Trails Edge Racing Team

Alan’s report

This is the year I turn 25, which besides giving me cheaper car insurance, means I get bumped up an age class at Iceman.  Going into the race I was a little worried that being thrown in with the 25-29 year olds I’d have a much harder time placing than I would with the 19-24s.  Having placed 13th last year with a time of 1:57:11, with a mechanical I knew that this was a reasonable goal.

The race started with the usual showing up to the line early enough to get a spot and setting up my trainer and chatting with folks, only to realize that my 29er doesn’t fit on my trainer - whoops.  I leave the trainer next to Adam to hold my spot and go spin for 10-15 mins and roll back to find the start line packed.  I was a bit surprised to find that I could easily just push my way up to the front of the group and I was 3rd wheel before the roll up.

At the starting line, preparing for pain (to dole it out that is)

The start was the usual nuttyness - from experience I knew that a good start is key unless you want to deal with passing people that go out too hard on the first part of the 2-track.  I got a good start - I was in sight of the first group and the pace settled in pretty quick - I thought it was a bit too slow to begin with, but held off a bit so as not to kill myself and get passed at the end.

Being the first wave of the day we got the pleasure of going through all the wet leaves, the first section of leaves had numereous people falling - i managed to avoid 3 or 4 crashes before sliding out on my own.  Only lost a place or two before deciding that hanging back wasn’t working for me, so I gassed it and bridged up to a strong looking group that I thought was the front group. I worked with this group to really push the pace high, and the group of 6 people were alone by time we hit the first bit of singletrack. An interesting note is that everyone except one person in this group was rocking a 29er bike.  Two of the guys had rigid forks and they did ok - but suffered on the faster downhills.  In the group there were at least 2 others in the 25-29 group and I wanted to lose them before we got to the finish, not being a great sprinter.  Once we got to the road section I pushed it higher to see who had fresher legs, and found the guy on the 26er had the fresher legs.  We took turns really putting it down trying to shake the rest of the group. Once we got to the Williamsburg crossing area we kept hitting it hard up the rollers and the guy on the 26er and I had dropped our buddies.

Took turns with the guy pushing it hard, eventually I think he got tired of me going to slow and he wanted to do work, so I let him and we rolled at a furious pace. With 3 to go we caught an 15-18 expert who informed us that there was two guys in front of us Kyle Stange.  At this point my buddy on the 26er was dead from the effort so I put in an effort but didn’t even see the two guys up the trail.  The last bit of single track was a bit slicker than I was prepared for and the Strange I caught escaped. I managed to hold off my 26er buddy and finish in 1:42:07. Good enough for 2nd Expert 25-29, and 4th in the wave.  The two in front of us were nearly 2 minutes faster.  To catch them I would’ve needed to see them sneak away at the beginning of the race and bridge up to them much earlier. Fanstastic race otherwise!

Adam’s report:

Adam starting the Iceman

The pace stayed pretty high till the first group broke away about 5miles in. Then things seemed to stabilize, or as much as you can expect for iceman. Once Nick Boswell caught back on it was just another 10 miles of follow the leader taking turns drafting. After Ore to Shore I was in no mood to pull people around again. When I found myself at the front I would do a short pull and feign being tired. No free meals for people this time. Things didn’t seem to go south till we hit the dirt road section. It was at this point a gap formed between myself and Nick Boswell. The reason escapes me, probably a bad line on a sandy hill. Riding solo in this kind of race sucks. He had a few others to work with including my friend from CO and Ore to Shore…or also known as the guy who called me “fat and smelly”. The rest of the race was spent trying to bridge the gap. Finally at the 1 mile to go marker I caught Boswell and the other riders. Making some last minute attacks and aggressive moves I managed to seal in 4th place. I scraped out 3rd place by following an older riders sprint to the line. His aggressive move gave me just enough energy to out sprint the Ace Hardware rider on a CX bike for 3rd place. Literally one bike length.

