Fast Forward Developmental Mountain Bike Team

Tour de Tykes Race, April 17, 2011

2011-04-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

So its another Mass series cross country weekend 4 hours or so from the house. Thanks to the Cofrancescos for getting me to the race. The weather gods were angry on Saturday my friends. The rain that never stopped left the course a tangle of mud, shiny rocks that glistened with moisture, and devilish roots that appeared to be the knotted hair of Medusa herself. As we approached the start line, I was filled with trepidation, not knowing if the next few hours would be the misery that I had felt the week before - no, I told myself. this week I had prepared well and was ready to have a good race. As it turned out, the race course was fun with a lot of climbing and steep rocky descents. Some parts of the trail was like a stream that was gushing water. At the start I could tell that there was competition - on the first climb one rider was out of my sight and had the fastest time in all of sport. The climbing was challenging and some of the descents felt as if one were in a free fall decent where brakes were laughed at - the only thing between you and getting plastered into a tree were your bike handling skills. My unicycle seat was wet and so my pants got wet to and then i had to where shorts after the race so my legs were cold. During the race kyle asked me for water and i would have gave it to him but I didn't hear him and I couldn't give any water so i think he was thirsty. Sorry Kyle. Your the best. As it turned out, I did have a good race, had some reserve energy at the end, and ended up third behind the really fast guy and my teammate Joe, who placed second and was also really fast. Thanks to Zach for supporting us during the race. All in all in was a good weekend.

Thanks for the set-up

2010-10-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

The other weekend I was racing at the granogue double uci cross weekend. Yes, I know it's not mountain biking, but we are bike racers afterall and falling into only one clique is just silly. So I'm getting ready for day two, and my one friend rolls up and starts talking about how he think his electrolyte balance was all out of whack yesterday. I'm like," thanks for the set up, because I know exactly what you need. Endurolytes. Endurolytes are an electrolyte supplement made by one of our sponsors, Hammer Nutrition. I've been using endurolytes sinc elong before they were a sponsor and long after. In endurance racing, we call it the magic little pill." He was intrigued to say the least, and I let him use a couple of mine. It's no magic pill. It's science. Pretty simple body chemistry actually. To make a very long and detailed story short, your body uses electrolytes in vital body functions like energy metabolism, initiating chemical reactions, maintaining a constant environment, and other super important things. They help give your body the building blocks for keeping it running and up to speed. Note that it's not macronutrients, but the other things we neglect. Confusing stuff I know. But the endurolytes help me, and they can help anyone when used right. They helped him.

Massanutten Hoooooo Haaaaaaaa!

2010-06-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

Ahhhhh the hoooo haaaaa. This past weekend the team headed down to Harrisonburg, Virginia for the last race in the Triple Crown series. The riding down south is awesome, and this race course was no exception. It had so much different terrain, from smooth and fast, to slow and technical with everything in between. The basic layout of the course is straight up the mountain then straight back down, with an amazing piece of trail going across the ridge at the top. I absolutely love this course I love the long sustained climb and the descent is awesome, mix in all the different terrain and it is up there with my favorite place to race all season. Most of the team got there friday night and set up camp. We had a little friend take the trip down from Delaware to Virginia with us, it was a spider about the size of my palm. I found out how much I hate spiders. We did a nice easy spin after we finished getting all set up. A awesome dinner consisting of steaks and potatoes followed, delicious. Saturday was filled with racing, super D at 1:00 and short track at 4:00. Scottie took a bit of a tumble on his way down the very long super D course, luckily he was fine. Gunnar absolutely killed it in the Open short track, yes he was racing with the likes of Sid Taberlay and Jeremiah Bishop. He was lapped just a few hundred feet from the finish line and had a front row seat to the crash that decided the race between Taberlay and Bishop. Right on the last berm/turn of the race there was some contact between them and Taberlay went down, Gunnar got to see the whole thing play out. Finally Sunday was the big XC race, lots of big names and with a very challenging course ahead of us with some very hot temperatures everyone was nervous. The gun went off and with the mass start of all Pros, Cat 1's & 2's it was chaos. The combination of a dust storm, lots of elbowing and all the jockeying for position made this one of the most intense starts I have ever been in. The course was in prime condition not to wet not to dry, and with a few hundred racers it made passing really hectic, thats if you could pass. The whole climb up for me was spent trying to get past people who had dabbed or gotten off on some rock gardens, or people whose pace was just too slow for me. It was tough to stay on the gas the whole time, people wouldn't let you by even when they were walking and even if you asked for the pass they never seemed to want to give up there spot. The descent was a little better with a less traffic. After it was all said and done, It was a fun day but I definitely didn't leave enough out there. Jake straight killed it and finished 3rd in Cat 1 19-29 and was super pumped on his result. Scottie finished 7th in Cat 2 U18. I finished up 4th in Cat 2 U18 as well. Awesome weekend of racing and I know everyone is really excited for the always fun Marysville stage race this weekend. Jake and Scottie will be taking on solo for the weekend. Jeff and I are racing duo together, and Zach will also be racing all weekend. Gunnar is off at the USAC camp down in North Carolina getting some information from Jeremiah Bishop and some other USAC coaches.

-Kyle

Transsylvania Epic, Part II

2010-06-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the TSE stage updates... that race was so much fun.

Stage 4: Wednesday June 2, Raystown Lake

   Let me just start by saying this: the Allegrippis Trail system at Raystown Lake is the biggest ball of fun wrapped in perfect dirt in the most beautiful place on the planet, good old Pennsylvania. My god that place was, actually is, awesome. The start of the stage was a ripping-fast start up a "stiff" (Kuhn's word) climb for about half a mile, then a quick drop into the tight and twist goodness that is the singletrack at Raystown. I rode with a few familiar faces for awhile, just to be popped off on the days relatively short but steep power climbs. This place, while both super-fun is also extraordinarily hard to race. There are many short steep rollers which require something like micro intervals where you are on the gas, out of the saddle, for 10 or 15 seconds, then spinning or coasting down the other side. While it was so fast and over so quickly (I clocked a 2:54 for a 35-ish mile race), my legs were completely shelled after the race. My early efforts in the race came back to bite me about halfway through when I start going backwards a bit. Then I cased the third roller on Ray's Revenge. I came out relatively unscathed with a few minor cuts and a little crack in my helmet. After regaining my composure for a bit my legs started feeling better and I picked up speed for the last few miles. As soon as I started really feeling good, the sweet singletrack bliss was over and I rolled down the road and over the line. It was a damn good day to be a bike racer.

Stage 5: Thursday June 3, Mini-XC's at R.B. Winter

   R.B. Winter is one of my favorite places to ride. It is so amazingly rocky it is always fun. The order of the day was a fun race type thing not meant to shake up the GC, but instead catered towards the back of the field; those who came to ride some sweet PA singletrack. We rode about 25 miles, with four timed sections and four group transfers in between each timed section. We would race a section, regroup, ride to the next section, race, and repeat. It was a lot of fun. It was all about getting to know all the racers, including the pros. Stages like this, in my opinion, should be featured in all stage races. Although, it was a little punishing on the legs to sprint for 15 min, then rest for a half an hour, but it actually ended up being a good recovery day for me. My legs finished the stage feeling relatively fresh, and ready to conquer the final two stages. Along the way we hit up some of the highlights of R.B. Winter: Rocky Corner, Black Gap, White Deer Creek, etc. It was another in a series of good days.

Stage 6: Friday June 4, Rothrock Whipple Dam

   This was billed as the "Queen Stage" for the Transsylvania Epic. It definitely lived up to that billing, featuring what is possibly the best trail on the East Coast, or in the world: Tussey Mountain Trail. If you haven't ridden Tussey Mountain Trail you should. Just take my word for it. Really. Tussey is the greatest thing this side of Sunday. It was a short stage, clocking only 25 miles, and including one big climb. The roll-out was rather neutral; I rode with the lead group until the trail start really pitching up. Friday was the first day that I felt like I was climbing well, but I was riding technical stuff like I didn't know how to pedal. Tussey was still a great though. In case you haven't noticed, I'm having trouble writing (pretty wiped from the week), so I'll keep it short. I rolled in sometime under 3 hours.

Stage 7: Saturday June 5, Bald Eagle Little Poe

   This stage was a short, but important one. Before the stage the top six or seven in the GC was tight. Alex Grant and my buddy Brandon Draugelis were tied. TIED!!!!!!! TIED!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 6 days of racing they are tied. It made for a shootout at the head of the race. Watch the CyclingDirt Video if you want to see the shootout. As for me, I had an ok start to the race, and a crappy middle. I rode for a while with Ben Cruz, one of the WTB riders. I burped a ton of air out of my Maxxis Aspen tires trying to follow him down the descents. He can sure go downhill quick. It's pretty cool to follow a legit downhiller through the singletrack. But since it is a race, and I was racing him, I threw down a little attack when the road pitched up just before the finish to roll in at about 1:53.

So I finished my first stage race. It was hard. I came in 16th place. Jeremiah Bishop won, followed by Alex Grant, and Brandon. Good showing for him and all of PA. I don't really have much more to say now, only that I'd like to thank all the sponsors who kept me running this week. Especially Hammer Nutrition, who kept me hydrated and going forward for the whole week. Maxxis's superb tires kept me absolutely glued to the trail, and Crank Brothers pedals kept me attached to my bike. As always, Ergon grips kept my hands nice and comfy. Thanks also to Cannondale, makers of the lightest, fastest, and strongest bikes in the world. Also thanks to C-dale mechanic Ron who came through in a pinch with a spare dérailleur hanger. Also thanks to all the people who made this week so great. Mike and Ray, you put on a fantastic race. If there is anyone I forgot to thank, than thanks. All you guys rock. I'll leave you with some pictures of the week.

Photos (c) A.E.Landes Photography. Used with permission.

-Jake

Transsylvania Epic, Part I

2010-06-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

Since we're about halfway through the race now, I should probably give an update as to how my race is going. So we'll go day by day...

Stage 1: Sunday May 30, Bald Eagle Prologue TT

   I suppose that it is traditional to start a stage race with a TT. Normally these TT's are 6 - 10 km (4 - 6 mi for you English unit types), and meant just to set up the leaders jersey's for the next day. Our TT was about 10 mi (about 16 km), contained a bunch of climbing, as well as some fun technical singletrack to get everyone introduced to good old PA riding. I rolled a fairly respectable 44:29, about 10 minutes of the leaders pace. Can you guess who the leader was? If you haven't been following (shame on you) Jeremiah Bishop of Cannondale Factory Racing killed it, winning by about 3 or 4 min. Post race, had some Hammer Soy recovery drink mix, and settled down for the night.

Stage 2: Monday May 31, Greenwood Furnace to Camp

   This stage was, if nothing else, a huge kick in the balls. It was a tour of the classic Rothrock singletrack from the Wilderness 101 and the Stoopid 50. Featuring classic trails such as Beautiful Trail (a.k.a Top Trail, Crabapple Trail), Telephone Trail, Pig Pile Trail, Deer Tick Trail, etc, this stage rewarded you if you could ride PA rocks, and punished you in the worst way if you couldn't. 40 mi of Rockrock singletrack is no walk in the park, and this stage left me all but begging for mercy. I burned a few too many matches on the climb after Telephone, so once I hit Pig Pile Trail and the route kept climbing, my legs began to hurt. So I suffered through Deer Trick (hate that trail), Beautiful Trail (love that trail). I made it to the second checkpoint, refueled, and motored through the last mile of fun technical singletrack, the onto the 11 - 12 mile road slog home. I hooked up with a small group on Crowfield Rd, and we pacelined it back to the camp. I attacked up the last short, steep climb about 3/4 mi before the finish. It was good. I finished up in 4:30, so I felt fairly good about it. Hit some more Hammer Soy, turkey sandwich, and some leftover pasta sauce and promptly fell asleep to the sound of rain.

Stage 3: Tuesday Jun 1, Bald Eagle/Coburn Loop

   Today's stage featured a break from the technical singletrack of Bald Eagle State Forest. 45 mi, mostly paved and dirt road and railroad grade, with little bits of singletrack thrown in for good measure. I knew this stage would be fast because of the large flat sections in the middle. Flat stages mean pacelines, and pacelines mean pain. I rode with a bunch of different groups until my bottom bracket fell apart. Not literally fell apart (it was still attached to my bike), but stopped working. My cranks turned, but I had about a centimeter of lateral play in the crank arms. No good for hammering climbs. I had to soft pedal/walk/run/coast the last 4 or so miles of the race. I probably lost about 45 minutes in the end. No matter, there are 4 more stages to make up that time, and then some.

So... 3 days down. 4 to go. Tomorrow is the super-fun, super-fast trails at Raystown Lake, followed by some mini-XC's at R.B. Winter State Park, my favorite place to punish myself. I'd like to give a shout to all the stuff that's been working great on my bike. First off is my bike. My sweet Cannondale Flash Carbon 29er. It's absolutely the best bike I've ever ridden. Ergon grips are, as usual, keeping my hands, wrists, and arms comfortable and blister-free. Crank Bothers pedals keep me attached, and Maxxis Aspen tires are keeping my sorry self on the trail. They're light, and if you can rock them you should because they are dang fast and grippy. Look for another update coming fairly soon, depending on how shelled I am after tomorrows stage. And well you're waiting anxiously for my update, check out Abe Landes fantastic race photography. This guy is an up-and-comer and takes some of the most amazing photos I've ever seen.

