Early season power profiles

In the first partial team ride of the year a few things are clear; everyone is psyched about the 2009 season, fitness is fluid, and headwinds suck. If you rode on Thursday in Georgia then you might recall how windy it was, some gusts nearly took us out! Thomas, Oscar, and Joey met Jafer at the horse park in Conyers for a 4+ hour ride through parts of Covington, Social Circle, and Mansfield. The route was mostly rolling country back roads with the occasional dirt/gravel road thrown in for fun. Below are the powertap files for Thomas, Jafer, and Oscar for the first 3.5 hours of the ride.

Thomas


Jafer


Oscar

2009 Snake Creek Gap TT #1

On January 3rd, Jafer set out on the first of three mountain bike time trails on the Pinhoti trail system in Dalton, GA. The time trial is 34 miles long across some of the most technical trials in north Georgia (only the last 6 or so miles is really technical). Rain clouds, mist, and fog greeted all of the 200 plus racers to make for a very unique race.

The race is point to point, so all of the racers and their bikes are bussed out to the start and then we race back to the finish. The last time Jafer had spent a significant amount of time on his bike was way back in October at the Oktoberfest race, so shifting (and fitness) was significantly impaired from gunky cables and housing (from all the mud and corrosion). Since his shifting was less than stellar, he relied heavily on his granny gear to make it up the climbs. He finished in 3:17:52 with hopes of dropping at least 10 minutes by next month. It's amazing how fickle fitness can be, he didn't feel like he was riding hard but still managed to post a decent time, likely due to his new 29er. The route has some awesome descents, short steep technical climbs, rolling terrain, and a couple of creek crossings, but most importantly is a very fun trail to race.

Some of the bigger names attending the race were Thomas Turner and Harlan Price, both seasoned pros. Jafer was able to talk to Harlan after the race and found out that he had doubled flatted and still posted a 3:03:50. The winning time was set by Thomas in 2:57:58 but was slower than the fastest time of last year, 2:50:06, as set by Thomas, due to trail conditions.

Oktober fest 8 hour mtb race, Oscar's cross campaign, and the 2009 season!

It's been a while since the blog has been updated, actually it's been too long. First, we are looking forward to another great year of racing after a successful season. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment of last season was winning two back to back stages at the Fitchburg Longsjo stage race, a stellar performance by the entire team at the Tour of Atlanta, surviving Super Week, and a myriad of podium finishes throughout the year. Second, we hope to build upon the success of last year as the team will undergo many changes in the next few months. We will undergo a name change, add a few more riders, and expand our ambitions for this season. Check back for more team updates!

Jafer concluded his 2008 season with the final stop of the National Ultra-Endurance mountain bike series at Fisher Farm Park in North Carolina. After a couple of days of steady rain the course was saturated and was a peanut butter like consistency which made for a long 8 hours! Jafer started out well holding Tinker Juarez's wheel for the first half lap, until he lost contact with the front group due to sliding out on the slippery course. For the remainder of the race he tried to keep positive after losing a large chunk of time and just rode for fun, finishing 7th in the 8 hour race. He fared better in Sunday's time trial finishing in first only a second ahead and then took second place in the mountainbike cross race.


Oscar stayed on the attack for the entire Georgia Cross Series, eventually winning the overall series. On his way he won three of the eight races, was second three times, and placed third twice! He also finished 11th at the Collegiate cross nats and 24th in the U-23 cross nats.

Oscar goes cross

This Fall, Oscar will be race a full Cyclocross season, mainly focusing on the Georgia Series but also trying to hit a few UCI races and the National Championships in December. The Georgia series kicked off in the mountains of Dahlonega. The course consisted of the usual 'cross distractions' along with some slick gravel roads and a jump-able log. Oscar took the 'hole shot' off the line and soon was in a lead group of three containing Rob Giannini of the Athens based Loco's team and mountain bike professional Thomas Turner (Outspokin). Mid race Oscar took a digger hopping the log and lost contact with the group. He quickly recovered to catch Giannini but never made it back to Turner and rode in for 2nd.

The second race of the series changed scenery and went to the beach in Savannah. The course was nearly dead flat, started and finished on a small town "dirt track" car racing oval, and included a serious mud pit and an intimidating "fly-over." The course provided little to initially split up the field, so for the first few laps a group of around seven riders stayed together. Mid race a selection in the mud left only Oscar, Nate Sibly (Specialized) and Ryan Leech (Visit PA) to battle for the win. Once it was only Oscar and Nate in the lead group, a last lap attack barely delivered Oscar to the line first for the win.

With the two podium performances Oscar is now the leader of the season long points standings and looks to defend the title in Conyers.

Sitting in with Thomas "Crash" Brown

So the end of my season was not what I expected. After crashing while training at the velodrome just three days before leaving for collegiate track nationals, I quickly realized my season was over. This realization was confirmed by the Orthopaedist's recommendation for surgery. About ten days after the crash, in order for the swelling to go down, I went in for surgery. They essentially took a twelve centimeter titanium plate and fastened it to my collarbone using sever screws. I remember getting quite angry with the anesthesiologist because he didn't understand how you could ride a bike on a banked track, but this was while he was giving me the magic potion to put me to sleep.

