Sunday, June 21, 2009

Strong showing of MOB at Tour De Kale

Mock Orange Bikes had great repersentation for the 10th annual Tour De Kale. This event has grown over the past 10years to the best organized ride / race in the south east. This due to the efforts of Chris Skeen and the entire Denton Community. There is no better support from parking to reg. to traffic control and food afterwards.
We had over 15 riders this year to include Daryl Rains, Kelly Holems, Rich Melencio, Rick Lee, Steven Brumbley, Ken Gulledge, Paul and Julie Paisant, Teresa Dawson, Frank Mullins, Jerry Rebo, the return of Matt Mason, my wife Nancy and myself took on the hottest day of the year with close to 400 other riders.
At the start I looked around to see who is here challenging for the Summitt prize money and it is the whos who of cycling. Scotty Weiss came all the way from Minn. just for this event as well as Mark Heckman, National Crit champion, Chris Harkey and company as well Ryan Jenkins, John Patterson, Charlie Brown and a host of the Carolina Masters team. There were aslo about a dozen rider from the under 23 junior national team that had just gotten back from racing over in Belgium. To say the least it would be a fast day and inturn a hard, hot day on the bike.
With the added KOM $50.00 cash prize 13miles in we were assured that things were going to very interesting very quickly. Once out of the Farm Park a small break that contained John Patterson, Scotty Weiss, Mark Heckman and three others were up the road. Mark Heckman won the KOM and would go on to win the Summit Challenge as well. As the rest of the field is approaching the KOM I see Daryl moving up on the Left with Sara Tussy in tow. Sara followed Heckman's lead and did the double as well, taking the KOM and the Summitt Challenge prize.
With a break of 8-10 up the road there were several attempts to bring them back with a fine effort of Steven Brumbley and Rich Melencio. The break was with in15sec but with Teams represented in the break controling the situation it was not to be.
Coming into Denton Chris Harkey put in a real hard effort with his Teammate Darren Fuller following whose wheel I was able to latch onto. Harkey then put in a strong pull to seperate us from the remaining field as well as did almost all the work to the gate at the neighborhood. That was enough of a gap to keep the three of us away to the Summitt. This would be as Harkey called the "Old man train" as Chris would get 1st in the 40-49 age group, I finished 2nd and Darren Fuller finished 3rd. In the way of awards Teresa Dawson was 3rd while Julie Paisant was 1st in their respective age groups. All in all a very hot day but a very good day for MOB. Looking forward to a report of the State Games and to next weekend as we host the Tanglewood trianing ride from the Shop. Should be fun. Rodney

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

MOB WOMEN PUT THE PRESSURE ON in Salisbury

The M.O.B. Women were on fire this weekend in Salisbury. Rip took on the 30+ Women's race with no teammates on Saturday. She won the race in the sprint finish. Way to go Rip! That is not the end of it. On Sunday we had Rip, Sirena, Julie, Theresa and Angela in the Cat 4 race. We had the numbers but not much experience working as a team. With the help of Rodney, we planned a strategy for the race. Rip was going to attack early on in the first lap to see who would bite. Repeated attacks by MOB and counter attacks ensued. The pace rarely let up. We never let anyone get comfortable. The pack splintered down to the last 14 women that barreled towards the final sprint. Once again Rip won in the sprint with Sirena in 3rd. Honestly, that was the most fun I have had racing this year....well, except for ALL of Cyclocross! I thought we worked really well as a team. Congratulations Rip! Our new NC State Road Race Champ (x2).

Monday, June 15, 2009

NC RR / 50+ Old Men

Well, it was nice to be out racing again after 3 weeks off the bike due to crashing out in Fayetteville NC in the NC Crits. Definately hot at 1pm but a beautiful day. The 50+ team of Doc,Chip,Ralph and I(multiple personalities) settled in the back and conversed with Randy and Kerry Sheilds. An early solo break went off for a full lap and was up 55seconds. 6-7 of us worked to bring it back successfully. At the start of the final lap, there was an aggressive pass to nowhere on the left side of the bridge/85overpass that resulted in a fullspeed run into the median and resulting bodies everywhere.......I was inches from quitting racing on the road forever. Cleaned out my bibs and moved on though. Settled in and felt generally good. Positioned myself exactly where I wanted on the line about 3 back making the left turn to the finish and waited for the road to open at 200 meters as per pre-race instructions. One problem.........the field opened at 600 meters and the lemings were passing by before I decided to jump out and follow. No panic, sat in on a few wheels and sprinted at planned point to pass 7-8 people and finished 5th. Given lack of riding, I was very pleased and especially the way the field opened pre-maturely. Finally learning some and using knowledge. Those that won......never worked and broke early......still on the learning curve.
Got back and saw Rip win the womens race....... a great day of riding.

NC Road Race / Cat 4

MOB had good representation for the Cat 4 NC Road Race in Salisbury. Our race was three laps of the expanded RR loop, for a total of 50 miles. Lining up at the start we had Ken Craven, Jerry Rebo, Rick Lee, Michael Tennyson, Matt Chambers and myself. The whole team rode strong and was a constant presence at the front end of the big field. Even though we eventually lost Jerry and Matt to mechanicals, there was no shortage of MOB jerseys near the front.

We found ourselves caught out in a confusing neutralized section with only 5 or 6 miles to go and missed out on a key move when a group of 3 got away. Knowing one of the guys in the break, I knew it could stick and I hoped we wouldn't end up racing for 4th place. Some hard chasing followed. We succeeded in bringing the break back, but not until there was less than a mile to go, which didn't leave any time to recover before the sprint got cranked up.

Nevertheless we had solid team results. I haven't see official results, but I'm pretty sure I got 5th with Rick a couple spots behind in the top 10, with Ken and Michael in the top 20.

It was a great day on the bike and a solid team showing to boot. Everyone rode strong.

And congrats to Rip on her amazing weekend!

S. Brumley