Trails Edge Racing Team

Jon Heft, Adam York, and Alan Antonuk drove the 8 hours up to Marquette to participate in the 2008 edition of Ore 2 Shore mountain bike epic.

After some brief morning showers to wet down some of the sand we were treated to a fast course and cool temperatures: here’s people’s accounts:

Alan Antonuk:

This was my first Ore2Shore race and based on people’s opinion on the race it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun, and if not I’d have a good time after the race. Despite not having a preferred starting position I managed to finagle (cut in) my way to a good starting position, and when the gun went off, I was easily able to follow Adam’s wheel and get up with the guys who’d finish top-20. On the first grass hill things started to split apart and I followed a group of guys who were 15-16th position.  I held on to their wheel until we got to the section along an ore railroad that had lots of large ball-bearing shaped ore pellets on it. I made an attempt to pass the guy who was in front of me by dropping down to the lower path, which immediately got rougher and I slowed down, when I tried to get back on the upper path I failed and dropped the guy’s wheel in front of me, and the two others that were in my group.

From then on I worked with random people until shortly after the steep power-line climb (Misery hill) when a Guy in a Sobe jersey caught me on the road. I grabbed his wheel and held on until we got back onto a path and we started on a hill and he just kept the same pace. I couldn’t hold it.  He ended up placing 13th, and had flatted in the first 5 miles and was playing catch up.

I then caught a guy in what I thought was a Hell rider’s jersey (which ended up being a Bare Knuckle Bergade). I worked with him on the road section that went down over a tressel then up. We got caught by a group lead by Paul Brown. I hung on that group then went off the front right before it headed back on to the 2 track, the BKB guy following me and working with me, until he yardsaled just before some severe trail washout. For whatever reason at this point I didn’t want to ride with the group that was behind me as I hate riding mtb in a group on trail so I put my foot down. Unfortunately at this point I was a bit too agressive on a turn and my front tire slid out and i twisted by bars. The group I was trying to get away from passed me while I was straightening out my bars and I didn’t quite have the legs to catch them (I knew some of them would’ve been top-20).

I did manage to catch one guy who got popped off the group and let him ride my wheel to the finish, outsprinting him and did it in a time of 2:49:40, netting me 26th overall, 24th male geared, and 1st 20-24. Not bad.

Other stats:

• Climbs run: 4
• Water walked across: 0
• Cytomax consumed: ~90oz
• Bee stings:1
• Rice Krispie Treats consumed: 4 (they all tasted like sand)
• Endos: 1 (that stupid washed out sand-pit).

Adam York:

We wake up at 730ish to get ready to race. race gun start time was 9:45am. Mid way through packing up a torrential down pour starts in Marquette. Anyone who has raced in sand knows rain is GREAT pre-race. This is not the case when it’s 50F there, so it’s a catch-22. Race fast in the cold, or race in slow in the dry heat. The rain stopped in Marquette after about 15min but followed us to the start. It proceeded to rain right until 30min before the start. This was unexpected. The radar led us to believe it would pass before the race, we got there sans base layers to cold wet rain. Not a good warm up by any standards. A mental note for any future race is to always bring a bag with back up layers in it. Anyway…Alan and I tooled around and did a rough warm up. No one really wanted to get too wet so busting around on the pavement was limited. The weather parted and dried just before the start and things looked up. The pack was definitely smaller than 2007 by about 100-200 riders.

When the gun went off it was nutty but Alan and I managed to stay top 20 part of the pack till the first climb.

Alan proceeded to pull away at the first major grass climb about 2 miles in.  I went into smart mode and listened to my legs.  I let the top 15-20 guys go and started finding groups of people to pick off or work with.  Granted listening to my legs got me shelled back quite a bit more than I had liked.  About 10 miles in I finally found my grove after a rough section of gravel about a half mile long.  Anyone who has ridden this race knows it as the two level ore pellet ride parallel to the train tracks.  It’s famous for its fun crashes as people try to switch between the two levels of gravel.  I heard many a crash behind me as I was recovering.  I’d guess as they went to pass me.  After that it was alternating busting ass, pulling back a bit to recover, then busting ass.  Figured I was sitting around 40th place at that point before the dreaded baby head sized hike a bike rock climb.

A little bit down about it since my goal was top 20.  So I sewed it up.  I got help in the form of an enemy from last year.  A guy from CO who i rubbed tires with and almost fought (his choice not mine).  He had also called me fat and smelly(yes this was because of the famous state jersey).  We exchanged apologies and proceeded to work together for the next 10-15 miles getting a big group together for the roadie section of the course.  Probably had a pack of 20 guys together there which is not normal for a mountain bike race.  Few guys did most of the work (me included). The likes of Terry Ritter just sat on being leeches.  At about 10 miles from the end we were in a nice grove dragging the remainder 15 people from our road pack through the woods trying to pick off as many people as we could.  At this point I was out of GU and coming up on the end of my 100oz of water.

