Valley City Masters and JCB Biathlon-quickie post

Tris Hopkins Wins the Valley City 35+ Masters Championship in a 2 man 44 mile breakaway with Eric Lesco of Stark Velo. I (and Team Lake Effect and Stark Velo) raced hard from the start finish line on lap 1 to make it possible for Tris and Eric to launch there move. I sat up when they launched then jumped on every bridge move for the next lap. Then once they were out of sight after 2 laps i tried launching one attack after another, but the Masters were too tough and chased everything down. Thanks to Brett Davis (Solon), Pete Scacheri (Snake Bite) and the ever aggressive and fun to race with John Lowry (Stark Velo) for trying so hard to break up the race. and Spin was very active all day with Tom Humprhey in my mind showing some great legs. I could have sat in ALL day with my first biathlon ever the next morning at 8:30am, but I ahd this odd revelation mid race that I could get a flat coming out of the parking lot of the Biathlon so I tried hard in the race. But it was all for not as I sat-up after topping the last climb on the front. I was toast and didnt want to do another dead leg sprint.


Sunday in the JCB Biathlon several hundred people lined up for the popular Eastside event. I finished the 3 mile run top 20 in 19:50 and the bike in 29:47 for the rolling 12.9mi TT course. The lasting vision from the run was making the 180 on Belvoir at Silsby and seeing how many runners there were!! Literally a mile long line of runners, Wow!! My legs felt great (after 2 touch and go miles) and I hammered it hard on the bike. Sadly Rudy Sroka who started the bike leg 30 or 40 seconds faster went off course mid way so who knows who would have won. I was catching everybody on the bike, but catching Rudy and passing him are two totally different things. I did it in 51 minutes total which is about what the winning time was in 2007 on the same course.

A great weekend where I had super, great legs in both bike races and a personal best run. I may have even run the first mile in 6:15 or so, though thats just a guess. And Tris won Saturday which feels as good as a win for myself and then in my first Biathlon I win!! Wow, what a summer of racing its been for me!!

Also, Robert Sroka and Chris Martino won the Relay (Robert's 13), Gary Burkholder and Mike Vanucci were 1,2 and Rudy was 1st in age group and Christina Vanncci repeated as overall female champion!! Great job!!

Thank you to Sean Gilbert for the great coaching and motivation on the bike and especially now the running. Two more road races (one road , one TT)then its Cross time!!!