Perserverance pays- Join Team Tortuga Now!

Team Tortuga, Bloomington's longest running cycling team is taking applications for the 2010 season! All riders are welcome in the team that mainly caters to road racers but has included mountain bikers and triathletes in past years. 2009 saw another successful racing season from many riders with a excellent efforts particularly in both masters and womens racing.
In 2010 we will again be strong in both those areas but are also encouraging riders to join out Cat 3/4/5 squads. We have a number of experienced riders that are willing and able to give guidance and advice to newer riders notably Tom Saccone who has extenstive experience riding at Belgium in the 80s and Gary Palmer who is one of the top Master road racers in the US. We hope to develope 'squad' based racing where riders of similar category and encouraged to attend the same events and hope to provide financial incentive for this sort of collaboration.
Membership forms can be downloaded from Teamtortuga.org and can be submitted in the next couple of weeks. Membership benefits include-
- 2010 short sleeve Louis Garneau jersey
- Discounted other 2010 clothing (very good quality gear!)
- Paid entry fees for selected events for regular racers
- Free/ cheap entry into the Team Tortuga organized Downtown Bloomington Criterium which is again applying to host the Indiana State Crit Champs.
- Opportunities for product deals for tires and other consumables through sponsoring bike shop, Bikesmiths.
- Opportunities to join quality group rides throughout the year

If you have any questions then please email me at geraintparry75@gmail.com. Get that application form in asap and see you out on the road!

Inside or Out..

...Ryan Shanahan reigns supreme in the TT! The first Marian indoor TT saw Ryan blow the doors off of the opposition with a 40 second beating of the next best time in the 10k event. A satisfying 23 riders competed last saturday and there will surely be more to come as the road season swings into view as the calendar clicks onto 010. Register now for events on Jan 16th and 30th and Feb 13th.

Looking ahead...

As winter starts to grip and riders head indoors for the next couple of months it's important to have something to work for! The IN/KY USAC association released a tentative race schedule for the 2010 road season and I'm pleased to say that Dan Daly will be putting on a few races next year. Then of course there's the Little 500 series schedule... Expect the schedule to fill out a little in the next month as organizers get things Oked!

Local Spring Highlights include-
3/13- Long Run RR- Louisville
3/21- Brown County RR
3/27- Little 500 Quals
3/31- Little 500 ITTs
4/3- Marian College Crit
4/4- Easter
4/10- Little 500 Miss N' Out
4/10- Hillsboro-Roubaix
4/17- Little 500 Team Pursuit
4/17- Ceraland Joanna Daly Memorial Circuit Race
4/18- Mooresville Bob Jordan Circuit Race
4/23- Womens Little 500
4/24- Mens Little 500
4/24- McCormicks Creek Road Race (YouTube preview from 2008)
4/25- Eagle Creek Fast Crit
5/1 and 5/2- Fat and Skinny Tire Fest
5/8- Eagle Creek race (USAC)
5/9- Eagle Creek Traditional Crit (IRS)

Very Tentative date for the Bloomington Crit is 07/10/10.

Sat 12th 10am Soma

Plan on a Saturday 10am ride from Soma. Expect up to 3hrs at a solid pace and will have regroupings appropriate for different fitness levels (within reason). This hopes to be a regular ride throughout the winter in temps above 20F. All welcome who can handle the distance in reasonable fashion.

Indoor TT- Dec 19th

Winter already getting you down? Bored to tears by the trainer and it's only December? Perhaps the answer is for you to take advantage of the Marian University Indoor TT series, the first of which takes place NEXT saturday Dec 19th.
Details from Brett Stewart- Marian University is hosting its FIRST Indoor Time
Trial Series December 19th! Each participant will compete against the clock
on their own road or TT bikes attached to our electronic trainers
(Computrainers). 8 riders will ride at a time on the Computrainer
multi-rider system! Test your winter fitness and take a gander at the latest in
Zipp high speed weaponry at Marian University's first indoor cycling event!
Warm up on the most realistic feeling roller set on the market with
TruTrainer or if you prefer, feel free to use CycleOp's "400 Pro Indoor"
spin bike. Take a look at the flyer and sign up at TrueSport.com.
Send this on to your riding buddies?.this is a great way to get cycling
enthusiasts into competition. Spread the word and come have some fun! See
attached flyer for more details!

Champions!!

OVCX racing came to an end in Lville on Sunday and amongst the drunken carnage Bton riders finished the year with some creditable results. Even with double series points on the line it was unlikely that Adam Rodkey could prevail in the Cat3s but after a surprisingly poor performance from the previous series leader Adam was able to solo away to another victory and the overall title by a mere 3pts. Read all about it on Adams blog. Full results can be found here.
As expected Fred Rose won the 35+ masters title and his better half Elizabeth Cobb maintained her 3rd overall in the W3/4. A great season of racing by many Bton and IN-based riders! The DRT-consulting team based out of the RevB+B saw Nicole Borem take the Womens Overall title whilst Messer, Knapp, Hamilton and Sherer showed that Bton is becoming THE place to be for Midwest Cx race talent! I'm excited for BloomingCross already!!

OVCX Finale

Sunday sees the conclusion of the 15-race Ohio Valley Cyclocross series with the last ever event at River Road County Park in Louisville. It should be a great day of competition with a big award ceremony and raffle to follow the racing (in a great idea anyone who has ridden 10 races gets put in a raffle to win some very nice schwag). Unfortunately it's pre-reg only so if this inspires you to want to race you are SOL. However if you're in the area go along and watch how things develop before Midwest bike racing gets put away for a few months.
Fred Rose has an unassailable lead in the Master 35+ competition whilst Elizabeth Cobb and Zach Edwards are assured of top 3 and top 5 finishes in their respective divisions (womens 3/4 and elite). With a good ride Adam Rodkey could move into 2nd position in the Cat3 series even if the overall win is out of reach. OVCX wins for Mike Sherer, Ryan Knapp, Pam Loebig, Ryan Shanahan, Don Galligher, Rose and Rodkey together with the inaugural Bloomingcross has made it a great year of OVCX racing for Bloomingtonites. Look out for the famed Underground CX series to start soon to keep the competitive juices flowing until road season (watch this space!).

Wednesday 3pm

Anyone wish to ride tomorrow at 3pm then let me know by email. Looking for a steady 90mins. If i don't here I'll probably find something else to do so come on out and ride!

Gravel Grovel Redux

If you'd predicted that 120+ riders would line up for a 60mile gravel road race in late November I'd have told you you were crazy! Not so as that's exactly what happened this past Friday out at the homely Story Inn! The Gravel Grovel was blessed with excellent (if chilly) weather and had an air of big-time legitimacy with the attendance of Kenda Pro's Jake R and Chad B. The results show that Jake, Greg Strock and the Mexler made the break of the day with Jake soloing in for the win from Messer and Strock! The comment section on the website and the FB group are full of glowing praise and a few blogs have writtne up interesting reports here, here and here. If anyone has other information or photos then please post a link in the comments section. All in all it gets the Turkey juices flowing for next year.....where it might be 20F and snowing!!