Paris to Ancaster....Ontario

April 22, 2007
Paris to Ancaster, Ontario 60K
John Roden

I have to confess a guilty pleasure in riding a road bike on dirt roads. I love the feel of the bike bouncing beneath me, the sound of the rocks hitting the downtube and the plume of dust spreading out in the rear view.
For me, the Paris to Ancaster race is a yearly delight, 60K of dirt roads, a little tricky single-track, a bit of blacktop and even some hills. This year's event was capped at 2000 riders, down from over 3000 in years past,
perhaps on orders from the Paris sewage treatment facility. Our weather
was picture perfect, sunny skies and a fast, dusty track with a gentle tailwind. Start numbers were assigned based on last years race finish, which was bad news given that I missed the race. I was lined up way the heck back and was despairing of ever seeing the front of the race. When the starters gun fired, we just kind of stood there and watched the leaders departing, not a welcome sight by any means. After working up through the masses for the first couple miles, I was in sight of the leaders, but still a bit back as we hit a narrow, 2 track gravel road. The pace was ballistic and moving up was a chore, with little room to move, rocks and sticks flying around and general mayhem. All this madness was due to the fact that the course took a sharp right at mile 5 up a steep hill with a false flat across a windy farm field. Every single year, the selection is made in this section, and riders were going hammer and tongs to make the split. When we made the right this year, we were greeted by a truckload of loose soil and large rocks dumped by the farmer to repair the road. All were forced to run up the hill, remount and at this point the selections started. I kind of clawed my way onto the second group and there I stayed for the next hour or so.

After making a dopey mistake in a muddy section, I found myself along off the back of 3 riders, who then absorbed four riders. Watching this, I realized this was the crunch of the race and that I really needed to get myself up there. Pulling the lever of the Detroit Overdrive and pushing the throttle back on the mighty diesel tugboat motor, I slowly coughed and sputtered and clawed my way across the gap on a long gravel road, finally finding blessed shelter before we hit the blacktop. Our group of 8 was rolling along nicely with perennial strongman and former champion Josh Hall in the group and a slew of road and cylocross toughs. Close to the end, we had to negotiate a long muddy downhill strewn with rocks and wood chunks.
Josh and some other guy got a gap, I ended up in no man's land and spent the rest of the day trying to wrench myself back to the two riders ahead of me.
With one last long stepper of about a mile remaining, Josh visibly sat up and started coming back, but try as I might I was not able to catch him by the finish. I ended up fourth for the day, my best finish ever and I ride I'm really happy with.

JW Dundee – Home Performance Riders Shine at Battenkill – Roubaix

Fine performances were put in at this weekend’s 2007 Battenkill – Roubaix road race in Salem New York as over 1000 racers lined up for New York State’s version of the “hell of the North”. Dundee’s – Home Performance’s up-and-coming Cheyne Hoag placed 3rd overall in the Category 3 division and nationally ranked master’s racer Dan Staffo placed 3rd overall in the highly contested 30+ field; other JW Dundee’s – Home Performance teammates in attendance were Dwight Roth and Kevin Mahoney racing the 40+ master’s field, Steve Burget racing the 30+ and Rob Dietrich who raced with Cheyne in the Cat 3 event. For more information and full results check out: www.bikereg.com and http://www.battenkillroubaix.com/about.html

Burri takes flight

Sunday Rochester Giro - "B" race report

New JW Dundee's-Home Perfomance rider Mike Burri continued his progression as a bike racer on Sunday's final Spring Giro by out-thinking and outgunning his breakaway partners in taking a fine 2nd place. A lone breakaway rider had already crossed the line for 1st.

