Short track number four is in the books

This past Sunday was the winter short track series race number four and boy was it one to remember. The team had tremendous support with 27 people from the team showing up to race. This past weekend contained excitement with our new racers, heartbreak in the form of a chain, and as always, anguish as we all slobbered on our top tubes. This week the team with the largest amount of participants gained a valuable 20 extra points tacked on and it was double points for the individual categories.

To kick things off for the day we had a sizable beginner women's field totaling at 24 participants, three of them being our very own. Kayla Lingerfelt and Marcy Hubble were going to be competing in their first race alongside Katie Wilson who is in the points lead for the class. Kayla took a spill before the race even started on her warm up lap. At least she got it out of her system before the race started. Kayla soldiered on to get 18th place in her first race and Marcy did the awesome job of grabbing 14th. Katie, of no surprise to anyone, won her class again and further solidified her lead over the other women in the class.

The biggest group of the day was yet again the beginner men 40+ . The velo 16 BSG squad had an outstanding number of participants coming in at eight total for the one race. Broken hearts and torn taint meat soon befell the team as Terry Rudisill launched off the line and proceeded to pedal his chain right off his bike. Luckily he is alright and did not come out worse than he did. As his chain proceeded to break into different pieces his crotchel area took the majority of the impact as he collided with his top tube. With Terry out of the race and out of the points the team could only hope that we would win the extra 20 points for bringing the most people to the race. The Staminator won again but he did not have such a large margin of victory on this particular day as he had a competitor hot on his heels. For the greater part of the race, the two men were separated by mere seconds. Mike was being his normal self and talking throughout the entire race while you could see second place was struggling. As the final laps were closing in Mike opened a gap on second and solidified his victory. Shawn Rudisill rode his butt off to another impressive top five finish.

The rest of the day went fairly smooth with a lot of our racers gaining some valuable points towards the overall team competition. The final race of the day saw the American Classic boys show up and race which bumped the pace up.

If our calculations are correct we did indeed gain those extra twenty points for the team competition. This would have put us ahead in the points and would have almost surely gave us the overall win. Alas, with Terry not being able to finish all the points will do is to make sure we were still a contender for the overall at the last race. Cool Breeze should be ahead of us by nine points. We can make that up as we made up a lot in the second race but it will take a great deal of effort. This is not an easy task that has been set down before us but I know that we have to muscles to do it.

The team greatly appreciates everyone who came out and supported us as well as raced. We have a great group of people and we are grateful to have you. See everyone at the finale next week!!!

Winter Short Track race number two and three!

Beginner Women

The past couple weeks have been awesome for the Velo 16 BSG team at the short track series. It seems as though the races were set from the begging as everyone has stayed relatively consistent in their placings these past two races. Mike Stamey has won both weekends in the Beginner men 40+ category and continues to hold the overall lead. The same goes for Katie Wilson as she has continued to pull farther away in the overall points with her past two wins. 

Beginner Men

The best race to watch has of course been between Shawn and Terry Rudisill. Shawn has consistently placed in the top five with Terry trailing not far behind. Shawn killed himself in race number three but was nipped at the line. He still did an excellent job of suffering to snag a third place which put two Velo 16 boys on the podium for the day.

Sean and Cam coming through the rock garden

Sean Zurek achieved another third place in week two while week three proved to be a little bit more difficult. Sean was in a small group of about four racers when the race started to settle in. After Santana Wilkinson fell off it was just Sean and Marcus from BRICA going at it. Sean made some very hard efforts but on the last lap Marcus got around Sean and hammered hard all the way to the line. Sean ended up grabbing a hard fought for fourth place.

Keith hammering in the CX1 Race

The past two races have been relatively consistent minus what I have mentioned above. The weather has been spectacular as it continues the trend of crappy, cold, wet weather through the week while race days has been in the 60s and dry. We could not have asked for a better start to the season. We are still locked in a battle for the overall team points competition. Cool-Breeze is our main rival this year as they scored the majority of the points for week one. Velo 16 BSG had the overall for week two and now we are trailing again by only a few points. There is only two races left in the series so the next couple of races are going to be something to talk about. We all wanted to thank everyone who has come out to race as well as to cheer. Your continued support cannot be thanked enough!

