Tuesday, April 26, 2011

bike rodeo flyer!

it's rodeo time!

For Immediate Release:

Shippensburg University Cycling Announces Youth Bike Rodeo


Shippensburg, Pennsylvania – April 26, 2010 – On Friday, April 29, 2010, Shippensburg University Cycling will host the Fifth Semi-Annual Spring/Fall Youth Bike Rodeo. Intended for children in Kindergarten through fifth grades, the event will include activities such as helmet fitting, minor bicycle maintenance, bicycle fitting, safety tips, and a skills-testing obstacle course. The event begins at 4:00 pm and will continue until 5:30 pm.

The rodeo will be held on the Shippensburg University campus, in the Queen St. commuter parking lot at the corner of Queen St. and Richard Ave. While there will be no adult specific activities, parents are encouraged to stay and participate. All participants should bring a bicycle and wear a helmet.

This event builds off the success of previous SU Cycling Team sponsored youth bike rodeos. Thirty to forty children participated in each event.

About Shippensburg University Cycling: Shippensburg University Cycling is organized as a university club sport. The mission of Shippensburg University Cycling is to promote cycling socially as well as to prepare athletes for collegiate competition.

Ship Cycling competes in road and mountain bike events in the Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conference (collegiatecycling.org/eccc) under the auspices of USA Cycling (usacycling.org). The team is funded by the University Student Senate as well as the generous support of area businesses including Sunrise Computers and Electronics (www.digitalsunrise.com), The Carlisle Group (tcgrecruit.com), Mountainside Ski & Sport (www.mountainsideski-sports.com) and Wertner Signs (www.wertnersigns.com/).

The team holds regular training rides, open to all area cyclists, in the rural farmland and mountainous terrain of Cumberland and Franklin Counties.

For more information on the Shippensburg University Cycling Team, please contact Nathan Goates, faculty advisor (nwgoates@ship.edu), Matt Conroy, club president (mc3923@ship.edu), or visit our blog at shipcycling.blogspot.com.

CONTACT:
Dr. Nathan Goates
Shippensburg University
717-477-1214
nwgoates@ship.edu
http://webspace.ship.edu/cycling/

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

tnr 4/12, results

(Results updated at 12:00, 11/13.)

I wish I had a screen shot of the weather radar from yesterday afternoon. All morning I'm reading "100% chance of rain," but in the hours leading up to the TNR the radar showed a pretty massive northward heading swirling system to the east, and another pretty massive northward heading system to the west, but about 100 miles in between of just scattered bits of precipitation here and there. It was as is Moses split the Red Sea above south-central Pee-Aay just for the TNR, so I figured it would have been a sin to give it up.

Six others felt similarly and we had a nice ride. Though that's not to say it didn't rain. I think we made it through the first couple laps on relatively dry tarmac, then it rained a bit, but not hard, and it wasn't terribly uncomfortable. As Brian commented afterward, 50 degrees is about the limit...which is to say that if it's above 50 the rain can be dealt with, below 50 and the rain is just miserable.

(As an aside, I never, ever get excited about the prospect of riding in the rain, but when I'm actually doing it--riding in the rain--it never seems that bad and I generally feel pretty good about myself for choosing the hardman's path. There's a lesson there. Somewhere.)

Anyway, on to the action...

TNR newcomer Phillip came out to play and initiated hostilities by riding away from the group at the beginning of the second lap. However, three-fourths the way up the Strohmsburg and Jon was attacking. So over the top we had a group of five--Jon, Aaron, Brian, Brad, and I--but Phillip managed to bridge back up after a couple of miles.

The third time up the Strohmsburg Aaron unleashed a vicious acceleration in search of KOM points, with only Jon able to follow. I caught back up in the next few hundred meters, and that left three of us rolling in front with Brian and Phillip collaborating (for a while) to catch us from behind (they didn't).

On the fourth time up the Strohmsburg I put in a dig at the top to try to separate myself from Jon and Aaron. Despite the satisfaction of Jon telling me I put him on the limit, he was able to stay on, but, perhaps because of an earlier mishap with his cleat, Aaron was unable to make it so Jon and I rolled in for the sprint and we all know how that turned out.

