L.O.H.S. Spring Race Series May 5

By Jay Jones

This is the first of the Lake Orion High School Spring Race Series. It's a week night race series designed to have some fun and get a little racing in. I use them for high efforts back slash, hard days. Even though the race is short, it's a high effort for the entire race, very similiar to a cyclo-cross race.


With that said, I take a 1/2 lap to get a good warm up in as I know the race will be face paced from the gun with the likes of who showed up. A pace line forms quickly and I am about in 9th place as we dive right down a short hill and head for the single track. My teammate Dave Moore is right in front of me, he offers me his place in line just before we hit the sweet single ribbon of dirt thru the woods...I politely decline and we are on our way.

Shortly after I am regretting my decision as the first six guys slowly pull away. There is no place to pass and I am relegated to letting the lead pack go away. No worries, this is all for fun. As we hit the first open area I make my pass and I am all alone. I see one of the guys has fallen off the pace of the lead group and I slowly count the space between him and I and it's roughly 1 minute. I do some quick deductions and it will be hard for me to make up the time in this short of a race, but I try nonetheless.

As we weave in and out of the turns, berms and valleys I get the false sense I am closer to the one in front of me, but I don't let if fool me and keep pushing the pedals. My goal is try to catch him before the finish line with a few hard efforts, I am unable to bridge the gap. As I look behind me I am making some good time on the people I started the race with. Although I don't know this for sure, but the fact that I can't see them is a pretty good sign that I am. I keep the pace to the end, just to keep my intended 'hard work out' in tact.

I end up finishing in 49:44, 2nd place in the Advanced 40+ group. Bernie Wendel and I are the only cats on single speeds in the group and it's fun to mix it up with all the gears and suspension and what not!

The next race in this series is Wednesday, May 11, another good weekday night for a race...and some fun!

Go ride.

Cone Azalia

Check-in from Keith:

Did the Cone Azalia race today. In my debut cat 4 race I came in 22/40.
Conditions were tough. In the first 0.5 mile stretch of dirt I saw about
20 water bottles that popped off bikes including one of my own. I decided
to get it because it was the only one I brought. There were quite a few
flats in the same section. I am very glad I switched to the Specialized
Roubaix tire this week for the race. All in all I loved the Roubaix for
this race.

I still plan I racing on Wednesday at Waterford. Hope to see everyone out there!

First MTB race of the series!

The day started off with some very iffy weather but quickly turned into a perfect day to race!   Our sponsors, Cycletherapy and Specialized put on a great display.   The team got its first win of the season, compliments of Mark P.    Our team will be busy this weekend with road races and mountain bike races on Sunday!

Thanks to Ten Mile Media for some awesome photos!!

Riding with my Cycletherapy Peeps

by Jay Jones

With my busy schedule I do most of my training all by my little lonesome self. So when I ride with some friends it's always enjoyable. Then throw in a route I've never done before and its like a whole new adventure.


The plan was to ride the city of Holly from a top secret location in Waterford. We pounded a little pavement before hitting the dirt. I'm on my single speed cross bike and the two cats I'm riding with, Derek and Jay Atwater or on geared mountain bikes. So I'm pretty sure I'll have my work cut out for me. The warm up wasn't much of a warm up, we had a pretty good clip going...not the most ideal conditions for this old man, I need a little bit slower and longer warm up, but no worries...I have to able bodied cyclists to draft from! =:)

As we head out of the township of Waterford we find the solace of dirt and then some of the climbing starts. We head out Pontiac Lake road to Cuthbert then wind our way north to Rattelee Lake road and I-75. We turn west and hit some longer sustained climbs, after Derek doing most of the work to this point, we take turns pulling and seeing who can do the most damage on the climbs. It turns into a little contest and we have some fun.

Upon entering the little hamlet of Holly our conversation turns to food, yes, this is a food ride where our turn around destination is some place to grab some grub and then head back. When we pull up to the appointed eatery, we realize they are closed. After some quick thinking by Mr. Atwater, we point our bikes to the Bittersweet Cafe. So one block later we are relieved to find it open and the place was hopping. We are greeted with a Chamber of Commerce type person who is happy to see us and invites us to experience the downtown area. We enter the cafe with our bright orange kits on and grab a table. We are greeted by one of the owners and they too are very appreciative of our visit, and inivte us back and plants a seed for a group ride.

As we saddle up and head back after some good food we head out easy this time and get ready for some hills. My plan is to attack each hill and see what I have. Some hills I can get my rhythm with one gear, the ones with a steep pitch, not so much. Either way, I am working hard to test my limits and if I can drop my geared buddies, well, that's just icing on the proverbial cake.

We have a good hard ride on the way back, take turns pulling and we end up with a nice cool down on some pavement and one stupid driver who wanted to see how close he could get without hitting us...in the words of the great Bugs Bunnny, "What a maroon!"

Other than that, it was an awesome ride with 50.3 miles in 3:21 average speed 15.0 mph, max speed 30.1 mph, average heart rate 141 bpm, max heart rate 176 bpm, climbed a total of 1959 feet and burned 2618 calories!

Go ride!

