In his own words:
One of the few Pro XC races I do (ok, maybe just 1/yr) is Greenbrier. This was my 4^th year doing it and I always seem to crash at least once and wind up placing well despite the crash. This year was no different. The week leading into the race I over-did it a bit (15 hrs) and was not feeling all that great during the warmup. I figured if I got top 10 and made some good money, then I would be happy.

Well, the gun went off and we all rolled into the single track, very slowly. Actually, it was so slow I rear ended my friend Zack and fell off my bike. Once off my bike, I attempted to jump back on, and fell off again (see, this is why I don’t do CX). Now being the last person in the pro field, the pressure left off and I started to get things rolling again. Well, then my power meter started crapping out on me, which was fine I guess even though it was working great the entire week. So after half a lap I finally caught up to the middle of the field and rode with Jeff Dickey, who was stopped and fixing his bike. He quickly got back rolling and we proceeded to start picking off riders during the day. We both kept a really good pace the entire day and know each other’s strengths from training and racing together a lot. It was very nice riding with Jeff throughout the day and really pushing each other. I was really impressed with his climbing throughout the day, which was really starting to wear on me. On the 3^rd lap I missed a switchback and nearly crashed, which Jeff tried to pass someone on the 30+ mph downhill and clipped a tree. On the 4^th lap I missed my feed bottle, and just figured I would keep riding anyways. It wound up not being a big deal thankfully since it was cool enough outside.

Finally on the 5^th and final lap, Jeff turns on the after burners and crushes up the first short climb. I was struggling to stay with him but it was worth it. We worked up the first real climb and caught up to the leader, Cameron. Jeff slowed down a bit to give Cameron some space since they are team mates, but I went around Jeff and got onto Camerons wheel. I followed him down the 30+ mph downhill and then went around him and attacked up the final climb. I knew I had to get some space between them before the final muddy section because I am always so slow through there. I put a few seconds on Jeff up that climb, but he caught me right before the muddy section and really laid down some good skills and big power. Once through there he had a few seconds on me and I sprinted to try to catch up, but no luck. I rolled in 2^nd 10 seconds behind Jeff. It was an awesome race and a great win for Jeff at such a big race. I was really glad to get 2^nd place in such a big race with some of the best pro mtb racers on the east coast.

Many thanks to:

Bike Doctor for the support

Potomac Velo Club for putting on such a great event for over 600+ racers throughout the day

Jan from Bike Kinetics for letting us all travel up to Greenbrier in the big green bus

Bayar for driving us there and back safely!

A BIG thank you to Patriot for coming out again this year to film the outstanding racing taking place on Sunday! Congratulations to Jason Meidhof of DC Velo for his Win.

Black Hills M123- 2013 from Patriot on Vimeo.

Please see the full results listed here:
2013 Race Results

Results will be available at USA Cycling and BikeReg shortly.

Thank you to all who came out to help make this MABRA season opener a success for yet another year. The park has enjoyed having us, so thank you to everybody for representing bike racing in general in a positive light. We hope to be back next year for Black Hills #4, in what perhaps can remain a staple in our local racing scene for years to come.

In his own words:

This past Sunday, 8 of the team’s finest headed out in search of some pain and gain.  The Tour of the Battenkill is only a few weeks away and a few riders wanted to have a very hard ride with constant rollers, some short steep climbs, and leg burning race pace efforts scattered throughout.  Team rider Jim Weinstein lives up in Frederick and has put together an array of fantastic routes—he was up to the challenge.

Refuel in Thurmont

The ride began at Bike Doctor Frederick–which is a fine central location to begin a Frederick Ride.  The route can be viewed at: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/181497978  and has a bit more elevation gain that the route suggests.  Many of the smaller endless rollers aren’t picked up by the Mapmyride route program.  The weather held up and the team roared off for the challenge of Catoctin Hollow Rd, race pace on Kelbaugh, and some hard sprints as they came home on the famous Walkersville Tuesday Night Worlds route which takes in the sprint finish at the old Walkersville RR course just for fun.  With a free lunch on the line coming from a Jim Weinstein bet—Nicholas Taylor powered on to victory and a turkey and brie sandwich later in the day.  The route is listed as 82 miles but the group decided that at 72, it was best to call it a day since we got a bit of a late start (but most were not complaining).

