An Instant Ago

(Are we at this Meadow again?! l-r, Woodhouse, Starkey, Lori, Pete, Sally, Liz, McMahon, Steph, Gilmer and Robert gather at foot of Grandfather Mountain in NC.)

Excerpts from editorial published in Lenoir News Topic last week:
View the entire article.

Virginia Beach-based Tripower Cycling Club and friends join the Bridge to Bridge 100-mile peloton to take on Grandfather each year. The Beach pack has been 10, 12 sometimes 16 riders strong over the past 9 years. We have all but patented the “I live in the flats” excuse given to cyclists we meet during this mountain century and take pride in telling fellow riders that many parts of the Hampton Roads region are even below sea level.
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Jim, John and Gene finished in the top 50 in 2002. The following year, Katrina and Richard both ascended Grandfather after having bailed early the year before. Last year, 62-year-old Pete completed the ride. It was his first mountain ride. Ever. And his daughter Sally was the first Hampton Roads woman to ever break a 6-hour finish time.

“Just being in that group of all the athletes is an ego trip. It’s such a great feeling being on the start line with the team and other superb athletes from all over the country,” Woodhouse said.
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The pre-ride dinner yarns at Lenoir Sagebrush were as colorful as the mass start pageantry. This year, we badgered Robert for mysteriously retiring from cycling for six months immediately following last year’s B2B and for scheduling his upcoming wedding around this year’s event. We lied a bit to first timers Mike and Gilmer about the last two miles up Grandfather. We joked about strapping our timing chips onto Gilmer’s front handlebars since he was the clear favorite for reaching the top first. We talked about food intake strategy and hydration.

“The game faces were on and the drinkers didn’t drink,” Sally Tempest said.
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Woodhouse's 12-year B2B history all came together at mile 60 when the serious climbing started. Every year, he starts up the Route 181 ascent only to discover the “entire year has passed by in an instant, and here I am doing it again. It never seems like it’s been a year. It feels like I was just there an instant ago.”
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Bill Gilmer and Gene Rutledge placed in the top 50 finishers and Sally Tempest was the third woman across the line. Six others in our group completed the ride, and mechanicals forced two to abandon at the 80-mile mark.

Cycling Blogs Pimp the Sponsor

(right, Jason's pre-race blog entry gives bike sponsor Salsa a "fungus" field test rather than a sterile magazine field test.)

Manufacturers, businesses and nonprofits have long supported competitive professional and amateur cycling by offering equipment and clothing, giving cash, and providing race support products ranging from food items to team cars. Ours is an expensive sport with sponsors often playing a vital role to those who race road, mountain, cyclocross, track, alley cat, triathlon, and bicycle motocross. In turn, cyclists do a variety of things to promote those who support them, incorporating sponsor products into cycling webblogs most recently.

Manufacturers have recognized blogging as an authentic platform for exposing their products. In Industry Giants Press Blogs into Service, Cannondale Bicycle Corporation webmaster Janet Maurice said, “Blogging allows us to communicate to our community in an authentic, real, passionate way,” after the bike company entered blog sphere in March 2005.

But what exactly constitutes “authentic” language in the landscape of cycling blogs and how does that in turn help promote sponsors? To answer this question, I needed to sort through the overwhelming number of cycling blogs to find a few for case studies.

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No way

How to descend on a fixed-gear mountain bike Photo ©: Bill McCarrick/www.buffalo2step.com

I have made it a point to personally congratulate those I know who finished Shenandoah 100. That race is mind and body numbing to say the least. Beneline, Gilmer, Starkey, Mary and Kev are superhuman.

But my brain is really having a hard time comprehending a few who finished the same race under extraordinary circumstances. There is a whole class of guys—riding FIXED gears—who finished. That’s right, some of the most technical dirt and rock descents in the country on fixed gears. Never mind getting up those evil climbs. I really would not have believed it possible until I saw in the results that 5 guys finished in this new category, all of them under 11:30. Who are these men?

Sue George wrote a race recap that posted on cyclingnews.com.