Posted by Jon Heft

OK, so ILRA is not exactly like the Iceman course…..but it isn’t a bad approximation; but there are certainly less in the way of hills. And 2 loops of ILRA gives you 28 miles, just over the Iceman distance. I haven’t been riding ILRA much this year, but I decided to head out there last Sunday, and again yesterday to see what kind of times I could put down. Historically, my fastest time out there has been just under 57 minutes, but that was several years ago.

Sunday, I started out late in the afternoon - it was in the low 50’s, and there were numerous mud puddles to contend with from rain the previous days. I started sloshing through them until I realized that I was getting all wet (and cold)! Then I’d either slow down to go through them, or go around them (as long as I wasn’t widening the trail, of course). On my first lap there were others on the trail, and I didn’t pass anyone without them giving me the go ahead - I wasn’t attempting to blow anyone off the trail. I ended up with 59:25 on the computer. The second lap - I was already warmed up, and I didn’t run into anyone at all. I ended up with only 58:10.

Yesterday, I decided to leave work early (3:30) since it was so nice out. It didn’t hurt that it was Halloween, and everyone was leaving early. I considered riding out to ILRA, but Jeremy was going to meet me out there at 5:30pm, so I decided to drive instead - I was able to get in a lap before he got there. Unfortunately I forgot my Garmin, so all I could do was check the time on my cell phone. The conditions today were near perfect for a fall day - no water at all, and the leaves were packed in. Although I did have to pass several people, they were all in the wide sections of the trail. My first lap time was around 58 minutes - give our take (that is as exact as I could get by looking at my cell phone). Then Jeremy and I went out for another lap. Damn that guy is fast! He blasts out of the lot at full speed, and I had to really work to keep up with him. We traded off the lead position a couple of times, and only slowed up a couple of times for a quick breather. On the steel bridge over the river, Jeremy jumped ahead again, and I never was quite able to reel him back in - he finished about 15-20 seconds in front of me. When I finished I looked at the phone - it was 6:42pm. We started at 5:47pm…..so my total time was around 55 minutes minutes!!! Definitely my fastest time out there, by far.

Moral of the story - It’s definitely easier to go faster when you’re being pushed. My goal for Iceman this year is to get under 2 hours, which would beat my best time from several years ago (2:00:30)….this may have been when the course was slightly shorter too. I figure if you can’t get 2 back-to-back sub-1hour laps at ILRA, you don’t have a prayer of getting under 2 hours at Iceman.

Posted by Jon Heft

What a beautiful day for a race today! Unfortunately it was also f’n cold - something like 33 degrees when I left the house at 8am, and about 35 (but rising) in Holly when I started out. For those of you that haven’t done this race (I presume everyone that is reading this), it is a complete 15.5 mile slog around the east loop at Holdridge - aka Gruber’s Grinder. The first 6 or so miles are pretty tough with sand, rocks, logs and lots of sharp corners before uphill climbs. It is impossible to carry any speed for very long. It seems to get slightly easier after mile 6, with fewer climbs and more flowy sections, but still a lot of twisty stuff. After mile 7 (where there is a shortcut out of the trail) the trail is traditionally very overgrown, but for the race the trail was well trimmed and as open as I have ever seen it. There was one fresh blow down on the trail, but it was easy to get over. Conditions were great overall, and within a mile I actually had to unzip my jersey some to avoid overheating. With lightweight tights, a long sleeve under layer and a longsleeve jersey, I felt good the entire race. I also had toe warmers (thank God for those!) and long fingered gloves.

The start is unstructured - you can start anytime between 8am-10am. I was waiting towards the end in hopes it would warm up a bit….it never did! I think I went out at about 9:50am or so. Jeremy Daum (with whom I drove up there) started a few minutes later. I was planning on changing my lenses out to clear or amber, and I’m very glad that I didn’t, because the sun shining through the trees was quite bright in several areas. I never experienced any problems due to the dark lenses.

