaches up the road. My mind momentarily flickered with disappointment because there were only five paying places in the race, and it was disheartening to ride 44 fierce miles only to finish just out of money range. I still continued my relentless struggle up the hill with the other two dropped women, never abandoning hope of some miracle.

And then, as if God himself had answered my prayers, the most amazing and spectacle of the twenty-first century occurred right before my scrappy little eyes. One of the ladies dropped her chain. And then there were four little Indians. I ascended the top of the hill and shook my legs out as I scorched down the descent into the cobbles. I paced myself with the other two women, barely noticing the battering cobbles jarring my teeth, knowing I was clinging to my last chance at a podium finish. The final turn came and I sat patiently behind in third position, knowing how long the final straight was. Lady 1 and Lady 2 slowly ramped it up, eyeing each other side by side. As the pace quickened and they started to sprint, I got boxed in as Lady 1 sat in front of me with the curb to my left and Lady 2 to my right. It was not exactly the ideal situation in the final moments of a race, but I slowly backed off and kicked it into high gear as I sprinted around both of them sliding right into 5th place.

And with that I think it’s safe to say that in the course of just 3 hours the once scrappy teenager doing jumping jacks in the middle of the road has just graduated to the title of Prominent Name.

Until next week…

-Prominent Name

(Jessi Prinner)

3/31/2008

Jessi Prinner in the Daily Herald

ABD rider Jessi Prinner is featured in the March 31 edition of the Daily Herald!

Check out the article here.

3/29/2008

Irene Pang Reports In from the Desert

Hello everyone! Greetings from Arizona! Since you now have more outdoor racing coming up, I’ve decided to issue a summary race report, which includes a total of 4 mountain bike races and 3 criteriums. Would you believe that the State Championship Criterium is in a mere 2 weeks??

I’ve been participating in the 7-race state mountain bike Championship Series in both the Marathonand the Cross-Country mountain bike racing divisions. 4 races are already over, and the whole series ends mid-May, so the entire series as much like an early-season exercise. Mountain biking inArizona involves coming in close proximity to a multitude of sharp thorny plants, some with detachable appendages that cling to whatever body part or soft bike part unfortunate enough to happen by. So despite having mountain biked here before, I felt the need to don protective armor on my first few rides here. Fortunately, the race courses tend to feature less sharp plants, but are full of sandy washes, loose climbs, loose descents, rough rock (granite and volcanic), drop-offs, and twisty trail. I race in the Expert category (Women 19-39), but found early on that due to my desire to stay upright, I have inferior speed and skill at negotiating downhills, drop-offs, twisty sections, and some otherwise ‘technical’ sections when compared to other Experts. This is where the Marathon event comes in – the Marathon event is a much longer event, typically requiring 4-6 hours to complete, but due to the length of the event, the route tends to be on the average less ‘technical’. So as it turns out, my best placing so far is second in a Marathon event (but less people do the marathon event). 3 of the 7 events are at mid-altitude, with one at 5000 ft, another at 6000 ft, and the Final at 7000 ft, but since most of the competitors in this state live at lower altitudes, I’ve come to the conclusion that on the average, this is not a huge detriment. Interestingly, I’ve noted that 2 of the other Expert Women raced regularly in the Wisconsin WORS mountain bike series a couple years ago.

My first crit here was a semi-success, but somewhat accidentally (Scottsdale Grand Prix - 4 corners, 1 mile course). I have exercise-induced asthma which appears to be aggravated by high pollen counts and/or high pollution levels. Unfortunately, due to the different environmental profiles in Tucson vs.Phoenix, I was not entirely medically prepared for this event. My first race was the 30+ women, which was run concurrently with the Cat 4 women. The entire field was 15, with 8 teams represented, plus 2 unattached. I knew no one, nor any of the teams, and was also having asthma issues during most of this race, so I was mostly ‘hanging-out’ observing while trying to stay upright and not get dropped. At some point I must have gotten over the asthma and with 1 lap to go, it seemed like everyone suddenly slowed down. So I got into a reasonable position and by merely sitting on another racer’s wheel, I found myself in 2nd with about 50 meters to go. Since I did not want to interfere with the Cat 4 sprint and did not appear to be challenged by any 30+ women, I initially opted to just continue sitting on this woman’s wheel, but in the end decided that the finish would look silly if I didn’t at least try to go around. So in the end, in the field, I was second by about half a wheel, and 1st in the 30+ Women.