We started meeting the stragglers of the soft rock group at this point.  Unfortunately being third wheel in a draft line has it’s advantages: you catch accelerations faster and work less, and its disadvantages:  you have zero reaction time to pending crashes.  We passed one un lucky soft rock guy who got spooked and took me out, and not to dinner.  Laying on the ground in a fetal position a Cycle-To-Fitness rider was kind enough to show me how his shoe felt on my ribs.  After I was out from under the hooves of the cattle I got up and tried to jump back on the pack that was now out of sight.  Being so close from the end it was NOT a good spot to lose the draft train.  Finally catching the pack a mile or two later near the deepest sand pit the two straggling riders biffed in the pit letting me take a nice leisurely 5mph pace into the pit of death.  I also biffed as a result of my slow speed.  Getting back up I put the pedal to the medal.  I only caught the remaining five stragglers of my draft pack 1mile to go.  I rolled in at 39th overall and 35th in men’s shaving about 17min off my previous years time.  Shockingly only 2 minutes behind alan….and 9 places back.

Jon Heft:

I was a little concerned when we rolled into Negaunee and discovered it was raining fairly hard there…..the temp had dropped to 57 degrees, and I had left both my jacket and arm warmers back in Marquette, as I didn’t think they I would need them.  But luckily the rain stopped as we were unloading our bikes, and the sun even peaked out a bit, warming things up nicely.  It was a little bit disappointing to see significantly fewer people at the start line this year, but I was feeling really good and was ready to race.

The rain actually helped out the course - knocking down all of the dust, and solidifying the worst of the sand pits.  It made the riding much easier (as did the fewer numbers of people), but there were a lot of puddles in the first few miles, including one about a foot deep that I splashed through at full speed.  I *almost* endo’d, as it was deeper than I had expected, but I only ended up coating myself (and a few unlucky others creeping around the sides of the puddle) with red mud from head to toe!

I was feeling great until about the half-way point when I started to lose some steam - I was getting passed by numerous people, including Erin Vicary from Bells, and later Mike Connelly on his SS.  I began to bonk a bit…..I was really kicking myself for forgetting my gel and flask that I always use for these races, and I also didn’t eat my usual pre-race breakfast of oatmeal.   I tried to keep my pace even, and kept slogging on - there was one guy in particular on a red NRS Air that I kept trading places with.  Around 15 miles to go, I started to get cramps in my legs, but I kept them spinning.  At one point it was so painful that I actually started screaming (luckily no one was nearby).  Mr. NRS was having trouble climbing, and I was finally able to get away from him on the last woodchip climb with 5 miles to go, when he got off to walk and I spun up it in my granny gear.

My finish time was 3:17:xx - about 4 minutes faster than last year.  Even though it was faster, I think I should have performed even better - given the fast course conditions this year, and my overall worse conditioning (after my surgery) last year.  Mike Connelly and Erin Vicary ended up both finishing in about 3:11, a full 6 minutes faster than me.  I could have been very happy with that time.  There’s always next year!

Results:

• Alan Antonuk 2:49:40 26th overall, 24th men geared, 1st male 20-24
• Adam York 2:51:26 39th overall, 35th men geared, 3rd male 20-24
• Jon Heft 3:17:51 153th overall, 122nd men geared, 28th male 35-39

Post Race activities:

To dull the pain of 3 hours of riding and hiking hard we attended the Bell’s Afterparty:

posted by Don Delagrange

 Last winter, a friend of mine from the Toledo Area Bicyclist club (TAB) told me about this yearly marathon road bike ride across Indiana called RAIN. It’s a 160 mile ride across the state from Terre Haute to Richmond that follows U.S. 40 west to east along the National Road. Every year for the past twenty-two years about 1000 cyclists come from around the country to RAIN. To become a RAIN finisher you must complete the ride in 14 hours (7am-9pm, basically daylight). There is no organized support for the ride, except for four rest stops. However, you can bring a personal support vehicle (PSV) to follow along on the course.

This year my buddies John, Mark, and I decided to give it a go. My gracious wife, Cassie, agreed to drive the personal support vehicle for our little group. She was concered about following the route and maps. According to her, she’s not very good at reading maps. She did great and was waiting at every rest stop with water and snacks when we needed it.

 We got up at 5am to get breakfast and geared up for the ride. The weather report was not looking good. Outside was worse very warm, humid and windy. Luckily it was a SW wind to help us along. To add to the fun, there were dark, heavy clouds, with lots of lightening and thunder prior to the start, but no rain. That changed at 7:05 when just after the start it began to rain. From 7-10:30 it was raining pretty steady, We got to our first unofficial rest stop about 25 miles in just to get a feel for how the day would go with our PSV. The rain was letting up and it was starting to clear a little. The route at this point was mainly rolling hills along lightly traveled four lane divided highway. The course worked out pretty well as the riders rode in the right hand lane the entire way. Traffic was light and courteous. It was a nice surprise to have that kind of road mainly to ourselves.

 Around noon the sun had come out and it was getting hot. Along with the 90% humidity the heat was going to make the afternoon tough. I got a few shivers right before the lunch stop. I could tell if I had kept going that I would have dehydrated severly. Luckily, lunch (at 90 miles)  had plenty of water and Gatorade along with our PSV we were able to stay well hydrated the rest of the day. After lunch, at mile 100, I let out a little cheer for my first official century ride (Bike to the Bay was only 98.5 miles). 60 miles to go! We had three more rest stops after lunch. We were still feeling pretty good and stuck together for the most part. If there was a hill, we got a little strung out. But with the wind at our backs, it wasn’t crucial to stick together for the draft.

