Appalachia Visited Road Race

The Appalachia Visited Road Race and WV State Championship did not begin as well as I had planned. I had been looking forward to this race all season. The course is great-- 60 miles of nice roads with long climbs, and twisty fast downhills. It has been my favorite road race of JR's since winning it last year as a Cat 5.

Racing Advice: Don't miss the start.

Usually I warm up too early for a race and find that my heart rate has dropped to resting levels by the time the field of riders starts. So, this race I decided to warm up a little later, roll up to the start and begin racing with an elevated heart rate. However, as I rolled into the start I realized by JR's glance back at me that I had just missed it.

I quickly began chasing the field of Cat 4/5, but never got any closer to the front pack than occasionally spotting the wheel car on long straight stretches of road. I managed to pick up a few other racers for some company along the way.

So, with one objective out of reach, I kept my racing efforts with the hope of gaining enough points in the race to move myself from an overall series 17th place into the top 10 of the ABRA Cat 4/5 class. After chasing most of the race, I crossed the finish about as worn out as I have ever been to finish just well enough to pick up the points I needed to finish 10th in the series...preseason goal: met.

ABRA's 2011 Appalachian Road Race Series has been fun. A big thanks goes out to JR and Gina for their hard work organizing the events, Dynamic Physical Therapy for their support, PathfinderWV for the bike and its maintenance, Camelbak for keeping us hydrated, Swifwick for warm arms and comfy feet, and all our other sponsors and volunteers who have helped provide the team with a great road race season.

Appalachia Visited Road Race

Appalachia Visited Road Race was a scenic course throughout some of the best country/river side in the entire state of West Virginia (but could we really expect any less from JR Petsko)! I was looking forward to this race the entire season. I knew with the distance and amount of climbing, this course would give me a great opportunity to end the ABRA road racing series on a high note! I pre-rode the course because I have not ridden the roads in the area much. I was really pumped up after my pre-ride and couldn’t wait for Saturday. During the race, I felt strong and kept up with my eating and water intake. It was great weather. Up the last climb, I felt the work of the last week in my legs but powered through. After getting up the last climb, it was downhill to the finish. While descents are being a part of my riding that I wish to improve upon, I was able to maneuver some tight hair-pin turns and was happy with my finish. I got 3rd place in the race, good for a silver medal in the state as well!

I ended up winning the ABRA road racing Women Category 4 series (I upgraded for the last 2 races of the series) and 3rd place overall for Category 1,2,3 Women series. As I reflect on the season, I am happy with the progress of my racing. From started to cycle just last July to my first road race in May of this year, I have grown as a racer in my mentality and power on the bike. Thanks to the entire Dynamic Physical Therapy Team for giving me this opportunity and creating a family environment with your immense support. As always, thanks to our sponsors this year! We couldn’t have been as successful without you. I am ready for cyclocross!!!

Post by Nicole D.

Stonewall Jackson Triathlon

So I'm taking a little different approach to this blog post: it's about a triathlon and not a cycling race! Yes, yes. I realize this is a "cycling" team. But JR told me I could! Anyway, just this past weekend I had the pleasure of doing the Stonewall Jackson Triathlon at Stonewall Resort. Overall, Setup Events (which is based in the Carolinas) runs an excellent competition and I've never been let down by their organization. The event was sort of a mutant of a sprint distance and an international distance with a 1000 meter swim, 26 mile bike and 4 mile run. I'm a fan of longer events but I won't turn down a nice triathlon just because it's shorter. Nonetheless, the venue was very beautiful and is probably the best triathlon we have in West Virginia.

I felt a little rushed all morning prior to the race and barely managed to make the 8:00 AM start time for the first wave. Men under 39 would go out first. My swim, which was largely a straight out and back course, would take 14:36. While there was a little rough contact during the swim, I managed to drop several people after the turnaround point, which is good for me because I'm a non-swimmer. I ended up having the 5th fastest swim of the day, which was positive for me in that short of a distance.

My first transition was slow at 1:23 because I was being clumsy with my equipment but once out on the bike I always start to feel a little more comfortable. Initially my girlfriend informed me that I was 90 seconds behind the leader, which I thought was favorable. Almost immediately I began to ride up a gradual and longer climb, making the early transition to cycling a little tougher. I passed two people in the first mile. After that though, I didn't see a single competitor until I was returning at the end of the rolling bike loop. Typically, in large races of 2000-3000 people I'll pass athletes from the start to the finish of the bike ride so to be alone for the entire ride is a little frustrating and makes one question if they are being successful. Ultimately, my ride time would be 1:11:31, for the 4th fastest bike split.