-Jake

Track Racing

2010-05-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

Two of FFRP's juniors are beginning to race track and really enjoying it. Jeff Bahnson and Gunnar Bergey are making the weekly trips up to Trexlertown to compete in BRL an introduction to track racing. With nearly 3 weeks of two practices a week, the two are really starting to get a feel for the high speeds and lack of breaks. Here's what they have to say:

Gunnar-"I am really enjoying racing on the track. It it something different that is incredibly fun. I'm sure the speed and power you build from this will benefit all aspects of bike riding. It is really hard to spin that fast of a gear!!"

Jeff-"I am having so much fun at the Velodrom. I really like doing something different on teh bike that is unique. The lack of breaks is good for all kinds of bike racing because u get used to not being able to use them."

The two are enjoying it very much and will begin racing it in real races shortly. Possibly racing Nationals in June!!

~FFRP

Granogue, May 2, 2010

2010-05-05T17:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday we all kitted up for the pre ride. It was going smoothly until I crashed now I have this big black blob on my leg. We were all thankful for the 200 yards of flat trail in the course. We got back from the pre ride got ready for the time trial it was AWESOME, even though I got stung by a bee in the first 100 yards, but it was still awesome. After the time trial we all went into the river to cool off. We got to ride in the back of my dads truck which was super fun.

On sunday we were all ready to race exept Jeff - he was throwing up an hour before the race. He started the race and was in first place and the he didn't feel good so he dropped out. Me and Kyle had start our race early which was the worst part of the whole thing. At the start of my race I crashed and my chain came off - I was in last place. I started reeling in the field one by one and ended up in second place. Kyle had some other junior competiters in his senior one field. He held on for fifth place. Kyle got to start first so he didn't have to pass all the traffic, but juniors had to start behind the vet 2s, which is the largest group of all the cat 2. Jake did very well in the crazy endurance race, placing 5th out of a huge field of endurance riders. Gunnar didn't race - he wasn't feeling well that morning, but he was there to support us and he helped out with the race sweep and trail cleanup. Emily did well in her race on a tough course. Also - congrats to Emily on her race last week at Greenbrier, placing first in the Cat 3 girls category. After the race when we were packing up all the stuff Tom let me drive across a field in his truck which was the best part of the whole weekend - then he put us all to work but it was still fun. Thanks to dennisbike.com for the awesome photos.

Weekend Adventures

2010-05-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

It WAS an adventure. I had no plan other than to ride Allegrippis this weekend. I have very little knowledge other than the general area of it, and that it is new and supposedly "rad". I had no clue. I had no plan. BUT, sometimes not having a plan is the best plan. Sometimes you need that little adventure in your life.

Sunday morning I mounted up the ole mountain bike on the roof and meandered over the mountain to Lake Raystown in search of Valhala, the Allegrippis Trail Network. Could such an amazing and mystical place exist? Surprisingly enough it was especially easy to find. All I knew is that it was by the susquehannock camp ground on the way to the seven or five points Marina....or something. I quickly found signs for the marina and next for the campground. I turned off the main road and towards the camp ground, passing a parking lot. I thought to myself, "Lets check this one out" and proceeded to turn in. Right there in plain view was a giant sign for Valhala. Well....not Valhala, but it was a sign for the Allegrippis trail system. I unpacked, saddled up, and proceeded to wander around the trail system. The large plackard map of the trails came in handy. I quickly decided that the best plan of attack was to always turn left and it would hit most of the trails and loop me back to the beginning. Then i could do another lap with some repeats and hit all of the untouched trail. It was EASY! So easy. How easy? This easy: I managed to ride all of the trails there and not get lost once despite never having been there. Now that is SMART, ACCESSIBLE trail engineering from start to finish perfecting every bit of every detail. I am very impressed with this trail system. Yes I could shred those trails every day of the afterlife, it could be my Valhala. It was raining, which saved me having to sweat it out in the muggy faux-summer weather. I couldn't have asked for more. Yeah, I got some mud in my eye, but whats a little mud in this love affair?

After the ride I decided to stop and pick up some coffee to keep me awake on the way home. I quickly learned two things: my Hammer Whey Protein does not mix well with coffee, and I am spoiled when it comes to coffee. After getting hooked up by our coffee sponsor 53x11 Coffee, I have been treated to some of the best coffee of my life. It is always good, every time. Spoiled.

It was a great ride, a great day, and a great adventure. No races were won, but it was a successful day in the life of a bike rider.

Thanks for reading.

Greenbrier

2010-04-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

Another awesome weekend of racing for the FFR team is in the books! Most of the team was down in Maryland this past weekend for Greenbrier, not only is it a nationals qualifier but it's also decides the Maryland state champs! The team set up shop the day before the race at a awesome campsite right by the lake, everyone was ready to get out on the course. By the time I had finally arrived I could tell everyone was itching to get kitted up. We got rolling very soon after and headed out. This was the first year I had ever ridden or raced at Greenbrier and I am a huge fan of the course, lots of climbing, a combination of fast smooth sections and slow technical areas. After an awesome ride and a few tries on the log ride we were ready to eat, not only that but we also had some entertainment via Scottie McGill. As we were sitting around the fire he asked his dad if he could go swimming, who could say no to seeing a small, fearless kid go swimming in the lake? Did I mention it was dark out, we also all knew it was going to be freezing. After his time wading around he came out and made some perfect sand angels. Awesome.

My race went very smoothly, no problems what so ever. I felt good up the first climb staying about 3rd wheel in the group. Julian was setting a blistering pace that I knew was going to come back to hurt me. I stayed with him and Jacob and Forest on the first downhill and then we started hitting traffic. The worst part about being a Junior is having to start behind almost the entire Cat 2 field, we were catching people within 2 minutes of our start. I got caught behind a few people and kept pushing everywhere I could. First lap I was able to get a gap on Forest after his chain came off on the rocky climb. Into the second lap, I knew I was going slower but I was able to go much faster on the descents since the groups were spread out by then. I ended up 2nd. Shortly after Scottie came in after his second race of the day with a top ten finish! Gunnar took home the win, beating all the expert juniors even with some mechanical trouble on the last lap! Zach held it together and pulled off a 2nd place finish! Jake did his first single speed race of the year and killed it almost breaking the top 10. In Scotties first race he took the W with some fierce older competition! Another awesome weekend for the team and we are all ready to kill it at Granoque this weekend!

This race was wet and slippery and could easily be decided by the tires you ran. Zach ran the Maxxis Ignitors while Gunnar and I ran the Maxxis Monorails, they hooked up on every slimy corner, every slick log, and especially on the rocks. 53 x 11 coffee got everyone up in the morning to get ready to race, from what I hear it's some of the best! Hammer Gel helped everyone out, keeping everyone going lap after lap with tasty gels and mixes, not only that but post race recoverite was a must. Thanks to all the sponsors we wouldn't be nearly as fast without your awesome help!!

Fairhill

2010-04-14T13:28:00.001-07:00

With the first MASS XC race of the year last week, we saw who was coming out hot and was showing off their early season strength. The race course was fast as usually, with some of the top elite riders breaking 30 minutes for a 7 mile loop. The conditions were dry and hot, with blazing sun and no wind. FFRP had a strong showing with almost all of its riders racing. Kyle miller had an awesome first sport senior one race where he climbed all the way into 8th place. Scott McGill mounted the podium in 4th place. Other impressive rides out of Zach Adams, Emily White, Jeff Bahnson, and Gunnar Bergey.

It was my first elite race ever, and i was pretty nervous. I didn't no what to expect, how fast the start would be, how well or not well I'd finish. The start was very scary going down the long gravel road. People were bumping tires, bikes and bodies. I thought i was going to crash on numerous occasions. As soon as i hit the single track i started moving up through the people trying hard to conserve energy. Jeff and I eventually met up and started riding together. It was awesome to have a team mate out there to keep you going. I felt fantastic going into the 3rd lap, doing much better than i had expected to. I road with Jeff until half way through the 3rd lap when things started to go bad. All the speed had caught up with me and i started feeling it. I was able to keep moving but much slower, i was passed by a couple people here and they re but was still doing alright. About a 1/2 mile from the finish, i was passed by a train of about 10 people. I was pretty bummed i couldn't hold on till the end, but was reasonably happy with my race.

~Gunnar

It was an awesome first race of the year, and were looking forward to seeing everyone at Tour de Tykes!!

FFR

Playing Bikes

2010-02-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes its just a good thing to get out there on the bike and play with the other kids. Sometimes we look out the window and wish we were, but not today. No, today the young racers of the fast forward racing team came out to play. Struggling with the weather, we were forced to postpone our first training camp of the year (last weekend) until this fine February morning. As I was driving around late last night, I feared that the team would end up with a similar predicament this morning, as my travels were meet with a few light snow flurries upon my windshield. The flurries quickly waned, and high hopes soon returned. After a long drive, a passel of of bright talent poured out of a packed tin can this morning as if they were sardines for an hour. That was the start: the start of our February mini-camp.

After shwag bags were dispersed and and demo equipment was assembled, applied, tinkered, installed, and further-more set up, the hungry snacked on bagels and pretzels while we got our small program set up for the day. Teaching my lesson this morning made me remember sitting in middle school (and high school for that matter) blanking out when the teacher asked for input and participation. What is it about being asked questions that makes us blank on topics we know about? We may never find this answer- I may never find this answer....but if I did, I would most likely become instantly wealthy from sharing the secret to educational success with educators across the country. I'm sure many of our teachers would die to know that answer. But alas: I don't know, and most likely won't know- so I'm pretty sure we can count that scenario out.

After a fun filled lesson for all we talked about our wonderful sponsors this year. Some of you folks may recognize the names like Hammer Nutrition, Pro Bikes, 53x11 coffee, and squirt lube. Squirt lube quickly became my favorite(and only chain lube I use) shortly after they came on board last year. Finding a nutrition product that isn't from hammer in my house is like hunting snipe. I feel that speaks volumes about my faith in their products, and is a testament to what works. The truth of the matter is that if they didn't work (and work well) I wouldn't own, use, or represent them. I'm very happy with our line up of sponsors this year (you can find a complete list to the right of your screen).

And just like that, it was ride time. Time to play bikes. The real reason we all showed up. I'd like to say that we spent the rest of the day shredding amazing trail in one of the most epic days in michaux we have ever had, but that would just not be true. Today's ride wasn't bad either though. With slightly over 33 miles and right around 2.5 hours of riding wit stops, it was just what the doctor ordered: Sunny skies and tolerable temperatures. Just lovely. There was no shortage of adventure as we perused the back country roads around Carlsile, navigating wandering snowdrifts and racing horses across fields. Our 20 minute field test worked out very well, with everyone finishing withing a few minutes of each other, despite a strategically well strung out start. Not positive of the outcome and with nothing to lose, we hoped for the best. That short little max effort is just enough to make you realize training is just around the bend, and it's time to start putting in the work again. Winter lungs burn. Many thanks to parents Randy and Scott who drove our support vehicle and to Kyle for capture our exploits on film.

After our ride we made some pretty awesome and super cheesy pizza for our post race replenishment, not skipping our Hammer Recoverite of course. Two pepperoni and extra cheese and two extra cheese/spinach/mushroom ones (Also what the doctor ordered): home made of course. To conclude our day, we had a nice lengthy conversation about the upcoming season, approaching events, and other assorted news or questions, we ended with a pretty solid conversation about this years upcoming Pennsylvania Scholastic Cycling Series, a high school specific mountain biking series for students of any grade. Fun was had by all, projecting a forecast filled with much of the same.

And that concludes the lesson for today. (a special prize to anyone who can correctly guess what movie that is a quote from)

Score Some Schwag!

2010-02-10T20:16:00.002-08:00

Hello,
The Fast Forward Racing Elite Team is holding a fundraiser to raise money for the upcoming season. The following items will be auctioned off on Ebay.com starting on Monday February, 15th 2010.

- 1 Hammer Nutrition Short Course Fueling Package
- 1 Hammer Nutrition Long Course Fueling Package
- Hammer Nutrition Windtex Gloves- Size medium
- "Food is Your Best Medicine" Book
- "Water: The Shocking Truth" Book
- 6, 4oz Bottles of Squirt Lube
- 4 53x11 Coffee PACE Head bands
- 2 53x11 coffee cycling Caps
- 2 XL Tall Cut 53x11 Coffee Wooleator Socks From Defeet
- 3 XL Regular 53x11 Coffee Socks from Defeet
- 2 Kenda Karma Tires (26x2.0)
- 2 Kenda Small Block 8 tires (26x2.1)
- 2 Kenda Nevegal (26x2.1)
- 6 FFRP Socks (2 S, 2 M, 2 L)

Search for the user name FFRdevoteam to find our auctions. Happy Bidding!

Sincerely,
The Fast Forward Racing Team

We would like to thank all of our great sponsors for their generous donations to help make this auction and our season possible! Check them all out on the right hand side of your screen!

Woah.

2010-02-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

I never knew there was so much to learn about coffee. Let me give you a little taste of one of our newest sponsors here: 53x11 Coffee. I'm stoked about working with these guys this year, and they are very excited about supporting our team as we shred the scene this year. Take a second and check out there website, and don't stop there, get a bag and try it for yourself. I know I will.
Buy HERE Bring in the new season with the Big Ring, Big Ring Coffee that is.

Product reviews to come, tested by myself. I'm happy to say ;-)

Off Season!

2010-01-02T12:34:00.000-08:00

The off season is now in full swing! The end of the season is always a love, hate relationship. On one hand you get to do whatever you want on the weekends and don't have to worry about packing every Friday night for a race. On the other hand you're most likely not going to see any of your cycling friends for quite a while, and there won't be anymore of that oh so loved suffering. I've been able to get my mind off of this by skiing! It's a close second to cycling when it comes to awesomeness. Check out what Gunnar and I have been up to via a sweet helmet cam I got!

