June 2013

June brought it all to Wooden Wheels Racing…cross-country mountain, endurance mountain, ultra-cross and triathlon races…and our racers were ready. These June races easily could be the most challenging races for the season. First up, Alex Frigon and Fedrico Pozzi headed up – in direction and altitude – to the Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, PA for the Bear Creek Challenge. This course never fails to disappoint…it’s called a Challenge for a reason. As you’d expect for a mountain resort, lots ‘o rocks, steep climbs, an incredibly challenging rocky set of downhill switchbacks and a white knuckled downhill – this course is not for the meek. Our duo had awesome races – Alex stood on the podium in 2nd and Fedrico, our newest racer, pulled in 16th in the sport class. Just finishing that course is an accomplishment!

Way to go Alex!

The second weekend brought the perennial favorite, the Andrew Mein’s Excellent Adventure at Granogue - a 12-hour race in Greenville, Delaware. This race is dedicated to the memory of Andrew Mein who was a founder of the Wooden Wheels Mountain bike team and a leader in the cycling community. Andrew was struck by a car and killed in 1998 while commuting home from work on his bike. The premise for this race is pretty simple – how many laps can you do in 12-hours (solo, solo single-speed, duo or trio). To make it extra fun, the race doesn’t start until 10am, so the last several laps are at night! The course, on the private DuPont estate, has it all: rocks, logs, switch-backs, creek-crossings, climbs. Will Neide had an awesome race, completing in the most challenging class – solo single speed – and finished 2nd!! That is punishment! John Mester also gets a tough-guy award for competing in the solo geared class finishing 10th. Ricardo Gomez competed with a team friend to finish 5th in the duo class; and Jeff Meyer teamed up with two others to take 11th in the trios. Big props to our team junior racer, Matera Nefferdorf, who came in 2nd in her first mountain bike kids’ race. There definitely are more podiums in her future.

Matera ready for her first race

Ricardo keeping revved up between laps

Will taking a short break on his way to taking 2nd in SS solo class!

Next up was The Stoopid 50 Mile Race in Rothrock State Forest just outside of State College, PA. The course is a great combination of forest roads and trails, with a 30/70 mix of road to trail, covering most of the trails between Penn Roosevelt and Greenwood Furnace State Park, in the gem of Rothrock forest, in the Coopers Gap area. Race times are 4 – 9 hours. Andrew Webster carried the WWR flag solo and finished a solid 75th. 

Continuing the theme of exceptionally tough June races, Rob DiSibio took up the challenge and headed to the Hilly Billy Roubaix in Morgantown, WV. This race, #3 in the American Ultra-Cross series, covers 7,500 feet of climbing in 74 miles of fire roads, jeep trails and roads. With temperatures in the mid-90s and exceptionally humid weather, this race took every ounce of effort – and water – from each racer. Rob had a solid finish of 25th out of 93 in his class. His vow for it being a one-and-done race lasted less than 24 hours…he’s already planning next year’s strategy.

The perfect finishing prize: a moonshine jar

As Rob was sweating it out in the hills of West Virginey, some racers headed to the Guys’ Bicycles Neshaminy Classic cross-country race in Langhorne, PA. Each 6-mile lap is full of off-camber roots, logs, bridges and rocks. The biggest factor of this race is always the dampness. The trees provide a canopy over the completely forested course, making the obstacles even more challenging – especially with this year’s record rainfall. Jenny Gomez battled it out to get her first podium in the beginner class standing proudly in 3rd place – way to go! After a series of mechanicals ending his previous two races early, Ricardo Gomez fought through this race’s mechanicals and pulled in a 4th in the Clydesdale class. For Andrew Webster it came down to a sprint finish, but was beat out by one second to take home 4th in the Cat 1 men’s class. Dennis Dischler succumbed to the slippery, twist track and took a tough wreck…opting to save himself and his bike for another day.

Ready to go - race side

Jenny's first podium!

Opting to take on more than just cycling, Mags Crilley competed in the St. Andrew’s Sprint Triathlon in Middletown, DE. The course consisted of 1/4 mile swim, 16 mile bike and a 5k run. Mags had a stellar day competing finishing 1st in her age group and was the 6th overall female.

Ryan Ashcroft donned the tri kit to take on the Independence Triathlon at Lake Nockamixon in Quakertown, PA. This sprint race consists of a 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike and 2 mile run. Despite the hot conditions, Ryan pulled out a solid 107th out of 442 overall and 19 out of 43 in his age group. Way to go Ryan!!

Our dynamic duo of Ryan Ashcroft and Mike Bria opted to compete in the Islandman Triathlon in Avalon, NJ. Who doesn’t like to fight off jellyfish and run with sand in their shoes??? This is a popular race, bringing out the top Sprint Triathlon racers in the Mid-Atlantic region for the 1/4 mile ocean swim, 12 mile bike, 5K beach run. Despite the ugly weather at the start, the sun came out and our racers had outstanding finishes in this tough race: Ryan finished 151 and Mike 206 out of 363. What a great way to finish out the month.

Team Doritoz - closing out the month with two great finishes!

We’d like to thank our sponsors for another month of outstanding support. Our PowerBar nutrition is in our bags, in our kit pockets, sprinkled in our water bottles and at our race tents. The Gels, Performance and Harvest Bars and Recovery Bars keep us going at all our races. Our gear sponsors, Cannondale and Tifosi have kept us competitive with top of the line gear. Of course, our Dogfish Head beers have been critical in our post-race celebrations.

Another month in the record books…the training and racing continues as we storm through our season!