My second transition went much better at 29 seconds. I knew I would have to take the run out hard to have any success. The first mile was somewhere under 6 minutes but didn't feel great. I saw race leader Thomas Wood with a sizable lead prior to the turnaround and realized his gap was to large make up in a such a short run. I caught Andrew Cochran just after the turnaround. My run time would be 23:42, for the 2nd fastest run time and a 2nd overall finish in 1:51:39. Next month I'll be at Ironman Augusta 70.3, which I'm looking forward to because I had a PR for that distance there in 2010.

2011 Appalachia Visited / WV Road Race Championship

This past weekend was the series finale for the 2011 ABRA Road Series, as well as the West Virginia Road Rac Championship. I lined up with Todd in the 3-4 race, which was started with the 1-2-3 field. There were 20 in my field, as well as 12 1-2-3's. To start out, the pace was average, with the usual Iron City solo attack from mile 0. At about mile 5 2 1-2-3's rolled off the front, which caused a few in my race to attempt to bridge so I went with them. We got right up to the 1-2-3's and started working together real nicely. We soon were out of sight of the main field and kept a fast tempo up the first gradual climb, down the short, steep decent and up the first steep climb of the day. Somewhere in the middle of this fast, 7-man break Jacob Y from Iron City and I pondered what we were doing in this move but kept with it. A group of 3 riders came up to us about 2-miles from the crest of the hill, which upped te pace a little more. Another few riders made it across near the top, too. We rolled over the top of the highest point in the race, having dropped 2 riders from our move and sped down the decent. Once we got to the flat section, we were all back together in our lead group and ratcheted-up the speed once again. We rolled along the flat section into the feed zone and had gained about 5 more riders but kept pushing the pace, knowing that the decisive moves would come on the final climb of the day. As the climb started, Matt Phillips, AKA Michael Rasmussen Jr. Took a flyer and instantly opened a gap. The field gradually picked up the pace and it was game on! I was able to hang on for the first mile but then lost the wheel of the rider in front of me. The gap to the next 3 riders stayed at about 15 seconds for the next 10 minutes, but then started to widen as they kept their form and I lost mine. Knowing I was in the red zone, I tried to ride my own tempo up the rest of the climb so I could hammer the decent to the finish. From this point on, I rode solo, not seeing another racer until the finish. I love the final decent back to town, with its many sharp turns, followed by steep straightaways. I ended up ahead of the series winner, but not far enough to surpass him. I finished 2nd in the state, as well as in the series overall, despite finishing outside the points in 2 races and missing a third all-together! In the end, it was a good race for me - I was active and attentive all day, but just didn't have the legs to stay with the lead group on the final climb. Next up is the state time trial race in September, back in beautiful Rowlesburg, WV.

Thanks for reading,

-Ben

An Ultra Good Time!

Well, I just found this blog in the depths of my Dropbox. Guess I forgot to post right after the race but better late than never! Happy reading.