Barry Roubaix Recap from David Moore

For many the Barry Roubaix is not only the start of the season but the start of bike riding for the year. For me it’s just a continuation of something I never planned to stop. With the exception of the 1 week break from training after last fall's Iceman Cometh race for an appendectomy, the ride continues. The cold February rides around the Lake at Stony Creek and more than tolerating the stinging winds and surviving the icy back roads fully prepared me for the cooler temperatures. What I was not quite expecting was the fast pace that was set by the higher numbers of competitors racing with Cyclocross bikes. I chose my 2010 Specialized 29 Comp.
The bike has been a faithful friend all year and was ready to take whatever was thrown at her. As we lined up at the Barry Roubaix start I scoped out other bikes taking note of the gears others were about to take off in. I had already decided that my take off gear was best as I felt strong enough to stay ahead of the group at least until the first sharp turn onto the main road was past. We got the "Go!" and I was off. I was at the front of the pack and intentionally as I did not want to get tied up with another bike. Getting a another derailleur stuck in my front spokes would not have been pretty, its happened before.

After we made our way onto the main road, I was in the big ring and the first 10 or 15 cyclocross equipped racers went past me... I was ok with that since I knew the fastest guys would be passing me soon enough. I was even more surprised that at the first 1 mile I was still among the front as far as other mountain bikes were concerned. As we got to the sandy two track some of the Cyclocross bikes got a little squirrely, but it was smooth sailing with the S-Works FastTrak on the front wheel. The climbs in the two-track were a little too easy for me... I realized as others started to pass, that I needed to get up out of the saddle and give an extra push. Those Cyclocross bikes were great on the straight-aways, but on the sharp climbs they just got in the way. We got to the dirt roads and even more cyclocross bikes passed. I tried to draft a few of those 'cross bikes but they either slow down on the climbs, or they were too fast so most of the next 18 to 20 miles I just went it alone. I noticed that on the downhill sections of the dirt roads that I had more confidence than I had last summer, my bike really did have great traction. Even though I was able to make the turns with very little speed loss, I found that accelerating on the exit of the turns were no match for the skinny tire 'cross bikes, I would use this opportunity to take a few swigs of my electrolyte drink.

The climbs, they kept coming, I thought I was getting to the top of a climb only to be disappointed that I wasn't quite halfway up. I experienced no cramps in my legs, but my heart was maxed on one stand-up climb to catch a guy I swore I had passed just minutes earlier. On the fast sections I learned how to appreciate a few moments of drafting, but they were just moments. At the last 14 miles or so finally got my break as I was really really tired, a cyclocross guy let me draft him for a while, he was pretty consistent with his pace which allowed me to not only catch my breath, but for my heart rate to finally settle down... we talked for awhile, he asked how I felt, I said "dead", but I was lying I felt alive and well, but just spent. At some point I got out of my saddle and sprinted up a hill I thought the guy I was following was right behind me which would have been cool, but when I had the chance to look back he wasn’t there, but I found a whole string of bikers following me... probably taking advantage of the same thing I had minutes earlier, a break from the wind.

At the last 6 miles (on pavement) I saw my good buddy's wife ringing a cow bell, so I knew at that point I was close to being done that gave me a little more motivation (albeit no energy), to get up one more time to feel the last burning as we climbed yet another hill. I saw the entrance to the Yankee Springs Park, WOW! I was relieved. As I made the left turn into the park, I decided I just had to finish on a high note. I got up and peddled past a few more bikers, the last stretch to the finish line sure seemed longer coming in than it did going out, the last few yards finished up in the saddle, I was done for the day. I finished the 35 mile race in 2:04:56, with an average 16.8 mph. The results do not show me as the winner or even the top 10 but my ability to recover quickly after the race shows me as "WINNING". This is just the beginning, I have a plan and staying strong is essential and in this I am Specialized.

Barry Roubaix 2011

By Jay Jones

Otay, I love this race, I love the course. It mimic's a lot of how I train, back roads on my single speed cross bike. And most of my early season miles is on the fixie...so this race is nothing new, my body is use to this type of race.


What I wasn't use to was the gear ratio that I selected. I've been running a 38x17 the past two months. Last year I had a 39 tooth chain ring along with some different cranks, so I assumed I used a 39x16. So I decided to switch from a 17 tooth to a 16 tooth and I thought I would be okay.

I was in Wave 3 with all the people over 40, single speeders and fixed geared racers. There were a ton of fast cats, so the roll out was fast and I could see the lead group pull away, which is no big deal so the panic button wasn't hit just yet. The pavement treated me well with my gear selection...I was rolling along, spinning at about 110 rpm's while working a little on the climbs. I was happy. Then we hit the dirt and a few climbs. In traffic, with a long line of cyclists in front of you, it's hard...no, impossible to ride the single speed style which is gain some momentum before the climb, so I was working real hard near the top of the climb. After a couple of these, I was unable to recover as I would have to keep pedaling down the other. With this said, I didn't even bother hitting the panic button, I threw the whole thing away. I knew my day was done and it was confirmed when people that I am always in front of starting passing me.

With each proceeding climb, I was digging deeper and spending more money than my account had. I decided not to worry about the race and my standing as I did have some big plans. I stilled raced when I could, but with this gear ratio, I lost way to much time on the climbs.

I ended up finishing in 2:26, a whopping 18 minnows slower than last year! I never cramped, just couldn't turn the cranks like I wanted too. I have a good baseline of where my fitness is at and let's just say...I'll be riding more real soon...just don't run me over on the pavement...

Go ride!