Resident Stud/Rider Noah Mabry is taking part in his first IronMan. This weekend in Kentucky. You can follow his progress live on raceday at http://www.ironmanlouisville.com/. And look for Athlete 127.

The guys back home wish you the best! Grip it and Rip it!

So the day started very early! 4:45 to be exact. With a 8 o’clock start and almost two hrs of driving it was necessary. Sadly John and I were the only one’s able to make it out to the race. So knowing we would be short on guys we went into the race with a open mind. You know just ride and see what happens.
The TT course consisted of a flat 9 mile’s out and back. So pretty much what you do at the start is open the pain locker, get in and slam the door shut for 9 miles! Simple right? But man does it hurt! The course was very fast as you followed the river. I had a interesting start. I was about a half a mile into my TT and came upon a semi blocking my side of the rode and a barrier on the other! So I had to pull out the crit skills on the TT bike. And squeeze through the gap no biggie =)  everything was ok. We were both able to pull off respectable times with John taking 26th and I 18th. Now food and off to the crit.

Stage 2- Crit 3/4 Crit video

Going into the crit we know things could get interesting. One pre-ride lap of the course and we knew right away there would be major carnage. Due to the fact that there was a very nice hill on the back stretch. And after a few times up that it would take its toll on a lot of riders! So as we started, as usual the early moves try to go. John tried on the hill but riders were very motivated to chase. And I mean chase everything! I don’t know if it was the hill or what but the race consisted of someone tries to break and a dude chases it down then sits up??!! Even if they have a nice gap on the field? But anyways I tried like three or four times to get a move going! The only guy who would work was John Spittal from Spinners Cycling Team. By the time there were 5 laps to go the field was down to fifteen riders! Are early prediction was right. Except John was a casualty also.
With two to go Spittal put in a great attack up the hill which no one had an answer to. But on the last lap was caught right at the top of the climb. We flew down the home stretch into the final two turns. And pretty much sprinted out of the corner the whole way to the line. I gave everything I had left and was able to snag fifth place. John place 31st.

Stage 3- Road race

The road race was pretty straight forward. Fast and flat, a day for the true sprinters! Bad for us. Going into the RR I was sitting 8th overall. My goal was to try and move up into the top 5. Which I knew was going to be tough with almost a guaranteed field sprint. The race starting out with a nice couple of miles of neutral riding to get you out of town and warmed up. And once racing got underway the attacks came from the gun. But they were all in vain. The course was just to easy for the peloton to reel a break back in. But try they did.
On the final lap with over 5k to go John made a great attempt to breakaway solo. And it looked for a second that the field didn’t want to chase, everyone was trying to conserve. But unfortunately John was reeled in with just over 1k to go. Sucked! The lead into town was so fast I was spun out of gears the whole way till the last corner! I was able to pull off a 10th place finish. It was enough to move up to 7th overall. John finished up 45th. It was a great race and a fun weekend.

Manny,

More Millersburg Pics Here!

Click for more pictures from the Tour of Lancaster County!!

Stage 1- Road Race

Well the day started out nice and easy with a few guys slipping off the front. And no one even took notice? So before you know it there are six guys up the road with a 2 min. gap!!?? But we thought its gonna be a long, ho, hilly day for those guys. And with a good effort we could bring them back.  Wrong! So with a chase of Mostly Shirks and Hotfoot riders for almost three laps we brought it down to around a minute.  Then a Hotfoot rider attacked on the climb with Kerry in tow.  Which was a God send for both are teams cause that took the pressure to chase away, and all we had to do was cover attacks.  Which came over and over!  Kerry managed to catch all but 3 of the remaining breakaway to take 4th with John, Binkley, Doug, and I coming in with what was left of the field in 22nd, 39th, 31th, and 18th.  All in all decent day.