Although this ride does not do a lot of the big famous climbs like Hamburg, Coxy Brown, Shookstown, or Park Rd, it is truly a gorgeous route with minimal traffic, and a perfect prep route for Battenkill.  One of the best parts is that this ride starts and finished at the Bike Doctor Frederick store.  Brian, “The Man in Charge” at the shop was a great host and is always happy to help out riders using the large shop and parking area as a jumping off point.   They have recently expanded the shop and have a wide array of top end bikes, parts, and now offer custom fitting with their Guru fit system.  Give ‘em a call….and tell ‘em large marge sent ya!

Post ride hanging with Brian Wisowaty at the renovated Bike Doctor Frederick store

Many members of the team headed out to Lost River, WV, to enjoy a nice 3-day weekend at Raw Talent Ranch (aka The Barn). The weather in late winter around the Appalachian Mountains can be a bit unpredictable but the gamble paid off. Although temps even in the hollows and valleys never reached much above 30 degrees, the solitude and camaraderie of riding with new and old teammates always makes it a joy to be on the bike. A light, powdery snow carried by the howling winds across the mountain ridges certainly provided a beautiful backdrop and just reward after every climb.

Heading out for the big adventure on Saturday morning

As we all know, the silly word “Epic” gets thrown around quite often….but we have compiled a list of requirements that might help determine, if in fact, what we accomplished this weekend was indeed “EPIC”…..

You may have “epic” if….

1. Your Garmin upload show’s an average temperature for the entire ride of < 30 degrees 3 days in a row.

2. The water under your waterproof Garmin screen freezes, expands, and cracks the cover.

3. You spend more time cleaning your bike after the ride, than actually riding it (AND, ride time > 3 hours).

4. Your brake’s freeze (unless you have silly brakes on the bottom of your bike) requiring a treacherous descent–and you say, screw it, I’m going for it anyway…

5. You finish a ride with a 5 mile climb (in the hail and snow, on a dirt road, in the wilderness, far from anyone that can hear your screams)

6. You ride back down the climb to do it again because “you love it, you love it, you want more of it…” (Cordova)

7. You ride so fast up the last 5 mile climb and feel so good, you accidentally ride down the other side and don’t realize you were in fact at the top of the climb, and at the finish of your ride and essentially “Done for the day” until you get to the bottom of said climb—on the other side, forcing you to ride all the way back up (oh, and you need to have a smile on your face for this to qualify as Epic)….(Ian).

8. You willfully agree to ride down a 5 mile  treacherous descent with a starting temp a hair shy of 20 degrees because, well, it does add 5 miles onto your ride without having to pedal at all….

9. You are so tired you wake up the next morning naked with nothing but your helmet and cycling shoes on in a camper van with nothing but your beard and some organic vegetables to keep you company…. (Ben)

10. A teammate talks a gang of you to ride a gravel climb to get home but the gravel is NO longer gravel. It’s mud!

And that my friends…..is how you can define epic….

Is there something on my brake?

We uploaded some photos of the weekend over at our Facebook page. Thanks again to Jay and Audrey for the wonderful hospitality! We already want to come back!

Tanner went and braved the Wisconsin cold to compete in Nationals!  Here is a recap of his experience in his own words:

After a very successful local CX season that saw an upgrade to Cat 2, I decided Nationals would be a neat thing to do.  I arrived in Madison, WI on Thursday after an all night drive.  At 7:30 AM I pre-rode the course with another local Jr (Sam Lear).  We knew it would be tough. The local temp at that time  was 18 degrees and there was already 2 feet of snow on the ground.  The course was frozen solid.  By our race day, Friday, the temps had risen into the high 30′s, but the course was much worse. There was a base layer of frozen ground with ruts in the terrain.  That layer was covered with a sloshy mud that would hide the ruts below, so you couldn’t tell what you were riding on.  This made it very tough to navigate.  You were continually being thrown off your line by some hidden rut taking you in another direction.