My 2nd race that day was the Cat 3 Women, which was about 3.5 hours later with a field size of 9. Due to either eating solid food too late before the race, or due to the settling-in of respiratory issues, I noticed during my warm-up that I was getting winded unusually easily (i.e. - 120W felt like 145W), but decided to race anyway. Oddly, this race was slower than the Cat 4 race, and with everyone ambling along at one point just before a prime, I went for the prime, but at an apparently harder effort than my respiratory state allowed at that time. I did not get the prime and was promptly dropped after that. The lesson here was to take adequate asthma medication with me.

My 2nd crit was a local one (Tucson Crit Series) held on a go-cart track with 11 (!!) ‘corners’ over a sub-mile course. There were few straight-aways and rapid successions of left-right-left-right-sequences making it difficult to pass at whim. Not trusting my own ability to adequately safely negotiate the course in the front (after having to brake a couple times while pre-riding) I decided to hang out in the back leaving others plenty of room also. Women of all categories were combined and 2 women separately got away early. There were 2 crashes total, 1 near the front of the group, and 1 near the back. This was just sort of practice for me, and I ended up 2nd in the Cat. 3 Women. I also raced with the 45+ men that day, but after being unable to make it around 1 other gapped competitor prior to the first sequence of rapid left-right-left right’s, I ended up pacing the entire race with this other competitor. All-in-all, I think I’ve gotten adequate practice on this course to be able to do better next time on the same course.

My 3rd crit was in the South Phoenix area (Hungry Dog Crit – 2 corners, ½ mile course). I have no idea why the event is named this, but each category winner received a dog bowl. This time, armed with more asthma medication (the regular amount), I proceeded to chase breaks right from the gun, but later, it became apparent that perhaps these breaks did not need chasing because they were 1-2’s who were scored separately anyway. So the rest of us rode at mostly a tempo pace after that, with a couple primes sprinkled in. Towards the end, we were lapped, at which point I should have latched on, but debated this concept for much too long until they were well ahead and already sprinting for a prime. At some point after that, a couple riders bridged up. Oddly I don’t even remember seeing them go, so I must have been in the back at the time. After this happened, I also mistakenly thought that one of the bridgers was on the same team as one of the 1-2’s, but it turns out I was incorrect. In the end, I won the field sprint, but was 3rd in my category.

After this race, I decided that I need to learn to identify the various team jerseys better, as well as individual riders. I believe I must be the only racer around here with an orange jersey, but there appear to be multiple royal blue, green-royal blue, and pink-purple themed team jerseys around here.

Not sure if anyone bothered to read all this, and I’m not offended if no one did ….

Best wishes in your upcoming races and events!

Irene

3/20/2008

Kenosha Crit #2: ABDers shine in all categories!

At the second Kenosha Crit the ABD and ABD/GEARGRINDER squads were out in force!

Graham Clark and Konrad Witt duked it out in the Junior classes, with Graham taking 3rd in the Boys 10-12 and Konrad finishing in the top 10 of the Boys 13-14.

In the Men’s 3 race, Tim Keeley made it into the winning break of seven riders and ended up finishing 5th in just his second Men’s 3 race!

Jeff Schroetlin (ABD/GEARGRINDER) decided one race wouldn’t be enough of a workout, so jumped in the Masters 30+ and took second in his first race of the year!

In the days’ main event, the Men 1/2 race, Schroetlin joined his ABD/GEARGRINDER teammates the White brothers and Rob Jungels for a sufferfest that saw Schroetlin, Rob White and Ryan White driving the winning break. In the finale Rob White soloed to the win on the final lap with Ryan taking second and Schroetlin coming across for 5th.

3/16/2008

Batavia Police Suicide Prevention Charity Ride Photos

Some pictures are posted from today’s indoor charity ride.
Follow this link: http://www.abdcycling.com/gallery.htm

Thanks Joe,MaryLee and Mike for organizing this, it was a blast for a good cause. If anyone has anymore photo’s please forward them to me so that I can post them. Ken Glinka

3/08/2008

ABD Indoor TT # 4 pictures posted

Head on over to http://www.abdcycling.com/gallery.htm to check 'em out!

3/06/2008

Final 2008 Sarge Indoor Workout Pics Posted

Thanks Sarge for making us sweat and loving it every Thursday night.

You can view the pictures at : http://www.abdcycling.com/gallery.htm