Massanutten Yee Ha Downhill Race

Congratulations to Tim Hope of Team Flying Dog's Downhill Team -  He placed 9th in Sport Men 40+ at the Massanutten Yee Ha Downhill Race!!

Greenbrier Challenge Mountain Bike Race

Congratulations to all the members of Team Flying Dog who raced the 9th Annual Potomac Velo Club's Greenbrier Challenge:

    Parker Montour - 2nd in Jr Female 11-12

    Diana Juliano - 2nd in Cat 2 Female 40-49
    Jason Robey - 10th in Cat 3 Male 30-39
    Nathan Wigley - 12th in Cat 2 Male 30-34
    Brian Weisgerber - 15th in Cat 2 Male 35-39
    Herb Wright - 16th in Cat 2 Male 35-39
    Charles Montour - 18th in Cat 2 Male 35-39
    Jay Aument - 20th in Cat 2 Male 35-39
   August Merker - 21st in Cat 2 Male 35-39

Jay Aument

Herb Wright

Jason Robey

August Merker

Gleneagles Off-Road Duathlon

By Andie Lesondak:

This past Saturday I raced my first Duathlon at Harris Lake County Park.  The race was put on through Bushwack Adventure Racing, so there was also a 6 hr Adventure Race that took place after the Duathlon was finished.  There were 30 racers in the Duathlon, which including myself, consisted of 4 solo women racers.  It really was a fun race!  And just as a precursor, this race was quite laid back, so no timing chips or bike racks in the transition area.  Therefore, all of my times (as you read on) are approximated between their watch & my watch.  The trail run was first, which was approximately 4.5-5 miles long.  Since my knees & IT bands have been acting up with running again, my run training was minimal prior to the race.  However, I managed to find my rhythm & even enjoy the run.  (Trail running definitely takes me back to my roots.)   Anywho, I ended up completing the run in about 41 minutes.  Next, it was on to the mountain bike - ah, finally in my comfort zone.  The ride was a 7 mile loop of a trail I know quite well.  A guy passed me only a few miles into the ride.  At first I was just going to hang back & do my own thing.  But as I saw him start to ride off, for some reason I got it in my head that he passed me on a cheap bike.  And then I thought, no way can I let this guy pass me on his cheap rig when I have my newly blinged-out Trek (thanks to my hubby, Herb, Jason & the guys at the Bike Doctor in Frederick, MD).  So.. use the force I did.. and pedal faster I did!  I managed to catch back up to him & stay on his wheel the rest of the way.  As I pushed to keep up with him, he’d try to pull away, which only pushed me more.  We seemed to just fly through the course.  Before I knew it we were finished, and popping out of the woods towards the finish line.  I decided to give it a final effort & started sprinting.  To my amazement he started sprinting as well, but I managed to squeak by him at the end.  I finished with an approximate bike time of 37:30-38 minutes, and an average speed of 11.3 mph.  So, with my transition split, I ended up finishing the race in 1 hour & 20 mins, which put me in 1st Place for Solo Women, and in 4th place overall.  WOHOO!!  (On a side note, the very nice biker who’s wheel I tried to stay on, turned out to be riding a carbon, lefty, 29er Cannondale.  Haha - not such a cheap rig after all.)  The mind is a tricky thing, and really quite amazing how when you set the mind to it, you can do anything you want!  A big thank you to the Bushwack crew for organizing & hosting such a fun event & thanks to the amazing & fun racers out on the course!!  :)

Big Bear Lake Mountain Bike Classic

By Brad Walker:

The Big Bear Classic in Bruceton Mills, WV was my first race racing for Team Flying Dog and also my first race in the expert single speed category. To be honest, the expert category scares the hell out of me since I have only been riding for less than a year, regardless of what people think of my riding ability. So I make the 2 hour trek out to Big Bear for the first time, the weather is calling for a nice day as I leave my home in Hagerstown. On my way West and less than thirty minutes out, the weather drastically changes and I’m pulling up to the ski resort in 30 degree weather calling for a couple inches of snow. This weather typically wouldn’t bother me but I came with just my cycling shorts and fingerless gloves. To heck with it I think to myself and get my race plate and do a once over the bike. Being my first single speed race I line up at the very back of the group due to not knowing how the pace would be for the more competitive riders. I thought for sure the race director would stage all the experts instead of one big mass start but of course, that’s exactly what he did, all the racers heading towards a bottleneck. As I look back now, I should have pushed my way to the front and started with a chance to start strong cause the bottleneck really screwed my race up starting in the back. I start at the back because at this point in my riding expeirence I have confidence issues sometimes in races and have yet to aquire the killer instict. The race starts, and already Im beyond freezing and cant feel my fingers, so I suck it up and start picking off riders in the singlespeed and geared classes, I continue to reel in the racers who were smart enough to start in the front. This continues and I can see Montana Miller who is a very strong single speeder about 4 places ahead of me and from what I can see is leading the single speed class. This gives me a boost of confidence that maybe I can hang with some of the faster riders and of course that confidence is stoped dead in its tracks by a broken chain while musceling over some rocks. On a 10 speed geared chain, a broken chain is no big deal, 5 or so minutes and im back racing, being that I am on a single speed it creates more of a dilemma. Not only do I have to fix the chain but I have to loosen and adjust the sliders, not fun. Fix my chain, make the adjustment and I’m back on the bike feeling good again only to have my rear tire flatten 5 miles down the trail while over aggressively decending a tricky rocky section. I have yet to make the switch to tubeless and inside my head I am really starting to scream at myself, so I make the repairs and start racing again. At this point, Im in the very back of the race I would guess and I put the hammer down with about 5 miles to go telling myself I will not finish last. I was able to reel in a few of the single speeders and a handfull of the geared riders which is always nice considering they have gears! Finish the race in 11^th place in the single speed class and alittle over 20 minutes off the winner, no chain or tire issues…who knows! This was a great learning expierence for me as it showed that a few little adjustments can make a huge difference either good or bad in a race, especially when racing against very able riders. So next time, I will start in the front, tires will be tubeless, and I will attempt to have some belief that I belong.

