June 2012

This month brought a full calendar of mountain bike racing. First up was the perennial favorite the Bike Line Spring XC @ Fair Hill, in Fair Hill, MD. Each lap is approximately 7.5 miles of 75% singletrack with many fast flat to slightly rolling sections with several short climbs and an open sprint finish. Known as the fastest course in the MASS series, it is clearly the most popular cross country race bringing 610 racers this year – making passing on this tight course a real challenge. WWR was out in full force with 15 racers in all Categories. Our Cat 1/Pro racers Chris Edmonds finished 5th and Chris Denny 22nd out of 42 in the class. Other WWR Cat 1 racers also had outstanding finishes: Brendan Reilly 11th (26), Jeff Meyer 22nd (26), Lauri Webber 4th (9) and Heather Heinrich 6th (9). Fighting it out in very large Sport/Cat 2 classes were: Andrew Webster 4th (30), James Ambagis 14th (16), Jason Temple 14th (30), Mike Bria 53rd (57), Tim Fowley 28th (76), and Brian Urion 65th (76). Our Cat 3/Beginner women showed in full force: Liz Jones 6th (17), Kim Webber 12th (17) and Kirsten Wegner 8th (8). The outstanding performance gave WWR 3rd place in the Large Team Category! Another great race, bbq (with plenty of ice cold DogFish) and placing in the books. Next up was the re-tooled Andrew Mein’s Excellent Adventure at the private Granogue DuPont estate. This race is dedicated to Andrew Mein, a member of the Wooden Wheels mountain bike team, an ambassador to the sport of cycling, and a friend to all. Andrew was struck by a car in 1998 while commuting to his home after work. The course is a MASS series favorite for its exclusivity - the grounds only open to riding for this race -

and for its very technical trails full of rocks, roots, creek crossings, switchbacks and the infamous looonnnggg Koppenburg climb, of course always in the beating sun. This year the promoters, Velo Amis, decided to shake things up and rather than the traditional cross-country race, they put on multiple events to challenge every type of rider…and everyone’s light battery life.

Friday night was a Time Trial; WWR had racers on the first and second place women’s TT teams, Lauri Webber and Nancy Thompson DiSibio; and Heather Heinrich took 3rd in the solo TT class. Saturday’s race was a 12-hour bonanza! The toughest of the tough competed in the solo category…yes, 12 hours on your mountain bike on an unforgiving course.

For WWR, that was Will Neide who stood at 2nd place (7) on the podium in the single speed class (the 15 minute mid-race nap really paid off!!) and Eric Nefferdorf who took 6th (19) in the geared solo class. The team category proved tough as well – trying to balance the off-bike time between resting, staying warm and getting nutrition. The dynamic Duo Team of Chris Edmonds and Brendan Reilly rocked the podium at 2nd (7)! WWR participated in three different trio teams including racers Dennis Dischler, Jeff Meyer, Nancy Thompson DiSibio, Brian Urion and John Zerheusen – who finished in 4th, 6th and 10th places. The Stoopid 50 Marathon race, a 50 mile mountain bike race in Rothrock State Forest near State College PA, was next up on the calendar. This single loop course is a mix of forest roads and tight technical single track with a lot of climbing – obviating its Stoopid name. Chris Edmonds, again proving his mettle, finished 2nd out of 160 racers in the Men’s Open class – his 5th top-5 performance this year! He’s proven that there may be some logic in using your mountain bike on road training rides! Andrew Webster, Brendan Reilly and Dennis Dischler also pulled in great times finishing 39th, 52nd and 90th in the Men’s Open class, respectively. Heather Heinrich rolled her way to 12th (20) in the women’s field. Last up in June was the Guys Neshaminy Classic cross-country mountain bike race in Neshaminy, PA. Deceptively challenging, Neshaminy has a way of beating a biker up. The course, nestled behind Neshaminy High School, never seems to dry up; making the roots and rocks feel like riding ice. The Mexican Bowtie downhill rocky switchback never fails to be a challenge too. WWR women racers, Heather Heinrich and Trish Reilly represented in Cat 1 and finished 3rd and 9th. Way to finish out the month of great WWR finishes!