There is no race this coming weekend as some of the Velo 16 guys are heading to the Cyclocross World Championships to watch the big boys crush. See everyone at race number four!

Winter Short Track 1-13-2013

What an amazing day for a WINTER short track race where temperatures reached seventy degrees. You really could not ask for a better day. The racing was fast, fun, and dramatic. There were many great battles and I am here to tell you about all of them.

Katie Wilson had a spectacular race in the Beginner Womens class. This was her first mountain bike race but you would never know it. After the first couple of laps the race was decided as she sped away from the field and proceeded to run down the sport women class that started before her. Although this causes a race to not be very interesting no one is complaining that Katie won and nabbed some valuable points for the team.

The next big race for the Velo 16 BSG was the beginner men 40+. This race was also the best race of the day due to the fact that both Terry Rudisill and his younger brother Shawn Rudisill were both on the line for this race as well as the infamous Stamey. This was definitely the race to see and the battle of the brothers will be remembered. Shawn has been riding the course as much as he can in an attempt topple his brothers dominance. Terry on the other hand has been training on the road and was relying on his brute strength to propel him to victory. When the gate was dropped Michael Stamey was the first off the line and in his usual fashion, he jumped the curb-stop before going into the woods and nearly hitting a tree. Terry
was hot on his wheel that first lap which gave him a decent lead on his brother. Shawn was farther down the pack on this first few laps and had a good fight ahead of him if he wanted to beat Terry. Mike continued to expand his lead until it was well over a minute. You could always tell when he was fixing to roll through because of his incapacity to stop talking. If you try and cheer for him he will undoubtedly cheer back. The race winner was decided early on but the race to watch was still the battle between Terry and Shawn. After a few laps there was but one person between Shawn and his brother; you could see the determination in his eyes. Shawn finally latched onto Terry's wheel and the fun began. Both of them were evenly matched but Terry sat on the front a few laps too many. Shawn saw his opportunity on the gravel road and decided it was time. He launched around his brother and held his attack all the way until the end of the race. Shawn ended up fourth place and Terry got sixth. We can not forget about the awesome ride from Stamey who had first place in his pocket from the start.


















Dan Robbins decided to double dip on Sunday and raced the Masters men as well as the Clydesdale category. His first race of the day did not start out too well as his front tire received a puncture. He ran back to the pits in time to grab a new wheel and hit the course full gas. He worked his way through the pack very nicely and even with his mishap he received tenth place. Dan then proceeded to race in the Clydesdale category where he gained a respectable eighth place.

The final race of the day saw Sean Zurek racing in the super sport category while Keith Isenberg and Cameron Moss tried their hand at the Elite class. The three of them decided to warm up on the trails surrounding the short track course which turned out to be an erroneous decision. As they were pedaling along minding their own business, a devilish root lie in wait to cause problems for the riders. Keith was leading when the root made its move. The slick piece of wood reached out and grabbed hold of his wheel as he rode by. The malevolent object proceeded to launch Keith from his machine in one direction as his bike went in the opposite. The ground saw this happening and being the uncompassionate plot of earth it is decided to join in. He hit the ground hard as Sean and Cameron looked on in amazement. After the incident had concluded the three of them assessed the damage to only find a few scrapes on Keith and a bent derailleur hanger for the bike. They quickly arrived back at the BSG tent where Mark Born was fixing his own bike to Keith's preferred specifications.

 The race was off to a very quick start as the Elite field is known to do. Cameron and Keith stayed together until about lap four where Keith suddenly dropped back. Unbeknown to him he had actually hurt his middle finger and it was rapidly swelling. He had to drop out of the race to tend to his wound that already looked like a sausage by this point. Sean Zurek had a relatively good start in the super sport class and was in the front half going in to the woods. He continued to move through the pack until he reached third place. He fought hard for his position and in the end came out victorious and landed a well deserved podium position. Cameron on the other hand crapped the proverbial bed and wound up 17th in the elite category.

