Adventures For the Cure Updates!

Things going on currently with AFC:

1. Working on planning a mountain bike race in Patapsco for March 28th.
2. Working on a fundraiser dinner sometime in April to raise money for our charities for Race Across America.
3. Adam getting married in July to beautiful Tracy!
4. Lots of biking for 2 man Race Across America which is June 20th. Goal is to win the 2 man division and break the current record of 19.58mph. We also want to raise 50,000 for our causes.
5. Selling of the documentary here

This summer all the money we raise from Race Across America goes to Extreme Weekend Diabetes camp and Kupenda for the Children.

If you have seen the documentary please go to IMDB and rank it here

Thanks for everyone's support!

Adam

AFC: The Doc on IMDB

We put the movie up on the "Internet Movie Database" IMDB. Please rank it and let us know what you think :)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1337440/

-Pat
LoveLife

AFC: The Doc is for sale

Pre-order now in time for christmas

Adventures For the Cure DVD on SALE!

BUY HERE

All proceeds are going to 2009 fund raising goal of 50,000 for our causes.

Adam

Luke's Bike is Complete!!

(Jeff, owner of Bike Doctor Linthicum, with Alec and Ben West)

A note of thanks from the parents of Luke Wright:

We are filled with gratitude. We would like to thank each of you from the bottom of our hearts. What a wonderful gift you have given not only Luke, but our entire family. It's hard to believe something that started as a hope so long ago has blossomed into reality. We especially want to thank Mike West for seeing our need and out of the goodness of his heart spearheading this project; Keith Rohr for using his professional and personal knowledge to help with the specifics of the bike; Adventures for the Cure for organizing the fundraising; and Jeff Dalik at Bike Doctor Linthicum for his technical expertise and contacts. We have been blown away by this gift and are deeply touched and honored to be the recipients of such pure generosity.

This bike is AWESOME and is ready for action. Next warm day we will be sure to join the Wright's for a ride. We thank Bike Doctor, Chris Brown, and all of the supporters that helped make this bike possible.

None of this could be possible without you! Because of you Luke will now be able to enjoy a beautiful ride with his father.

with love,
Stephen, Julie, Luke and Zoe Wright

More pictures to come of Luke and Steven on the bike! This definitely wins the Coolest Bike of the Year for 2008!

Check out the AFC Luke's Bike Fundraising page.

Thanks again everyone!

Adam

MABRA Cyclocross Championships Results

Mud. Is the word to describe today! WOW. Never seen so much mud. It made the day very exciting as we had lots of racers today! Great job BBC and Team Fuji for putting this race on. Look for a special report from Keith and Lars soon.

Masters B:
Keith Rohr: 29th
Steve Klose: 33rd
David Tambeaux: 40th

Cat 3/4:
Patrick Blair: 7th
Matt Panas: mechanical

Pat on the muddiest run up I have ever seen.

Girls 10-12 and 13-15:
Avy Rohr: 1st

Avy receiving her first place medal in the girls 10-12

Boys 10-12 and 13-15:
Lars Tambeaux: 3rd
Holden Rohr: 6th

Holden working one of the technical turns. Notice the awesome boots!

U18:
Jimmy Klose: 3rd

Cat 1,2,3:
Adam Driscoll: 8th
Alex Driscoll: mechanical

Adam after the race filled with mud

Holden and Avy hanging out afterwards. As you can see they had enough mud

Pat after the race having a good time eating!

AFC Campaigns

Do you have an idea for how to make a difference? Do you need help implementing your awesome plan?

We are here to help!

We want everyone to go out and use their gifts/talents/passions to do something great. We are calling it our AFC Campaigns. See our new AFC Campaigns section on our website to find out where to get started.

-Pat
LoveLife!

