Twilight Crit Revisited

Our local race is in the history books, but it won't be forgotten any time soon. Not only does the race serve as a competitive venue, but it allows our friends and family to come watch us doing what we love to do. HERE is a picture of Dman with with friends and family.

Thanks to photographic abilities of Dr. Dunn we have lots of photos from the Twilight Criterium. They are available as a slide show HERE.

Yvette wins TT at Fitchburg!

In an outstanding show of fitness, Yvette won the Individual TT at the Fitchburg classic. For all the results check HERE. Check out all your favorite riders!

Roden's M 35+ Twighlight report

A good solid field for the hometown JW Dundees-Home Performance team in the Rochester Twilight Criterium. Our masters 35+ race had the usual guys plus a nice bunch of top flight US and Canadian cat 1-2's opting to skip the main event later in the day. The event was perfectly run and starting on time and without incident. The course was an absolute blast to ride, great road surfaces, plenty of turns and a slight roll uphill to the finish. All eyes tended to be on the out of town hotshots, so when they attacked, people were like gum on a shoe. By the end, all the early breaks had been nullified and we came through with two to go all even. Steve Burget had moved himself up into the front half dozen and was protecting his spot well, despite the general mayhem unfolding about him. Dan Staffo and I rode up to the pointy end and kind of bumped around in about dozenth through the turns. Coming into the last few turns, The Lefebre brothers from Canada took some risks through the turns and made it to the front for a nice win, Steve rode a brilliant race for fifth place, netting some money. The rest of the team rode a solid race, finishing up well in the top 20 for the most part. From my vantage point, Rob Dietrick's ride with a cast up to his elbow was simply brilliant, it's great to see someone able to ride at the next level and Rob's hard work on the bike is clearly paying off. A good day for the home team, hats off to Steve for scrapping his way through the mayhem for an excellent finish.

KW Classic

Race Report from Dan Staffo

I decided not to make the trip to Cambridge, NY for the Ballonfest RR and instead went up to Kitchener, ONT for the KW Classic. This is a good safe race with no traffic. I did the Pro 1/2 race figuring the distance of the race and the level of competition would be a good tune up for Housatonic. The race started out kind a mellow with not much happening. After about 5 or 6 laps things started to pick up with a lot of little moves happening and coming back every lap or so. My plan was to get myself in as many of these little moves as possible without killing myself and hopefully one would end up sticking. A group of 3 slipped away with about with about 12 to go and got a sizable lead. I figured there would be guys wanting to bridge across so I stayed towards the front and jumped on anything that pretty much went. With around 9 to go a group of 8 of us slipped away from the pack on the hill. We began pursuit of the leaders. As soon as we had them in sight I looked back and saw what was left of the pack was coming for us rather quickly. With 3 to go I thought for sure we would get caught. By this time I was starting to hurt and was ready for the race to be over.. At this point I think the 8 of us were trying to stay away from the pack rather than catch the leaders. With a lap and half to go my friend and fellow Western New Yorker Mike Mathis (Preferred Care) attacked our group and was on his way to the leaders solo. The last time up the climb was painful and seemed like a mile long. Coming through the S turns leading into the long stretch to the finish line I was in good position but ran out of gas with about 50 meters to the line. Not a very good finish for me being a bit to long for my liking .. Ended up 10th on the day. I was happy with the placing but wish I could sprint a little faster.. Oh Well. It was a good day for Western New York with Todd Scheske(Preferred Care) getting the win and Mike Mathis and Jason Skalski coming in 4th and 12th.

I've got a secret

From Katie and Cindy Dunn...

The survivor's ride AOK group ventured in and around Mendon Pond's Park. (Click HERE for route and elevation profile). It was a picture perfect night and a perfect opportunity to learn something new about one another. The ride's leaders were Cindy and her daughter Katie who were joined by Terry, Jim, Mitzie, Dick, Willie, Carrie, and Claire. Talents and unknown facts about tonight's riders included:
• Fluent Italian speaker
• Clogger
• Volleyball player
• Wood carver
• Pretzel enthusiast
• A loyal daughter who calls her mother everyday
• Oktoberfest attendee
• Bell choir member
• AND a man who is madly in love with a woman in the group!

Although this is a very eclectic list of secrets, there was one thing we all had in common tonight, and that was the ability to enjoy life from the seat of a bicycle.