I wasn’t sure what to expect time-wise. Last years winner (Chris Goddard) finished in about 1 hr 22 minutes. After seeing my total time elapsed after the first 7 miles, I was hoping to be able to crack 1 hr 30 minutes, but I kinda fell apart towards the end of the trail (I was exhausted!) and only managed 1hr 30 mins 50 secs. There are some very tight corners in the last few miles - in one I grabbed too much brake and almost slid out, and in another I slammed my shoulder into a tree. Overall, I was pleased with my result, and managed to place 8th overall out of about 33-35 competitors. Chris Goddard had the fastest time once again - this year with 1 hr 19 mins!!

Jeremy met his goal of beating his previous year’s time by 5 minutes. Last year he finished in 1 hr 39 mins, and this year it was about 1 hr 34 mins, which included at least 5 crashes. One of those he completely flew over the bars and was lying on his back off the trail somewhere…..so all in all, his time was very respectable.

Posted by Randy A

I had a good weekend of CX racing at the UCI KTR Double Cross in Springfield Twp this past weekend at the Springfield County Park.

Day 1:
The start of CX season is always very nervous. You have the mix of roadies coming off of a long road race season. Then you have some MTBers continuing there MTB season (possibly training for Iceman). CX racing is such a hard/suffering form of racing. And when you mix in the roadies and MTBers all together, you sometimes get a hectic mix.

As I did last year I chose to forgo a lot of mtb racing in the summer and focused on doing multi-sport (3 duathlons) in the summer. I had planned on doing a half marathon in VA Beach during Labor Day weekend, and had trained most of the summer, but it was hard to justify such a trip b/c money was tight. Good thing I had been regularly riding with the Dearborn Saddlemen for the past month. Their Wed night rides provided ample opportunity to “stretch out” the legs and lungs. Add to that the running I had done to prep for the (planned) half marathon, and I felt almost as ready as I could possibly be.

Forty (40) riders made it out for the Men’s “C” (CX Cat4) race and I started out of the second row. I got a pretty good start and got decent position into the first lap. From the whistle, I made it from second row up to about 7th or 8th. That first lap, my goal was to ride 90% to close to full-bore to make sure I could stay up near the front and avoid traffic and mishaps with slower/newer CX racers. I felt pretty good as I was able to ride, negotiate the barriers and run-ups, and manage to stay out within sight of the front group for that first lap. I know my HR was near (and over) max for the whole first lap, but I still felt like I had enough in me to keep myself in the middle of field.

By the start of lap two, I planned to back off the pace a little to make sure I could have enough in case I needed to sprint out someone on the last lap. I did just that and almost on cue, a good 3 or 4 riders past me within the first section up to the first barrier. I managed to bring up the pace and keep myself within sight of them and away from other racers coming up from the back.

On the third (and what turned out to be final) lap, I began feeling like I had burned too much. The back half of the course weaved through a trail in some trees at the Springfield County Park. Coming out of the trees, I got passed by a couple more riders. At the time I thought/felt I was riding within the top 20 and was worried that I might get passed by more riders. I was almost to the point where I felt blown up, but I kept pushing to try and keep my position. I had set a goal to be in the top 20. Last year I was an embarrassing 28th out of 33 finishers. Coming up the final run-up close to the finish, I ended up having to dismount because my biking legs were pretty much spent. Remounting I gave what I had left to keep in front of a small group of riders who were quickly approaching. Luckily that run-up was steep enough to keep them at bay and I had enough left to hold them off to the finish. At the line I ended up 13th (out of 40). Definitely made my goal!

Day 2:
The second race, I held on to hope that I would be able to better my finish. Last year on the second day, I was totally spent and ended up finishing behind a couple of the women’s “C” racers (who started 1 min after the men). I made sure to do some good recovery work after the first race this year, and was feeling pretty good at the start line for this second race. As usual, they switch the course around a little bit for the second day, and I was a little concerned because this made it so that there seemed to be more climbing.