It is safe to say that the first day of the winter short track series was an eventful one but it was a blast. We definitely want to thank everyone who came out to support the team and give encouragement to our racers when they were hurting the most. We had  an awesome turnout and want to thank everyone who raced!





Velo 16-BSG Results

Juniors 13 & Under

12   Riley Dellinger
13   Kaiser Kayton

XC 1/Expert Men

17  Cameron Moss
19  Keith Isenberg

XC2/Super Sport Men

3  Sean Zurek

XC2/Sport Men 19 - 39

12   Adam Jenkins

XC2/Sport Men 40+

14  Mark Born

XC 2/3 Clydesdale

8    Dan Robbins
18  Nick Tadlock

XC 2/3 Masters Men 50+

10   Dan Robbins
13   John Cloninger
14   Barry Shearin

XC3 Beginner Men 30 - 39

14   Michael Eastwood

XC3 Beginner Men 40+

1    Michael Stamey
4    Shawn Rudisill
6    Terry Rudisill
26  Dariel Dellinger

XC3 Beginner Women

1 Katie Wilson

DenverCross!

Cyclocross, what to say about a discipline that has so much to offer. Many people claim that the sport combines the best of all cycling disciplines with the need for handling and technical skills while also being able to put the power to the pedals. Then they go and throw a whole new aspect at you. The sport takes away the very thing that us as cyclist rely on. We are all so used to turning over the pedals and all of a sudden you are being forced to hurdle yourself and the very thing you love over barriers, through sand pits, and up stairs. It is as if everything you normally would not do on a road bike is required in this unique race. Alas, the cross bug has bitten many of the people around the Denver community. It is just different enough to have a following that slowly went from cult status to very popular in just a few years in this region. Velo16 decided a while ago that it was time to do a race of our own and we had the perfect venue at the Denver trails.

The race was as much fun as it was a learning experience. We had enough volunteers to where everyone that wanted a race had the opportunity. The course was in great condition although a little slippery and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. There was enough road to open your legs up, the wooded sections were fast and flowing, and finally the field was in my opinion the most brutal as it felt like you were mashing through quicksand.

CX4 Podium

Sean & BC in a heated battle

The first race of the day was the CX4s. Sean Zurek dropped the Hammer at the start and grabbed the hole shot. He held his lead the first lap and came around on lap two with a respectable gap to the rest of the field. BC Roberts put in an attack and started closing down the gap to Zurek. Roberts caught Zurek and the two engaged in a fierce battle for the prized first place of DenverCross. Zurek put in a solid effort but on the final lap Roberts started to pull away and won with time between them. Bryan Miller rounded out the podium.

CX 1,2,3

Ginding away

The second race of the day was the CX123s. They raced for an hour and put in some solid efforts. The field split and it seemed as though the race was decided with Luke Sagur in the lead. Richard Tsui Crashed on the final turn of the race on the concrete. He quickly recovered like a champ and held his position for the rest of the race. Luke Sagur was the winner of the day. Richard Tsui grabbed second. Jason Duvall was awarded third and Cameron Moss rounded out the top four (also the final position) with slobber on his top tube. Everyone at least got a top five in. The 1,2,3s so it can be marked as a good day.

Prancer going over the barriers

Frame and the Staminator

The final race of the day consisted of the open masters category and the ladies. James Clark was off to a good start. The race stayed together consistently until Richard Tsui rode off the front for the win. Clark and Gregory Frame grabbed the last two spots on the podium. The women's race was quite epic. Kristy Goelzer had a tough day of racing as she nabbed the hole shot for her category and continued to dominate all the way to a solo victory.

Women's Open

Masters

For Velo 16's first race I would have to mark it down as a success. We had a great venue with plenty of parking and a nice little set up for food. There were no complaints and everyone looked to have had a good time. We look forward to holding another race at the Denver trails later this year. We especially want to thank all the volunteers for coming out And converting the trails into a nice little cyclocross venue. We also need to thank Marcy for the Johns and the Denver Baptist Men's Ministry for the awesome food.

Hope to see everyone next Sunday for the pukefest of a short track series!