Stage 2- Individual Time Trial

Sunday morning we wake up to the beauty of torrential down pours knowing we have to race! Not cool but the show must go on.  Lucky for the Shirks squad Noah Mabry are resident coach/Triathlete/Cyclist/Sex Symbol/ =) lives about a tenth of a mile from the start/finish.  So all the guys, bikes, trainer and all piled inside the garage and out of the storm! It was pretty cool to have this luxury.  With a good warm up and some trash talking we were ready to grip it and rip it!  J. Bink was first to go with myself, Doug, Kerry, and John to follow.
It was a really good course for a TT. With 11 miles of rolling hills and long straights. A power course for sure. The tricky part was the weather.  The winds were always changing directions and the rain would come and go at different strengths. Just imagine going down the road riding as hard as you can, you cant see cause its raining and your dodging deep water puddles slash horse crap ( Lots of Amish in the area). You say crazy we say good times =).  Well with all those challenges the squad pulled of some decent results. Kerry being are best GC hope didn’t disappoint coming in 3rd just 20sec or so off the winning time! With myself coming in at 14th, Binkley 25th, Doug 28th, and John 29th.

Stage 3- Crit

So at the start of the crit Kerry was sitting 2nd overall and only 1 point behind first place! We all felt confident he could take it if we just kept him out of trouble.  The race started out fast with attacks from the gun!  We tried to follow any that looked dangerous. But go figure the one we don’t stays away! With the break looking like they would stay clear we had to make and get Kerry as many points as possible.  On the last lap Binkley started the lead out and with less than half a lap I took the front giving it 100 percent till the last corner.  I start pulling off and glance over might right shoulder to see Kerry coming and coming fast! And that’s about the time I also see bodies start falling over each other!  Effectively taken Kerry out of the sprint. Luckily he was not hurt.
So not what we would have liked for a outcome. But we had a great time racing and a top five on GC.  It was cool to have the whole squad racing. And many more chances to come.

All for now,  Manny

Final Overall GC- Kerry 5th
Manny- 18th
Noah-  35th
Doug-  39th
John-   40th
Jordan- 41th

I would like to start off by saying the course was very nice. It was rolling with three bigger climbs in it and some decent descents. My only complaint was the road work on the course. It took one of my team mates out of the race and that stinks because it really was a good race. We did 5 laps by the way. Now the race, BOM BOM BOM!

The first thing I noticed was there was only 21 people in the 3/4 race. I wasn’t particularly happy about that. I like a field that’s around 40-50. But I shook it off and put the game face on. The race started out slow. The first thing that happened was Manny got a flat on the first lap when he went over the first section of the course that was under construction (he chased but the wheel van took too much time for the wheel change). Everything remained chill until a cadence kid broke solo on the second lap. He worked up a min plus lead then we decided to do work. NCVC lead the work force followed by Copi (Me and an NCVC and a kelly’s guy tried to break on a little roller but kelly’s sat up and didn’t want to do any work). I sat in and did work when I had to. We reeled him in by the first hill on the third lap. Then things slowed down again. Then the rain came….

There was two to go at this point and I knew the race wasn’t going to stick together. On the first hill of the second to last lap NCVC, another junior (team unknown), and me got a gap on the field and decided to stick it. By the time we got to the lap line we already had a min plus. We knew we were staying away. So we rode tempo the whole last lap, no one tried anything tricky until the finish stretch…

Up the last hill I wanted to go into the final stretch two back from the leader. So I lead out the group from the last hill to the left turn off then pulled off and they pulled through. I knew there was going to be some stupid stuff going down and I wanted to watch it all from the back. Sure enough when I got on the back the three of us slowed up about 5-10 miles an hour and started to play head games. The NCVC got itchy and broke. I let the junior jump on his wheel, and then I jumped on his. NCVC slowed then again and tried to get the junior to pull through. He wasn’t budging. NCVC broke again and sat up but this time the junior pulled through. Everyone sat up and basically came to a coast. We then saw the 1k to go mark and raised the tempo a little bit. I knew someone would get itchy around the 300-200m mark and sure enough from the back NCVC broke and the junior jumped on I jumped on his wheel. Then 200-150m mark the junior broke left off of NCVC’s wheel so I broke right. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen because at first we were both even on the sprint. Then I noticed he was fading so I upped the sprint and put it all out. The line grew closer and closer and I looked back under my arm and knew I had the sprint. I crossed the line, threw the arms up, and then congratulated the other two guys on a good race.