I’m happy to report that we all finished the 162 mile across Indiana. It was tough near the end. We were all running low on gas. Mark finished first, myself second and John just a few minute behind me. My ride time was 9:45:12. for a 16.6 mph average. Just about what I planned. Total times are below: 

http://bloomingtonbicycleclub.org/tours/rain/rain.html

Mark H 12:37

Don Delagrange 12:42 

John S 12:45

At the start

First Rest Stop

Done

   We’re finished

Our PSV driver, Cassie

Posted by Don Delagrange 

Below is a thank you letter and recap of the 2008 National MS Society - Reeves Northrup Memorial Bike to the Bay. I talked to a guy this year that recognized the Trail’s Edge jersey and said hello. I guess Ron has bought a few bikes from Mike and lives in the Plymouth area.

The 2008 Bike to the Bay marked a year of firsts for me. Previous years of riding in the event was always with a small group of like minded co-workers from Owens-Illinois (O-I). When O-I sold the plastics division to Rexam, Inc. in August 2007, I wondered what would happen to the few former O-I Plastics riders. Would we join the O-I guys anyway? Should I do my own thing? Should we start a Rexam team? That question was answered when the team captain for Team O-I suggested a friendly rivalry between O-I and Rexam for the 2008 event. Some of the O-I employees and all the Rexam employees share one of the buildings at Levis Park.

My first of many first this year was that I became the captain for Team Rexam. We didn’t have a lot of previous riders to be part of the new team, so the first order of business was to start recruiting new riders. To my amazement, I was able to recruit 3 new riders. These are riders who had never pedaled more than a few miles at a time or more than a few times a year. Here I was trying to get them pumped up to ride at least 35 miles in one day. These three eager co-workers seemed excited to be a part of this great event. I wanted to make sure the new riders enjoyed the experience. So I organized a short ride every Tuesday night for 6 weeks to help the new riders get a feel for riding the longer distances, as well as provide info on bike maintenance, and help them navigate the crazy registration area the morning of the event. I was starting to get into this team captain thing. In total we had five members of Team Rexam. Three members rode the one day 35 mile route. One planned on riding the two day 150 mile route. The captains of Team O-I and Team Rexam decided to for the biggest bite of all, the two day 200 mile route. A 100 mile route from the Lucas County Fairgrounds to Port Clinton High School (PCHS) on Saturday and back on Sunday! The second of many firsts this year was volunteering to help mark the course. The director of the Bike to the Bay tried to convince me that is was a ton of fun. With some trepidation I agreed to join Alberta and Sue on the weekend before the event for the slowest 40 mile car ride ever! We marked the course from Pemberville, OH to the finish at PCHS. Funny at times, yes! Fun, no! Orange paint on my hands and shoes, arrows accidentally pointing the wrong way, and jumping in and out of the car at 1-2 mile intervals for 40 miles. Ugh! I’m joking about it not being fun. Its tough work, but we had a good time.As for the riding, that addresses my next first. I’ve never ridden 100 miles at a time. 50? 62? 75? Yes, yes, and yes many times. How much harder could 100 miles be? It turns out a little harder than expected this time. The weather was gloomy for the weekend of the event with lots of strong isolated thunderstorms predicted. Mother Nature did not disappoint. A strong storm rolled through Port Clinton in the early afternoon. We had been staying ahead of the nasty looking storm all morning. We were starting to hear that riders were being pulled from the course or stopped from continuing while at rest stops to take shelter from possible tornados. When we heard this, we decided not to stop at any more rest stops (three left) and get to PCHS as soon as possible. With about 20 miles to go we put our heads down and pushed as hard as we could. It almost worked…This brings me to my final firsts. We got within a mile of the finish when the hard rain hit. We got soaked to put it mildly. And I got a flat…With about a half mile to go. I had never flatted while on a road bike ride and was happily telling someone about that fact a few days before the ride. Karma I guess. I had never ridden in a rain that hurt and required ‘no wake’ signs in the streets. I’m trying to imagine what it looked like, a guy riding a bike in a torrential downpour at 5 mph with a flat front tire for a half mile while trying to look over his glasses to see where he’s supposed to be going. It was an interesting finish to a great day.Day two wasn’t nearly as exciting. I rode back with a group I ride with on Saturday mornings. We dodged rain clouds, but never got rained on (It poured about 30 minute after I finished though). We did have a headwind that slowed us down a bit, but what’s new about wind in NW Ohio?

You may have read this thinking, “Why do these things to yourself?” I have one big reason and many small reasons. My sister Karen has Multiple Sclerosis (MS). When I started riding in this event in 2003 I had no clue what MS was. My buddy and I were just getting into riding and thought that this would be a fun challenge. That same year, in the fall of 2003 Karen was diagnosed with MS. Now I’ve resolved to ride every year in the hopes that a cure can be found and to ride for those that can’t ride because of MS. Below is a picture of Karen with her husband Eric and their two kids, Eli and Julia. As a side note, Eric rode for the first time this year with Team O-I. This event does a fantastic job of raising money and awareness for a potentially debilitating disease that affects about 3500 people in NW Ohio alone. 1200 riders will have raised nearly a half million dollars to help find a cure. It is considered one of the better organized charity rides on the Midwest. Also, it really is a great time and I absolutely love riding my bike.You’ve received this letter to say “Thank you, very, very much”, because you have supported me with words of encouragement, a pledge this year, or in previous years.