Wondercross Race Report - Matt Panas

AFC race report, Wonderland CX
Saturday November 22, 2008
Lancaster, PA

For those of you who just want to cut to the chase, the short story:
- snow -> mud
- a moderate boondoggle on the officials part
- coffee



The looong story:
headed down to Lancaster Saturday morning for the wonderland cyclocross race. any hopes for a cool dry race were smothered by the snow that blew in on Thursday night, and the continuing squalls rolling through for Friday night.
oh well, that just means it will be EXACTLY LIKE LAST YEAR!
slept in for an extra twenty minutes on Saturday morning - gotta love the local races - only to find that I'd neglected to switch the pedals back to the Fort from the 29er. guess I'll just have to hustle when I get there.
the snow started flying really flying while i was on the trainer, the spare bike wasn't in the pit.

got to the line, "shoot. my headset seems loose."
"don't you need a helmet?"
"damn! you're right." I'd rolled up on the start line with only a cycling cap on my head.
"yeah your headset really is loose."
...2 minutes till start...
back to the car for a lid and some speedy wrenching.

the B race, with a field of 20 or so, started with a whistle about 15 seconds after I got back to the line. the 45 minutes of racing were going to be tough and technical as the sun had reappeared, thawing the muddy lines, well worn from the elite masters' race before ours. the course was slick. we ended up doing 6 laps, just enough to make one question whether a bike swap was warranted, but, although there was plenty of mud, the bikes didn't seem to be accumulating too much making a swap, simply for a clean bike, seem inadvisable.



Postrace:

I hoofed it to the car for my woobie - yes, I brought a fleece blanket for after the race. laugh all you want; it was cold. a little later, due to an officiating error, I found I was listed as first place. that would be nice, but it simply wasn't true (plus they'd already payed out for first and second, so there wasn't really a chance to take the money and run). five minutes later we had it sorted out and I was fourth behind John Hostetter of C3 Solay. still a nice finish.

also, there was no bike wash area for after the race (boo).

after the race, my friend Parker, who'd arrived some time during lap 3 to cheer me on, and I hit up Muffin Street coffee shop, in downtown Lancaster. they serve some good espresso and soups.

-Matt Panas

AFC Documentary Movie... On Its Way!

The Documentary Movie will be available on DVD very soon. PHillyK is hoping to have it ready by next month (December '08). Here is what the DVD cover will look like:


-Pat
LoveLife!!

Order your own AFC jersey and Shorts!

Order Here

Thanks!!

Adam

Rockburn Cross!

Great job by the promoters of this race! Thanks so much to Howard County for being so supportive of this race! AFC had some really great results and it seemed like everyone had a great time. Colin, Adam, Steve, and Mike Z all had flats. Alex had a great race and his first win of the season in the Cat 3/4.

Results and pictures
AFC would like to Thank John Scott of BBC for these photos
Cat 4 race:
Patrick Blair: 2nd
Bill Wheeler: 31st

Mike Caputi: 67th

Colin Fergas: Mechincal

Cat 3/4 Masters:
David Tambeaux: 37th
Steve Klose: mechanical
Jim Klender: 50th
Mike Z: mechanical

Steve Klose in the B race later had mechanical problems.

Mike Z in the Master B race

Mike Z and Jim Klender in the Master B taking the technical turn

Cat 3/4
Alex Driscoll: 1st
Adam Driscoll: Mechanical
Matt Panas: 11th
Patrick Blair: 30th
Colin Fergus: DNF

Adam and Alex before the start of the 3/4 race!

Pat and Colin before the start of the Cat 3/4 race!

Matt over the barriers!

Alex on the final barrier before winning the race!

Under 18:
Jimmy Klose: 2nd

Lars Tambeaux: 5th

Lars looking steady and focused.

Cat 1,2,3 Masters:
Keith Rohr: 35th on his road bike:)

Keith on his road bike with road tires!!

Under 16:
Jimmy Klose: 1st
Tommy Klose: 8th
Holden Rohr: 6th
Avy Rohr: 11th

Tommy in the U16 Junior race back in the woods

Jimmy Klose in the U16 race

Holden int he U16 race back in the woods section

Avy running up the hill with bike

Cat 1,2,3
Adam Driscoll: Mechanical
Alex Driscoll: Doesn't matter since he did AMAZING IN FIRST RACE:)

Check out the MABGRA standings here:

Alex and Jimmy are both up there for the win in the Cat3/4, U16, and U18

New AFC Picture Gallery

Check it out!
http://adventuresforthecure.com/Pictures.php

-Pat
LoveLife!