Kyle

3 Days At Bear from Ethan Jeremias on Vimeo.

KENDA Tires

2009-11-11T16:47:00.000-08:00

This past season i have done over 20 mountain bike races, and countless rides on Kenda tires. After all of that, I have come to the conclusion that they are the best. I raced in so much mud you couldn't tell what kind of bike you are riding, and also in such dry dusty conditions you created a cloud of smoke every time you stopped. From mud to dust, Kenda tires rock.

First off, lets talk about the Kenda Karma. When people say mud tire all kinds of things get tossed around, but really only one should be. The Karma. It had the best mud shedding power i have ever seen. It seemed like you only had to get one revolution of the wheel and the mud was gone. In Granogue, where entire fields were dropping, i had more difficulty clipping into my pedals then i did cleaning my tires.

Now lets discuss the Small Block 8. If you are looking for low rolling resistance, exceptional cornering capabilities, and all around speed the Small Block 8 is the perfect tire for you. It seemed like i could lay the bike over as far as i wanted and it held. I could run insanely low pressure without a problem. This is the tire of choice for any condition, except mud.

I did a few short track races this past season. All on the Kenda Kwicker. It has excellent cornering knobs, perfect for railing the gradual turns. Yet not to much rubber to feel resistance on the straights. I also ran the Kenda Kwicker in the cross tire. Fantastic! I couldn't find a thing the matter with them.

All in all, Kenda tires rule

Gunnar

Crankskins

2009-11-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

After a season using crankskins I'm a huge fan. You can use them to protect your new crankset or make that old crankset look a little better. They have all kinds of patterns and colors, from clear to rasta. I decided to put on a pair of the clear ones so I could still show off my shiny cranks. This past season I have been all over the country on all kinds of terrain and by the end of the season I couldn't believe my eyes when I peeled them off. Not only did my cranks not have any scratches they looked as if they just came out of the box! They didn't stop at crankskins either! They have rim skins, fork skins and all kinds of frame protection too. Check em out!!

http://crankskins.com/

Caffeine Attack!

2009-11-02T13:58:00.001-08:00

Hey Folks,

I'm very proud to announce the arrival of new sponsor, 53x11 Coffee, to our team! I am very excited about this new sponsorship as it embodies the kind of company we strive and desire to support through our efforts. 53x11 is a fair trade company, all organic, and is passionate about the same thing we are, CYCLING! Look for more on their products in the future!

Zach Adams
Team Director

One season later on the Caffeine 29er

2009-10-08T22:46:00.001-07:00

So after a season of racing on this fine machine I figured I would share my thoughts on it, albeit briefly.

The Frame: Aluminum. Pretty much sums it up. Given Aluminum's known history of yielding a harsh ride, and my limited experience with Al hardtails, I would say this bike rides pretty darn smoothly. Smooth enough to get me through some long, tough races this year without to much pain. It's not quite as smooth as my steel HT, but C'dale sure does know how to make an Al bike. Welds are sanded and painted, which I just think looks damn sexy. I have had no cracks, so I deem this frame "Michaux Approved for riding just about anywhere." Oh, and they are light. I got mine built up to 22.5 lbs with endurance race-ready parts.

The Geometry: My experience with 29ers is pretty limited, but I do have to say that the way the 29er geometry puts you more inside your bike than on top of it like my previous bike (a 26er full suspension race bike), suits my riding style, and dare I say East Coast riding in general, better. Cannondale really nailed their geometry here though; the bike feels just as fast at Fair Hill (a tight and twisty speed-fest where I pulled a 3rd place) as it does in Michaux (rocky and gnarly where I pulled a 4th). That is just about the best thing I can say about this bike.

The Fork (or is it a knife?): The Lefty is truly an interesting thing. It's stiff, it tracks well. It goes where you want it to. It is smooth as hell. The DLR is a no-brains, no fuss XC race fork. And on top of that, it looks damn sexy and garners lots of compliments from riders and non-riders alike. Oh and did I mention that it's a 29er fork that weighs 2.60 lbs? That about seals the deal...

So all in all I'm super happy with this bike. Next year, though a full suspension is in my future, and I think it will be a Scalpel (maybe 69er style?). Full suspension bikes seem the ticket for the crazy Endurance racing I like to do. The Caffeine 29er will come out for short races, as well as the smoother endurance events where rolling and light weight are paramount.

-Jake

The mountain bike season finale, Bear Creek!

2009-09-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

This was the MASS series finale, and the end of the mountain bike season for most of the guys. The fast forward developmental team was out in full force, with almost everyone in attendance.

This year the sport race started right after the expert race at 10:30 in attempt to speed up the results that followed. Everyone was getting ready and warming up. This was is the last mountain bike race of the year and everyone wanted to end on a high note.

My race started off with a killer pace down the fire road. Then their was a mad rush to be into the single track first, i managed to get to the front and had open trail. I knew that part of the course very well, due to the old short track races that were held their. I felt like i was riding good, cleaning everything, and keeping it smooth. I made an attack at the rocky climb that turned right onto the old rail road tracks. I was flying down the rail road tracks and feeling good. I held the lead till the technical climb at the very at very end of the lap. Cameron passed me and i couldn't respond. Then Hal caught up with me and we road together till about the same spot on the third lap where he then pulled away. Todd caught up to me at the top of the climb before you head into the single track. I managed to keep him close enough that when he had to get off his bike to fix something i made up time and passed him back. I then road to the finish where i got third in the race and third in the series.

Their was a tight battle going on between Jacob and Kyle going into the race. Kyle took 2nd in the race with Jacob right on his heels for third. However Kyle's impressive finish wasn't able to take down Jacob's insane consistency for the series, Jacob climbed onto the second tier of the podium for the second year in a row. Kyle came in third for the series not far off Jacob and also went onto the podium for the second year in a row.

Zach had another sweet finish, battling his way to a top 15 finish in the pro/elite field, as well as in the series. Forrest doing some class changing in the year could have been on the podium in the sport junior field but decided to bump up to race expert. Where in only his second race he cranked out a 7th place finish!

Possibly the best part of the day was when the announcer called up the team for our third place overall finish in the team standings. For a first year team to be collecting those kinds of points is awesome! It just shows the overall consistency the team had, to perform as a whole, incredibly on a regular basis.

the end

Seven Springs 24 hr Champion Challenge

2009-09-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

7 Springs is a race I have been thinking about all year. It has been lurking in the back of my mind whenever I felt my worst during a 4,6,9 hr or 50 mile race. I kept wondering, if I can't keep this up for this many hours, how can I keep it up for 24 hrs? Well I did, and I still have no idea how.

The run was the worst part. I hate running. A lot. The most running I like is whatever happens during a cross race. That is ok running. It has a purpose. The only purpose of the Le Mans start in a 24hr race is to jack your heart rate up and give a good show for the crowds. The only thing worse would be if we swam across the lake instead of running around it. I rode the first few laps and settled into a rhythm. It was slow. For some reason I couldn't motivate my self out of the middle of zone 2. I guess that was good in hind sight, because it kept me from loading my legs with crap.

So I rode on. The course, by the way, was awesome. It opened with a ripping singletrack descent, fast and flowy with rocks. It was basically perfect for me. So I continued ripped off the first lap in my fastest time, a 1:33. About 2/3 of the way through the lap guess what happenned? My fork had no travel any more. Yeah. I rode cautiously, and traded for my fully steel, fully rigid singlespeed in the pits. Mmmmmm funness. I had visions of riding the rest of the race out on my SS because my fork was a no go. I did get my main rig back the next time through transition, and I rode out the lap with decreasing amounts of fork. When I came through the pits the next time I was given Don's bike (thanks a lot Don). I did the next lap on that while my bike was being fixed. His not necessarily new bike was very nice.

A lap or so later I was given back my bike, but fixed. The mechanic from the Pro Bikes team across the way had diagnosed the problem, pulled the required part off a spare Lefty he had, and installed it on mine. Apparently there was no bottom seal on the air spring. Boo.

So on I rode. Nothing really happenned until about 3:00AM. I was starting to spiral downhill, but pressed on for another lap anyway. It was slow going, with lots of walking. Around 4:30 I completly lost it and decided that the only way I would make it back to the pit in one piece was to walk. So I walked for about an hour, got back to the pits and slept for an hour. After much pressuring from Ms. Geology I got back on my bike and continued on with Don trailing me. It was nice to have someone riding with me. It really kept me going. Thanks Don.

At the end of the lap I found out I was in 3rd place, and that 2nd wasn't too far ahead. More laps. Two laps later the guy I thought was ahead of me came walking up a short steep climb behindme. I took off hard, with Don following me. I came through the pit, picked up the National Forrest and went out on my last leg of my last lap. We ripped though the 3 miles like butter, arriving to the finish after 24 hrs 7 min to take 2nd place with 11 laps. Stoked.

I could barely walk, I could barely sit, but man was I happy. Big props go to my parents and Ms. Geology, who stayed up all night to keep me fed. Thanks to the Chas at Pro Bikes for the mechanical support, and Matt, Don, Zach, and Megan/Jen for the encouragement. Also thanks to everyone who gave me 24hr racing advice: Brandon and his parents, Vegan Rob, Chris Scott, and anyone else out there. Especially to Vegan Rob for lending me that Lupine Tesla that led me through the night. Also thanks to Ergon USA, Crank Brothers, and Cannondale for making great products, to Squirt Lube for allowing me to lube my chain only once in 24 hrs, and Hammer Nutrition for keeping me fueled and hydrated. More pictures later.

French Creek Marathon

2009-08-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend marked the newly rescheduled On the Rocks @ French Creek races sponsered by the good folks at Bean's Bikes. This race, which was supposed to happen in May but was rescheduled due to heavy rain, was one of my key races in my quest to win the MASS Endurance Series. I went into it not having ridden a long race since before we left for Colorado so I was a tad bit nervous. How would my fitness be since all I've been doing is XC racing for the last month and a half? I was slightly consolled by the fact that French Creek trails are the trails I cut my teeth on, as it were. They are about 40 min from my home. So the race started at 8 AM...

Lap 1

I went near the front of the group at the beginning of the lap. On the climb a larger group caught and passed me. One descent and one climb later I was bombing down the blue trail, enjoying every minute of it's nicely rolling waterbars that we built up four or five years ago. There was a loud pop in the area of my back wheel. Not a tire, I saw, but my wheel felt funny under me. At the bottom of Blue, I stopped on the road to find a broken spoke. Not even a lap into the race and a broken spoke. I finished the lap off, after spending about 15 min trying to get my wheel straighter and pulling the spoke out (the spoke nipple split in two).

Lap 2

I rode very conservatively this lap, because I needed to at least finish this race. I couldn't risk further messing up my wheel and not being able to ride anymore.

Lap 3

When I rolled into the pit at the beginning of the lap, I found that my parents had done some work for me (yay parents) and I had the offer of a wheel for the lap. I gratefully accepted a wheel from Tom (my friend and pit neighbor), and preceeded to rip the descents on the solid set of Chris King/ Arch wheels I was using. They were nice. Thanks Tom.

Lap 4

Since Tom had dropped out, I swapped his wheel for Don's, which was essentially the same as mine. On a side note, congrats to Don for winning the Sport Master I race by 5 some minutes. I began to catch people who had passed when I was fixing my wheel in the first lap.

Lap 5

At 1:50PM (the race ended at 2:00PM) I rolled out for a 5th and final lap. I was glad that it was my last, as my forearms and shoulders were beginning to hurt from the relentless rocks of French Creek. One lap later I found that I had worked my was up into 4th place overall.

At awards, I found that I had missed out on prize money by one spot (top 3 got paid). Oh well. the important thing was that I jumped from 4th to 2nd in the MASS Enduranc

e standings. Although I will still be a few hundred points behind the leader this gives me a good chance of at least getting on the podium. A win will take two wins at my next races, the Rattling Creek 50 (Which everyone should come too because it is going to be awesome and half the proceeds go to our team! Support Junior Racing!!!) and the 24hr Champion Challenge at 7 Springs. I am racing solo for that. Wish me luck.

So all in all it was a good weekend. Jacob picked up another win in the Sport Jr. field, with Kyle slotting in a solid 3rd after a broken pedal. That's all for now, but remember:

Come to the Rattling Creek 50 this weekend! Pre-reg ends at midnight tonight and is $30 cheaper than day of!

Some pictures now:

Makeshift Team Banner

Refueling at the pit...

... and off I go.

-All photos courtesy of Don

-Jake

Spring Mount

2009-08-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

Spring mountain has a history of always being muddy, i don't know but for some reason it always rains. It could be gorgeous and sunny the day before, but its going to rain the next day. As it did this year, and the last year it was held before it was canceled. This was my first experience running a race and i think it went quite smoothly. Kevin from B&B, my Dad, and I ran the race.

The preride on Saturday was awesome, people loved the course and everything was perfect. Now this course is a little sketchy when its absolutely dry, and the weather was calling for a chance of rain in the afternoon. We thought we'd be alright, boy were we wrong. I woke up Saturday morning to the pounding of rain upon the tin roof outside my window. I thought for sure the race was going to be canceled. I got a ride over to Spring with Ed Mac, who was helping out with the race! Apparently it had only been raining for about an hour and things weren't that bad.