   Ominous clouds following us

There is an old saying that goes something like this: “Red skies at night, sailor’s delight. Red skies at morning, cyclists get hosed.” Morning, Day 2

Group, Day 2

Contemplating Lunch

posted by Jon Heft

Here is a map & stats for my Sunday ride…..I went right out of my garage and rode to Brighton Rec Area. Hit all of the ILRA trails, as well as Torn Shirt and Murray Lake/Lost Loops at Brighton.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6184831

If anyone is interested in a training route, this certainly has the potential…..there are numerous gratuitous hills along this route (which I didn’t do today, but could easily be added in).

I’m not sure how Motion Based calculates the elevation gain….the Garmin said only 2788 feet. It was a long, but not too terribly hot, day in the saddle. Luckily I was able to cool down at the Brighton Rec beach, as well as feast on some wild blackberries growing along the route!

This post is dedicated to showing up to a TT on-time.

After the Rockford race where I showed up with 15 minutes before the start of the race - I made a concerted effort to get to the Wolverine TT on time.  Which I did. I also managed get myself registered, borrow and install some clip-on TT bars, remove my cardboard-fiber (latest and greatest technology) wheel cover because of the rain, get myself dressed, and get a solid 35-minute warmup in, all before heading to the line with 7 minutes before my 10:27:00 AM start time, or so I thought. I roll up to the line and see their clock: 10:30:47.  DOH! I had missed my start time. It appeared that the clock on my PT head unit is ~10 minutes slow.

The race official at the start line said hold on, don’t go anywhere.  After 5 minutes of standing there he said he’d slot me in at 10:40:00.  So I roll around the start up tent for another 5 minutes and get in the starting hut.  There the official informs me that he’d give me a time, but I would not be ranked: in other words - I was DQed.  Fair enough, but the timing was bad (no pun intended), I had just lost my warmup, and I had just been told that you’re racing for nothing more than a time.

So I tried to make the best of suffering for an hour: I smilied and waved at all the others TTing in the other direction, I shared some made-up lyrics to the guys sitting around the turn arounds (”I can ride my bike with no aero-bars, no aero-bars, no aero-bars…”), and I made funny faces at the people doing the course marshalling.

I turned in a non-spectacular time of 1:01:50 and averaged 317 W for that duration.  I fell a little short of my goals of sub 1-hour, and 330W average.  This would’ve been good for about 8 or 9th place, which was only 3-4  places off what i really got (12th).  Several people told me after that my time would drop by minutes if I had proper aero equipment (helmet, TT bars, proper position, disc wheel).  Maybe an investment for next year.

Course conditions were pretty good considering the course had been flooded just hours before, there were some muddy spots, which left my bike looking like I had just done a CX race.  There was also a southerly wind that whipped up on the second out and back that did not help things. The Cat 1/2s didn’t seem affected by this - the fastest guy turning in a 53′ 40k.

Note to self: next time synchronize your PT clock to the one they’re using at the start line.

Rockford was another late afternoon start for the Cat 3 racers. The race was an 8-turn, 0.8 mile circuit on some narrow neighborhood streets.  It featured a hill that started from the first turn, and culminated in a short steep section. The downhill had 2 fast corners the second onto a wide street with a good headwind before turning into a narrow street for a 100m finishing straight.  The weather also decided to cooperate with some blue skies and 80 degree temperatures for the Cat 3 race.

Unfortunately due to some road construction on I-96 and some poor planning on my part I rolled into Rockford only 15 minutes before race start (thank-god for pre-registration!) nixing any kind of warm-up I had planned.  I managed to get a two-lap preview of the course and people were lining up ready to go.

The first 20 minutes or so I suffered because of the lack of the warm-up, there was the occasional attack on the hill, but everything was reeled in on the backside because of the stiff wind going down the hill (nobody wants to work going up and going down).  About 25 minutes in Andrew Florian (Priority Health) guns it up the hill. Jimi Minnema (Bissel), Chris Aten (South Lyon), Chris Boer (Spout), and I all put in an effort and break from the peleton. The first few minutes of the break were a bit of touch and go with the peleton coming within a few seconds, but we managed to pull out of sight after about 10 minutes of hard racing, which ended up being 30-40 seconds at the end of the race.

Going into the final lap, Chris B surprised us by putting in a considerable effort up the final hill, but the break stuck together. Going down the hill on the backside, Chris A made a move putting him on the front coming into the final stretch, and causing Jimi to tap his brakes.  I saw this from the 4th position in back and I sprinted around Chris to take 1st. Final result was: Me - 1st, Chris A - 2nd, Chris B- 3rd, and Jimi - 4th.

Adam York (cat 4 coverage) and Alan Antonuk (cat 3 coverage) made the trip up to Marquette, MI to race the road events at the 2008 edition of the Superior Bike Fest. The weekend included a Criterium through downtown Marquette, a Road Race through some of the best roads around Marquette County, and a very short Circuit race. All road events counting towards a points omnium for each category.