4/12 results:
................. finish .. sprint/KOM .. points
................. points .... points* ... total

1 Jon Marshall .... 16 ........ 17 ........ 33
2 Dr. G ........... 11 ........ 17 ........ 28
3 Aaron Snyder ..... 7 ......... 9 ........ 16
4 TT Brian ......... 4 ......... 4 ......... 8
5 Phillip .......... 2 ..................... 2
5 Brad ............. 1 ..........1.......... 2
7 Chris T. ......... 1 ..................... 1

* That's two weeks in a row the sprint/KOM points recorded total much less than the total points available...by 7 last week, by 6 this week. Where are these points going?

overall (after two tuesdays):
................. points
1 Jon Marshall .... 64
2 Dr. G ........... 55
3 Aaron Snyder .... 24
4 Dickinson Tom ... 17

5 TT Brian ........ 12
6 Phillip .......... 2
6 Brad ............. 2
8 Chris Flegal ..... 1
8 Dickinson Mike ... 1
8 C. Woltemade ..... 1
8 Chris T. ......... 1

There's a rumor that Jon may take next week off...and I may follow suit (by next week, I'll have quite a bit of racing in my legs in not too many days), but I'll probably still come and just ride with the B group or something. If that all goes down, that would make the race for the overall still pretty wide open.

See you next week!

Monday, April 11, 2011

mavic gets a win...

...on it's first go with this wheel. Lucky ducks.

"40 Incredibly Cool Biking Tools for College Students"
Cool link that sums up all the different aspects of biking as a college student.

http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2011/04/40-incredibly-cool-biking-tools-for-college-students

Friday, April 8, 2011

Thursday, April 7, 2011

tnr 4/5, results

Four Tuesdays in April...just enough to make a series out of the TNR!

On laps 2-4 points are awarded at the two traditional sprint lines. Three points for first place, two for second, and one for third.

And we've added a KOM...the hanging white sign at the top of the Strohmsburg (the highest point on Strohm Rd). KOM points are also awarded three for first, two for second, and one for third. (If I were good, I'd separate KOM points from sprint points, but who can remember all that while still racing? So, as someone kindly pointed out Tuesday, there's really just three sprint lines now.)

Points are also awarded to overall finishers:

1st............16 pts
2nd............11
3rd............ 7
4th............ 4
5th............ 2
everyone else.. 1

Winner of the overall series (so long as its not Jon) gets a special prize! (Sometimes promoters give winners shot commemorative shot glasses. I'm considering a generic juice glass.) And a separate prize for the highest placed Ship student. (I still have a $20 gift certificate to the bookstore to give away.)

-----

This last Tuesday eight riders braved the considerable drop in temperature from Monday and strong southwesterly winds for a lively TNR. Woltemade, TT Brian, Aaron, Dickinson Tom, Dickinson Mike, Flegal, Jon, and Dr. Goatesauce.

The young 'uns picked up the pace pretty heavy early on in the second lap, which unfortunately trimmed the group to a selection of five, then four rather quickly (next week, A/B group divisions for sure).

That left Jon, Aaron, Tom, and I together at the end of the third lap, where I tried to take advantage of the strong tailwind and shed the other three on the finishing (third lap) climb. Jon stayed with me, then gave up (partly gassed, partly thinking I probably wouldn't be able to stay away), but later bridged the gap (which by this point wasn't very big) on the Strohmsburg, leaving Aaron and Tom the rest of the course to reel us in. Aaron was having a bit of an off day and that effort proved fruitless, about as fruitless as my two attempts to shake Jon prior to the finish, where Jon quickly dispatched me in the sprint.

4/5 overall results:
................. finish .. sprint/KOM .. points
................. points .... points* ... total

1 Jon Marshall .... 16 ........ 15 ........ 31
2 Dr. G ........... 11 ........ 16 ........ 27
3 Dickinson Tom .... 7 ........ 10 ........ 17
4 Aaron Snyder ..... 4 ......... 4 ......... 8
5 TT Brian ......... 2 ......... 2 ......... 4
6 Chris Flegal ..... 1 ..................... 1
7 Dickinson Mike
... 1 ..................... 1
8 C. Woltemade
..... 1 ..................... 1

* Yes, I know there are 27 + 18 + 9 = 54 sprint/KOM points available, and that's a lot more than the 47 points recorded above, but I can only record what people tell me. Think those extra 7 points are yours? Let me know!


See y'all next week!


ps If anyone knows a better (easy) way of making charts in blogger/html, I'd love a tutorial. (I thought my old school courier strategy was pretty good, until I saw that blogger removes extra space characters, so that's why all the periods.)

mass relay

Pete, Conroy, Dustin, and Garrett...the Ship boys at the MASS Relay in Marysville on Saturday. It was Dustin's first time on a mountain bike ever, and the first mountain bike race for all four of them. They did great. (Unfortunately, there are two seniors in that group, but perhaps we can get the others to a few ECCC mountain bike races in the fall. Eh, Garrett?) Photos courtesy of Pete's dad.


Saturday, April 2, 2011

ronde van vlaanderen

Oh Flanders. I love you.



Live coverage via steephill.tv...then Versus coverage on Sunday at 4:00 pm. Don't miss the fun!