Sunday, August 16, 2009

QCW Team Time Trial


Well, I've been looking forward to this event for sometime now and had high hopes for a multiple Darkhorse team (A team, B team etc.) turn out. There was some serious arm twisting the night before at the team meeting (at the Ott Estate) but to no eval. We did have a committed group of four Ott, Hoffman, Dobson, and myself), as well as our newest memeber, Doug Polignano (AKA Dudehorse), who was going to make the trip with us, just to get some quality hang time.

So here's the low down: ten teams registered, most with tricked out TT bikes and helmet's. The new guy's on the block, Team Hungry represented "old school" with all four rocking their normal kits and road bikes (Nice!). On the warm-up, Hoffman called-up Doug from the minors, who stepped admirably in his place. The line up: Ott, Brevoort, Dobson, & Polignano (Tall guy/TT bike, short guy/road bike...).

All I can say for certain is that it hurt really bad! The heat added to the intensity of the event and I think all four us were on the rivet the whole time. We started out of the gate pretty fast and didn't let up too much. Half way in, I think our avg was around 27. I ate too many brats the night before and some of my pulls at the front were pretty sorry.

Chip & Dan came through big time and put in some serious pace setting at the front. Doug's debut was pretty impressive, and all four us stayed together almost to the very end. I say "almost" because, I think I might of had an out of body experience with about 2 miles to go. I was brought back to the world of the living, when Aslan, I mean Chip, started yelling at us to "go-go-go...1 mile left...do it for Narnia!" I was like, "What is he talking about, has this heat and that TT helmet cooked his brain?" Ha! I love it. Anyway, with the finish line in sight, I exploded into a million brett-peices and Chip pulled through with Ott and Dudehorse in tow. Way to finish strong boys!

Well, I had a blast and can't wait to improve on our time and do it again next year. Listed below are the results for the top 3 teams, which can also be seen at http://www.qcw.org/.

7HR Men's 1
Mike Abney
Greg Tombragel
Jim Wilson
Marty McGrory
22:27.0

Darkhorse Racing
Dan Ott
Brett Brevoort
Chip Dobson
Doug Polignano
23:10.0

Team Hungry
Mike Starr
Scott Pardi
Mike Chewning
Andrew Suchocki
23:36.0

Monday, August 3, 2009

Purattacking
















Instead of a long narrative, I'm opting for a twitter like blog...So, here it goes: Nick and I signed up for the 2/3's at Pur Tour. We were greated by mild temps, headwind on the down hill, bit of a tail on the backside and a headwind again at the finish. Lots of attacks but nothing gotta way for very long. I wish had more to offer Nick, who was committed to leading me out. We communicated well but I think he'd agree that we were just a little bit too far back at the start of the sprint. Enjoy the pics fella's: