June 25 Social Meet at Sic Transit Cycles!

WHAT: A social get-together for current, past, and aspiring AAVC members. Hang out with like-minded people, talk bikes, talk racing, eat some pizza and have a drink. We'll have the pizza and the drinks waiting for you, you just bring your cheerful attitude and something to chat about.

WHEN: Monday, June 25, 8 PM-ish. After the Monday rides.

WHERE:

The Sic Transit Cycles store is  at 1033 Broadway in Ann Arbor.

Thanks to Sic Transit Cycles for providing the location, the time, and beer! We especially look forward to meeting some of their Monday No Drop Dirt Road Ride folks.

WOMEN’S TEAM: WATERFORD HILLS CIRCUIT RACE

This year’s AAVC women’s team is BIG with well over 30 women representing. Most of them have a background in running and triathlon so they are brand new to our club and want to see what the competitive side of cycling is like. The focus is on developing riders in Cat 4 and eventually Cat 3 cyclists so they can compete as a cohesive team in local and regional races. Spring arrived late this year in Michigan but as soon as the weather was reasonable the women started their weekly-organized workouts. Many of them participated in the Ann Arbor Spring Training Series and gained race knowledge and experience. The women were ready for their first official road race: Waterford Hills Circuit Race!

Nine riders of the AAVC Women’s team showed up on a HOT Memorial Day to race and awesome coach Kurt managed all the logistics (tent, team jersey, cold water, trainers for warm-up… you name it!). From left to right wearing their awesome team socks: Emily, Katie, Hollie, Kari, Kurt, Christina, Maddie, Tyacie, Cameron and Chrissy.

The women’s race was a combined Cat 1-5 field with a total of 13 riders. AAVC was well represented! Three fast Cat 3 women showed up from different teams. The 30-minute race started with an easier first lap, before two of the fast Cat 3 riders put in a strong attack that split the field into multiple chasing groups. Christina, Kari and Emily joined the other Cat 3 racer in the main chase group. All the AAVC women did a nice job of re-grouping once the field split and managed to work together throughout most of the race. Christina and Kari had podium finishes (3rd and 5th respectively) but most importantly, everyone had a very positive experience and there was lots of enthusiasm about racing again! Next up is BTR Park Criterium (Kalamazoo, June 9th) and Race for Wishes (Lawton, June 10th). Let’s go!

Juniors: Waterford Hills Circuit Race

After weeks of hard workouts (on the road and on the track), the 2018 AAVC Juniors were ready to race at last! Six racers showed up; from left to right: Connell (the veteran), along with first-time road racers Aidan, Michael, Lauren, Logan, and Ansel.

Credit: Julie de Jong.

The Waterford Hills Circuit Race was a hot affair, completely not like the Willow Time Trial. Our AAVC team was by far the largest contingent: besides our six, there were twelve non-AAVC riders; most in the 9-14 age category, which the AAVC dominated.

It's hard to race cohesively in the 9-14 age bracket because the little racers have such different speed ability; but a few of the AAVC racers stayed in the pack for a good time, and there were pockets of AAVC racers behind who worked together for as long as they could. Room for progress, but also success! Well done, all.

In the 9-14 category, Connell sprinted to victory (to be honest, he almost won the whole thing); Ansel converted being dropped into a fine fifth place, after rowing home with Christian who had also been dropped, and then beat him in the sprint. Behind them, Logan and Aidan finished 6th and 8th, respectively.

The older junior group was decided in a sprint, Ryan beating Jackson, who slightly misjudged his sprint. Connell managed to split the two, by the way, because Connell never misjudges his sprint. Michael and Lauren (badly mangled from her high-speed velodrome crash) finished behind the pack, never quite able to connect back together. They still earned points for the club in the KOMZ Series team competition, well done! If my calculations are correct, the Juniors earned 355 KOMZ points; a sizeable contribution towards a high ranking for the AAVC overall!

Credit: JD Alford.

After the race, we had a nice barbecue. Parents brought lots of snacks and fruits to go with the meats the club provided, and we had a great time sitting in the shade with our AAVC banner. We certainly showed all the other teams how it's done. . . ALLEZ AAVC!

Juniors: 2018 Willow Time Trial

It was a cold and windy morning in New Boston, not at all the right weather to race a 13.2-mile time trial. But our AAVC Juniors showed up and competed admirably. 

In the 15/16-year-olds bracket, Brandon DeLine Jr (on loan from Racing Greyhounds ;) put down a very strong time of 36:50; the fastest since Austin Schouman in 2011 (31:11). First-time racer Michael Keegan finished in 44:31, giving the AAVC our first podium of the day.

Credit: Brandon DeLine

The younger juniors also raced. Connell Alford was chasing Vincent Vermeulen's U13 race record of 44:39, set in 2011; but regrettably came 12 seconds short: 44:51. It was 48 degrees that day in 2011, and not as windy. I think Connell would have gotten those 12 seconds if not for the elements. Ansel de Jong was shivering miserably before the race even started, but with sheer grit and determination laid down a time of 57:39. Not only a second podium for the AAVC, but those 57 minutes compare favorably with other 10-year-olds in the last decade, and I doubt they were as affected by the cold as Ansel.

Great jobs, racers! And thanks to parents for supporting your racers. It was the kind of day that it would be easier to just stay in bed. We're glad you didn't!

Our next Juniors race will be Waterford Hills. See you there!