We sent the beginners right on schedule, they finished up and everything was starting to look alright. Then the heavens opened up as the sport racers were trying to get ready. We delayed the sport race due to torrential downpours. The pop up tent corners were filling up with water every five minutes and needed to be drained. Lightning was crashing left and right and i thought we were going to start sending people home when the clouds began to thin and the rained slowed down.

We send the sports racers off with a slight drizzle. The favorites were Jeff Lorish, and Pete Hall, of Biksport, and Kyle Miller and Forrest Conrad of Cyclesports fast forward racing. It was going to be an epic battle to the finish. The leaders of the lap came through, and from afar we couldnt tell who it was. It was Forrest Conrad in the lead, with Jeff Lorish hot on his heels, Kyle Miller was tracking Jeff down trying to get into second, and Peter Hall was putting it all out there keeping up with the young guns!! In the end Forrest held onto the win bringing home the killer Felt 29ER frame. Jenny through down bringing home the sport junior women class!!

Next was the exper/pro race. Some big names were coming to this race. Mike Yozell, Topher Valenti, Martin Kell, Matt Miller, Zach Adams, and the Alesio brothers. They told me the night before they were going for the win. I dont really know how the race played out in that field. I do no that Andrew Alesio, Matt Miller, Martin Kell, Mike Yozell, and I all got flats. I got two actually, it sucked. Dylan backed up his bark with a bite and got the win. Withe Martin trying to chase him down the entire race. Zach Adams and Topher sprinted for three four. Zach taking third and Topher having to settle for fourth. I managed to win my race with two flats. Chris Dietrich from Fuji took second, and Jared Rodeheaver came in for a strong third.

All though it poured and lightninged id say that the race was sucess. Attendance was low, hopefully next year it will be higher, however all the people there i talked to said they had a blast. Spring will be back next year, hopefully better then ever!!! Thanks to all the sponsors!!

Ohh yeaaaa, lance peed on me during the awards ceromony, right on my back................

-Gunnar

Colorado

2009-08-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Well this past weekend was Nationals. It was in Colorado, Sol Vista ski area to be exact. If you don't know our elevation was roughly 9000 feet. That is why we went out 2 weeks ahead of time to acclimate. Though nationals was the entire point of the trip it was probably the smallest part. Our trip started the day before The Long Pine classic, the whole team plus a lot of other people showed up at Brett and Donna's to eat some good food and shoot off some fire works. It was a fun time and the fireworks were sketchy! That night we stayed at Zach's house to then help set up the next morning for Long Pine. Everything went super smooth, the course was awesome, the venue was perfect, and there was tons of good competition. With roughly 3000 feet of climbing, it was brutal. From the "neutral" start I was in the front group, it wasn't very neutral though. The start was one big fire road climb and we were flying up it. I was probably top 20 into the single track with Forest, Jacob, and Julian still in sight. I could still see them for most of the first single track. I lost sight for a while but when we opened up on a fire road I could see Jacob, which meant everyone else was close. I was able to get my roadie on and draft for most of it then zipping around them right before the single track. Now it was one big descent back down to another fire road. I now had to look up at the first big climb it was loooong. I haven't had to climb something like that in a while. I felt awesome up it. The next big climb was just as bad as the first. Though slightly shorter it was much steeper, I could only ride up about half of it. It was pretty uneventful till I saw Julian finishing up his flat. I really turned it on on the downhill, but Julian was catching up. We spilled out on a fire road and I was on Julian's Wheel. We had one last climb, and Julian road right by the entrance, talk about luck. With Julian most likely still behind me I hammered up the hill and could see Jacob. He was close but I didn't have enough time to get him. I think the podium was the best part of Long Pine. Champagne, the winner got to spray champagne, it was so cool until you got it in you eyes! I didn't know it burned that bad.
After a cook out and some more fireworks it was time to go to bed and get ready for our marathon trip out to Colorado. We were supposed to leave only an hour earlier then everyone else. But it ended up being 2 hours and they didn't catch up until about 24 hours later. Lucky for us we were in the crafter, everyone else was crammed in the Subie. It honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, we were very lucky compared to the Subaru. We had Iphones, computers with 3G, DVD players, and a small sleeping hole in the back.
We got to see Saint Louis and the Arch since we were ahead of schedule.
31 hours later we were at the house and ready to go for our first ride. The next morning I stepped out into the garage to find out it was freezing. Probably 40-50 degrees. I also found Tom pretty much rebuilding Forests bike.
On Thursday we went to Boulder, we went through rocky mountain national park. We hiked up a trail to get up on top we were at 12000 feet, about 2.3 miles up. It was cold and windy.
Once we got to boulder we still didn't know where we were going to ride, so we stopped at a bike shop to get some advice. We ended up riding a Heils ranch I think it was called it was really cool, but completely different terrain. The plan was to sleep over at Yannicks house (a super fast junior). But we ended up not having enough cars for everyone to sleep over so that plan failed. We still ate dinner and hung out with Yannick. After some good pizza at Protos we went down to Pearl Street Mall, an awesome outdoor mall. Jeff, Gunnar and I got some wool panchos that are awesome, from this hippy shop, the guy at the register looked a little scary! After eating some delicious cake that Yannicks mom made we came home.
We just chilled out until Saturday which was race day #1, Winter Park point to point. It looked like it was going to be a tough course with a long climb at the start. It was pretty eventful when Tom and Forrest had some miss-communication and all Forrest had was a half full warm-up bottle. So Forrest had to start about 10-15 seconds later then everyone else. I really chilled out on the start since it was my first race at altitude. I felt pretty good I was in the second group and was able to get past a few other kids before the single track. After the first downhill it was a long downhill, unfortunately there were a few slow people and I got a little held up, oh well. After about half way through I started to turn it on. As I did I could see I was gaining on Jacob every minute. So after a long fire road climb I was right on his wheel. He tried to attack but I just stayed with him. After a few minutes I launched my own attack before we went into a single track climb. I was able to drop him and gain even more time on the downhill. It was nice to descend behind a super fast local! There was a climb after the descent and I was still feeling good so I attacked that to make sure Jacob didn't catch up. Now all that was left was some sweet downhill and a lot of flat. I ended up 2nd with some local kid 30 seconds ahead. I was happy!
After a rest and recovery day we went back to Winterpark to hang out and find something to do. We ended up doing the alpine slide, it was really fun! Luckily we did it when we did because it started to rain when we were at the top. After that we just hung out and then went to get some pizza in the town of Winterpark.We made another attempt to stay at Yannicks house and this time it worked. When we got there we went out for a casual 3 hour ride around Boulder. Boulder is sweet! We saw the indoor velodrome, it was a lot smaller then the Trexlertown one but the walls were really really steep. almost vertical. We saw the dirt jumps which were cool also, there were so many different lines, most of the jumps weren't mandatory at all. Yannick said they have stxc races and cyclocross races there, they must be awesome. Forrest almost ate it, it was pretty scary. After some chipotleand checking out Colorado University we went back to Yannicks house. We just chilled out ate an amazing dinner and went to bed. The next day we went out for a legitimate ride. Yannick took us to a long steady climb so we could do our 1 minute efforts. It was right after one of the biggest and best breakfasts I have ever had, almost all pastries and meat, needless to say I felt it. Once we finished our efforts we spun back to the park by Yannicks house. It had a creek in it, people were tubing and swimming. Thats when we saw the rope swing, Yannick said it was definitely deep enough so we decided to do it. Jeff went first and it worked perfectly. Next went Forrest then went me, the water felt sooo good, it was really cool, we did it once or twice then rode back to the house. We changed and packed up, after getting some izzi (fruit soda stuff that is really good) we said goodbye to the eckmanns. Now all we had to do was rest and wait for nats. I was pretty nervous the day before but I settled down. We got there right as Aarons race was happening, he ended up 7th!! Forrest and I warmed up on the trainers and then road around a little more on the road. Tom got us an awesome starting spot, 2nd row! Which is good when you have a 50+ field. On the start, which was a hard climb, I really just chilled out and stayed on the rear of the group. I was able to be about top 20 into the first single track. Then I dropped my chain on the climb and couldn't get it back on so I had to dismount and put it back on, I lost about 5 spots doing that. So now I just hung with the people in front of me. When we prerode we ended up riding the wrong loop since the promoter decided to change it like 2 days before the race. So I didn't know how much climbing we would be doing I just had to ride, which I was fine with. I felt awesome on the first lap apparently 18th or 19th at the top of the climb. But unfortunately I was really feeling it on the second lap. I really cracked and had to dismount once. I was on the wheel of some kid at the top and for most of the downhill, even until about 2 minutes from the finish, but luckily like many other people in the class he couldn't descend. I was able to drop him and ended up 24th.

-Kyle

5 Best Things
1 Hanging out with the team for more than two weeks
2 The awesome House
3 Getting the opportunity to race Nationlas all the way out in Colorado
4 Spending time in Boulder with Yannick and the team
5 Watching the races at nationals

5 Worst Things
1 The trip back home
2 The trip out
3 The altitude
4 Cleaning up
5 Only riding trails once other than races

-Forrest

The trip to Colorado was totally worth the 31 hour drive and was great experience to be able to race so far away from home.After spending the entire season racing on the east coast the trails there were very different from what we were used to riding lots of super dry, lose trails going up and down a big mountain.most of us had a hard time with the climbs because they're much harder than anything in the mid-Atlantic and there was no air.
The nationals course started right at the base of a steep fire road going straight up the ski slope, after that it was a more gradual climb to the top of the mountain on some pretty sweet rocky single track.After you got to the top you were sent down a crazy steep, loose piece of trail that was cut in only days before the race, this Trailways filled with people that only wanted to see you go over the bar sand go face first into the dirt.Then the trail continued to descend down the side of the mountain and into the start finish area. The race was brutal hard, I think the altitude got to all of us but we all had fun

-Jeff

Colorado was such a great experience for everyone, we had the best time, met awesome people, and created everlasting memories. The drive out was something that i will always remember, as well as the shock my body took that very first ride. The altitude was something my body didn't handle well. We all took turns doing dishes, making delicacies, and cleaning. The races didnt go so well for me personaly, i had a blast and felt like a gained a lot of experience.

-Gunnar

Sewell

2009-08-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

This was the first race after the team got back from Colorado. I went into it not knowing what to expect. The course is super fun, fast, twisty, and has lots of flow. Off the start I was third into the singletrack. I stayed on the wheel of the kid in front of me for the first mile or two. He started to back off the pace so I jumped by him and was looking for 1st place. The nice thing about this course is that it has tons of switchbacks so you can see your competition a lot. About half way through the first lap I was about 20 seconds back on Julian. I was trying to bridge back up to him but never found him. Then my bottle fell out, it ended up being a big problem. Every lap I got a feed, and every lap it would fall out of my cage. So unfortunately I only got a few drinks of water for the first 2 laps. It showed on my 3rd lap, I was starting to really feel it. I knew 3rd place was right behind me so I just kept at it. Luckily I was able to hold on. The race was awesome, but I think I would still rather be in Colorado!

-Kyle

Neshaminy

2009-08-10T07:17:00.000-07:00

The morning of the race, I woke up to pouring rain. The beginners were finishing up, and they were covered with mud. I warmed up for my first expert race, and went to the line with Gunnar. The gun sounded, and everyone was flying, trying to get to the singletrack first. I felt good off the start, and was calm into the woods. After passing a few people in the greasy mud, I found myself on Camerons wheel. I caught Gunnar, and started leading the race for a few minutes, but Cam and Chad passed, and I followed Chad for another lap before I had started to fade. I felt tired, and I started to cramp, but I rode through the pain, and held my position as best as I could. I was so happy to see the finish, and even getting back to the car was hard, and I felt horrible. I threw up before heading to the podium. The podium really kicked me into gear. I never thought I could pull away with third place at my first expert race. I threw up, and I heard "welcome to expert racing," but even after all that, I knew that I'm addicted.

-Forrest

Team takes on Colorado!

2009-07-29T09:17:00.001-07:00

Despite the troubles and tribulations of driving across the country and racing at 9000 feet above sea level, the Cyclesports Fast Forward Junior Devo Team gave everything they had at the 2009 mountain bike National Championships held at Sol Vista Ski Area in Granby, Colorado. Being something completely new, racing at altitude was the thought on everyone’s mind. The team traveled out 2 full weeks prior to the racing in an attempt to get acclimated to the altitude the best they could. Living together in a cycling household was an experience well worth the trip, everyone having taken something away from the experience. The racers of the Cyclesports Fast Forward Junior Devo Team grew closer after living together for so long, sharing new experiences and learning what it takes to become successful while traveling to race a bicycle. From cleaning bikes and doing laundry to learning how to debone whole chickens and cook nutritious meals, the team shared responsibility in everything.

This trip was more than just racing, but the team was targeting two events: the Valley point to point and MTB nationals. The VPTP was planned as a test event, to see how the altitude was affecting performance and learn more about west coast racing. The team had a great showing and walked away with a number of podium appearances for their début in rocky mountain racing. The value gained from the national championship race was tremendous, learning that everyone can have a bad day on the bike.