Please leave comments as to which of the riders has each secret!

Keuka Lake Duathlon

John Roden writes...

Our adventure started a little early when our dog took it upon himself to get sprayed by and subsequently kill a skunk at about 1 am the night before the race at the campground. After about an hour of washing up and dips in the lake, I retired and left him to stink up the outdoors. Not too many hours later I left the sleeping family and rode to the race, feeling none too spunky.

Race was 5K, a too short 18 mi bike and another 5K. Opening 5K was a workmanlike 18.20, a decent time for me these days, netting about 5th. The leader was gone for the day, a college 31-ish 10K runner with a solid bike ability, nothing but tailights, bye bye. Bike went nicely, ended up with fastest ride of the day. Second 5K I was really pressed by another runner for most of the run, but he throttled back with about a quarter to go. I ran through all the circles of hell keeping him from catching me. The picture above is about 400m from the line, I heard that you can run faster by actually rotating your hips and picking up your feet, oops. In any event, I finished second.

Cheyne Spanks The Field

Thats right, our wonder kid of late dominated the Empire State Game Trials, by grabbing a second place in the individual TT and then decimating the field on the final climb to the finish line, and grabbing a win in the road race.

...Report from Steve Burget...

The road race for the qualifiers was a very difficult 5 lap course with 1050 ft of climbing per lap. At the start , the group rolled out and within a mile the climbing began. It didn't take long until Dan Staffo was out front doing what he does best, putting extreme pain in my/our legs. Approaching the 2nd climb of the course (Rice Rd) I mentioned to Cheyne that he should join Dan as they could both ride away and finish 1,2. At the 2nd climb Cheyne put on the jet engines and flew accross to Dan, at that point I was seeing cross eyed and a bit dizzy, this move basically shredded the group into peices. Kevin and I set into a comfortable group of 5 , which took places 12-16.

...It seemed to me that Cheyne came up to you near the end of the 2nd climb but I was not there to see it, I'm assuming. But if I'm assuming then he made it up to you with Jay Skalski in tow and the 3 of you then motored to the finish. Good move by Cheyne with his attack on the last lap.


Anyways, nice job to Cheyne and Dan for a great day!!! Empire Game will be a battle ground

A full listing of ESG qualifier results can be found HERE

Survivor Ride Breaks All Records

Under threatening skies the survivor ride conquered some of the major climbs of Ontario county. My bike computer reported we did almost 26 miles, in just over 2 hrs. Click HERE for a picture of the download. You will also see we burned about 737 calories! The blue line is our speed, and the yellow line is our watts. You will see we averaged about 100 watts for 2 hours, so if we hooked up a generator, we could have each powered a light bulb for about 2 hours.

Next week we are going to conquer the queen of hills, Parish Rd. We will assault the west side which is slightly longer but less steep than the east side.

I was able to catch some of the riders on my video recorder on my phone. Here is a clip of trying to catch a Big Ring Sister in Victor (note the bike computer says we are doing over 25 mph)

And Here is the group discussing the climb up to the top of the quarry course, and some other climbs we would like to tackle this summer.

Congrats to all who came out. It was not an easy night, but I was proud to be a part of if as I know Cindy and Mark where as well.

Milton Duathlon- Kelso Ontario

From John Roden

June 2, 2007

This is a huge race with maybe 1000 people racing in all sorts of du and tri athlons. I'm a little intimidated by all the skinny looking people with very expensive bicycles. A night of camping with the family has left me rested and ready to race with a solid pre race dinner of hot dogs and marshmallows and six good hours of broken sleep. Eyes still feeling a little sandy when the gun goes off for the first 2K run. It is fast and painful and I finish 15th or so out of maybe 300 in my race. Get on the bike and start working my way through the field on a nice 30K loop up and around the Niagara Escarpment. Starting the second run, I'm thinking I'm doing OK, but I'm going slow. I drop a place in the first K, but am able to get it back as the sun melts my opponents wings on a long open stretch of 85 degree blacktop. Run is about 5 miles, I chug along and neither gain nor lose a place. Checking the results, I'm surprised to find myself in second place. Boy, in a bike race, you sure know when you get second.

Not a bad day out, second fastest bike, Ital Pasta pro Paul Rego dropped in and rode the fastest bike leg, but dallied a bit on the run. All considered, a good day out for the JW Dundee's - Home Performance Cycling Team.