Wilderness 101 - State College - July 26, 2008

Wolverine Sports Club/American Cycle & Fitness Elite Mountain Bike Team Race Report (July 26, 2008)

Wilderness 101 - State College, Pennsylvania - Start Line Weather: Partly Cloudy - 61 Degrees - Calm Winds

Christian Tanguy - Place: 4th Open Men – Time: 6:59:13"Right after the first climb, a group of 8 riders was leading. Just before aid station #2 (40miles), I lost contact to the group on a downhill. In an effort to get back to the group, I increased the tempo on the flat fire roads. After a long time chasing, I caught up with the remainder of the group, 3/4 up the next major climb. At the top it was Chris Eatough, Harlan Price, Chris Beck and myself. It is now downhill; I get gapped on the technical descent making me chase again on the flats and up the hills. By aid station #3 (60 miles), Chris Eatough took the lead and increased the speed; Chris Beck could not follow. Usual story, I get gapped in the downhill. I am currently in 4th place. By the end of the downhill, Chris Beck was back; only few seconds behind. Between aid station #4 (74 miles) and #5 (89 miles), I got a flat tire, allowing Chris Beck and Brandon Draugelis to roll by me. I still wonder how the tire punctured as I was riding a smooth fire road??? Anyway, now in 6th place, I did again what I was doing all day: chasing on the flats and up the hills and try to limit the time lose on the descent. After a while, I was back to Brandon as we rolled to aid station #5 . There is only one medium size climb until the finish. My plan was to pass Chris Beck before the hill, then build a time buffer before the trails goes down. It worked well, and there are now only few miles of flat trails/roads to the finish line. My lead on Chris Beck was probably minimum, so keeping the effort high was mandatory... both my legs cramped at the same time.... try to stretch but it was not helping. I finally spin very easy for a few seconds and the cramps went away. Resume pedaling hard.... finish line! Yeah 4th place! Awesome!"

Reported by: Robert Herriman

Ruby Campground XC - July 20, 2008

Wolverine Sports Club/American Cycle & FitnessElite Mountain Bike TeamRace Report (July 20, 2008)

Ruby Campground XC – Avoca, Michigan Start Line Weather: Light Rain - 70 Degrees - NW Winds at 5 mph

Christian Tanguy - Place: 1st Elite Men – Time: 2:13:37 "Once more, the trails were really muddy. The slippery conditions made it a challenge to stay upright. I took the lead half way thru lap 1. Then I tried to keep a constant lap time, but a fall and a pit stop (clean glasses) cost me some time on lap 3. Definitely not the conditions I prefer but it was fun."

Simon Bailey - Place: 10th Expert 30-39 Men – Time: 2:15:19 "Ruby made me realize I need to hone my MTB'ing skills. I stayed with the leaders for the first 1/2 lap until I hit the muddy sections.....then I hit the ground...again and again. Finally, I settled into a 'slow' rhythm and completed the race. Awesome training though!"

Cory Dubrish - Place: 2nd Expert 19-29 Men – Time: 2:28:23

Reported by: Robert Herriman

Boyne Marathon – Boyne - 07/12/08

Wolverine Sports Club/American Cycle & FitnessElite Mountain Bike Team Race

Report (07/12/08) Rider results and comments from last weekend's race... Boyne Marathon – Boyne Falls, Michigan Start Line Weather: Fair - 72 Degrees - WSW Winds at 11 mph

Robert Herriman - Place: 4th Elite Men – Time: 3:39:00"Boyne is arguably the best mt bike race venue Michigan has to offer. With it's steep climbs, no guarantee you will clean them, and the pay off of all those fast fun downhills. Wow! I was able to ride with the lead group for the first several miles, then I settled into my groove. I'm really glad the weatherman's "doom and gloom" forecast was all wrong.. It was a spectacular day!!!"

Tom Markley - Place: 4th Expert Men 40-49 – Time: 04:38:09"In the words of my buddy who convinced me to go… "I lost my Boyne Virginity"… After experiencing Boyne, I realized that this was my first official mountain bike race. Not to take anything away from the Iceman, but 42 miles with 95%, challenging single track… It took one full lap just to loosen my grip on the brake levers. Once I settled into the race (or in my case ride, because I rode to finish, big difference for those of you who rolled to the line to RACE) I felt good but kept it conservative. This type of race explains why the Mountain Bikers always bring so much power to the road. Great venue, great weather, with a lot of good people to interact with afterwards… Count me in for next year!"