Thirty six (36) riders took the line on day 2. Again I started out in the second row. At the whistle, again I made it from second row to about 8th or 9th. My game plan on this day, though, was to not to go out too hot and not leave enough for the rest of the race. I made it through the first lap feeling pretty good and only losing 1 spot to a Bissell rider. For the next 2 laps, I felt surprisingly good and pretty calm. I had a close, back-n-forth, race with a rider on lap 2. But I was able to shed him by lap 3. A few times I would hear riders coming from behind, but I managed to up the pace when I needed to and keep them at bay. On this day, I was able to ride the final steep run-up and finish pretty strong in 10th. My first ever top 10!

From a Fat Old Bastard’s perspective….

Well, the rain was in full effect for the Expert/Elite racers. Basically, it rained through their first 2 laps. They looked unhappy, but it didn’t seem to slow them down too much, as Mike Simonson (I believe) turned in a sub-30 minute first lap. Given the conditions, damn!

By the time the Sport/Beginners were up to race, the sun had emerged from behind the clouds, and the rain had been replaced by steam. The Steinbergs had arrived with the team tent, and everyone was settling in for some hot racing action. Bill Edgerton, not wishing to be labeled a sandbagger, had registered in his age age group rather than Clydesdale, and I did the same, realizing that a DFL finish was likely regardless.

Bill’s group left a minute before mine, so I never saw him again. When my group left, I quickly secured my position at the back of the pack, and waited for the first uphill to provide passing opportunities. Amazingly enough, I passed several guys going up the first hill!

Going through the RollerCoaster, i relied on my familiarity with the trail to keep me within striking distance of the lead pack. It eventually proved not to be helpful, as there was a bottleneck on an off-camber rocky climb that had several people off their bikes in the middle of the trail thereby forcing me off mine as well. This lost me several positions. Bastards!

Through the second half of the RollerCoaster, I was dogging another rider waiting for my opportunity, when someone behind me asked for a pass. The guy in front of me stopped to the side, so I made a break for it, and actually managed to put some distance between me and the guys following me. I later gave it back when we hit the 2-track. I think everybody racing that day passed me on the 2-track.

While going through the “Back Nine”. my seat pack clamp shattered and dropped it onto my back tire, held there by the velcro to the seatpost. Clearly this was a problem. After getting up to the top of the hill, I spent precious seconds (as if) figuring out an alternate attachment. A couple of kids and a young lady passed me. The young lady asked if I was OK.

Back on my bike, with the seat pack velcro’d to my top tube, I carried on. I eventually caught up to the polite young lady on the big hill leading up to the “WooHoo”, a nasty rutted and washed-out downhill leading to what is essentially a pile of gravel and a sharp left turn. Yet another ass-puckering experience.

The young lady and I traded places a couple of times on the way back to the start line - I would catch her on the uphills, and she would pass me on the level stuff.

As we approached the start line area, there was a young lady taking photos of the racers. I donned my best smile available, and gave her a “Miss America” wave. Entirely too smart-ass. Perhaps this is why I never see any pics of me on-line. That, or the photogs already packed up and left by the time I got to them.

I was very happy to see the Shues and others there to cheer me on to my second lap (there were even some ctof people there, but keep your mouth shut about that). I dropped off my wounded seat pack with Marty and set off to do better on my second lap. The girl I had been trading places with and I went through the lap sensor together and I tried to make a good show of accelerating past her. I hit the initial uphill and opened some more space between us.

I rode essentially alone through the RollerCoaster and down the 2-track on the way to the Pines. There I was caught again by the young lady and a very fast Sport racer who essentially cut me off at high speed with nary a sound. Asshole!. I tried to get ahead of her before the Pines, as I was afraid she would hold me up on the singletrack. (It turns out she had the same concerns about me, not that I would blame her.) The ride through the Pines was uneventful, but she once again passed me on the 2-track, dammit!

I once again caught up to her on the uphill, but was too late to pass at that point. I had just one more opportunity (read: uphill) to catch her before the “Back Nine”. As I approached on this uphill, I tried to hit the gas, but found there was nothing there. I knew then that I needed to go into survival mode. Passing was irrelevant. Getting passed was irrelevant. Making it to the finish line alive was my only goal.