Criterium:
The criterium was a technical 8 turn course through downtown Marquette, featuring some fun high-speed turns and a bit of a hill climb through the last two turns to the finish. A large number of people came out to cheer on the racers with their cowbells and superfan spirit, and an announcer and radio host from ESPN was on site giving a play-by-play of each of the races. There was also the smell of charred flesh in the air as everyone seemed to be having a cookout on the side of the course. It made for a very nauseating smell while racing. Marquette also did not appear to have an open alcohol container policy.

Cat 4:
Moderate cat 4 pack showing of 20 riders for the crit. Pretty apparent that Haggerty, Ace Hardware, and Little Cesar’s were going to be the teams on deck this weekend. All other teams had two or less riders.

We had a fun start to our race. Turning the second corner we had the first flat tire go off and mass panic trying to avoid the culprit.  Luckily no one went down since this seemed to be the crash central corner for other racers.  Staying towards the front of the pack was pretty easy on the front side of the course.  No one really wanted to do much work (theme of the weekend), and attacks were futile. As a result I would occasionally find myself up front sucking wind trying to attack. Waste of energy.

On about lap 3 we had yet another tire blow out on the back stretch.  As the race progressed it became clear If you got the hole shot on the second to last up hill corner you would win.  This was dispelled from my mind by a two pint beer prime which people let go without contest to Little Cesar’s Mike Jones…mmm beer.  Ace Hardware team looked strong, so I wasn’t going to risk it all for a beer buzz.  The next prime was for $50.00….though it sounded like $15.00.  Again it was let go to the same Little Cesar’s Mike Jones uncontested.  Oops. Fast forward to the last lap, with plenty of gas in the tank I thought of pulling a Greg Christian off the front epic win but after the third corner it was apparent no such thing would happen and I sat up a bit letting about five riders pass to suck wind.  Sure enough on the second to last corner turning right Ace Hardware’s Weston Pernsteiner went from far left to far inside right.  The pack hit the brakes a bit but it was too late, he got the whole shot.  We scrambled but no dice, luckily I stayed up right while clipping my pedal on the last turn.  Sprinted and bumped shoulders with the Olympian for 5th (he does speed skating for the record).

Cat 3:

The Cat 3 field was slightly smaller than usual owing to the 8 hour drive from southeast Michigan. But many of the fast names were still present.

Race started fast and almost immediately strung out because of the number of turns through the course. After a few laps I got on the front and pushed the tempo a bit see if I could pop a few of the sprinters off the back of the lead group.  It worked and then it started raining, and things got real slick, the whole race just slowed down a bit for a minute and I got to the back of the lead group which was now about 12 people down from the 30 that started.  The tires were just not hooking up well, the road lines and metal manhole covers being the dangerous stuff.

Ten minutes later the rain stopped, street dried out, and the pace returned to its faster tempo.  With 10 laps to go, I gunned it on the backside hill to see what kind of shape people’s legs were in.  I was lucky and quickly got a gap.  Nobody from the pack seemed to want to chase.  Probably owing to the last crit where I got pulled back with several laps to go.  So I stepped on the gas, and put 10 seconds into the peleton, enough so they couldn’t see me around the next turn, and won the crit by 18 seconds.

Road Race:
Both the Cat 3 and Cat 4 races did a 55 mile loli-pop style race course starting at the YMCA in Marquette, and rolling out of town.  The first 5 miles included a nice hill to soften up the legs a bit.  The rest of the course was some fantastic roads, with a few rollers before coming back along the road out and hanging a shallow left turn into a 200m, perfect for a sprint finish.

Cat 4:
The pack mood was poor post crit yesterday. People were angry about the Ace Hardware’s Weston Pernsteiner who cut the pack off for the win. Pretty much all of the solo riders and major teams looked to make him suffer a bit. Everyone had been scaring people with tales of how big the “mountain” was near the start of the race. When we hit it I expected an attack, but no dice. Every time during this race a pack of 5-6 riders would get about a 30ft gap then sit up. No one wanted to follow through, or do work. Again, this was the theme of the weekend.

As with any slow race I would go up front and goof around trying to get a pace line going. If that didn’t work just do (stupid) attacks. It would kick up a bit but it was obvious those sucking wheel had no issues with it in the back. Few minutes later we would be back to a creeping pace looking over our shoulder for the attack. Sitting at the back was never an option since Ace Hardware stayed up front.

On one of the flatter sections on the back side of the course about 30miles in the crash occurred. Bissel and the crit winning Ace Hardware’s  Weston Pernsteiner went down in an OLN style slow-motion crash. Several other riders were caught up including Mike Jones from little c’s. The pack marched on for a bit. In the back of my mind I think I should have attacked…but it didn’t sit well so we waited. We were literally almost in the middle of nowhere. Not a place you want to leave the person hurt. Finally all but the Bissel rider returned to the pack. Apparently he had what appeared to be a separated shoulder. He rode back to the start (bad ass). The pack coasted on.

Then things got strange. We proceeded to pass and be passed by the cat 5 pack which caught us post crash coasting. Not once, not twice, but at least three times. Some idiots even tried to mix the pack once or twice. Quickly the pack came to a consensus that sprinting into the back of a cat 5 pack for the finish was not an option, so we turned on the gas a bit passing them on the last big climb.