Results

Valley Point to Point

Cat 1 Junior Men Under 18

Jeffrey Bahnson- 1st

Gunnar Bergey- 4th

Cat 1 Men 19-24

Zachary Adams- 2nd

Jake Davidson- 3rd

Cat 2 Junior Men Under 18

Kyle Miller- 2nd

Jacob Ehlinger- 4th

Forrest Conrad- 5th

Cat 2 Junior Women Under 18

Jennifer Lewis- 1st

2009 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships

Cross Country

Cat 1 Junior Men 15-16:

Jeff Bahnson- 4th

Gunnar Bergey- 20th

Cat 1 Men 19-24:

Zachary Adams- 8th

Jake Davidson- 13th

Junior Women 13-14:

Jennifer Lewis- 5th

Junior Men 13-14:

Jacob Ehlinger- 16th

Cat 2 Junior Men 15-18:

Kyle Miller- 24th

Forrest Conrad- 30th

Short Track

Senior Men 19-29:

Zachary Adams- 3rd

Jake Davidson- 11th

Cat 1 Junior Men:

Jeffrey Bahnson- 7th

Gunnar Bergey- 27th

My lucky faceplate

2009-07-24T17:52:00.001-07:00

As a follow up to winter park, and nose that is still slightly sore.

I was blasting down a descent I've never seen before in the start of the valley point to point. I was shocked to watch the trail disappear from in front of me and quickly and unexpectedly bank hard right. Needless to say I got caught way off gaurd. And what happens when we get caught off gaurd? We fall down. I fell down directly on my face. Lucky for me it was my face and not my head(I have a bad rep with head injuries). Unfortunately, in doing so I ruined my glasses. However, they probably saved my eye from whatever left the enormous scratch in my lense.

See we got this sponsor this year, Habervision. You may know the name, they've been the official eyewear of USA cycling for a few years. Well, they hooked us up hardcore this year. I gotta say I was pretty surprised. After having bought a few pairs of glasses way more expensive then I'll ever admit, and having spent a long time wearing dollar store glasses, swearing they were better than sliced bread. Well, I got this one pair of habies cause they looked super cool(good reason i know) Well they turned out to be one of the best pairs of glasses I've ever had. It was a pair of Kenai with Rose lenses that are polrized. They fit my face perfectly and I started to only use them as race glasses, but that didn't last long. I started to wear them all the time. The point of teh story is that I was a bit upset over a pair of glasses because I put an enormous scratch in the lense.

Habervision had a tent set up at nationals last weekend. Fernando stopped by and couldn't walk away, I know he walked away with a new pair and a gleam in his sun shaded eye.

Wainter Park Point to Point

2009-07-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

The past weekend was the winter park point to point race, the team showed up half a week early in an attempt to get used to the altitude. The course was a killer 22 mile race, with tons of climbing and insane single track. The start of the race was at the base of a ridiculous long ski slope climb. Some people handled it well, and other didn't. Everyone was laughing when the race director said, "everyone heads up, their is a log on the course, its built up you should be fine". Jenny won her class, Kyle managed to get 2nd, Jeff had the comeback win after two flats, and Jake and Zach almost swept the podium with a two three finish. It was a totally sucess!

"Altitude sucks, it doesn't agree with me."

~Gunnar

"I can't breath"

~Kyle

"Wheres my camel back?"

~Forrest

"The single track was sick, but more rocks are necessary."

~Jake

"Riding those trails smooth, was quicker then fast and on your ass."

~Zach

"Where did all the air go??"

~Jeff

Recovery

2009-07-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

Grumpy & Tired

2009-07-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

Today everyone was grumpy and tired. No one wanted to ride, however we did, and felt better after wards!!

B-B-B-B-Boulder

2009-07-09T00:36:00.000-07:00

Today the team made the voyage down to Boulder, Colorado. We dropped from 8,800 feet to about 5,000 feet!! We made the journey through the very scenic Rocky Mountain National Park via the very historic Trail Ridge Road. The views from the top were more than spectacular. After dropping into Boulder we stopped off at a bike shop to get the skinny on the local trails. They directed us to a popular spot, the Heil Valley Ranch.

The riding at Heil Valley was spectacular. After climbing to the top we were treated to a nice long downhill complete with lots of flowy rocks. There were beautiful overlooks everywhere. This is almost some place I could get used to riding...

-Jake

After we got all packed up we ran back into town to find some food and hang out with Yannick, a super fast junior. Proto's, the pizza place we stopped at, was delicious. Splitting up the bill was a little confusing though.

-Kyle

The ride was verry fun once i got warmed up. Then when we were done the ride we went to Protos Pizza shop with our team and i met Yannick hes a nice guy and fast racer. So far im loving Colorado.

~Jenny

The ride in boulder started with a long rocky climb. We had a descent pace going the whole way up even with most of our first experiences at altitude. Following the climb was a long flowy, rocky descent. At the end of the ride, I was going downhill fast, and without anyone's warning I saw a rider approaching. I braked as hard as I could, although he caught me on a turn, and he didn't budge! We had a head on collision, but fortunately nobody got hurt, and it all worked out. Following the ride, we all headed into town for a meal and to hang out with a super fast junior, Yannick.

-Forrest

The riding was way different here, the rocks are loose and shakey! The word is, the nationals loop was made by "Hellen Keller with a lawn mower"..............

~Gunnar

The Arrival

2009-07-07T17:33:00.002-07:00

The entire team has arrived at our beautiful house in Tabernash, Colorado. After a nearly 31 hour car ride we finally pulled into the garage!!

The most important thing I learned from the drive down is that everything is nothing in Kansas. Also that 24 hours is way to long to be crammed in a tiny subie (outback) with 4 people.
Jeff

Kansas was the flattest state in the world, so it made it that much better to admire the snow capped Rockies. We waited for the mountains to arrive, but they proved farther away than expected.
Forrest

You know that you are at a official truck stop, when their is cleaner for the toilet seats in the stalls.
Gunnar

I pretty much hated driving through Kansas its soooo flat and boring.My favorite part was going Through St.Louois at night time it was so lit up with lights it was a pretty sight. Oh i also liked the store called "Jennys"in Colorado its pretty awesome.Loved the road trip :)
Jenny

While Gunnar and Kyle slept I was awake at night driving into Kansas. It wasn't to bad at night but during the day it was the worst. I was pretty excited when I saw the mountains, and so far it has been awesome.
Jacob

After having a little trouble with the subie through all the mountain passes we finally arrived at our gorgeous house. We immediately started unpacking so we could get out on our ride as soon as possible. Our first problem was getting the crafter/drafter parked. There is a small turn around area right at the top of the driveway, when Tom circled around he missed the house by centimeters. After we got situated we went out on a super chill spin. The views are absolutely amazing, Colorado is awesome.
Kyle

The Journey Has Begun

2009-07-06T04:52:00.000-07:00

After a huge success of The Long Pine Classic yesterday we have started our journey to Colorado. For the next day and a half we will be on the road with the crafter/drafter and the subie. Everyone is looking forward to arriving and being able to ride again after we sit in a car for a day and a half!!

~The Team

Big Bear

2009-06-19T14:11:00.001-07:00

The "Staff" contingent of the team showed up to the 2009 24 Hours of Big Bear, put on by Granny Gear in beeeee-u-tiful West Virginny last weekend. Even though we're all noticeably older, we still stuck to the "developmental" aspect of the team by having half of each team completely new to 24-hour mountain bike racing. The CycleSportsFastForwardDevoVets Men's Vet team was comprised of Brett Weiser, Don Pagano, Kory Jones and Brian Fischer. The CycleSports Fast Forward Ladies Woman's Sport team was made up of Donna Weiser, Loretta Torres, Stacy Gery and Sheena Perry. The was the first 24-hour mtb race for Kory, Brian, Stacy and Sheena. Actually, for Stacy, it was her first mountain bike race...ever! The Men's team went in to this with no preconceptions. I didn't want to put unnecessary pressure on anyone and we decided we would just ride it as best we could and focus on making sure it was enjoyable. I've seen teams in the past that shove the enjoyment to the side in favor of the competitive aspect and it seems everyone walks away with a bitter taste in their mouths, even if they end up on the podium. Gotta have fun with it! CycleSportsFastForwardDevoVets: Brian was "volunteered" for the first lap as he runs on a regular basis and we knew he was a strong rider. In fact, he was our ringer. While Kory, Don and I would run pretty consistent laptimes, Brian never failed to come in at least 10 minutes faster. Anyway, in Granny Gear style, the cannon went off at noon on Saturday and Brian was in the midst of the LeMans style start. He rocked it through the run and onto the bike, ending up clocking 1:18 lap time, including the run. This would prove to be his fastest lap for the entire race, with his second lap being only about a minute and a half slower. Kory went out on Lap 2 and rung up a 1:29. I followed with a 1:31 and then Don was sweep with a 1:30. And into the second rotation we went. My second lap ended up being full lights the whole time...I think I was the lucky one on the team that pulled two full night laps, all lights, all the time. Of course, we slowed down a little over the night but still kept it steady. Night riding all winter is invaluable practice for these races. Thanks to the rock-steady times of everyone, we lapped the second place team overnight. Ride it smart through the night, and all sorts of good things can happen. Don lucked out with the coveted "Sunrise Lap" that makes everything better. We rolled into our fourth rotation in the light of a new day and started doing the math to see what we needed to do to stay on top of the podium. After checking laptimes, we knew that 15 would win it, taking some pressure off Kory and me. We wouldn't have to get Don out for #16 so the last two laps were cruisers. Good times with a great team and support on a great race course. Our support crew was stellar, to say the least. Zach handed out the rub downs to get the demons out of the muscles. Paul superlatively wrenched our rides for us, making sure everything was good to go all the time. Steph, Fernando, and Jenny kept the bikes clean and helped out everywhere. Paul's own support crew kept the morale high and the fire burning all night. And I gotta say, the Ergons helped me keep in control of the front end of the ridgid 29er SS while the stylie new Crank Bros. Cobalt BB ensured the cranks spun smooth. The Kenda Karma on the back helped me get the power to the ground. It's good to have good gear.

CycleSports Fast Forward Ladies:

Massanutten

2009-06-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

The past weekend was the Who-Haa Kenda cup race. It was insane, probably one of the toughest courses ive ever raced. The long weekend started off with the nice 2 1/2 ride to Carlise, where we picked up Jake, who would finish out the long journey with us. After a grueling 5 hour drive we finally managed to arrive at the venue. It was weird because you drove down this small dirt road, and then all of a sudden a mini mount snow kinda thing was right there. We found Kyle, Forrest, and Jacob, and then went out for a preride. The course was incredible, i cant imagine how much work it must have taken to create that epic climb. After a few spills, and a few shortcuts we eventually ended up at the end, probably riding a little to long. After we got back, we cleaned bikes, and just laid around.
With an early rise, and some excellent waffles prepared by Brian, i was feeling ready to race. The cat 1 18and under class was 2nd in the mass start. We started right behind the senior 1s and i managed to get in the second row. I felt fairly good 1st lap, died the second. The heat and climbing combined for a killer race! i got 6th, the weekend was a blast!!

Gunnar

Jeff gave a killer result of 3rd in the Jr. 18 and under class racing alongside Kerry Werner, and Jesus Martinez. Zach barreled to the finish in 2nd, beating out some fierce competition. Once again our cat 2 junior podium was stacked, with Jacob, Kyle, and Forrest all fighting their way to the top. Jacob was on top, Kyle in second and Forrest in 4th.

Jacobs Interview

Zachs Interview

Jeffs Interview

Stoopidity in State College

2009-06-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

Promoter Chris Scott giving pre-race instructions

This weekend marked the 3rd Annual Stoopid 50 held in Rothrock State Forest near State College, PA. The race, this year held at the base of the Tussey Mountain Ski Resort, promised 50 miles of rock, technical east coast singletrack and gravel roads for all 250 of us crazy types to enjoy. Looking at the list of riders on the bike reg page, I was pretty confident going in that I would have a pretty good showing. The only name I recognized was that of Chris Beck. Once at the race though, pros Chris Eatough, Jeff Schalk, and Harlan Price appeared out of the woodwork, along with a collection of fast guys from the area.

The whole group of us rolled out, en masse for a neutral start up about 1.5 mi of road. The horn of the pace car went off and sent us flying and I didn't make the first selection of about 50 or so riders coming up the road. We hit singletrack and continued to climb. I stuck myself to Brian Kietch's wheel as he muscled his singlespeed through the crowds of riders walking up the technical singletrack. Once at the top I was greated by about 6 miles of primo ridgeline singletrack. The beautiful views on either side were unfortunately only noticed sporadically due to the amount of rocks, logs and things hidden by tall grass in the trail. I settled into my rhythm. One long steep climb later, shared with Les Leech and a few singlespeed companions, I was rolling into the first aid station at the soon to be defunct Penn Roosevelt State Park. I took a quick nature break while the staff topped off my Camelbak.

The next leg of the race consisted of mostly singletrack all of the rocky technical variety. By the end of it my right leg was starting to cramp so I downed a bottle of Perpetuum on the 5 mile long road climb back to the aid station. After that it was only a 13 or so mile jaunt back to Tussey with two big climbs in between. Knowing I wanted to finish in a reasonable time, I planted my heart rate just below my LT and went into cruise mode. There was no singletrack in this leg, only long fast doubletrack descents with just enough small rocks in sections to keep you on you toes. The last climb seemed to go on and on. A few miles rom what I thought to be the top, I upped my pace a little, not wanting to burn out before the top.

When I got there I knew what was ahead of me: the hardest, roughest 1.5 mile downhill of the course. And boy did it deliver. The race ended just in time when I rolled almost into promoter Chris Scott at the bottom of the trail. My hands were starting to cramp and he told me to stop just in time.

In the end, I cut a half an hour off my time from last year, coming in at 5:12. Good enought for 42nd place overall and 24th in the Open Men. Super-fast guy Jeff Schalk won in 3:53 with Chris Eatough on his tail at 3:58. Harlan Price followed them in at just over 4 hrs. I had a lot of fun at this race and I look forward to coming back next year.