I probably did the slowest lap ever of the “Back Nine”, though I really let go on the downhill sections. The uphills were a painful slog, even though I made them. I was unable to get all the way to the top of the WooHoo hill this time, though I came close. I tried not to use my brakes for the rest of the lap, and did OK on the downhills. Any slight positive grade was …problematic, however.

I finished the race in something north of 1:30, and was saved from a second consecutive DFL by a DNF. I’ll take it.

When I got back to the tent, I found Bill (and his friend Joe) already re-dressed and on their second beer. If Bill had registered in Clydesdale, he would have taken 1st by ~6 minutes. As it is, he took 6th, even with a crash. Damn kids.

As it turns out, the young lady said that I pushed her to her best lap of the race. If nothing else, I guess I am an effective goad.

Thanks to the Steinbergs for coming out and bringing the tent. Thanks to the Shues for the cheers. And thanks to the RBS guys for letting me hang out under their tent when it was raining (and the cookies).

I did two rides over Labor Day that I don’t normally get a chance to do: Holdridge and Mohican. On Saturday, I headed out to Holdridge by myself. I had plans to go to my brother’s house in Fenton for dinner - and Fenton is only about 10-15 minutes from Holdridge, so it was a perfect time to go for it. It may not be the greatest idea to ride there by oneself, but beggers can’t be choosers! I didn’t start riding until about 3pm, so it was quite hot - upper 80’s. I started with the West Loop, which is a fast, flowing loop of about 7 miles. This loop has 2 offshoots - the Tech Loop and the Lake Loop, both of which are slightly narrower and less fast, but still a lot of fun. The West Loop also includes the “Wall” a very steep hill that can be ridden either up or down. Personally I prefer “up” especially since there is a sharp turn at the bottom which could cause problems if you go too fast down. The conditions that day were perfect, and I managed to make the climb without undue difficulty - to the surprise of a couple of people sitting at the top of the hill who apparently hadn’t made the climb.

After doing the West Loop I headed over to the East Loop, aka Gruber’s Grinder. For those of you who have never ridden this trail……it got its name for a reason. This trail is very twisty, and doesn’t flow at all. You have to continually work - it is similar to the first couple of miles of Torn Shirt in Brighton where you scrub your speed off on every downhill, and start every uphill with no momentum. The main difference is that there are 15 or so miles of this! There are numerous sections where you can easily be caught unawares if your attention starts to wane…..at one point around mile 6 I was daydreaming and hit a rock on a slight downhill and started to go over the bars….until I shoulder checked a tree and re-righted myself. That snapped me back to reality very quickly, and I regained my respect for this trail. I skipped the “shortcut” at the 7 mile marker and continued on - shortly thereafter the trail became narrower and very overgrown - from fewer riders and apparently less trail maintenance that far out. I also skipped the shortcut at mile 10 - deciding to do the entire loop. The so called Orchard Loop (from about mile 10 thru mile 14) was the worst - extremely overgrown, with deadfall twigs and branches all over the trail, not to mention the stench of rotting apples from the abandoned apple orchard that the trail twists through. My arms were ripped to shreds by the wild berries/brambles growing all over the trail. Finally at around mile 14, the trail became groomed again, and I finished the ride without further incident. There is a race held out there every fall which I am considering doing this year.