Coming into town one of the locals informed me that no one would get away at this point. Haggerty did constant attacking covered by Little Cesar’s Mike Jones. I fought to stay up at the front. Similar situation to Friday, if you got the whole shot on a corner you could win. So I stayed up front at all costs even coming close to a nasty crash. Rounding the last corner I was lucky to be sixth wheel. Turned on the gas and managed to catch five of the wheels. Took 2nd place, moving me into 3^rd for the omni.  Mike Jones snagged the win, even after getting a little road rash from the crash, props.  Next time my mental note was “attack when someone crashes”.

Cat 3:
Having won the crit the night before by rolling off the front, I along with Jimi Minnema (Bissel) was being very closely watched for any kind of move during the race.  It started with a very neutral roll-out, out pace car being told to do 10 mph, and doing exactly that.  Almost as soon as the race started we hit the hill which turned out to be not that bad.  The pace was kept high enough on the hill that we dropped a few of the weaker riders on this. The peleton then decided to paceline for the next 10 miles, and not pulling through or sitting on got you yelled at.  It felt very group-ridish.

This lasted until we turned off the first M-road and the paceline fell apart. After a few minutes myself, Jimi, and a guy from Haggerty, started attacking hard, nothing getting away as there were a number of guys strong enough to counter every attack.  After 30 minutes of this we gave up trying to break, and several of us ramped the tempo up to try and keep people tired so the sprint wouldn’t be as fast.

Heading into town, we had a tailwind, so I laid down the hammer and tried to keep the tempo as high as possible. Going into the final mile Chris Aten and teammate (South Lyon) went up to pull, and then the sprint started out of the corner, I got on the 4th wheel behind a Haggerty rider, while Cody Brown (Wolverine) and a rider from Lead-out racing else duked it out for 1st and 2nd.  I managed to take 4th.

Circuit Race:
This was a short 4-5 minute circuit run over 20-40 minutes.  Course featured a short downhill section quick right turn, more downhill, then a steep uphill which turned right into the wind for a 400m straightaway to the finish.

Cat 4:

Easiest way to sum up a 20min race is “stupid short”. We did four laps plus one for the race. Everyone did Omni mental math before the race to figure out exactly how much work they would need to do, and who to cover. This didn’t stop one of the locals Eric Hinderager from sparking it off at the start. However like EVERY race this weekend it would gap, and then sit up.

On the last lap we knew the back side hill before the last corner would be the point of attack. Everyone jockeyed to be in the front, but not too forward. I was boned, first wheel, sucking wind like an amateur.  No way in that position I stood a chance. Then 15 yards from the corner I heard “oh shit”. Just the sound I wanted to hear. The sound of the aluminum can crumpling was my signal to lay it down. The 2nd place Omni Little Cesar’s Mark Bush had been trying to stay up front with me and apparently locked bars when he stood up to pedal. He and the Ace Hardware Weston Pernsteiner (same one that crashed Saturday) went down with a few others. The pack slowed to go around it, but it was too late. I had a gap. I also had the 1st place Omni points Little Cesar’s Mike Jones on my wheel. Having won Saturday I knew he was strong.

The finish was a long ways off. Being swallowed up was a real risk. We were saved by the post race report of “no one wanted to do work to catch you, only to be sprinted around”. The Mike Jones pulled through and did some work….of course I did not return the favor till we were close to the finish line. Ended up with 1st place, and 2nd place Omni. The pack wasn’t too far behind, but no other close Omni contenders were in it.

Cat 3:
Because of the high winds the plan was to sit on the pack and do as little as possible for the duration of the race, then duke it out with the rest of the sprinters.  That plan was thrown out from the gun, as attacks were going left right and center. There were two promising solo attempts by Greg Battista (Priority Health) and a Haggerty rider.  But both were chased down within a lap.  On the last lap Byron Boyer (Team Venom) gunned it up the last hill stringing things out a bit, rounded the turn, and sat up bunching everything up again.  Then the sprint started with a good 350m to go. I was in the mix and then everyone decided to move left and I couldn’t grab a wheel, I managed to catch the last person’s draft and pull around the last few to eek out 10th.

This gave me enought points to win 1st in the Cat 3 Omnium.

According to the official results:

27 women were registered - only 13 finished, the winning time was 8 hrs, 45 mins, 10 secs
242 men were registered - but only 128 finished, the winning time was 7 hrs, 7 mins, 47 secs

Unfortunately there were no lap results this year, so you don’t know what people completed before dropping out. There are also no DNS (did not start) stats - for instance it shows Floyd Landis as DNF, but he wasn’t even there.

Jon Heft finished in 10 hrs, 48 mins, 32 seconds - good enough for 79th out of 128 overall men, or 51st out of 83 geared men!

Kevin - you should have gone to the awards ceremony…..your name got called for the Cannondale Rush frame giveaway (the same thing that I won there a couple of years back).  Rick Plite actually had to go through about 15 or so names before he got to someone who was actually present (had to be present to win).