Holiday Brewery Tour

For the holiday season our title sponsor, Flying Dog Brewery, invited the team to taste their awesome beers and take a tour of the brewery. We had a great evening with Jim, Kelly, Erin, and the rest of the Brewery staff.

A huge thanks to the Flying Dog Ales for a great evening and for their continued support!

Team members raise Money for First Decents

My wife, Leanna, is a 3-year breast cancer survivor. Last year she had the opportunity to attend a First Decents kayaking clinic in Veil, Colorado. She got to meet, play, and share stories with other survivors without the whole week being about cancer.  Leanna’s week in Colorado was one of the singe greatest weeks of her life.  We are very grateful for the First Decents program. 

You can read about her experience in her own words on her blog:

http://whereisleanna.tumblr.com/post/898720562/first-descents-i-just-got-back-from-one-of-the

First Desents offers cancer survivors experiences designed to enable them to adventure beyond their diagnosis, defy their cancer, reclaim their lives, and connect with others doing the same.  And they offer this program to participants for free!  They raise all their money through grants and donations. 

To help First Decents continue to offer these amazing clinics, Mike and I competed in the 13th Annual Shenandoah Mountain 100 on Sunday Sept. 4th, 2011. We were able to collect $2300 in donations for First Decents, in honor of my wife. 

http://firstdescents.org/

Thanks to everyone who donated.

-Herb

SM100 recap from Mike:

Ugh...the Shenandoah Mountain 100

It was a great weekend for the SM100 Mountain Bike race just outside of Harrisburg, VA.  The race began at 6am and I was ready to go.  I felt confident that my strict training regime of riding multiple loops on my local trails with approx. 100 feet of elevation gain to get in 30-40 miles at a time had prepared me for what lay ahead (oh, and plenty of pasta, pizza and beer, this has to be how the pros do it).  Boy was I wrong! 

The ride started out great.  The first climb wasn’t too bad, just felt like I needed to get warmed up.  The second climb felt a little better.  These climbs were on fire road, so plenty of space to spread out and pass folks.  Then the first single track portion began.  Being towards the back of the starting grid meant traffic at the single track trail head…lots of traffic.  Essentially it was stop get off and walk as that is what everyone in front of us was doing.  This was a bummer as this section of trail looked very cool.  It was D.C. worthy stop and go for the next few miles before the herd began to thin out.  Roll on! 

The first "real" aid station came at around 36 miles.  I felt great, grabbed some food and water and back on the bike.  Mile 50 came before I knew it.  I was starting to feel some pain at this point.  Cramps began to creep in, so I kept downing the water and popped a few sport legs to see if I could get things straightened out.  I fought cramps over the next 10 miles or so.  Slowly they began to work themselves out.  But now I began fighting fatigue.  The next few aid stations were a bit of a blur.  I remember them, but don’t really remember eating or taking on too much water....mistake (imagine that), but overall, I still felt confident I could complete this beast of a ride. 

Between the second to last aid station, I met up with the only other single speeder left out there (Steve Bourque).  We decided to team up and pull each other to the end.  I’m really glad we did as he kept me motivated to keep mashing along.  After a killer descent to the last aid station, I was feeling recharged and ready to knock this thing out.  Since Steve was on a full rigid ride, I made it to the checkpoint a few minutes ahead.  Once he rolled in, fueled up and got the lights working, we were on our way to the finish. 

The last miles to the finish were the worst.  We were so close but so far away and the climbing just wouldn’t let up.  Needless to say there was plenty of walking involved as my legs were toast and just couldn’t push the pedals for more than a few revolutions at a time.  So we just settled in and B.S.’d our way to the end.  "The end you say", Yes, I did make it to the end, albeit a dismal 15 hours later, finishing pretty much last in the Single Speed Category.  But hey, I did finish it!! 

I was so out of it at the end, I didn’t even thank my newly made friend Steve for the help pulling me along to the finish (if any of you know Steve, let me know so I can touch base with him).  The SM100 is by far the hardest physical challenge I have ever taken on.  After the race, I swore off such craziness saying “never again, that was just stupid”.  But now, a few weeks later, I find myself strategizing for next year.  What’s wrong with me?   

Post Script,

The other members of Team Flying Dog put in a great showing, looking strong until unfortunate events took them out of the race.  First being team captain, Herb, who arrived at an un-stocked aid station towards the end with no food or water for him.  Being that he had a few more miles to go, he had to pull out.  No gas…no go.  Second being Jay who ran into a similar situation at the last aid station.  Mad props to both for sticking it out as long as they possibly could.  Maybe next year right?  Wait…there I go again……