-Jake

Dismounting to get fresh bottles at Aid #2

Iron Hill

2009-06-09T15:52:00.000-07:00

First Lap

The Iron Hill course is always super fun and very fast. The first lap went okay. Off the start I was about 5^th into the single track, which wasn’t very smart. Forest and I got stuck behind two slower juniors and lost some time on Jacob. Luckily there is a short climb after the first mile or so. So we sprinted up and passed the kids with Forest right in front of me and Jacob still in sight. I got stuck behind some traffic since we had to start behind the entire sport class and I lost Forest. Then Caleb caught up with me after a small crash at the very start, we rode together for awhile but I dropped him on a climb. Jacob, Forest and I stayed about 30 seconds apart for the rest of the lap. At this point the course was still pretty wet but it got a lot better as the race went on.

Kyle

Middle Lap

As the second lap rolled around it was just me and Julian, we passed the line 1 second apart. However there was a lot of traffic and he just started to get away from me. It wasn't long before I lost sight of him. For the first 2 or so miles of that lap I was just spinning along and passing a lot of people. Then I came around a corner were someone yelled "Go Jacob!" then, not even 2 seconds later I heard him yell "Go Forrest!" I realized that he could see around the bend and Forrest was probably really close behind me. I started sprinting and passing people like crazy because I knew if he caught me it would be all over. The mud really started to dry out about then, and other than it being a little slick it wasn't bad and everything was ride able. After a little more than half the lap, I passed Julian, walking up a hill. As I rode by, I noticed his derailleur was hanging off and he was out of the race. I kind of settled into a pace because

I started feeling tired and dehydrated. As I got near the end of the second lap I wished that they

put the mega-dip back in, but they didn't, so I was kind of disappointed. It was a lot of fun

and fast.

Jacob

Last Lap

At this point i was right behind Chris and was really feeling it. Zach was up with us and was

the only thing keeping me going at the speed were traveling. Riding with Chris was really taking

its toll on me. He was stronger, but i was faster through the rocks. After the killer slick climb, Chris

made a move that i could barley respond to, i thought he was gone until Zach passed him and did a

tactical maneuver (blocked for me while i recovered). It only took 15 seconds and after i saw Zach do

that i know i couldnt blow it. After the bone shaker i acceled on the muddy right hand turn into the climb.

I made my move at the top through the rocks and road away with the win.

Gunnar

With a stacked junior class, the entire podium was Cyclesports Fast Forward racers. With Jacob at the

top, Forrest in 2nd, and Kyle in third. His first XC back from his incident.

Jeff had his highest finish yet in the pro field, with a 6th!

Zach had a impressive finish, with this being his first race back from a venture into a solo 24 hour race

Jenny came in 3rd with a killer finish!!

24 Hours of Burn

2009-05-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

First Lap

I lined up with Zach on the line, and looked around only to see a crowd of serious xc runners which made me feel as if I was the outcast. Nobody of any authority to sound the gun was around as tensions increased. A small voice in the back screamed ,"GO". The group of runners stood their place thinking that it was just someone trying to make a joke, but his voice increased in importance as many ohers joined in and therefore, we were off. I fell of the front in the run, but I pased a lot of people on the trail. It was very congested, and I was frustrated because I felt as if I was going slow, yet I fell in the front group of riders, and I was having so much fun ripping the downhils, and the climbs were surprisingly often and harder as the race continued. There was also on e downhill at insane, scary fast speeds that made me nervous but the lap turned out to be super fun and fast even at the handoff to Jeff at the finish.

Forrest Conrad

Middle Lap

I have competed in several 12 hour races in the past and have been doing support for 24 hour races since I was 10 but last weekend was the first time that I was another racer in a 24 hour race. The lap that I did in the middle of the day was not the most fun but it was one of the easiest. Lots of people had their faster laps in the middle of the day because it was still early in the race and everyone had plenty left. Also it was your second or third time on the course so you knew all of the sharp turns and all of the good places to pick up some speed. The only thing slowing you down was the heat, it wasn’t crazy hot but it was just so humid, it was actually making the trails slick. The course was Amazing; it was like a more intense middle run or white clay. Just really tight, twisty, fast rolling trails that never go straight and never stay flat. My favorite was the huge built-up burms, some would go 10 feet up the side of the trail and you could carry so much speed into them. In the end I was extremely happy with what we accomplished. No one on the team had done a 24 hour race before and we didn’t run into any real problems.I had so much fun and hope that we have a chance to do a similar event in the future.

Jeff Bahnson

Night Lap

The sun started to set and the night laps began. The course was awesome already and only got better at night. The night laps were the coolest part of the race, you feel like your going so much faster then you are, you don’t really think as much when you fly down the downhill’s, and the best part is you can’t see if there is a huge climb in front of you. I got the first night lap, and at that point the course was perfect. I felt really good up the first climb and kept the pace up. At this point you really didn’t have to pass that much which made it a lot faster. After the first 2 climbs and descents you get to the first real climb with a ton of switchbacks, once I got to the top I was still feeling pretty good, and went pretty hard on the flat part above the climb since I new by this point that there was a long descent afterwards. Once I got to the bottom I started to slow a little on the climb but made it to the top and knew I was only about a mile or two from the finish. I finished up the lap feeling really good and ready for the late laps ahead.

Kyle Miller

Morning Lap

With this being my first experience in 24 hour solo racing, I was relying on a lot of what other people were telling me based on experience. One of the common threads was the hope and joy that that first daylight lap would bring along with it. The lap fell nothing short of its reputation. Although short lived, the dawn lap brought on a sly determination spawned from the thought that you have already crested that hill and the end is attainable. The shadows recede, your vision clears, and your lap times start to get much faster with the coming of the light. I held onto my helmet light for a lap longer than I needed to, deciding that I should hang on to it for those corners where the darkness hadn't quite vacated yet. No surprises. I started to feel a little better (at least for the time being) and really started to rip the downhills once again. Less than six hours to go, home stretch.

Zach Adams

Willmington Grand Prix

2009-05-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was the Wilmington Grand Prix, yes it’s a road race. Not only was it my first road race it was my first race of the season. It was a .9 mile, four corner crit. The only challenging and scary corner was turn three. You come flying down the hill and have to make the 90 degree turn without falling or losing speed. When we went up to the course to get registered it was amazing. It was unlike any mountain bike course, fans cheering at every opening, a completely closed course. It was so cool. After we registered we made our way down to turn 3. There must have been four crashes in the 20 minutes we were standing there. Luckily there were some hay bails so it may have saved some of the riders and spectators. But we did figure out the line, super wide. We headed back to the crafter to get kitted up and ready to race. We got a good warm-up in on the course and went over to the roll out. Luckily everyone passed and we went to get lined up. All the juniors raced together so I new it was going to be a fast race. When the gun went off everyone went out super hard. Tom told us all to go out as hard as possible and get to the front but the pace was just to fast. Jeff was the only one to get up there with Gunnar still in there. Jacob and I were able to stay with the lead group for about 4 laps then they got away from us. We were in a small chase group for about 3 laps and we all started to separate. Jacob was able to make up some time but not enough to get back with Gunnar and Jeff who were with the leaders. Now I was alone, but I was able to get back up with a person who dropped me. We stayed together and started to pull Jacob back in but then I felt my legs start to go. I got dropped once again and after about 2 more laps the leaders were able to get me. I tried to stay with them as long as possible but I legs wouldn’t go. But I did see Jeff up towards the front. It turned into a try and finish race, so I pushed as hard as I could for the rest of the race. I’m definitely not back to where I was but it shouldn’t be too much longer. Jeff sprinted into 3^rd with Gunnar in 8^th (unfortunately there was a mix-up he really should have been a few more places up) Jacob in 10^th and me somewhere between 11^th and Last. There were a few kids that didn’t pass the rollout and were DQ’d. It was an awesome first race and can’t wait for Burn next weekend.

~Kyle Miller

"Junior road races are retarded, the kids sprint for 10 seckonds then just spin, i dont get it"

~Jeff Bahnson

"It was a tough race, a very unique experience. Still a lot of fun, a good challenge"

~Jacob Ehlinger

"Wow, that was fast"

~Gunnar Bergey

Links to pictures

Click here

Another photo link up soon!!

Granogue

2009-05-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was The Escape From Granogue mass # 2 race. I would compare the conditions to the mercer cup cross race from last fall. Wet,muddy and sticky. It rained more then i thought physically possible. A bunch of people including myself went down on Saturday to help set up the course and get things ready for Sunday. Anyone who had a popup brought it and i think you could have lined the starting road with all of the tents that were there.. After a sweet pre ride with over 80 people, everyone was pretty whipped. At this point everything was rideable, and the course was super fun. At the end of the ride everyone was muddy yet happy.

That night it rained and rained and rained. No one said anything, but we were all thinking it, parts of the course would be unrideable. With a early rise and some pancakes everyone managed to get to the course and prepare for their races. It was funny to see all of the endurance and sport racers come down the start looking all clean and sharp and then mostly unrecognizable the second time around.

My race started with a quick pace up the road and onto the fire tower climb. I was sitting second wheel going into the first single track section where i managed to ride the first hill but got held up on the second one. I was still in second when we hit the new single track, but got held up by an endurance racer on that last log and lost my momentum going into the grass. I lost some ground and Chris took advantage of it. He went hard and i tried to respond. I slipped in the mud and banged my knee. It was hurting pretty bad and I lost even more time. I didn't catch him until the switch back descent that wasn't rideable. I road with him most of the remainder of the 1st lap. At the end he had to stop and clear some mud out of his tires. I made a move and created some distance between us. After that for the next lap and a half i road by myself. I felt great until the third lap when i would have to get off and run. My legs felt heavy and i couldn't move as quickly as i needed. I gave up one position on the final lap and managed to hold on for second place in the 19-34 expert class. My bike and I were so muddy we were almost non moveable. The race was super fun, even though it was muddy, and everyone had a good time!!

Click HERE for some pictures

Leesburg Bakers Dozen

2009-04-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I competed in a 13 hour race on a team with Wes Schemph and myself. The Bakers Dozen has to be the fastest endurance event in the history of ever. The course is unlike any other, it’s twisty and smooth like White Clay but with some rocks and log-jumps thrown in. Also the course has such a nice flow to it, it’s just so fast and you never stop pedaling. This year the race went in the opposite direction and started at 9 in the morning so there were not many night laps.

I started for our team and managed to get the fastest first lap. Then for the first 2 or 3 hours of the race Wes and I managed to stay in the lead group until some of the three person teams took the lead and started to make a gap. Only a few hours into the race our main competition, a team with Chris Hour and Bad Andy, had a bad mechanical. Chris got a stick in the derailleur and was forced to run back to the start-finish area. This gave us at least a 25 minute lead. In the middle of the race both me and Wes sort of cracked because we had not been eating enough, but thanks to Tom doing support we were able to get back on our feet. Thankfully I was able to make it through the entire race with no mechanicals, Wes on the other hand wasn’t so lucky; he blew out his lefty and was forced to do the rest of the race on Rotten Rob’s spare single speed. In the end Wes and I won the duo category.

- Jeff Bahnson

Fairhill XC Race Report

2009-04-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

Throw Down on the Fair Hill
April 19, 2009
Elkton, MD

Warm skies saw the Cyclesports/Fast Forward Devo Team attack the 7.5 mile course at the Fairhill Nature Preserve with vigor and passion like they knew what they were doing, walking away with a handful of podiums to make up one very good day. Five young talents toed the line on Sunday to give it their best and see how they rank in the season opener of the Mid Atlantic Super Series.

The Sport race, scheduled to go off at 10:30 AM, went off with a bang, having young Jacob Ehlinger score a second place finish in the junior field. In her first Sport Womens race, Jennifer Lewis rode to a strong 6th place in the premier womens sport field. "I have to still get used to the [longer] mileage and now I wanna train even harder because now i have some good hard competition. I think the loop of the race was easy and fun, but the two laps made it a bit more challenging," Jennifer states.

The devo team made their mark in the 12:30 race, elites and experts, to cap off a solid day for the young team. Zachary Adams rode to fifteenth place in an Elite field hosting some of the best pros on the east coast, fielding names like Chris Eatough, Harlan Price, and Jeff Shalk. The biggest surprise of the weekend was an undeniable presence in the Expert senior 19-34 field by Jake Davidson and 15 year old Gunnar Bergey. With Gunnar in second and Jake in third, the podium was a little weighted in the favor of Cyclesports/Fast Forward Racing.

"At the beginning of the first lap I found myself in second. I felt solid so I kept pushing. Halfway through the first lap, I wrapped a tube around my cassette, and had to stop to rip it out, four guys, including Gunnar [Bergey], passed me. I spent the next lap and a half chasing back to them. In the singletrack at the beginning of the third lap, I attacked and Gunnar followed [me]. About a mile from the finish, Gunnar jumped me over some logs. I tried to answer, but my legs wouldn't go. Third place at my first expert race? I'm happy." -Jake Davidson

Results

Fawn Grove Roubaix

2009-04-09T17:17:00.000-07:00

Fawn Grove was called a road race by the promoters, but certainly not by most of the racers. The course description described it as back roads with gravel, a slight under statement. I herd more complaints about this course then i have about all other courses combined. For Jake, Zach, and me it was perfect. The corners were gravely, the uphills bumps, and the actual sections of real road were quite short. It was practically designed for a mountain bike racer. Their was mutual support for the race, they had 80 wheels at the start, three minutes in they were all gone. The start of the race was crazy, you went around a corner, out of a parking lot, down a road, and onto a gravel one. Once everyone was on the gravel road, the motorcycle martial started beeping their horns and we were off. I tried to get to the edge of the pack and just make it past the first turn without crashing. id hope that most peoples goal was to finish the race upright without flatting. You could see the people that were trying to win up ahead..........on the side of the road with a flat. There were some crashing and close calls but all in all the race was awesome. Jake and I pulled in top 10's in the 4/5 race, with Zach having a good race up with the big dogs.