After fairing well at the Whiteface 100K in Lake Placid earlier in the summer and pulling off a top ten finish, I decided to see if my legs were, in fact, build for the endurance racing scene. So, on August 6th I took an early morning trip up to Big Bear Camplands to take part in the fun, daylong event that is the Big Bear Ultra. The Ultra is a 50 mile mountain bike race but, unlike Whiteface, it is entirely in the woods on twisty, fast singletrack with only maybe a mile total of fire road. Basically, it is two laps that makes use of every trail Big Bear has to offer. Never having done a trail based endurance event, I was a little nervous considering I am not the strongest technical rider. However, I was hoping my peak summer fitness combined with my moderate handling skills would be enough to get me through.
So after a way too early 5 AM breakfast and a 6:30 AM departure, it was off to Big Bear for a long day of fun. I absolutely hate getting up that early to eat but I tend to benefit from a little extra digestion time so its always worth the lost hour of sleep. The hour drive from my parents’ house in Fairmont where I had been the night before only allowed the anticipation and excitement to build even more and by the time I stepped out of the car in Bruceton Mills I was full of energy and ready to hit the trail.
The start lap sent us on a prologue down through the cracked rock trail (pretty sure thats the name). I was less than happy with this considering it is super technical and I have never made it through with less than at least one goof up. I figured that, being 50 miles, at least I would have plenty of time to catch up after this section. As we dropping down into the trail however, I found myself sitting around 3rd or 4th wheel. Being up front, I knew the pressure was on the pay attention and keep the pace as to not cause a disconnect in the group and subsequent pile ups. We were definitely going way out of my comfort zone but I was handling it fairly well. All of the sudden, Montana Miller made some type of uncharacteristic, silly mistake and went down right in front of me. We were not even 5 miles in and people were already dropping like flies! Luckily, I was able to unclip a foot and scooter bike around him but it totally killed my flow. Sure enough, I made it another 100 yards and, like clock work, went over the bars. No damage done, except to my pride, but it really sucked because all of the crashing was letting people get further off the front of the group. After recovering my bottles from the ground and taking some heckling from teammate Gunnar Shogren, I hopped back on my bike and started back down the trail. Luckily, I was close to the end of the trail section so my chances of biting the dust again were lessened. As we climbed out of the valley that the cracked rock trail laid in, I found myself slightly further back in the field sitting around 10th. Normally, I would be worried about being this far back but, with 50 miles still ahead of me, I was not too worried about taking back most of those spots.
The following 6 or so miles of trail proved to be fairly difficult and I found myself hopping off the bike several times to run a rock garden or squeeze through a tight section. However, I did still manage to move myself up in the field during this time and worked into 5th place. Finally, I popped out of the singletrack and onto the long fire road climb that lead back out of the valley we had descended into. Per my usual game plan, I found my favorite gear and started spinning myself up the climb. As I rounded one of the large sweeping turns in the climb I noticed Michael Mihalic up ahead of me. With my legs feeling super fresh, I started to reel him in. After about 15 minutes or so I had pulled myself up to his wheels. After riding alone all morning it was nice to be in a group, be it only a duo, and have someone to chat with. We cruised along and took turns setting a modest pace for the rest of lap one. Near the end of the lap, we even caught back up to Gunnar and were able to all three ride together.
Around what I would guess was 11:00 AM or so we arrived back at the staging area to begin our second lap. After grabbing some fresh bottles and food from my dad (Thanks dad!) I got ready to roll out for lap two. The Shogren-Latocha-Mihalic trio managed to pick up a 4th man on the way out of the staging area as we were joined by Montana Miller who had just gotten into the feed zone right before us. The four of us rolled out and were having a real blast riding together, chatting, and listen to Gunnar heckle Montana who was doing the pace setting. It wasn’t long however until our happy group began to fall apart. At about 20 minutes into lap 2 Mihalic flatted and had to pull off the group. Then, not even 10 minutes later, Gunnar popped his chain off and had to stop to repair it leaving just Montana and myself to work together. Realizing that I was now in 3rd overall and 2nd in my category, I decided to let Montana set the pace and not take and dumb chances. At that point I was not sure if I could hold Montana off for the remainder of the lap. As we came to the next gravel section however, I saw it as a good chance to use my gears to my advantage and took off. I established a good gap before entering the woods again but, still feeling good, I decided to just stay on the gear and see what unfolded. I couldn’t believe how awesome I felt at the point and sort of just wanted to see how long this groove I was feeling would last.
Around mile 30 or so I got a time split from a volunteer of about 3.5 minutes. Still feeling great, I decided to see if I could reel back in Tim Carson who had been off the front alone for most of the day. I figured with no one to relay his gap to him, he would most likely have trouble making sure he held a fast enough pace to stay away. I started to ramp it up at this point and was sort of impressed with myself and how well I was handling the terrain. I had decided at the beginning of the week to take a break from the road bike to get ready for the Ultra. So instead if my usual regimen of hill repeats, sprint workouts, and intervals around town, I spent 12 or so hours of solid time on my mountain bike riding Cooper’s Rock and the like. The time spent on the trails was now paying dividends in the way I was able to speedily get through the rough terrain.
At the next aid station I stopped to get a bottle filled and grab a gel. The volunteer there had been keeping accurate splits and had a time of 2:13 up to Tim. He told me I still had 13 miles left which I figured was more than enough to close down the gap. Not wasting any more time, I clipped back in and blasted down the trail. I was still being amazed at the lack of fatigue in my legs and continued to push myself faster than I generally do.
As I passed through the final aid station, I knew I only had about 5 miles to go. At that point, my hopes of catching Tim were diminishing. To my surprise as a rounded the next turn, Tim was right ahead of me and he was eating a PB&J. Two things went through my head at that point. 1st, what should I do strategically? 2nd, why is Tim eating a sandwich with 15 minutes left in the race? The second though I let go and figured I could ask him personally later. I snuck up on his wheel and stayed there for a minute or so before he noticed me. As soon as he peaked over his shoulder and saw me, it was on. Tim ramped the pace up and started crushing it down the trail. I was having no problem staying with him but was getting a little out of my comfort zone on the more technical stuff. Rather than play it safe and back off a little I decided to just stay on the gas and hold his wheel at all cost. As we crossed the last open section before the final technical trail section, I realized I could most likely take him in a sprint as I was all over him and could tell he was really hurting. We plowed into the final section and, rather than slowing down, Tim just held the speed. We were going 20+ mph through some twisty, moderately technical double track and I was in way over my head. I though about trying to pull through and slow things down but the speed was just too high. However, as we railed it toward the finish, I was thinking of how awesome it was that I was actually holding this speed in the woods. I had never ridden this fast before and was really impressed with myself. Little did I know, I should have been paying more attention to the trail instead of daydreaming. As we entered the last half-mile of trail, we came to a small, easily crossable ditch. Normally, I am used to coming up the trail and hitting the ditch as 8-12 mph. Now I was preparing the gap it at 20+ mph. I launched off of the approach side perfectly. Unfortunately, my landing was less than ideal. My front tire landed slightly before my rear on a wet rock. With that, the tire shot out front under me and I was in the dirt. I instantly knew that my hopes of winning were gone. We were too close to the finish for me to get back up and try to sprint Tim down never mind the fact that my hip felt like someone had just taken a baseball bat to it. I slowly got up, gathered my glasses and gear that had ejected onto the trail, and headed towards the finish. Still taking 2nd, I can’t complain but I was most upset that I had the win in my grips and lost it over a silly mistake. Oh well though, that’s bike racin’! Tim knew my weakness and capitalized on it perfectly. Fitness wise, I have to say I felt awesome. I have to throw a big thank you out to coach Rob Acciavatti for all of his coaching this season. Without him, there is no way I would be where I am in terms of fitness this year. He was able to tap the unknown potential in my legs and I owe him big time for that one! Also, of course a big thanks my dad for getting up way too early to go up to Big Bear just to stand around and make sure everything went well for me. After doing two endurance events this season, I have to say I think I am just more built for the longer events. My engine doesn’t seem to get running until about and hour in but, when it finally quits back firing, it can run for a long time.

