Author: Geraint Parry

As we all know training for and competing in cycle races has many physical and physiological benefits. The contentment of a long steady ride, the pleasing achievement of a hard training session and the camaraderie of competition are the reasons that we all compete. However there can be a darker side to our endeavors in the form of the mental and physical anguish that is named many ways- ‘the bonk’, ‘the knock’, when you feel ‘sans’ or when you meet ‘L’hombre del mazo’ or ‘the man with the hammer’. Many will say that the more you suffer on the bike, the more you learn to suffer. However this surely applies to cases when you are racing on the limit, using all your reserves of strength to hang onto the wheel ahead or dying ten deaths as you solo away from the group! However when you have ‘the knock’ none of that applies- you feel so devoid of energy then there is no holding of wheels and your wish is for the ground to open up and swallow you up. Talking to a friend is out of the question; you just want to be alone! The climb to ‘cascades’ feels like Boltinghouse and slog to the Firehouse might as well be the Col de Tourmalet.
And so it was for me today!
A great group of seven tortugans (Saccone, Shei, Palmer, Parry, Brauner, Lewis, Millar) rolled up to the forest to meet with an equal group from the IN hand center and rode a steady first lap of the forest with the inevertable splits occuring up Beanblossom. On the second lap the pace of course picked up along Anderson road where the gaps opened up and I was off the back. From my vantage point Tortugans Saccone, Shei, and Palmer seemed to be riding particularly strongly. As the group went away I could tell things were about the go pear-shaped for me but against my better judgement I climbed Beanblossom at record slow speed where I was somewhat dismayed to see the group waiting for me! We took off again and that’s when the legs pretty much feel off. I peeled off the group and prepared for a long ride back in. The climbs of Hindustan and Fireshouse were successively dreadful- no pain but rather a sense of utter lethargy. Oh for a can of coke!
With thoughts of bed and sandwiches I finally made it home with tingling hands and shakey vision. The ride from the firehouse on old37 to my apartment is 6.5miles. It took me 45minutes!

An encourgaing number of riders turned up for the inaugural Monroe County Hill Climb (unofficial) and were greeted by the unpleasant prospect of competing at 85F at 10am in October! The hill in question was the steady 2mile drag up Pinegrove road that is punctuated with a few steeper pitches that have the legs burning! One such pitch is right at the very end so the spectators were greeted with the full range of wheezes and grunts as the riders made their finishing efforts!

In the end the competition was incredible tight with both the best time and the 30+ event winners prevailing by a single second (timing to hundredths of a second for next year!). Mike Sherer won the overall by a second from Ryan Knapp and I think that second was gained by Mikes finishing sprint compared to Ryan’s rather pedestrian roll across the line :)! In the 30+ event Jim Kirkham beat off Colin Allen and Myron Lewis but all were seperated by 2 seconds in total- amazingly close after 2 miles! See the full results below and pictures will be coming soon. Hopefully next year there’ll be a few extra riders to feel the true pain of the hill climb!

1- Mike Sherer          5m39s
2- Ryan Knapp         5m40s

3- Ren-jay Shei        5m44s

4- Aaron Knapp        5m47s

5- Jim Kirkham         5m58s

6- Colin Allen           5m59s

7- Myron Lewis        6m00s

8- Valentin Todorov 6m08s

9- Kirk Weesner      6m54s

10- Lynn Allen        7m21s

11- Steve Meyer     7m26s

1st Place 30+- Jim Kirkham

1st Women- Lynn Allen

The inaugural Pikes Peak RR over the hills of Brown county was the final race in the spring series. We might now be into summer but the weather was most spring-like with rain in the air at all times with occasional torrential downpours. Given the conditions the turnout wasn’t too bad and Dan Daly took the wise decision to combining some fields as rolling around 50miles in the pouring race with 6 other riders would have made a miserable day even worse! Many of the riders had both eyes on their overall positions so it was that the 40+ event Mike Brauner and Gary Palmer were confronted with significant numbers of Papa Johns and Zipp riders. However our brave Tortugas more than held their own and in a race of few breakaway attempts both finished in the main ‘group’ of 10 or so riders. This enabled Gary to hold on to his 2nd place overall in easily the most competition race division (results are unofficial due to Dan Daly still trying to decipher his results at time of writing!). Hopefully it’ll set up Gary for his tilt at the national title in PA in the next few weeks!
The MAS3/4 squad of Myron Lewis and myself had a bit of good news as the two overall leaders of the spring series were MIA at Pikes Peak meaning Myron had a very real chance of taking the overall title. During the race this became more than likely as his main competition was suffering on the hills whereas Myron was driving the pace whether I looked up toward the front of the bunch. Aside from one 5mile breakaway (featuring Myron) our MAS3/4 and Cat4 group stayed together for most of the race and in the final kick to the finish Myron and I both finished within the top15. More importantly Myrons position was sufficient for him to take the overall spring series title!
So congratulations to all Tortugans who rode throughout the spring. In the 3 categories we focused on, we garnered two overall victories (Myron and Ren-jay- Cat 4 overall) and a top 2 finish (Gary). An excellent haul from the elongated spring series to be sure! Now on to the summer crit season!