2007 - Ready or not - here we come!

Well the new season is upon us whether we are prepared or not. Many have been slogging through the fourth quarter of 2006 laying down the base miles. Slowly, but surely the anticipation of a new race season approaches and the self doubt that always accompanies the unknown is here as well. To further add doubt is the fact that our team had such a good 2006 and who knows if we can repeat in 2007.

Our team was pretty good in terms of our size and riding experience. We have around 13 riders who did 10 or more races for a total of over 230 events. We had another 12 who did around 30 more events. Most of our team is in the lower end of the experience spectrum, so we are all learning the ropes rather than schooling the competition. Even so, look what the 13 riders turned out in 2006:

Mountain Bike

–Expert Woman Mountain Bike 11th - Nationally ‘06– Ursula Sandefur
–Sport Woman Mountain Bike 9th - Nationally ‘06- Nicki Sutherland
–Sport Men Mtn. Bike 3rd (19–24 year old) Nationally ‘06-Joseph Grimes

2006 Mountain Bike National Championships –Bronze Medal- Ursula Sandefurr (Expert women 45-49)

2006 Norba National series winner- Ursula Sandefur (Expert women 45-49)

2006 Georgia State Championship Mtb. Series – 2 top 10 series finishers
Women’s Sport – Nicki Sutherland
Men’s Sport – Jose Mendez


Road Racing

2006 Georgia State Champion
- Time Trial - Sheila Santa
- Road Race - Sheila Santa

–Individual Time Trial – US National ranking as of January 3, 2007:
• # 3 Men’s category 4 - Steve Murray
• # 3 Women’s category 4 - Sheila Santa
• # 5 Men’s category 4 - Scott Matty
• •
– Men’s Cat 4 Stage race– US National ranking as of January 3, 2007:
• # 4 Men’s cat 4 - Steve Murray

2006 Georgia Cup Series (road) – Yellow Jersey winner -Men’s cat 4 – Darren Sorrells
2006 Georgia Cup Series (road) – Masters 45+ top 5 for the series – Scott Matty

Triathlon

2006 Clermont Ironman Triathlon – 12th overall – Matt Ragan

*Matt's placing was better than most of the pro triathletes in the race!

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This is good and then if we include the number of podiums -39 or the number of top 10's - 81 our team had a great year. 2007 will be hard pressed to match our numbers for '06. But then again, many of our riders raced only a portion of the season as our team worked to prepare for a Norba sanctioned mtb. race held in Columbus. 2007 may be the next step in our evolution as a team. We have some new talented mountain bikers that are moving up from Beginner to Sport and several beginner road racers looking to test the road scene. Then we have cat 4's who are taking the plunge into master's - so we will be in for a tough riding season.

Good Luck and we hope to see you at the races!

Dahlonega Training Camp

The 2006 year ended with a bang rather than a shiver. We held our first multi-day camp in Dahlonega, Georgia. The weather was brisk - 30's and 40's and the rain stayed away until the third day. There was snow and ice on the side of the roads, but the roads were clear. We had 6 members of the Columbus Bike Racing team attend and enjoyed three days of riding. Cathy and Virginia Dozier attended, but did not ride.

We started our training on December 28 and rode the three gap route + a little more. Some of the team, Steve Dozier, Matt Ragan and Steve Murray made it for day one and a few did Woody gap twice.

The 29th was a longer day as we rode to Helen and started our climbing on Hog Pen gap's long side. 7 miles of tough uphill. Scott Matty and Gabe Denes joined the group for Friday's ride. We ground out the climb. Matt tore up all the climbs and Hog Pen was no different. Scott and Matt had forgotten to change cassettes for the trip and rode all the climbs with a 23. Even with the added leg strain, most of us could not keep up with them. As I approached the top of the Hog Pen climb, I met Scott and Matt coming back down, they said Gabe was just ahead of me and I had three quarters of a mile to go and they were going down to check on Steve Dozier. When I reached the top, I sat with Gabe discussing the ice sheets running down the rocks on the far side of the road. As we sat there, we saw a rider round a lower corner and approach the top. He was moving like he was on the flats. Once he reached us, we recognized his kit as a D3 pro team, Aerospace Engineering out of Athens, GA. Well, 200 yards back was another young pro kitted out and climbing fast, then a third appeared. Then a fourth, except this time it was Matt Ragan who had latched on to the Aerospace guys about two miles down. This is something since 2007 will be Matt's first year racing bikes. Not to take anything from the young pro's - Matt is 29 and has a triathlon background. In October, he raced the Claremont Iron man and finished 12th overall. He beat quite a few pro tri guys in the process. Matt has an engine and some strong climbing legs. He will breeze through the cat 5 ranks. Once the team regrouped we then headed down the short side of Hog Pen. The roads were wet so we took the decent with caution. A brief stop at the Apple store and it was on to Wolf Pen gap. We proceeded across the valley through Suches and on to the short side of Woody gap. After the descent, some choose turn around and take it up the long side of Woody. The day ended with around 70 miles and several gaps covered.

The 30th started out a little raw and got worse. We left base camp (Hiker Hostel) and rode to Nells Gap and climbed Blood Mountain. Then we descended and climbed the winding side of Wolf Pen Gap and descended -as a light rain began to fall. We stopped at the bottom and then climbed back up Wolf Pen and unfortunately the rain turned into a real down pour at the top of Wolf Pen. We took care to descend the wet roads and made a stop at Vogle state park for some coffee and in hopes the rain would stop. We got the coffee, but the rain did not relent. We forged ahead and made the 18 mile trip home in the rain. We climbed up Blood Mountain and regrouped at the top. Fog had set in with the rain. We were a little worried to descend on wet, foggy and rain soaked roads, but we were too cold at this point to wait any longer. The descent went fine and we made it back by late afternoon for some lunch and hot showers. An evening trip to Dawsonville for dinner at Johnny's New York style pizza ended our cold wet day. We also stopped off at the Pearl Izumi outlet next door to Johnny's for some light shopping.

Camp ended on Sunday morning with a big breakfast. The drive back to Columbus was in a driving rain. Good thing the weather held off as long as it did. Our camp went well. We got countless miles, quite a few gaps and 11 -12 hours of saddle time for our trouble. We were fortunate to find the Hiker Hostel as the location for our training camp. The Hiker Hostel is run by a fantastic young couple - Joshua and Leigh Saint. They have a great place and its' proximity to the 3 gap route was ideal. We will definitely use them for all future camps in Dahlonega. http://www.hikerhostel.com/.