Thanks goes to Manny for making it to the race and the only one from the team able to make it. Also, thanks to Manny for not asking for my wheel when he flatted. Hahahah. Thanks to Rich for the gnar gnar race, and my mammy for bringing me (she’s a balla).

More pictures coming soon!

Woke up at 7:30 and left the crib by 8:45. My mom and I loaded up the car for a two hour drive to Bloomsburg Town Park. Two hours later…..

We got to the town park and immediately went to the bathroom (shouldn’t have had so much coffee). After the quick bathroom break I went to register. I registered for the ¾ and 1,2,3 category went back to the car and started warming up (one hour till race time). I found my team and we spun around for a little bit then lined up when the official called us up.

The whistle blew and we were off. There wasn’t too much action during the first couple laps of the race. Team Eastern Mobile controlled the field and reeled in the smaller breaks with ease. It wasn’t until later in the race when Jordan Binkley got in a break with 5-10 guys and had a fifteen second lead on the field. Manny, Noah, and I got in the front and covered the attacks and it looked like it would stick until Eastern Mobile started attacking and reeling the break back. They finally caught the break and the field stayed together until the end…

Then Shirks started to do work. Manny and I got to the front with two to go and started to set up a nice lead out for Noah, I drove the majority of the second to last lap and had the field strung out really nicely. I pulled off and Manny took over keeping the field strung out until the second to last turn of the course when disaster struck. This side of the course was slightly down hill so it was definitely the fasted part of the course. Manny was in the lead followed by Noah and I made and attempt to shoot up the side and take over for Manny so he could get some recovery to set Noah up really nicely. I pulled up next to Manny (surprised to see me) which caused him to veer left a little bit, Noah’s wheel was overlapping Manny’s which caused Noah to veer left. The guy behind Noah (unknown) wasn’t paying attention and didn’t react to Noah pulling over. His front wheel collided with Noah’s rear wheel and his skewer the unknown rider’s skewer snapped a couple spokes on Noah’s rear wheel. Luckily he was able to stay up; however; the unknown rider fell and caused a pile up in the field. The crash caused a small break which had four riders in it (including me). I heard Manny yell out “Go Kerry! It’s all you!”

I immediately knew there was something happened and upped the tempo. At that point a Break Away rider sprinted past me so I latched onto his wheel. He carried me and the two other riders to the 200m to go mark and the sprints started. I took off and noticed to the left a Hot Foot rider pull up in contention for the win; however, he started to fade. Then another Break Away rider pulled up to my right. So it was me sandwiched between two Break Away riders sprinting for the win. I felt myself pull ahead but at that instant they started to come together on me. I let up a little bit as we neared the line and they ended up one, two, and me at third.

More Bloomsburg Town Park Criterium Cat 3/4 Photo’s!!

With about a lap and a half to go, a Kelly Benefit rider attacked off the front in a solo attempt for the win. Noah played it safe and tucked in towards the front of the pack again, and let the other riders start to reel the escaped rider in. After the round-about, the field was strung out with everyone riding single file. Coming out of the final corner, Noah was about 6 places back, but caught onto a rider flying up the side of the pack. With about 200 meters go, the all out sprint began. Noah cranked it up a gear and went out in the wind to get around the riders ahead. (At about this time, the pack flew past the Kelly Benefit rider who had attempted to get away) It was an all out drag race between the Shirk’s rider, and two others. It came right down to the line for the finish. Noah forced the bike forward at the last second and managed to take the win by about half a wheel length. And the crowd went wild. Ok, not really, but at least his parents were cheering.

After both wins on the weekend, Noah finally decided to apply for his category 3 upgrade so he will be able to race and support the other teammates. Soon, each race will have 5 or 6 Shirk’s racers. This will make for an awesome season to come.