Evolution of a cycling jersey

by Betsy (w/ some help from Gunnar).

It arrives pristine and neatly folded in a hermetically sealed bag, a bag that we save and use throughout the season, because we’re strange like that. The jersey’s colors pop out and the contrast between the bright white and royal blue is startling. "This time", I vow, "my jersey is going to stay nice." The first time I wear it, it still has fold marks, smells fresh, and I wear it with pride. It makes me feel fast and I am happy to represent our sponsors with such a fine piece of apparel. "Dynamic Physical Therapy" screams from the white bubble with sharp tones and crisp font.

After the first few washings, I snatch it out of the laundry basket and carefully hang it in the closet so it stays unwrinkled and ready to go at a moment’s notice. Then, races like the DK200, Blackwater, Black Bear occur, with hours-worth of sweat, dust, dirt, grime, bog water, snot, maybe even a little blood worming their way into the threads of the jersey. Suddenly, it comes out of the wash looking a little grimey, not so crisp, not smelling quite so freshly laundered. When it comes time to pack up for another race, I have to dig around to find it… "Honey, have you seen my jersey?" becomes an oft-repeated inquiry in the Shogren house.
As the mountain bike season wraps up, spots abound on the not-so-bright whitish bubble, I can see where I left gum in the pocket, and where I scuffed the royal blue hitting a tree. The whole jersey has acquired a slightly gray pallor to it and certain smells emit from it, despite repeated soakings.

Some things don’t change, though; I still feel fast when I put it on and I still represent our sponsors with pride. This jersey, I realize, was not meant to stay nice.