Thanks to Kristi for these pictures

From the Lumberjack site - the infamous swamp….these just don’t do this section justice:


More from the Lumberjack site:

Cat 3:

It was nice to have a race that didn’t require a pre-dawn wake up time. Gave me a chance to wake up, eat a good breakfast, do a few chores around the house and drive the 30 minute trip to Allen Park with lots of time to spare.

I rolled up in time to see Ben Renkema (Turin/Barker+Nestor) win the Pro 1/2 race off a leadout of his teammate Chris Uberti (who formerly worked at Trails Edge).

Lots of time to get registered and get a good warmup in. First time this season I got a full 40 minute warmup in. Even with the warm weather the warmup helped loosen some things up. I’m not sure if it helped my racing started 20 minutes late.

The Race was a typical Cat 3 race, couple of excited people try and go up the road, get pulled back almost immediately, with everyone else in the pack trying to do as little as possible. Jimi Minema (Bissel), was well marked by the South Lyon team. There wasn’t a moment in the race I didn’t see at least one golden jersey on his wheel. Christy Keely (Priority Health) decided to step up and race with the Cat 3 guys after winning the Cat 1/2/3 women’s race. Unfortunately, someone in a blue jersey caused her to wreck, but she was back in a lap later mixing it up. Watch out guy in the blue, she’s looking for you.

25 minutes in I decide to try and break. I immediately have Andrew Florian (Priority Health) and Cody Brown (Wolverine) on my wheel and we step up the pace. A few other riders join the break and we appear to have the majority of the teams represented in the break with S. Lyon on the front of the peleton doing what appears to be a good job of blocking people’s attempt to bridge up to us. The perfect break group. We get about a straigt away length lead after about 5 or 6 laps and the group just gives up. The whole break just wants to suck wheel. As we’re getting pulled back to the peleton I give another break a shot, this time nobody goes with me. I go for another 5 or 6 minutes, until the race officials announce 5 laps to go. At this point I’m putting considerable effort in to keep away from the peleton into the wind, and I’m losing ground, so I decide to drop back to the peleton and fight it out in the sprint.

Three laps to go a S. Lyon guy goes off the front and nobody chases. Everybody appears to be waiting for the sprint. I go to the front and see if I can get some guys to be motivated to chase (mistake, should’ve just waited and sprinted for 2). Eventually S. Lyon trying to organize a lead-out train chases their own guy down (yeah…). Going into the last lap I’m on the inside corner of the first turn and get cut off and sent backwards in the peleton. I try to make up the difference but can’t manage to do it before the end of the race for the sprint, so I have a nice view from the rear for the sprint. Final stretch Lupe Martinez (Leadout Racing) drops a chain or unclips in the sprint. He manages to stay upright, but is obviously frustrated, Doug (Wolverine) guy sprinting gets caught up in this and hits the deck hard. I roll in after all of this mess somewhere in the pack.

Fortunately, it appears both Doug and Lupe, despite some road rashes and some bruising were ok.

Cat 4:

Adam York, and Josh Neider rep’ed Trails Edge for the Cat 4 race late in the day. After several break attempts a pair of riders from Essex Brass and Greyhound racing managed to stay away. With nobody in the peleton willing to make the effort that break managed to stay away with a more than 30 second win over the peleton. Adam sprinted with the rest of the field to take 5th overall.

Cat 5:

Lee Duhl, Derek Gibbs, and Paul Borden all raced represented Trails Edge in the early morning Cat 5 race.

Posted by Jon Heft

The Lumberjack 100…..wow, I finished!!

What a great day for a race - 50’s to start off the morning, rising to the mid-70’s and sunny by the afternoon. Not too terribly hot, not too humid for a long day in the saddle. Considering the weather preceeding the race on Thursday night, we couldn’t have asked for much better. Some reports suggest that the area received nearly 11 inches of rain in 6 hours, accompanied by 70mph winds…..I wasn’t there so I cannot confirm that, but there WAS a lot of standing water around the area. In fact, our 2-mile roll out start on the road began in front of a little house that was sitting (floating?) in a yard full of water. Rick Plite, the race promoter did a great job in getting the course cleared of trees and wind-blown debris, but he couldn’t re-route the low sections of the trail. He warned us that there was about 30 yards of trail under about a foot of water; in actuality there were about 5-6 stretches of trail under about a foot of water….maybe 300 yards would be a better description! On the first lap these sections were mostly rideable, but for the subsequent laps they only got deeper and muckier and essentially impossible to ride. This area of the trail was about 15 miles into the 25 mile lap, so having wet feet for the remaining 85 miles was loads of fun!

Representing Trails Edge were Kevin Paquette on SS, Eric Silvassy and myself in the geared class.

My first lap was pretty non-eventful. I purposefully planned to take it easy, and started about 2/3 of the way back in the field, so as not to get caught up in an early sprint that I couldn’t maintain. After about 12-13 miles, the group I was with had dwindled down to about 10 riders, and I was about 7 back from the front. On the flats, the speed was fine, but whenever the trail pointed up, it got painfully slow. I quickly realized that the guy at the front couldn’t climb to save his life….the problem was that I couldn’t pass 6 guys at once on the twisty singletrack. One of the other guys in front of me finally made a break for it on a hill, which caused an opening in the pack. I jumped at the chance - it wasn’t pretty; I ended up going way off the trail to the left when another rider decided to get off his bike and walk the hill….but I made it by. After getting around the final couple of riders on the same hill, I was able to settle into my own pace. Other than the shock of the cold and DEEP water a few minutes later, the rest of the lap was uneventful. I finished the lap in almost exactly 2 hrs 30 minutes (this included the 2 mile initial roll-out start).