Reported by: Robert Herriman

Waterford Training Race – 7-10-08

Gary’s (The race promoter) decision to delayed the start of the race 15 minutes due to a short rain shower was met with great approval by most of the 64 riders (45 “A”, 13 “B”, & 6 Women) Once the “A” race was underway, the pace was not all that fast as in weeks past, I think everyone wanted to ease into the race. This didn’t even last a whole lap before the attacks started. Also unlike weeks past, the first few breaks did not work, in fact, nothing got away for the first half hour. Then a group of 7 got off the front and built a 30 second lead over the field. The Wolverines were well represented in that group with Cory and Cruise. This group’s gap hovered at around 45 seconds for the next hour before a larger group of about 10 riders broke away from the pack in hot pursuit. This group containing Danny K. and Tim would eventually catch the lead group and drop a few to make a lead group of 14 riders. Danny sprinted for 3rd, Tim took 5th, with Cruise right on his heels in 6th and Cory held on for 10th. (Great ride by both of these riders to be in the break most of the day and still have a good finish). Meanwhile, back in the pack, John broke away with 5 laps to go and was joined by only Ray one lap later. These two were able to stay away to claim 15th for Ray and 16th for John. Simon and the new guy Ed finished in with the pack.

While we were playing around in the “A” race; Maia was busy dropping some of her competitors and out sprinting the rest to take the win in the women’s field on the first every ladies night at Waterford. Look out women of Michigan, Maia is back!

Michigan State Time Trial Championships – 6/29/08

Despite heavy rains the few days prior to the race, the course was reopened to its original route Sunday morning when it was determined to be safe and free of hazards. Now this is one of the Wolverines races, so some of the team decided to volunteer to help out at the race instead of racing, but of the few who did race, we had some great results. We now have a new State Champion in our stable. Ray posted a time of 57:55 to take home the gold in the Master’s 45+. This time would have been good enough to place him in 6th pace in the Cat. 1-2 field. Way to go “God Father”.

The "God Father" and his new bling

This is all of the Wolverine results I could find; I hope I have not missed anyone.

Cat 1-2
6th Brian Kozeliski
12th Cory Dubrish

Master 45+
1st Ray Dybowski
4th Tim Faas

Men Cat 3
7th Scott Kroske

Men Cat 4
4th Scott Fabijanski

Men Cat 5
7th Michael Gardynik
8th Douglas McKibbon

Cory and George (Our lead course marshal)

left to right: Alex, Tim, Robert, Ricardo, and Bill (The 4 in spandex rode there bikes down to the TT to help out)

A special thanks to all who helped out at the event to make it a success.

Rockford Criterium – 6/28/08

This is one of, if not the toughest crits in Michigan, featuring a nasty little hill and 2 very tight down hill turns that will challenge the best rides on a 7 turn 0.8 mile course. One rider went off the front in the first lap and then was joined by 7 other riders a few laps later to make up the winning break of 8. This group stayed away until the end with Graham Howard taking the victory. Meanwhile, Tim and Luke managed to make it into a 6 man chase group that managed to escape the Bissell controlled pack. Luke took second in the sprint for 10th overall and Tim held on for 13th.

Stony Creek Marathon - June 28th, 2008

Wolverine Sports Club/American Cycle & FitnessElite Mountain Bike TeamRace Report (June 28, 2008)Rider results and comments from last weekend's race...Stony Creek Marathon – Shelby Twp., MichiganStart Line Weather: Cloudy - 73 Degrees - SSW Winds at 12 mph

Robert Herriman - Place: 5th Elite Men – Time: 4:13:14"The trail was so muddy that a section of the course was closed off. I don't like slipping and sliding in the mud much, but I don't suppose anyone does. Still I get pretty nervous in the greasy conditions and ride safe to finish the race in one piece. At the end it was a bit of a shock that I wound up in the money."

Cruise Bogedin - Place: 9th Elite Men – Time: 4:41:22"With rain storms all week, stony was in pretty muddy shape. Two flats in my first lap set me back pretty far but I was determined to finish and I was very happy with the rest of my lap times."

Christian Tanguy - Elite Men – DNF"Due to the muddy conditions, the first lap was completed at a conservative pace. On the 2nd lap of 6, I accelerated and could distance the pursuers. I was able to increase the lead until the very end of lap 3, when I got a flat tire. No tools, no tubes,... I was not able to repair and continue. Nevertheless, I had a good time. Better luck at the next race. Congrats to Robert for a really good 5th place!"

Pat Russell - Place: 4th Expert/Elite SingleSpeed – Time: 3:02:50"I always look forward to riding in extreme conditions and I think this race qualified as extreme. I started at what I thought was a conservative pace but after two laps I knew otherwise. I quickly shifted into survival mode and talked myself into continuing. Two painful laps later I was surprised to see I met my goal of a top five finish."

Brian Kozeliski - Place: 1st Sport Men 35-39 – Time: 3:00:49"Wow. I was mentally exhausted after that race. My beginning technical skills and the muddy/sloppy conditions had me extremely focused on my bike handling. I opened up a big gap on the first lap and was able to hold everyone off despite being rather conservative on the remaining laps. I had fun, am happy with my result and the Gary Fisher HiFi is probably bummed I wasn't more aggressive."

Reported by: Robert Herriman