Lost Nations Road Race - AAVC vs MVW

I really dig these club races - it was a bit of a commute, but totally worth it!  

The course was a scenic 20k loop with a few rolling climbs and howling crosswinds.  Results should be posted soon, but here's my recollection.  Josh pulled like an ox much of the first lap with a few sporadic attacks from Lathrup, Red Bike, and MVW.  Everything was covered pretty well with Kyle doing quite a lot of work to pull things back.  On lap 2 Harvey went loco and attacked solo into the headwind.  He sat 10-15 seconds ahead of the pack for most of that section in what was almost universally agreed to be a bad idea.  Things came back together at the corner and there was a counter attacks from Lathrup or MVW which Kyle covered and got about a 5 second break.  When that came back Danny and one MVW rider went and got about a 20 second gap. Danny rode the MVW guy off his wheel and before he knew it there was a MVW freight train chasing him down.  The pace was ehm "spirited" and the gap closed to 5 or 10 seconds until we got to the hills and Danny pulled away again.  It finally came back together after turn 3 when Danny was caught on one of the climbs just before the finish straight.  Will Haig and an MVW guy countered, but the group was ready to chase and everyone was together at the line.  Stephen Doll took the prime and set a new lap record on Strava (24.2 mph average with descents in the low 40's).  After the sprint, things calmed down for lap 3.   Lap 3 was incredibly boring until Josh attacked in the crosswinds and went up the road with another MVW guy (~10 second break).  When a second MVW guy attacked and tried to close the gap Harvey came to the front and put his final effort in.  He closed the gap, but got dropped on a climb with an MVW and Red Bike guy.  From here I'm going by what I heard at the race and what I can see on the Strava flyby.  William Haig came to the front to keep the pace up and ended up dropping a quarter of the field until he fell back to finish with Harvey.   Then it was Danny's turn on the climbs - he came to the front and continued to drop guys off the back until the last kicker.  The Maumee leadout train fired up about 400m out when most of us had already burned our matches, but Stephen Doll miraculously crossed over and sprinted for 2nd on a bike from the 70's.  Despite all rumors, his wheels did not fall off.  Rounding our the top five there was Justin Kahle (1st - MVW), Alan Zoltowski (3rd - Lathrup), Nick Mossing (4th - MVW), and Jeff Nixon (5th - MVW). Then came Kyle (7th) and Danny (12th), Josh (13th), Tyler (14th), Will (15th), and Harvey (16th) (official results).  MVW won 2016, but I attribute it greater numbers in the peloton.  Overall it was a great team effort and one hard race! 

For the B race, we had Rob Shoemaker, Matt Raezler, Ken Tsang, Andrew Wallis, and Juan.  This was Andrew's first race and Ken's first race in 10 years.  Rob and Andrew were the first to drop.  This was presumably the same time Juan decided he should have been in the A race and solo'd off the front.  Juan stayed away for two laps to win.  Matt and Ken were like "REALLY!?" and that was that.  Watching the finish, it was hard to believe Juan was away for a full two laps.  The whole peloton was only 5-10 seconds behind him when he crossed the line.  Matt held off his group with a mighty effort for 5th and Ken (9th) rolled in with them.  Andrew - poor Andrew - was lost to winds.  I rode back to find him and my water bottle when a saw a great horned owl flying across the road in the twilight.  That was pretty cool.  Also, random.  Okay, nice job guys!   

Mud anyone? Land Run 100 report

Mark McCullough's tale from an epic Land Run 100 on Saturday, March 14. 

Land Run 100 in Stillwater, Oklahoma was flipping miserable. I am calling it the Sooner Sufferfest. It begin to rain at 3:00 pm Friday and continued for five hours. The end result was mud pies the next morning. It was on par with a top notch CX event. The hike a bike was off and on for four miles (mostly on).

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The headwinds were close to 25 to 30 mph. My front hub was crying out in complaint (and getting stares in return), and I cracked hard at mile 40 from all of the mud and ran out of food. I somehow made it to the halfway point to get food out of my drop bag.

The second half was not as bad. I found my mojo, and my hub decided to be quiet. My original goal was to finish in 6:30, but 10 miles into the race I changed the goal to just finish. I met my goal to finish in the top 50. I was 45th. Jesse Ramsey from Tree Fort was 35th place. My friend Gus finish 10th. After some quick math, only 23% of the field finished Land Run 100. All three of us were a part of that 23%. It was not a fun day. But I liked it if that makes any sense. 

Mark

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Mark, Gus, and Jesse

2015 AAVC officers

Thanks to the many AAVC members that voted online in the past week for the 2015 AAVC officers! We had the best "voter turnout" rate, largest number of candidates running for positions, and more than twice that number of nominees, showing once again that the club is the most active it's been in nearly a decade (maybe more)! It also attests to increasing involvement and contributions from a whole lot of people throughout the year with the club who love being involved, but chose not to seek officer duties, too.

Without further ado, the people taking on AAVC officer roles for 2015 are:

President: Harvey Elliott
Exec. VP: Ray Barbehenn
Treasurer: Joe Miessner
Secretary: Markus Nee
VP for Sponsorship: Al McWilliams

Thanks again to all who voted, have served and/or will serve as club officers, and the many others who contribute to club races, rides, fun, conversation, sponsorship, coaching, banter, setting tempo, sitting on, sharing wisdom, and otherwise being a part of AAVC!