Relay down on the Farm

2009-04-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend the team will be hitting up the Intergalactic MASS Relay at the Osterling Farm in MArysville, PA. This is the place I first raced my bike and the first place I ever rode single track. I love this venue, the ownders, and the people that put on the race. I will use any excuse to support them and race my bike there.

We will be sending 3 teams to the race along with a few guest riders to fill in the slots. Watch out, we have the board covered:

The why so serious team:
Zach A
Gunnar B
Jacob E
Jeff B

The fun and friendlies:
Jake
Jenny
Guest Rider 1
Don "Camera Champ" Pagano

The we have the best costume team:
Hillary Styer
Guest Rider 2
Nicole D
Alicia Styer

It will be a blast, so stop on by for some non-stop fun. Stop in the team tent and tell em' I sent ya!

MACDC Cycling Camp

2009-04-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the Cyclesports/Fast Forward Junior Devo Team hosted a second year event called the Mid Atlantic Cycling Camp. It was a rather succesful camp with bright faces and smiles all around.

It was great to see so many cyclists devoted to learning more about the sport they love.

Links and pics

2009-04-01T17:56:00.001-07:00

Hey Folks,

Check out some photos from Rockburn Reloaded Norba race from a few weeks back!

http://singlespeeder.smugmug.com/Rockburn%20Reloaded%202009

Rockburn Reloaded Race Report

2009-03-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a momentous day. It marked the opening of the 2009 Mountain Bike season, the first chance to test your legs, the first chance to grab some USAC upgrade points, but most importantly, the first race with the majority of the team in the new kits.

Zach, Don, and I arrived at the venue a few hours before the Cat. 2 race, and set up our little compound. Two easy-ups, one with walls for changing. We hung our sponsor banners, then stepped back to look at our work. I went and registered, and slid into my kit to warm-up. During my warm up, Jenny Lewis, rolled through the finish line taking the win in the Junior 10-14 class, beating out a field of 17 other guys by at least a minute. It was a good victory for here. I suspect we will be seeing more of her on top of the podium in the season to come.

Soon enough the USAC official was saying "go" to my first XC race of the season. The start was fast, and the course wasn't any different. There wasn't really any reason to come out of the big ring for most of the course, so there I stayed. I lost a bit of time on the back singletrack the first lap, the roots were so constant and punishing at race pace that I was standing almost the entire trail. The rest of the course featured few gradual climbs, but nothing too steep or long. There were a lot of flat sections where all you could do to not get caught and passed was focus up and lay down all the power you could find. After three laps, and finally gapping the guy who was in front of me for most of the race, I hammered up the final hill for 7th place.

By the time I made it back to the compound, our fast guys Zach, Jeff, and Gunnar were already ready to warm up for the Cat. 1/Pro race. After they dissappeared, I sat up at the top of the finish hill to feed some racers. Tom did an excellent job taking care of the our three guys, so I vollunteered to help out some friends. After what seemed like forever, the Pro/Cat. 1 guys came roaring up the hill, with John Gdowick hammering out of the saddle with the holeshot. A few places back was Jeff and on his wheel was Zach. Gunnar was behind Zach.

After one lap, Jeff rolled through in fifth place, trailing Gdowick, and a few seconds off of Chris Beck and Chris Eatough. Zach came up a bit later and Gunnar after him. During the second lap, Jeff faded off the leaders a bit and came through with Weston and Bad Andy. Two laps later, Jeff Schalk rolled though about 20 seconds ahead of Eatough to take the win. So the final tally was:

Jeff Schalk
Chris Eatough
Chris Beck
Jon Gdowick
Bad Andy
Wes Schempf
Jeff Bahnson
Aaron Snyder
Dylan Alesio
Zach Adams

Gunnar pulled off 2nd place in the Junior X class

So the final total for the weekend was:

Jenny Lewis: 1st Junior 10-14 (she beats all the boys...)
Jake Davidson: 7th Cat. 2 19-39
Jeff Bahnson: 7th Cat. 1/Pro
Zach Adams: 10th Cat. 1/Pro
Gunnar Bergy: 2nd Cat. 1/Pro Junior 15-18

All in all a good first weekend... I'll post up some pictures as soon as I can find them.

There was a guy there from this new race coverage website Cyclingdirt.org getting video coverage of the race. He shot interviews with Jenny, Zach, Jeff, and Gunnar as well as getting footage of all the races. Pretty cool stuff and good media exposure for the team and sponsors. They also have videos of all the race starts, and race recaps from all the races. Go check it out.

In other news Kyle Miller showed up with his foam cast in crutches after a run in with a Jeep last week. He has a broken fibula, but is young so should be back on at least the trainer with one leg in a month.

We are all looking forward to the Mid Atlantic Cycling Development Camp this weekend in Michaux State Forest, and after that the real fun starts with the opening of the MASS.

See ya on the trails,

Jake

News: 3_19_09

2009-03-19T20:26:00.000-07:00

The team kits are finally in!!!! We will be tackling the Rockburn Reloaded race this weekend with full vigor and determination. Look for us out there ripping it up in teh first XC race of the year!

Michaux Mash Weekend

2009-03-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the very successful Michaux Mash. We had a turn out of 101 people, with a bunch of really fast guys including multi world champion endurance mountain biker Chris Eatough.. The weekend started off Friday night for Jacob, Zach, and I with a pleasant 3 hour scavenging of Walmart. We got all the necessities for a race, pens, propane, and glitter! When we got back Jacob and I made the prizes for the race. You'll see pictures later. The next morning was an early awakening to Jake pulling in the drive way with his recently built bike. It looks light, and feels lighter! Then we made the short drive up to Brett and Donna's beautiful house in the mountains. We were running a little late and were rushed to get prepared for Saturday's small tour of Michaux. At this point everyone on the team was present except Kyle, who just got back to his house from Colorado. We left for the ride with the plan of Jake catching up to us after some last minute adjustments. Unfortunately things didn't work out and he broke his chain twice, and didn't catch up to us. On some fire rode. Zach decided to try and bunny hop some dumped furniture and the foot rest of the chair popped out i think, and he flipped over the bars really quick. The first of two in one ride. We rode some really awesome single track with ups and downs and twists and turns. We rode past where the upcoming MACDC camp will be held. We spun up a long climb home and arrived again at Brett and Donna's house. Jacob, Jenny, and I were on bacon duty, grilling 3 packages for the BLTs we had for lunch. It took so so long. After lunch and a nap, some of us went and marked the course, and the others helped prepare Sunday's delicious food. After a good dinner, Tom had a strict bed time of 9:00 in effect, and i was very glad because i was extremely tired.

With an early rise to the smell of Toms great waffles. Most of us were awake enough to start thinking about the race that lay ahead. Zach and I went out and marked the roads so people wouldn't get lost on all of the back roads. After that we arrived at the race venue and everyone was hurrying, rushing around, sorting things out and taking orders from Zach. It is incredible how organized and collected he is. Cars started rolling in left and right and people were registering and things looked as if they were running quite smoothly. The design your own number plate compettion was a big hit. Their were all different kinds of displays of peoples creativity, my personal favorite was the chilly pepper one or Donna's. The course was incredible and the descents were even better. Except for a minor confusion on the first lap by some people who missed a turn, the race went very smoothly. Everyone seemed to have a great time during the race, and the podium might have been the funniest part. Zach created some funny costumes with capes and masks. Pictures show it better then i can describe. Thanks to Brett and everyone who helped create the awesome after race meal. Thanks to everyone who came out and helped the team raise money, and also thanks to all the volunteers who made it as great as it was.

Elite Training Camp

2009-03-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

On the second to last weekend in February the elite side of the Cyclesports Fast Forward Junior Devo team got together to smash crash on the rocks of Michaux state forest and get ready for the upcoming season. Good things are brewing for this year.

Team Training Camp #2 Report- Newark Version

2009-02-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

Once again, the Cyclesports/Fast Forward Junior Development Team assembled for a wonderful weekend of hard training, comradery, and some down-right fun times on two wheels. Luckily for the team, the weather was much more cooperative....of sorts. The 60 degree, beautiful weather was perfect for a training weekend, however this nice blast of spring melted the snow cover, leaving the trails too soft and unridable for considerate users(also leaving us on the road).

Forward are the events of the weekend brought to you by the very talented juniors of the team and the stories that resulted.
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Friday Night's ride according to Jeff:

"First off, Gunner and Kyle were too busy playing silly normal people sports(Basketball so it was up to Jake, Jacob, Zach, and I to hold steady and ride Friday night.

We were going to go out for an urban ride but we decided that riding the local trails was a better plan since it was going to warm up, turning the trails into complete mush. This was going to be our one and only chance to ride some really sweet single track without causing damage to the trail system.

There was still a light snow cover from a few days before, anything that still had a decent amount on snow was totally rideable, but in the places where the snow had melted and then re-froze, there was icy death.

We had some pretty awesome crashes: the only person that didn't lay it down that night was Jake, I'm not sure how he pulled that off. Jacob slid out on a sharp turn on a hidden patch of ice and hit the ground pretty hard. I went too high up on a berm, lost control, then fell to the ground going out of it. But Zach had the best "SMASH CRASH!" of all; he was riding up on a log that was around three feet high. Starting to lose his balance, he decided to drop off of it instead. It would have been a nice recovery, however he landed sideways, right on a patch of ice, sending him right to the ground where he had some nice and soft rocks to break
his fall.

All and all it was a wonderful ride, we were just happy to get out on the trails again and mess around while we could."
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Saturday mornings ride, retold by Jake the rockless:

We saddled up our road bikes, and Jeff, Zach, Laurie, Brian, Jacob, and I hit the road to Fatmarc and Monkey's house near Fair Hill. There we met with a bunch of other nice people, including ride leader Jan.

Our ride started with a nice downhill roll and reached "Jan-speed" within the first few miles. For us, this was supposed to be an endurance pace or maybe a little faster ride; we soon learned that Janspeed is a tad bit faster than that. We wound our way through Elkton, MD and began heading south towards the mouth of the mighty Susquehanna River and the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay.

We hit a few punchy climbs and Zach and Jeff shot up to Jan, who was coincidently ahead of the main peleton. I found myself somewhere in the middle with Rotten Rob. Behind me was fellow teammate Jacob, most likely using his high power-to-weight ratio to lead the main group. After a nice long descent we turned onto what looked like a long, straight, flat road. There was no thought of reprieve from the elevated pace as Jan quickly reached Jan-speed once again and began pulling us down the road.

The road began turning skyward and the group spread out as we neared our turnaround point; Turkey Point in Elk Neck State Park. Jan shot off first and Zach and I tried to cover. I was quickly dropped, but Zach covered and eventually placed a strong attack, but stopped to take a call from nature and Jan continued on ahead. I caught Zach during his nature break and we made our way up the rest of the climb together for awhile.

The climb was not a consistent one. It would shoot up to about 18% for a while then drop back down, ever so slowly gain altitude until a rather disappointing summit in a residential neighborhood withing the park.

After some of the rest of the group arrived, we rolled down the road and were greeted by Tom with cookies at one of the entrances to Elk Neck. It made for a nice diversion from the ride. Tom took jackets from many of us as the temperature had risen significantly.

We headed back down the road and up the previous climbs, this time at a much more relaxed pace. Brian and I had a nice chat about life, bikes, and academia. The whole time Tom was following us in his VW, sometimes jetting to the front of the group for something.

Once we got back into Elkton, he would drive ahead of us, pull off the road, get out of his car and watch us ride by. Marc found it creepy.

On the other side of Elkton, our group split, Laurie, Jeff, Zach and I headed back towards home base, Brian hitched a ride with Marc, and Jacob hitched a ride with Tom. The four of us enjoyed a nice cruise through some apple orchards and back into Newark before indulging in a fantastic lunch of homemade chili.

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Saturday Night according to young gun, Gunnar Bergey:

"Saturday night came as we embarked on an urban assault at Secret Spot X. This may have been the most fun that I have ever had on a bike.

We left from Jeff's house after dark and rode through the town of Newark with lights on our helmets. Jeff and Jake wanted to make this ride truly urban so they wore their street clothes. Curb hopping, stair jumping, and tennis court rolling, we made our way through the city. I though that we were going to get beat up when we were cruising through a park and a bunch of kids playing football all stopped and stared at us. I thought they were going to charge when Jeff rang his bike bell.

Shortly after, I heard a crash and a smash as we headed up a flight of stairs. I looked back and Jeff was laying on the ground staring back at me! He tried to ride up like 50 steps and went down.

I really liked the urban ride, it was a blast, but I think I should work on my traffic skills a little more before we do that again!"
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Gunnar Had his first bite of fish and Jeff's meal took a turn for the worst.

What a mess.....

Saturday Night the team enjoyed good comradery while learning and remembering to unicycle, ping pong and airhockey tournaments, and drawing on the floor with sharpies.
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Sundays Ride according to master climber, Kyle Miller:

Waking early to a good breakfast of potatoes and waffles, made by the waffle expert Tom, we quickly donned our kits and prepared to leave. With some confusion on bikes Gunnar and I only had mountain bikes, but it worked out fine, Jeff was able to assemble enough bikes to get us all rolling.