I was feeling really good after the first lap, and Marty hooked me up with a fresh bottle of Perpetuem and Chocolate Hammergel mix (remarkably tasty, actually), and a camelback filled with cold water. I downed a couple of enduralite tablets and stretched my back out before going out for lap #2. I felt much faster on lap #2 - I was having fun, and trying to bridge up to riders in front of me kept my mind focused. Not counting the 5 minute break I took after lap #1, I was only about 2 minutes faster on lap #2 than I was on lap #1. Since lap #1 included the 2-mile rollout, that means I was actually slower….go figure!

After the 2nd lap, I was starting to feel the effects of the mileage. My hands were getting sore, my upper back/shoulders were sore, and my legs were a little stiff. I stretched some more, and was pleasantly surprised that my lower back was actually feeling quite good. I was also surprised that I was still happy with the Perpetuem/Hammergel mix that I was using - I wasn’t sure I could handle the chocolate taste for that long, but it worked. By this time, I noticed that I had been riding a similar pace as Mike Belanger form Macomb Bike & Fitness, and Tony Sebastian from Cycletherapy. Both seemed to be faster on the trail, but were taking longer pit stops.

Lap #3 started off well on the inner loop, but by the time I got to the aid station on the outer loop, I was starting to hurt. I caught up to Mike there, and spent a few minutes chatting before taking off before him. He caught me a few minutes later and promptly left me in the dust. I caught back up to him in the “swamp” and then he dusted me again once we got on dry land. Damn. I ended up riding most of lap #3 by myself - that’s when the ride really started to take its toll. I did catch up to Tony at the end of lap #3, he seemed to be having a hard time. With all of the struggle, my time for lap #3 was remarkably consistent with the first two - about 2 hours 35 minutes.

I took over 10 minutes off after lap #3 - taking time to put on dry socks and a fresh jersey. I only took a *little bit* of ridicule for my sexy arm tan lines! The inner loop of lap #4 was tough……I passed one or 2 people early on, and then didn’t see anyone else. Time seemed to drag on, and I was suffering in my own private little hell of hand/shoulder/leg pain. Did I mention my ass? Yes, that hurt a lot too. Out of nowhere, shortly before the aid station on the outer loop, Tony and Mike pull up behind me…..I would’ve sworn that they were both in front of me! I tried to pick up the pace, but I was gassed; then on a little hill my legs started to cramp up. It nearly killed me to do so, but I pulled off and let them by. It was all I could do to keep them in sight. Mike stopped at the aid station, but Tony waved and rolled right through. Mike and I stayed at the aid station for almost 5 minutes - eating and drinking a bit. I took some Motrin and downed some Coke, which gave me a much needed burst further up the trail. When we finally took off, Mike left me in the dust….again. I felt like I was totally dragging my ass out there. It was probably the Coke, but I felt a little better and caught up to Mike in the swamp again. This time he rode with me, and we traded places a couple of times. The Coke “burst” seemed to fizzle out just when we hit the big climb leading up to the Firetower area.

With about 4 miles to go, Mike dropped off my wheel - he had inhaled something and stopped to clear his throat. I continued on and just a ways up the trail I saw an orange jersey - Tony from Cycletherapy! I was energized a bit and gradually caught up to him. He wasn’t going very fast, so he must have been having a hard go of it. When I greeted him, it was as if I hit him with a cattle prod - he put the pedal down and pulled away on the rolling terrain leading up to the final viscious climb. He apparently blew his wad doing that, because after he hit that last climb, he got off his bike and started walking as soon as he hit the steep section. There was a tandem pair walking there, and one other single rider as well. Seeing that was all that I needed….I dug deep and managed to spin all the way to the top. My legs both cramped up, but I kept spinning and spinning, not wanting to give those guys an inch…..when I hit the (nearly) mile-long descent, I was convinced I would never see any of those guys again…..I was wrong! On the last turn before the finish I heard voices behind me, and thought 2 bikes had caught me! I freaked and gave it whatever I had left to get over the last few hundred yards to the finish. It turned out it was the tandem, so the voices I heard were the 2 guys talking to each other. I’d like to think I out-sprinted them, but they were in a different class and maybe didn’t bother to try…..at any rate, it made for an exciting end to the race!

My final lap was approximately 2 hours 44 minutes. Total time - 10 hours 48 minutes (including the 6 breaks that I took).

Hopefully Eric and/or Kevin will comment on their experiences. Kevin lost some spokes on his rear wheel, but I never heard the story about what happened. Eric made a great first time showing of 58 miles (2 full laps, plus the inner loop of his 3rd), but realized that he wouldn’t be able to complete the 3rd lap before the time cutoff. There were rumors of a high attrition rate again this year, but there were no results posted to get the exact numbers. The race times appeared to be longer this year than in years past, likely in large part due to the swamp on the outer loop.