2009 NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental Elite Mountain Bike Team Update
The NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental Elite Mountain Bike Team had their official season opening race in Middlebury, CT at the Hop Brook Dam race. This is part of New England’s Root 66 Race Series, and is the target series for the team this season Despite weather conditions, event and team participation was fantastic. The elite team joined many other NEBC members racing at the event.
Results and team race reports can be found in the Race Reports Section
As a quick highlight of the excellent results from this race, the team managed a 2nd place, and a pair of 8th place finishes in very highly contested races. The Pro/Cat1 open category saw participation by national level talent (including Tim Johnson) and had NEBC finish in the top non-professional spot.
Who are the members of this elite mountain bike team you ask? Those members would be none other than our very own Scott Brooks, Wayne Cunningham, Michael Good, Keith Reynolds, Cathy Rowell and Mike Rowell. Each of these individuals raced in the USA Cycling Expert category with NEBC last season and has signed back up for another go around this season. Please note that at the end of last year, USA Cycling changed the mountain bike categories to be more inline with the other disciplines. They mapped Beginner to Cat3, Sport to Cat2, Expert to Cat1 and Semi-Pro’s were given the option to either become Pro or Cat1. So for this season, all of our elite team are currently Cat1 racers, with Mike Rowell racing in the Pro/Cat1 Open category. You can learn more about the team, and their schedule in the Elite Teams section
This is but the start of what will surely be a very busy and we hope, very productive season. Our next race is coming up next weekend in Farmington, CT and is also part of the Root 66 race series. Given that this is one of the fastest power courses in the Northeast coupled with the team’s road racing background, we hope to report more excellent results. Stay tuned for that.
Stepping back a bit, the team members didn’t get to their current fitness levels without a lot of hard work. Most of the team had little or no break between a full ‘cross schedule and the start of an early training season. With the snow filled winter we had, off-road riding was unfortunately kept to a minimum, save some brave/miserable attempts at riding in places that had frozen foot traffic. You take what you can get. This doesn’t mean that the bikes were put away though; we all spent countless hours riding trainers and ventured outside on the roads when we could. Riding conditions stabilized early so we were able to do quite a few long days in the saddle, very early in the season. One other key training component that many members of the team used was XC skiing. We had a number of group skis throughout the winter and many also used skate skiing for the bulk of their core strength and fitness work. Another way we stayed active was with weekly group snowshoeing through the darkest part of the winter. All of this group based activity did a good job of keeping the team active throughout the winter, maintaining much of the fitness build from last season, while still adding in variety.
What’s in it for me you ask? The point of establishing this team is to promote and develop mountain bike racing within NEBC. The team’s race reports will include input from all club members who race, including the Elite team, helping to foster the team concept. As such, if you race with NEBC, expect that we will be there cheering you on and trying to encourage you. You will also likely have me hounding you come Monday for a race report. If you have any questions about anything mountain bike related, please feel free to ask any of us. We hope to use our experience to be a resource for you and to encourage you to give mountain biking and possibly racing a try. We have countless years of off-road experience amongst members of the elite team and are happy to share our thoughts, opinions and experiences. Additionally, the elite mountain bike team plans to offer various mountain bike clinics. These are still in the planning process but expect to see an announcement for the first clinic in the not so distant future.
Speaking of off-road resources, the New England Mountain Biking Association (NEMBA) is the key advocate of mountain biking within this region. It would behoove you to seek them out and support them in supporting you. They are also a wealth of information; visit http://www.nemba.org for more. The current issue of NEMBA’s Singletracks magazine has a spiffy feature article on mountain bike racing in New England, written by an NEBC member and featuring members of the team in some great action shots. This is a good resource to have.
Lastly, if you are interested in racing your mountain bike with NEBC, please shoot me an email message and I will add you to my list.
Thank you,
Mike Rowell
NEBC/Cycle Loft/Devonshire Dental Mountain Bike Team Captain