After a week of my mother feeding me narcotics for the pain and laying in bed watching TV, I started to feel better. I then started physical therapy after ten days. Since then I've been going to my PT twice a week, and a week ago I got back on the bike, which was four weeks after surgery. So I am essentially better, though my strength is not there-- at least that's what my PT says...though I think it really wasn't there before.

Dirty Spokes 6 hour @ Conyers

It was another great weekend (10.11.2008) of mountain bike racing for Jafer at his hometown course, the Georgia International Horse Park, site of the inaugural (1996) Olympic mountain bike race. With 300 registered riders for the final race of the Dirty Spokes endurance series, a great race was guaranteed. He competed in the solo expert category for the 6 hour race as preparation for his final endurance race of the year, a solo 8 hour race on October 25th in Davidson, NC.

Jafer was fortunate to have the support of his girlfriend and many others that assisted with feeds throughout the race. He even visited the neutral support provided by Addictive Cycles, to have his chain lubed and seat readjusted after it titled on the trail. All in all, it was another smooth race, thanks to frequent feeds and of course good luck.

The trail was perfect for a roadie, as it had plenty of field riding and rolling power sections. Jafer even had a career best of posting the fastest lap time, something he had yet to accomplish. After completing 9 laps of the 8.3 mile circuit, in a time of 6 hours 6 minutes and 57 seconds, he cruised in for the win, nearly 7 minutes ahead of second place. For complete race results click here

Black Bear Rampage MTB Race

On Saturday the 27th of September, Jafer and one of his friends made the trek north to Ducktown, TN for the Black Bear Rampage, a 44 mile mountain bike race at the Ocoee Whitewater Center (site of the 96' Olympics). After setting up camp at the Thunder Rock campground, they quickly geared up to hit the trail when the first misfortune happened. Jafer was tightening his shoe straps and the plastic cinch piece broke rendering his left shoe useless.

Luckily, he had some weed-eater line in his Jeep and after a few creative attempts, found an appropriate solution to his dilemma; albeit a little Jafer rigged (he had to think outside of his usual arsenal of tools: super glue, jb weld, and tape) it held for the entire ride, a very good sign for the race. After the ride they scrambled to prepare dinner over the campfire. The menu consisted of hearty vension burritos, complete with onions, tomatoes, rice, and cheese. After a filling dinner they turned in for the night since the race was scheduled to start at 8:30 the next morning.

They awoke to a moderate temperature in the low 60s and promptly rekindled the fire to heat the pre-made pancake breakfast. Thankfully, the campground was about a mile from the start so after breakfast they packed the car and headed out. After changing, they headed to the start line where the disarray started. The line up consisted of someone saying, wave one (pro/semi-pro) to the line and then ten seconds later saying go, with no grouping of the riders into age groups. Jafer was in the second wave (expert) that started 30 seconds behind. He didn't know if he was racing against the entire expert field or if the field would be broken down into age groups, so he sprinted off the line leaving his field behind.

The first three miles of the race was on Tennessee highway 68, so he locked his fork out and caught up to the pro field in front and entered the single track in 4th place. For the next hour and a half he stayed in 3rd to 4th place, with only 5 riders in his leading group. Up to this point he had seen a bear run across the trail, two riders in front of him crash, one rider get a flat tire, and a trail marker that had fallen down causing his group to stop and argue about which way to turn.

At about the halfway point his group hit the first major climb which split the leading group even further. Jafer moved into second place overall (1st in his field) and tried to reel in the rider in front but wasn't able to make contact. For the next 22 miles, he maintained his lead over the riders behind him. At one point he had to stop and wait for the rider behind him to catch up to ask him for directions. To his dismay a chair stood in the trail which split into a Y, which meant Jafer had a 50/50 chance of going the right direction. Luckily, the other rider decided that they should go to the right which was the correct choice (Jafer was going to go left).

With less than ten miles remaining, Jafer switched it into high gear and tried to keep the pace steady to the finish. Since there were no neutral feeds at the 3 sag stations he was forced to push on without stopping to refill his bottles. He was able to carry one large bottle on his bike and a smaller bottle in his jersey pocket, which was just short of what he needed.

In the last half hour he ran out of water and steam, as he was on the verge of cramping, but he kept on to the finish. When he emerged out of the single track to the final one K climb to the finish, he was disheartened to see another rider sprint out of the trail about 15 seconds after him. Unbeknown to him, it was a rider in wave one and posed no threat but he was determined to hold his place to the line.

After 2 hours 55 minutes and 12 seconds he crossed the line for first place, 3 minutes and 7 seconds ahead of the second placed expert rider. It turned out to be a good weekend even though the race wasn't that organized and the entry fee was excessive. In short the trail made the race, not the organizers.