On Labor Day, Jim Tomassoni and I headed down to Mohican State Park in central Ohio. Mohican is about a 3.5 hour drive from Wixom. After taking our time getting there, and stopping for lunch, we started riding around 1:30PM. Again it was pretty hot (mid-upper 80’s), but luckily Mohican is almost 100% tree covered. Jim had never been there before, so he was quite surprised by all of the climbing…..Ohio is NOT all flat! The first mile is a continuous gradual climb of about 200 vertical feet - nice to get those legs warmed up. Further in, there is a section where you turn almost 180 degrees, and then start riding UP! You’re riding along a ridge ling - to the left is nearly a sheer drop of over 100 feet, and to the right is a steep descent perhaps half that height. It’s not particularly scary though, since the ridge is nearly 20 feet wide, but it is an impressive sight. Not that you’re looking much to either side, because you’re concentrating on this seemingly neverending climb! Once you think you’re at the top, you realize that you’ve only hit a false flat, and have just reached the steepest portion of the climb!  From this point, the trail has a few more ups and downs, before a rapid descent down to river level at the halfway point of the trail. There is a scenic covered bridge that you have to cross the river on, and then you head back to the singletrack and a 350 foot vertical climb over the next mile. This climb tends to take its toll, but its very satisfying to reach the top. The trail crosses the road 2 more times and climbs some more before finally reaching it’s highest point, about 400 or so feet above the river. Although the trail trends downward from there, it gets rougher - with lots of roots, and then in the last few miles - lots of rocks! I would NOT recommend a rigid bike on this ride - in fact, even a hardtail would be fairly uncomfortable.  The trail never stops demanding…..even the last 5 miles still has some challenging climbs and steep descents to deal with.  You’re not finished working until the trail spits you out at the trailhead.  We finished the ride in a little over 3 hours - a good solid pace, but not trying to hurt ourselves.

Here is my GPS track of the ride:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6709531

Mohican is a great ride - it includes a little bit of everything,  and is well worth the drive. There is another trail - Mohican Wilderness, about a 10-15 minute drive away from Mohican State Park, which we did not do on this trip. That trail adds another 5-7 miles of riding, but has a VERY intense climb out of the parking lot (followed by a very impressive descent back down).

posted by Don Delagrange

As this trail is kind of our home trail, and Mike is the Asst. Trail Coordinator, there was a fantastic turnout of the green Trail’s-Edge jerseys this weekend for the Maybury race. This year the race was organized as a time trail format. The trail is very tight and twisty and doesn’t allow for a lot of passing, thus the time trial format. The race loop was about 8.7 miles long and incorporated some blacktop bike trails and hiking trails not normally open to bikes.  It was a hot and humid day for racing, and the lack of rain the past month made the trail especially dry and dusty. It would pay to know your way around the single track. Below are some comments from the team members who participated.

 Steve Steinberg - 1st Sport Men 45-49

At about 8AM I went for an easy pre-ride, mostly to familiarize myself with the added sections. This was helpful to all since there was a turn near the end of the course that was unmarked. With a 50/50 chance, I went the wrong way. I ran into Lee and he went out and marked the turn.
Then I spent 3 ½ hours baking in the hot sun as a course marshal, since I did not go off until 1:45PM.  About an hour before my start time I changed and started to warm up.  It was here that I noticed the sitting in the hot sun takes a lot of your energy away. It took we quite awhile to feel like I had my energy back.
I went off at 1:45 and had clear trail in front of me, since there was about a 7 minute gap prior to my start. So I was very surprised to pass a rider during my ride.  I pushed myself hard and tried to leave it all on the trail. I am glad I did not let up, since I ended up first in my class (Sport 45-49) but only 20 seconds in front of 2^nd place.  After looking at results, I am glad I am not in the 50+ yet. Those old dudes are fast. I would have finished about 4^th in the 50 – Death category.
All in all I had a great time and it was good to see such a great TE turnout both riding and volunteering.

Jon Heft - 3rd Expert Men 30-39

Preparing for the Maybury race, I was a little nervous because I hadn’t been riding the trail much this year…..and when I did get out to ride the trail, the loose/dusty conditions spooked me several times as I lost traction. The best thing I did was remove the Stans Crow tire from the rear wheel of my bike - although very light, it just doesn’t grip at all except in hardpack conditions. I regained a lot of my confidence with the Nanoraptor back on. It also helped immensely to be “pushed” around the trail the previous Monday by Paul and Josh - barking orders/advice to me while riding my rear wheel - I rode much harder than I otherwise would have, and realized that I could still do it safely.