Our Swiftwick socks also live a rough live, probably worse in some ways, but being as most of ours aren't white, they come through "looking" a bit better time after time...

Soak, soak, soak. Week in, week out.

Here our are dirty-jersey race results as of late-
July
   24 Blackwater- Betsy 1st, Gunnar 1st Vet (1st SS and 4th overall)
   31 Little Beaver- Betsy 1st, Gunnar 1st Vet (1st SS and 2nd overall)
August
   06 Big Bear Ultra- Betsy 1st, Gunnar 2nd SS (4th overall)
   14 Black Bear WV States- Betsy 1st, Gunnar 1st Vet (2nd overall!, 1st SS)

Some photos from the latest Dirty-Jersy Race, Black Bear WV State Championship where we both won!

Dark, scary, and dirty at Black Bear.

All's well that ends well and dirty.

Smile and the grit feels better.

ABRA Crit Series, these are The Breaks

By Gunnar.
Photos courtesy of Mike Briggs and Fred Jordan.

Crits are fun. Crits are fast. Crits used to be the mainstay of USCF racing around this Tri-State area and road races were the more difficult ones to find.
Now it seems that road races are more the "norm," and although I do like me some good road racing, I sure do enjoy racing Crits too.
Scroll down far enough and you'll find what was the ABRA Crit Schedule

Though I can sprint well enough, I'd much rather whittle the odds down a bit more in my favor. Why contend w/ 35 guys when 5 is much more mangeable? Course now you do get to choose from your excuses when there are more in the group, i.e. more things can go wrong if you're a bucket of bolts racer, but since I'm more into winning and placing than excuses, I'll try hard to get up the road w/ a few others whenever I get the chance. And w/ this season it has been always!

Start of the WVU Crit, too many, let's get rid of some!

Mountaineer Classic Crit, April 9

Smallish field, mostly the Pittsburgher fellows. W/ the start gun Bob Gottlieb is off and hammering, and I'm close by him, even though he's in the 50+ class. Steve Svoboda is always a good one to be w/ and then there's Motown local Marc Glass who likes to give it a go.
And w/in a few laps that just how it is, the 4 of us working over the rest of the field and then lapping them for good measure. Some try to hang on when we come rolling by, but to no avail.
Close to the end the tactics start but doesn't seem like our group is going to let anyone get away, so we all know that it's gonna come down to the 3rd and 4th corners. The slightly downhill into the narrow stretch of the 3rd and then the slightly-uphill that leads to the curb-coming-up-quick 4th. And so it is, Bob really pins the 3rd, aces the 4th and I can't quite get around him at the end. Good enough for the class win, but I'd still rather beat him.

More like it!

Yeah it's the race w/ the younger kids, but it sure is a nice shot.

South Connellsville Criterium, April 16

Ah the start of the rainy season!
Neat course, more of a short Circuit Race, but we'll call it a Crit anyway. Some neat features: a shallow climb, sweeping turn, fast downhill directly into a painted crosswalk ahd steepish little climb followed by a gently rolling section, a prerequiste 90 degree turn and on to the finishing straight.
Wet and windy, oh boy.
Not really sure what happened in this race. Don't know if the wind and rain just had everyone not wanting to go hard, or whether things just "went my way." Whatever it was, the gang of usual suspects starts off going hard up the shallow climb, but then doesn't after a bit, a little hesitant on that downhill turn into the steepy thing and w/in a few laps I find that I've gotten away from the field and am just rolling away. "Well this is probably okay, so I'll just give it the old college try and wait for someone to come up to me," but no one does.
Maybe it was something in the air, or the oats I ate, or whatever, but though I had no real intentions of doing a solo move, there I am. Commit or regret. So I keep on burying my head and spinning my little legs and try to maintain the speed up the shallow climb, roll into that downhill corner as best I can and try to carry some speed and then keep it going up and over the steep thing. And it worked. Poof, I won!

The Gordon's Fisherman prepares to race!

Too tired to look up, but very pleased w/ the solo effort and win.

Happy older fellows up on the podium.

As I side note, I also did the 1/2/3 race and they approached the course *much* differently. They'd just roll up the shallow climb, but *really* pin it up the steep thing and across the top. Boy did it get strung out across the top there. I rode fine, didn't have much in the legs for the sprint and finished 9th.

