State Champion and More!!!!

Greetings TAR fans,

Captain Cook here and I first want to apologize for the delay in postings. Don't let the lack of activity on the site lead you to believe the Team has been slacking though! We have had some great results over the past few weeks, most notably our very own Danny Wolin took the State Road Cat V title this afternoon and Angela Bowers took second in the Women's race. We also had several other Team Active Racing riders participating at not only this race, others throughout the state. Below is an update from Bran Clissold:

Once again, it was a good day at the races for Team Active Racing! The Cat IV Women's field was strong and stacked with 8 racers from one team. Angela Bowers prevailed though, and took SECOND PLACE in the final sprint for her first road race in 11 years! Congrats! In the juniors field Mark raced so hard that he had to stop and puke. Cool dude! So what if it wasn't a super top placing, you rode hard, and that makes you stronger. And puke always tastes better by the side of the road.

The Cat V race included Danny, Mike Shonger (in his Hoosier stealth team kit), Shane, and myself. It was a fun race, and the rain held off for most of the first 17 mile lap. Things heated up and got wet in the second lap and we all raced well. The officials decided to open up the entire road for the final 500 meters to make it safer...uh, in theory. So, with 500 meters to go, the sprint started and there was a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE crash! 9 riders escaped off the front, including Danny, who WON THE RACE! Shane went down pretty hard in the ditch, landing on his head and making an instant accordion of his spine. He landed so hard his cleat stayed on the pedal but ripped off the bottom of his shoe. Shonger picked his way through the pileup like a NASCAR pro with a veteran spotter to come across the line in 12th. I went off the road and into the grassy ditch at 30 mph but stayed upright, hopped back on the bike, and came across in 10th. Shane, by the way, was determined to finish his first road race, and got back on to finish 17th, complete with a bruise under his eye.

So, our own Danny Wolin is officially the 2008 Category Five STATE CHAMPION!!!! Congrats dude!

Time to go support our sponsor, Advil.

Road Racing
Over Memorial Day weekend the TAR force descended upon the Tour de Gaslight Criterium. Thanks to Devin Winton for the update.

RESULTS from today's VERY WINDY 2nd annual Tour de Gaslight Criterium:

Juniors: Mark Sherman - 4th place. Cat 5: Ave. Speed = 24.0 mph (nothing like last year) Mike Shong - 10th place Devin Winton - 14th place A small break formed after the 4th or 5th lap and teammates (and the VERY STRONG WIND) effectively blocked anyone trying to bridge the gap. Did I mention that it was VERY WINDY today at the Tour de Gaslight? Anyway, we had fun and got another start (to advance toward Cat 4), and the best part - there were no crashes:-) Devin

Mountain Biking
This weekend was the Brighton Mountain Bike race and Josh continued his great results and provides the following update:

Just wanted to update on the results from Brighton this weekend. This year is going by very fast with this being my 8th event of the season.

Not sure at the moment how Matt Gaffner, and Daryn finished up. They were both doing the entire stage race (Saturday and Sunday). I had a class on Saturday so I just did the cross country race on Sunday. I got 1st place in the sport men 19-29. This had to have been one of the most humid days of the year. It felt like you were riding through an oven. It didn't help that on the second lap (of 3), the attachment piece on the end of the tube that connects to my hydration pack popped off, and all of my Cytomax poured all over me. That made for an interesting finish. I was kind of dehydrated when I crossed the finish which may be why I drank like three water bottles in a matter of 20 seconds. Besides that the course was awesome, a little tacky in spots from Saturday nights rain, but a great track nonetheless. I enjoyed taking a dip in the lake afterward, and we just missed a tornado that was headed out of Fowlerville headed directly towards Brighton. I haven't heard if it found its way to the mountain bike course. That's all for now, the next event I am participating in is the TK Lawless Time Trial.

Josh

Hanson Hills Update - Thanks Josh & Mike

Just wanted to give a quick summary of my day at Hanson. The race ended up being 20 miles (2 laps at 10 for my class). I felt pretty good coming into the race today, but for some reason I was having trouble with my asthma and allergies in the beginning of the race. There were 13 guys in my class, and after being about 6 minutes behind first place when I crossed the start/finish on the first lap, I was able to get a second wind and worked my way back from 10th place all the way to 3rd with less than a mile to go. I felt really good and then all the sudden someone from another class passed on my right going up a hill, and since the hill turned into a right hand corner, he caught me off guard and I hit his back tire and crashed.

With less than a mile to go I wasn't able to get right back up because the instant I fell off my bike both of my thighs went into spasms and started to severely cramp. It took about two minutes to be able to get back up, and so I ended up finishing 8th. I will have another shot at good results next weekend at Brighton. I will just be doing the XC race on Sunday. Mike Groat raced today as well, but he told me that he took an accidental detour and ended up on the other side of the property, so I'm not sure what his overall result was. That's all for now. Thanks to TAR for getting the rest of the TAR gear for this last weekend, it was much appreciated.

-Josh Radi

As Josh said, not a good day for either of us. They made some changes to the course and added about a mile to mile and a half, they reported it as a 10.5 mile loop, so Josh would have done 21 miles and I 31.5. I was running in about 7th out of 16 with a mile and a half left in the first lap when I missed a turn. By the time I figured out what I did, I was down at the bottom of a long, sandy two-track, no way to ride back up. Frustrated as hell, I rode out trying to decide what to do. I came out on the opposite end of the "complex" so I rode over to the course and started riding on the outside of the ribbons until a guy went bye that I had passed early in the first lap. I decided to jump in behind him and when I got to the start/finish line, I told the timing guy about my error and said I was going to finish the race, but just place me in last in my age group since I got off track. So, I placed 16 out of 16, but raced hard.

-Mike Groat


Triathlon

Last weekend was the Seahorse Triathlon in the Kalamazoo area. TAR had another good day with the senior and junior relay teams both winning overall and Mark Sherman even forgot his shoes. :) Dave Sanford stood in for the senior team swim and kicked butt. Danny Wolin missed breaking the hour by one minute (&(@((&:!) on the bike and Jennifer Blank smoked it on the run, as usual. The junior guys did great even winning after swimming 250 yards longer that they needed to. Jonah Curtis took the Clydesdale division with a 1st place and Matt Wright placed 3rd in his division. Great job team!

Endurance
Be sure to check out Dan Frayer's post on his Mohican 100 race. Sounds like he had quite the ordeal, but we're proud of him for completing the grueling course and sticking with it. Dan will be joining several other TAR racers at this year's Lumberjack 100, including myself, Joe Kucharski, Jim Gallagher and Charlie Swett. Several other TAR members are planning on coming up and "pitting" for us, but I think they just want to come watch us suffer.

Also of note, Kathy, Eric, Melissa and Scott are getting ready for their Primal Quest race, and head for Montana on June 22nd. Alicia and I headed over Saturday night for a Primal Pizza Party at the BiCi Bistro in downtown Battle Creek. The Bistro donated profits from any pizza purchased after 7:00 pm to the team and I'm pleased to say the restaurant had lots of pizza eaters there when we arrived around 7:45. Scott Capmau actually raced the PQ when it was in Utah and had lots of great stories to tell. All of us wish them the best of luck and you can track their progress on the Primal Quest website with special beacons they will be carrying - so you can actually watch their "dot" move on the map as they compete in the 10-day, 500 mile race. Ain't technology grand!!! Click on Tracking and watch for Team #28.

Until next time...