I rode out there the following Wednesday, and then again the night before the race. I was really hoping for a little rain Friday night to firm up the ground - it definitely threatened it, but it never came. I was going to call it quits after 1 lap - I had done a solid effort of 40 minutes flat, and expected that I could slice another 2 minutes off that during the race. As I got back to the parking lot, I ran into 2 guys from Traverse City who came down for the race…..they didn’t know the trail (and wouldn’t have been able to find the whole course), so I gave them a tour - doing my second lap with them.

The day of the race was actually relaxing…..because the Experts started after the Beginners, I had plenty of time to sleep in, and still get ready - no rushing around. Even though it was hot and humid, I made the decision not to take a bottle or camelbak during the race - I was trying to hydrate before. While this lightened me up considerably, I was really wishing for some water in the 2nd half of the race! My tongue was literally stuck to the top of my mouth as I finished the race! Note to self, never go without water again!

I felt great during the race - I caught and passed my minute man first, and then a little later (around the halfway point of the race) I passed my 30-second man Mark Todd. I had been using him as a chase rabbit the whole race - I have been trying to beat him in a race (any race!) for the past couple of years, so it was a great feeling to pass him. Thereafter I didn’t have anyone in sight, so mentally I had to keep telling myself that Mark was going to take back the lead if I let up even a little bit.

I raced cleanly, passing one more guy in the grassy straightaway just before the finish chute. When I crossed the finish line and looked at my computer, I was shocked to see that I had actually shaved 4 minutes off my effort from the previous evening! I was thrilled, but when I saw how close I was to the top finishers, I couldn’t believe it! I finished 3rd (out of 13 or 14) in my Expert class age group, getting my first ever medal since I started racing in Expert. What a great day! (One of the 2 guys that I gave the tour to the previous evening was the first place finisher in my age group!!)

Alan Antonuk - 3rd Elite Men

I signed up for Elite to stay consistent with what I rode at Ruby XC. Unfortunately only two other Elite guys showed up: Robert Herriman and Bill Clikeman (both American Cycle and Fitness/Wolverine). I knew Robert Herriman had a rough start to his season and wasn’t completely on his game for this year so I may have had a chance to beat him in the TT, Bill was an unknown to me.

Having missed one TT start this year I made sure to roll to the starting gate on time, and got a great start. On the course I was doing great on the non-technical stuff, but when it came to the tight technical stuff I just was not having a fast race of it - an unfamiliar trail on an unfamiliar bike. I got passed by Herriman (my 30 second guy) at the first road section, and passed by Clikeman (my 1 minute guy) at the road crossing with the bench on it. After each pass I was able to hold on to their wheel for a while, but was unable to keep up once it got technical. I managed to keep rubber side down and finished 2:12 off of Clikeman’s time (who nipped Herriman by 4 seconds).

Good race otherwise.

Kristi Heuvers - 2nd Beginner Women 30 & Over

 Here is my story, short and sweet - “I felt like throwing up.”

Bob C. - 9th Beginner Men Clydesdale

I finished rubber-side-down, with all bones and organs intact.

Bill Edgerton - 1st Beginner Men Clydesdale

Bill fought a jammed up derailluer for most of the race and still finished first by over 2 minutes. Nice Job!

 Trail’s Edge Racing results summary

Alan Antonuk - 3rd Elite Men Open

Jon Heft - 3rd Expert Men 30-39

Davis Brockenshire - 2nd Expert Men 30-39 (time good for 2nd but missed start time)

Kristi Heuvers - 3rd Beginner Women 30+

Derek Gibbs - 4th Beginner Men 30-34

Bill Edgerton - 1st Beginner Men Clydesdale

Bob C. - 9th Beginner Men Clydesdale

Joshua Neider - 11th Expert Men 30-39

Aaron Mihalko - 12th Sport Men 30-34

Don Delagrange - 12th Sport Men 35-39

Jeff Oles - 14th Sport Men 35-39

Martin Ingman - 5th Sport Men 40-44

Steve Steinberg - 1st Sport Men 45-49

Lee Duhl - 12th Sport/Beginner Singlespeed

Marty Shue - 21st Sport/Beginner Singlespeed

Congratulation to everyone on a great effort and a great day.

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