January 16

The weekend past was host to some great rides!!  First- on Saturday - Charles and Brad had an excellent and kick-butt mt bike ride from the Sheltowee Trace Trail head on hw 192 down around Laurel Lake - they then proceeded across the dam and continued on the Sheltowee down to the Mouth of Laurel boat ramp. They then rode back to the cars on the roads for a total of 21 miles!  I can't even imagine a mt bike ride that long! 

At the same time Brad and Charles were riding mt bikes around Laurel Lake - Harvey Jack and JT rode from the Vision Center to London - 60 miles! Even though it was supposed to rain all day Saturday - it never did and we all ended up with excellent rides and great mileage's!  Even though Jack has been sick the week past- he rode the 60 miles to London as if it were "nothing"!  He was an animal the entire way!

Sunday was host to our biggest club ride yet!  And again - even though it was supposed to rain- it never did!  Sundays ride included a total of nine riders. We rode out hw 192 to White Lilly then turned right on hw 1643 and took that across to Haynes Knob and back to town on Rush Branch Road.  This is our hilliest ride with more vertical relief per-length in miles.  Everybody rode strong with the total average pace being over 17 MPH -  And two of the riders had ran before the ride something crazy like "16" miles! Or so they said.  I know for a fact that they had run - i saw them - but i think they were joking about it being 16 miles.  The "dynamic duo":  Charles and Brad rode probably the most aggressively and those two are largely responsible the relatively fast overall pace!  And this after they had ridden 21 miles on MT bikes the day before!  I think we might have to separate those two from now on. I think they may work well together so beware if you ride with them any time soon.  On the ride- once at Haynes Knob - the decenders - Brad Charles and Jeff got at least a minute or more clear of every body else  by descending at 50+ mph and it took a very concentrated effort by Harvey JT and Rick to catch them before they got back to the city limits.  But once the group was reunited - a very fast and well organized string formed which Harvey soon shattered by going off the front in a very dramatic break.  The group reformed at the 914 crossing - but as soon as we crossed and headed in to town - Bradattacked very hard and stayed clear several minutes.  His own pal - Charles was solely responsible for bringing him back to the group and the rest of us just watched as passengers in the string as Charles reeled his own buddy back in. Once Charles pulled all of us back to Brad - Charles simply climbed onto Brads wheel and made him continue to pull all of us past the  town limits. With a mile or two left to go - several very nice attempts were made by Jeff and Harvey and Charles to get clear and it was a very impressive ride!!!  We certain are coming together as a group and it is so great to see!!!  More and more riders are be coming able to cope with the general pace of the group which is making for some very exciting and interesting dynamics!  Absent on Sundays ride was Jacks usual endgame sculpting!  Apparently - having been sick all last week and a hard 60 mile ride the day before made Jack seem a little more "human" on this ride.  With the way Jack has been riding-I'd say that he's due a day off for recovery!  It was nice having Jeff on the ride as he is certainly one of the most elegant  and strong riders in the group.  It is simply amazing to watch Jeff ride up these large climbs and make it look so incredibly effortless! I have never - not once - ever seen Jeff get out of the saddle to pound the peddles!  It is poetry in motion.  We just hope that Jeff will be able to Join us in some of our races this spring.

Other rides this week past - Harvey Arron and JT had a nice ride on Wednesday afternoon - out to Haynes Knob and back to town through Cabin Hollow.  Arron is a very enthusiastic rider who could be one of the greats because of his love for cycling.  I am really excited to see what happens when Arron gets a good foundation period in him.  He will be a very dynamic member of our thin yellow line- and with the heart and soul this fellow has - just get him to the end of a race in contention and his "can do" attitude may very well produce a few wins for the Cumberland Crew.

We are missing Adam Bourne and Rogers Whitlock and great deal.  Adam is currently training for a marathon so he is not bike training until February.  Also - Mark Travis currently has his beautiful bike broken down into a million pieces overhauling it! 

Two things we need to do for the group this week:  Mark Travis at Cumberland Cycles has agreed to allow us to put up a club dry-board at the shop. On this board we want to list up and coming group rides and list a schedule of the next several races.  We will try to do that this week.  We could use some donations in order to purchase the dry-board. 

Also - with group rides consisting of nine people like today - it would be great to get everyone dressed out in Cumberland Cycles clothing.  If you do not have a Cumberland Cycles Jersey to ware on some group rides - it would be great if you would go ahead and do that.  I haven't done it - so I'm talking to myself as well!

The Commonwealth Journal has agreed to publish an article about our team and Cumberland Cycles Bike and Skate Shop - They will be joining us sometime within the next few weeks to compose an article about our new team and our shop and cycling in general in our area- We'd love to have a large turn out for when the reporter shows up:  I will send out a notice when they will come out to take photos and interview our group members.  I am sure they will want to interview Mark Travis as well -

GROUP RIDES
every Wednesday at 230 PM from the Vision Center
Sat - January 20 - JT will probably go to Nashville to ride with Gran Fondo
Sun - January 21 -JT will probably go to Nashville to ride with Gran Fondo
jt rides every day at 230-3:00- you are welcome to join (606) 215-8307
BARNSBURG:  rides will continue when the time changes in April

Anybody and everybody is welcome to join me in Nasvhille for a 20-30 rider group ride for Saturday -

DONT FORGET ABOUT JEFF PARMLEYS THURSDAY INDOOR TRAINING AT TOTAL REHAB EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT AT 830!  This is a great program!  For more information- contact Mark Travis at Cumberland Cycles.

First Road Race Date:  February 10- up near Cincinnati
there will be a race every weekend after Feb 10 for the rest of the year
In the Feb 10 race - our goal is to simply sit in the pack and get some time riding in a peleton -

The first TimeTrail event for the year will be March 10 in Alcoa Tennessee - I will try to provide race flyers at Cumberland Cycles when i can get my hands on them

In terms of running-biking - or running-swimmin-biking events - I am not in the information pipeline for those events so maybe when one of our tri-geeks can provide information to Cumberland Cycles on any of those events you may come across -