Believe me. We left at a nice easy pace going through the campus to look for attractive college girls: there weren't any, too early in the morning I suppose. We then left out on the main highway for a few miles until we came to a light and turned right. This is where the really nice road riding starts.

I honestly never thought I would say this but..... on some of the roads it was almost as fun as mountain biking. Rolling through the open fields, we quickly went across a few scary bridges (metal-grated bridges are not fun when they're wet, luckily we didn't have to figure that out the hard way).

Ripping apart some rolly roads for quite some time, we learned a valuable lesson: cyclists and big trucks do not mix (while flying around us he almost went head on with another car). This was a reality check for everybody, we all got tight until we got to the "fun" roads once more.

The roads were fast, curvy, and rolly, leading us to "The Wall." Everyone raced up it with Zach trying to get his one thousand watt mark. He didn't quite get it... yet. We came to another hill that we raced up with Jeff pulling ahead. After that we had another small kicker for the day, Zach came flying by us and got his one thousand watts.

Dropping down another hill we took a left and got into some more curvy roads. We rode around a while longer and came back to the highway we had turned off at the beginning of the ride. We were on a flat road for what seemed like forever. Seeing the horses on the muddy trails as we rode by the trailhead didn't make any of us happy since we knew they were destroying pristine public use trails that alot of people put alot of work into.

We turned once more and got back into town. When we got back to Jeff's road we all sprinted up the climb home, but I missed a turn and didn't see who won(it was actually me, but I didn't know where we were ending).

Getting back to the house, Zach made some pizzas for us: one had pepperoni and potatoes and another had salmon. It was really good. Everyone lounged around for a while and got showers. With all the parents arriving, we packed the cars and were done with team training camp #2."
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A big thanks to everyone who made this weekend possible:

-The Bahnson/Weber clan for providing us housing
-Jeff's Grandpa for providing our tasty food for the weekend
-Hammer for fueling us on the bike
-Squirt lube for keeping us squeek free
-Tom McD for riding sag and having fun doing it
-The fine folks represented by "fatmarc.com" for leading an awesome ride

Team Training Camp #1

2009-01-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

Team training camp number one officially kicked off our season together as a team. Chocked full of fun times, hard training, and loads of memories, everyone enjoyed the weekend and walked away excited and motivated for the rest of the year. I couldn't be happier with how the team has come together this year, it is a great group of talented young men(and a few young women) who show amazing potential and will form the backbone of this squad.
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Friday nights fun according to Gunnar:

This weekend was the start of the Cyclesports/ Fast Forward Devo teams season. We started off getting a ride up to Zach's farm in the mountains with Tom. It was a long drive but defineitly worth it. We arrived at Zach's around seven, and as soon as we got there the fun started. It was fabulous. After dinner, we went to the barn where we played a points game where we had to guess the name of the scary animals Zach pointed to with his flashlight. I never knew there were so many different kinds of squirrels! We went on a hike up a long grass hill. When we got to the top there was a giant tree stand, with two ways up: a ladder underneath or steps. I ran to the ladder and started to climb up. Zach climbed onto the roof, and started waving flash lights in the air: trying to signal an airplane i think. Starting to loop around towards then house, we came to a frozen pond, which was cool. We climbed up the bank, and saw a long wooded descent back to the house. Zach said "GO!", and we raced. Sadly, Jacob fell and twisted his ankle on the way down, and got his new shoes muddy. When we got back, we hopped on our bikes and started playing follow the leader, and having time trials around the barn. The only problems with that was: a) we were on road bikes, and b) there was about an inch of ice everywhere. There was some funny crashes and everyone had a blast. When we went back inside the real fun started. However, our secret team building exercises will remain a mystery, I'm afraid to say. After watching some TV, and part of "Off-Road to Athens", we went to bed, knowing we needed to get some rest for the next morning.
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Saturday we embarked upon some epic endeavours, if I don't say so myself. It was a good time for all and resulted in some really good stories for the future.
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Here is saturday's ride recapped by Jake:

Going to sleep early on friday night was a good idea because the next morning we were all up at 7AM for our training ride. We set out into the cold at a nice aerobic pace and quickly found ourselves doing the thing we would do most that day: climb. Roads covered with packed snow, I felt a little like Andy Hamsten. This climb was probably the shortest of the day, winding and rolling along the roads, we were unzipped and heading up another ridge before I knew it. This was my first real chance to see everyone's potential. Kyle showed his colors as a natural climber, and he can only get better from here. We crested that ridge, dove down a few switchbacks, and were immediately faced with another climb. This was longer and a bit steeper than the last. We settled in and went up at a nice easy pace.

Stopping for a short food break, we flew down the backside of the ridge onto some more rolling roads. There was some more climbing and a little descending ahead of us, but nothing major. We rolled along at a relaxed pace until, probably an hour later, Jacob started complaining of a pain in his ankle. We pulled off at the park office of Trough Creek State Park to have a look at it. He had rolled it during friday night's frolicking, and it was hurting a lot when ever he pedaled. I suppose this is a problem for a bike ride, I wouldn't really know though...

After we pried the kids off the ground, we attempted to roll down a back road to the Marina to look out upon Raystown Lake. Being icey on the descent, we slowly rolled down amidst cries of "be careful" and "don't fall" from Zach. But, as the way most things go in life, Zach jinxed himself and hit the ground hard after thinking he was off the ice and turning around to see if everyone was ok. He fell on the same side he had fallen the weekend before at Fair Hill and re-bruised his arm and hip, later noticing that he would bleed through 3 layers of clothing. After abandoning our quest for the lake, we headed out of Trough Creek and towards Middletown, which is actually no where near the middle of anything, complete with a bar at one corner and not much else.

We decided to split up. Tom, Gunnar, Kyle, and I were going to hammer back to the farm and Tom would go fetch Zach, Jeff, and Jacob in Der Crafter, saving them a painful trip back. The fast group set out after ingesting some more food and we quickly settled into a nice paceline on a very gradual climb. There was a bit of awkwardness as Tom, and to a lesser extent me, had to teach Gunnar and Kyle how to ride in a pace line, but they got the hang of it eventually. Our paceline was broken by a long climb up a ridge. Zach had told us there would be "hills" between Middletown and Waterfall, but what we had ahead of us was more like two ridges. The first one was the shorter of the two. We paced up most of it and as Kyle started to crack; Tom and I took turns pushing him up to keep the pace going. It's amazing what a little support can do. He never stopped working: kudos to him, I'm proud. After we dropped down the backside of that climb, we thought we were done and had a nice easy cruise into Waterfall, but soon the road started heading skyward again and we settled into an even longer climb. Tom and I again took turns motivating Kyle; we all were feeling the burn of the increased pace and the three hours we had ridden before than. By the time we rolled into Robertsdale we were glad the climbing was over for the day.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, we had one last climb before a sign of salvation. Reaching the top, we were greeted by a most fortuitous sign. It read the following:

10% Grade
Next 3 miles

This made me smile. I asked Tom if it was ok if I went and he said it was, so I zipped up, tucked in, and rocked on. This descent was everything you could ever wish for in a road descent. It was long, it was steep, it had broad, sweeping turns which required no braking, and it had beautiful scenery. Not that the scenery was actually seen because my face was frozen to my handlebars in my full tuck. I probably hit 50 mph or so just coasting down the mountain, it was rather amazing. I got to the bottom, sat up, lifted my arms up in the air and gave a shout of joy. Tom, Kyle, and Gunnar joined me after a while, and we rolled into Waterfall together: tired and content with our days adventures.
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Saturday afternoon was characterized by some quality cycling movies, naps, and recovering to attack sunday with optimum levels of zeal and vigor. The words to the movie," Breaking Away", a classic american cycling movie, will forever be embedded in my memory. Chuckling and a bit grumpy, my half asleep compatriots ushered me along to try and get me to stop quoting every single line of the movie. Apparently we recovered very well, as we hit it hard again on sunday morning.
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Sunday's adventures as narrated by Kyle:

We embarked on a fun filled ride once again on Sunday morning. Thankfully Tom had cleaned all our riding clothes the night before and they were all clean and ready to go. We left a little later than we had on Saturday and we were all excited to see "The Big Secret!" Zach had in store. We left on the ride starting with a nice hilly dirt road, and then came the first big climb, also the last of the day. Zach pulled away deciding to ride the climb at tempo with Jake marking his wheel for awhile.

Once everyone got to the top of the two mile climb we went down a very fast descent and hung a hard left into a completely ice covered dirt road. It was horrificly challenging as we had to ride in the drainage ditches or in the high grass, stick-covered section above it. After multiple crashes, and tearings of tights we made it to our destination. There was a bridge over top of the road we were on. We hiked up on top to find an old abandoned high way, later finding out it was the old Turn Pike that has been abandoned since 1968. Then we all saw the ice, and lots of it. It was very treacherous and terrible on road bikes. Make the smallest turn, brake, or loss of concentration and you would go down and go down hard. Luckily the ice stopped for a while and we could just ride, free and embracing. Then all of a sudden we see a big black hole and finally we all agreed that this was "The Big Secret” that Zach had. We all got to it and started looking in the doorways: revealing very creepy chambers with rust and trash everywhere leading to a set of old iron steps. Once everyone was inside, Zach led us up a set of stairs into the first big room, empty with graffiti all over, very strange. Climbing another set of stairs into the big fan room where there were 2 huge fans and into another doorway, finding holes and train tracks and darkness, we figured out we were above the tunnel where the lights would have been in. It echoed about three times at anything you yelled and was even cooler when you would jump up and at the end of the tunnel you would hear, "BOOOOOM" just like thunder. We all went back out of the tunnel still amazed and then got to ride through it. Tom had brought his lights and the tunnel seemed to go on forever. When we got to the other side we rode a little furtherand decided to turn around. We went through the tunnel and back to the ice. Gunnar fell really hard then slid into pavement.

Once he got up we were off again and went past where we had gotten on. It seemed to be even icier on this end. Then in the distance there was something again, another tunnel. Once up to it you couldn't even see the other end! Looking inside all you could see were two pillars. While standing inside the tunnel, you could see that they were ice pillars coming out of the light fixture holes. You could barely put your arms around them plus it was like an ice skating rink all around them. We got all the bikes through and started riding. You still couldn't see the end. Suddenly we all saw a little light at the end and rode and rode and rode until we finally got to the end: hoping to find a less icy way out, but there was none to be seen so we went back through the black abyss. Once on the other side Tom checked his GPS and saw a road about 400 meters to the left of the Tunnel. We decided we would see if there was any way we could get to the top of the steepest part of the hill through the tower above the tunnel. We got to the top and saw a few ways out. We brought all the bikes up through it and put them through a window and all followed out. When we got up to the top we were all expecting to see a road. No road, we had to hike our way out. Bikes on shoulders, we started walking up the mountain. It seemed to go on forever but finally we heard some cars and got out. It was all downhill or fast flat from here. Once on the move again, we started using drafts a lot more and were really pushing it and going really fast. We all got back to the "Palace" and started getting cleaned and packed up.
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The food kept us fueled all weekend long and there was plenty of it, and quality too. Everyone pitched in and helped make mealtime very easy on everyone else. Jeff sums up the meals for the weekend:
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The food is the only thing that kept us going all weekend. After our long drive on Friday night Zach had yummy pasta with meat sauce waiting for us. I think I had 3 helpings, I'm not sure how it tasted because I ate it so fast but I'm sure it was great. Then on Saturday morning, Tom and Jacob took over the Breakfast with amazing waffles and scrumpcious bagels. Much later in the day after we finished our ride we devoured Tom's raviolis and a pasta dish that Gunnar's mom made, we didn't bother to change, we just went straight for the kitchen and started cooking. Only a few hours later we ate dinner, but we were all still very hungry, Jake was the master stir-fryer and made some awesome chicken vegetable stuff with rice. Later me and Zach went on a secret mission to get the iced cream, it was really good. On Sunday morning Kyle spent a looonnnngggg time in the kitchen making lots of hash browns and sweet sweet bacon, a staple of anybodies breakfast. It was a really good meal and gave us a lot of energy for Sunday's ride. When we got back from the ride Zach's parents made some nice hot soup and hot dogs right off the grill. We got back at around 3 and we were all ready to get some food fast and everything was there for us ready to eat.
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A successful weekend indeed, we already look forward to next weekends training camp--this time on mountain bikes in the dirt: Newark, Delaware ahoy!!
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Thanks to all of our sponsors for keeping us rolling especially: Hammer Nutrition, Habervision eyewear , and squirtlube for keeping up fueled, lubed, and the cold cold wind out of our eyes this past weekend.

First Team Training Camp

2009-01-21T10:51:00.001-08:00

The team is headed towards western PA this weekend to hold our first training camp of the year. News to follow afterwards.

Approaching Season

2008-12-19T12:25:00.000-08:00

The Season Starts in approximately 3 months. We are in the process of confirming all of our sponsors and hopefully we will be in the process of getting kits rolling within 4 weeks. First team training camp is in the end of january, so we all need to get back in the swing of things once more.

Several team members are fresh out of racing cyclocross nationals in Kansas City,Missouri. The seperate efforts resulted in some solid rides, a concussion, and a national championship title.

Look for more updates and alot more news in the near future about the team and the progress we are making.

~The Management

Coming Soon for 2009 racing!

2008-07-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

The EWR/Mothwing Developemental Mountain Bike Team!!!!