Steel City Showdown, April 17

Next day, up in the 'Burgh. No rain, but it is cold and windy. And the big boys from the area are here too as they are throwing the $$ at this race. And it really is a neat course, dahntawn Pixxburg, over two bridges and close to da stadium. And the place is full of vendors and what-not. What a time!
Did I mention that it was a large field and there were all sorts of fast young 40+ers?
The race is off and Freddy Fu is hammering. The field is getting strung out and you can just tell that things are going start popping, so I'm near the front, ready for "the move." One seems likely, doesn't materialize, but then the second one comes, Joe Ruggery (Freddie Fu) and Andy Clark (Panther Trucking?) light it up out of the 2nd corner and up over the bridge. "Oh man, this is it!" and I jump and chase up to them, which takes about 2/3 of a lap. These guys are going *hard* and sure enough we are clear of the rest of the field just like that. But I am struggling from my effort to get there and my general "not as fast as them" feeling. But I pull through and do my work. 4 or 5 laps of that and I can tell that it's just not going to happen for me, try as I might. So off the back I come. Ahh... that's feel much better! Amazing what a little rest does for you. But now I'm in no man's land, but still no pack in sight, so I auger in and do what I can. Another solo, but not for the win, but for 3rd, and that's gonna be okay w/ me if I can pull it off. Lap after excuriating lap, I try to use the same gears for each section, try to stay on top of the gear, try and get close to the bridge for a little wind-relief, anything and everything might just make the difference.
Not soon enough, but soon enough, the race is over, and I have done it. 3rd in that race was really all I could have asked for.
Whew.

Long sleeves, knickers and knee warmers for Joe, Andy, and myself.

Hammerin' across on of the bridges, before I did the reverse breakaway from Joe and Andy.

Pro Bikes Criterium Championship, July 30

Ahh, the lovely Aliquippa Industrial Park course. It's been run clockwise and counter-clockwise, it's had the start/finish on one side and the other. Still a decent physcially challenging course. Not a particularly technical course as most of the corners are plenty wide, but it does have a wee little uphill and then it is usually windy there as well, so on one side or the other you really have the opportunity to fly!
Decent field, some that weren't at the others, but are showing up now, mainly Frankie Ross (Sette Nova) and Jason Zimmerman (Freddy Fu). Frankie is always one to watch as he likes breaks almost as much as me, and w/ his teammate Ray Russell in the race too, but 50+, there will certainly be some action from them. Jason usually doesn't care if he's in a break or field sprint, he's just there to win, and he can.
And off we go!
Roll around, string things out, then bring them back together. Try a few little moves, but the right move just hasn't "happened," will the right group of folks get up the road? It's just not looking like it.
Then old Jeff Guy goes out on a flyer, comes at a decent time, I let him get up the road some, then bridge up. The prior times I did this the rest of the field came along too, but for whatever reason this time they didn't. So pin it we do!
All of a sudden we've got a pretty decent gap, but there are still 6 or so laps of the 1+ mile course to go. Jeff's doing what he can, I can't afford to just drop him, but have to be mindful that he's close to being popped.
5, 4, 3, 2, now we can see that there are 2 riders starting to really whittle at our lead. How much time are they making up, how much time are we losing? Crunch time but I've not got a whole lot left. What I have is out there.
With 1/2 a lap to go we're caught. Poopie pants, but not surprising. It's Frankie and Jason.
Jeff realizes that he's the leadout fellow and so w/ him at the front the rest of us line up and start strategizing.
Frankie jumps first into the 4th corner, I am NOT on him, crap, but I'm trying to hold my own on the long lonely straight to the finish, but alas Jason comes zipping by me, and that's it.

Trying hard to make it happen.

"Come on Jeff, I think we're gonna make it!"

Still was in a fine break that "almost" really made it. But we didn't get caught by the rest of the field, and it was still a good solid race and a nice end to the series.

Happy Boys on the podium.

Yay, I win the 40+ Crit Series with 2 wins and 2 3rds.
ABRA 2011 Crit Standings

Nice jersey, happy boy, and... they shouldn't have given me the champagne before I got to the podium...

My new technique, spraying the podium and photogs before getting on the podium.

Sure was a fine and fun season, and I for one really hope that it happens again, the opportunity to race is always strong w/ this one..

More happiness w/ Jim Yankush, winner of the 50+ Crit series and Jeff.