My race was at 1:30 in the afternoon and started fast.  I had a start position of 25th.  I got a great start and was able to move up into the top ten positions by the time we hit the pit section.  There was so much mud being thrown around that my glasses were completely useless by mid lap and I had to remove them.  My legs felt great and I was in the top ten, but crashed on a downhill section.  I slid about 20 feet and by the time I collected my bike and got going again a number of riders had passed me.  This falling would continue over the three laps.  I would chase as hard as I could, but there was a speed limit on this course.  If you exceeded it, you crashed. So by the time the first lap was over, you were about in the position you would finish in, IF you were able to stay up and finish.

By the last lap I was riding hard against another rider who I thought I’d end up sprinting against at the finish.  He ended up crashing on the second half of the lap and I was able to ride in solo.  I ended up 25th, which was my National ranking going into the race.

Our local weather in Sept, Oct and Nov (CX season) was dry.  This meant I didn’t get to ride or race in the conditions that we had in Wisconsin.  Next year I’ll have to travel around and race in areas that have really bad weather to prepare for Nationals in Bolder, CO. If I had done that this year I think I would have been in the top ten.

It was a great experience for me and I hope I’m able to go to road nationals in Wisconsin this year.  The city was really nice and bike friendly.  I met some great people there and it would be cool to go back and race again.

Team Bike Doctor 2013

Team Bike Doctor ushered in the new year with a team ride on Saturday, January 5, 2013. The guys set out from Glen Echo in Potomac, MD at 8:30 for a 60 mile ride out towards Sugarloaf and back. The majority of the team was able to make the ride, and we kept the pace social for a bit before a few guys dropped the hammer.

Heading out River Rd

It was great to catch up as some of us haven’t seen each other since the road season came to an end, while others have been hanging out and racing right through cyclocross season. These kind of rides are great for team bonding and shaking out the winter cob webs on some excellent back country farm roads through rural MD.

Quick refuel at Dickerson Mart

The entire team is looking forward to the 2013 racing season, and we plan on sharpening our swords for battle all winter long. Hurry up Black Hills!

Ed Sander CX brought a close to the end of a long cross season that saw racing continuing late into December. The weather was reasonably warm for the time of year with the wet conditions concentrated around the lilly ponds. The course was challenging as usual, with punishing off-cambers on the front half followed by technical, slippery mud by the ponds. Fortunately, the course was no longer underwater from the storms earlier this year!

Despite a long road and cross season, Nicholas Taylor showed up to continue the fight for placing in the final elite series race of the season. After falling back from the leaders in the first half, he was able to work his way back up to a podium position and took 5th in the race. Despite losing points to a commanding win by Jake Sitler, he was able to help further secure his points position in the series. As a result, he came in 3rd in the MABRA Super 8 Elite Series―a great way to close out 2012!

Tanner Browne again opted to take on the punishment of the elite race, and fought through to the end despite a few spills and on-the-course adversity. Even though he did not challenge the last few races of the 15-18yr Junior series, his five wins throughout the season secured him a 2nd place spot atop the 15-18 junior Series Podium. Congrats!

In closing out 2012, the team would like to thank the promoters of the MABRA Super 8 CX series and the Sportif Cross Cup, without whom we would have a very boring fall waiting for next year’s road season!

The team would also like to thank their sponsors for their generous support, without whom they wouldn’t be able to promote and enjoy the sport that they love. Please check out their great products and services: Bike Doctor, DigiSource Discovery Solutions, Elite Endurance Training Systems, Cannondale and CycleOps Power.