Here's Mike's version of events:

"Estimated field at the start was about 30. Torrential downpours came within the first mile which quickly caused half a dozen to drop out. Approximately one third of the way thru the race, the eventual winner snuck off the front and with some determined riding and the benefit of a rather lengthy wait at a stop sign for the chasing pack, he was soon out of sight. A combination of continued terrible conditions and another half a dozen or so flats brought the group down to about 15 riders duking it out for second place. At the last roller on Mendon Center Rd before Canfield, 3 guys attacked off the front and I figured I'd better bridge up. Heading down Canfield towards the finish there were four of us left, with a decent gap over the remaining pack. I was sitting behind the other three and with about 200 meters left I figured what the hell, might as well give it a shot. I caught them by surprise and opened a quick 10 meter gap. I managed to hold them off and took second place."

Nice job, Mike!

The Rob Report

Final Buffalo Giro, Saturday, March 31, 2007
By Rob Dietrick

The final Buffalo Giro of the year played out in similar fashion early, as a fury of attacks in the first few miles sprung a quartet off the front which included JW Dundee’s–Home Performance rider Kevin Mahoney, Jeff Zygo (Preferred Care), Mike Loranty (AG Edwards), Bill Geraci (Full Moon Vista), and Scott Dorfman (Handlebars). However, this race turned into a tactical since the PC orange armada didn’t like their chances with Zygo in the break against the potent sprint of Mahoney. So, PC put all their horsepower at the front & took control of the race letting the break dangle at 30 seconds until it came time to bring it back. With, 1 lap to go, the break was brought back and the field re-stacked. PC took control putting all their riders at the front. Several attacks, including one by Dwight Roth (JW Dundee’s-Home Performance) were issued on the last lap, but all were held in check by the "orange train". Turning into the final leg, JW Dundee’s–Home Performance rider John Roden breaks his chain! What a bad break! Now the team was left to scramble for a placing in what was shaping up to be a mad field sprint. PC strung it out going to the line with their whole team up front and blistering pulls by Mike Mathis(PC). With 200 yds. to go it was 4 wide going for the line……Jason Skalski (Preferred Care) hit the jets & brought home the win, with JW Dundee’s-Home Performance young gun Cheyne Hoag popping thru to take a fine 4th place finish in the pack sprint!

The Roden Files

Final Rochester Giro, Sunday, April 1, 2007
By John Roden

After all nature of assurances that the last Rochester Giro would be a fun
family day involving the minivan and everything, I found myself without
company driving the 90 miles down the Thomas E. Dewey Thruway alone and
lonesome with nothing but Randy Travis blasting on the radio after my whole
brood pulled the plug at 9pm in the midst of my kitchen re-flooring project
no less. We headed out for the final chapter in this year’s series under
darkening skies. On the way down to the race, I felt like I was working a
little too hard and noticed my wheel had slipped over and was rubbing on the
chainstay. After fixing it, I thought “If only it were always this easy”
indicating to the reader some foreshadowing of things to come. As Todd
rushed through his usual pre race admonishments, a huge bolt of lightning
cracked the sky, hurled by an angry Zeus from somewhere near Strong road.
As we trundled off, a flurry of attacks found me a bit off the front to be
joined by a Preferred Care duo of Mike Mathis and Jason Skalski, both
sporting some super early season fitness. As the heavens opened in a cold
and steady downpour, we were joined by Al Lombart (Full Moon Vista) and
JW Dundee’s-Home Performance teammate Steve Burget for a total of 5. We got down
to work and made good our escape. After a while, the pace started wearing
on me, I checked to see if the wheel was back to rubbing again of if a chunk
of asphalt or dead raccoon was lodged in my fork. After a while, Jason just
sort of attacked off the front and in short order Mike followed suit, poof,
off go two team mates while I was checking my bike again for signs of a
tangled anchor chain. So, we three set to chasing, to no avail. Mike took
the win, then Jason, Steve fired up a nice sprint for third, followed by Al
and myself driving hard in the caboose. After a rainy ride back to the car
and some hot coffee, the Giro series is over. We were able to get a rider
on the podium this year and really clicked nicely as a team, so it was a
solid bunch of bricks in the wall for the home team.