AFC on Facebook

Join us on

-Pat
LoveLife!

DCCX == Awesome DAY

Great Course, Great People, Great Food, Great Spectators, Great Races

Pat after his race hanging out

Special day for one of our Juniors Tommy Klose. It was his Birthday and he did great in the U16 Junior race!

Tommy Klose racing on his 13th birthday!

AFC Junior Team

Awesome day especially for AFC!

CAT 4:

Patrick Blair: 23rd

B masters:

Steve Klose: 41st

David Tambeaux: 51st

CAT 3/4:

Alex Driscoll: 2nd **Special Race Report from Alex below.. comming soon**

Adam Driscoll: 3rd

Adam and Alex on the podium from the 3/4 race

Under 18

Jimmy Klose: 4th

Under 16:

Jimmy Klose:1st

Lars Tambeaux: 4th

Tommy Klose: 7th

Holden Rohr: 9th

Avy Rohr: 11th

Elite Masters:

Keith Rohr: 38th

Jimmy and Lars podium picture from the U16 race!


Avy and Holden Rohr just got done in the U16 race and eating some B-Day cake

Special Report from Alex 2nd place finisher in 3/4 race:

2008 DCCX - Day started off with a cold brisk morning and a tough race for Pat. Adam and Pat ran a 5k the day before and placed 1st and 3rd respectively. Pat was doing well in 4th or 5th then had a chain issue on one of the last laps and lost alot of time. Bikes and that guy just don't get along lately, but i'm sure his luck will change. Next up was David Tambeaux and Steve Klose both doing well in their races. After that was Adam and I in the 3/4 b race, and we finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. During the race there was a break of 4 front runners including Adam and I. In the middle of the race the 1st guy went down hard going around a turn. The 2nd guy Adam slammed right into him and the downed riders tire blew up and then the winner of the race squeezed by untouched. I then ran into Adam who was all over the trail by this point and lost about 5 seconds on the winner. I was working on catching the leader and doing my best up until I crashed into a lapped rider. My knee hit hard on the back of his bike and I lost another 5 seconds. Over all my race was good until this point but since i've started racing cross i've learned perfection is not something easily found. After finishing I learned Adam had a back tire slow leak. Could not have asked for a better day weather and course wise.

Granogue Cross

Steve Klose working the techincal course(also see his race report below)

A very technical but fun course had people all over the ground!

Cat 4 race: Mike Caputi, Patrick Blair

Pat in CAT 4 race coming down the steep downhill section

Masters B race:David Tambeaux,Jim Klender,Steve Klose

U19: Lars Tambeaux, Jimmy Klose

Cat 4 results:
Pat: 13th(LOTS of FALLS due to bike)
Mike Caputi: 80th

Masters B results:
David Tambeaux: 56th
Jim Klender: 61st
Steve Klose: 62nd

U19:
Jimmy Klose: 6th
Lars Tambeaux:

Jim Klender pounding on the up hill!

Race Report from Steve Klose: Granogue, Saturday, October 18, 2008

Granogue is an awesome venue for a cyclocross race. It’s an easy 90-minute trek by car up 95 North to Wilmington, DE. Before you even reach the actual race course, you can see “The Tower”, which immediately creates all kinds of associations with the various Granogue video footage you’ve been watching on YouTube over the last several days. You quickly realize that this is serious CX.

The morning started off clear, cool and breezy with the promise of coming warmth as the sun rose gradually over the hillside upon which sits The Tower. Two pre-ride loops revealed surfaces ranging from moist to downright soggy, owing not from any recent rain, but from a heavy dew.

Just thinking about the Granogue CX course brings a smile to my face even now. It’s characterized by a 20-meter steep run-up, one set of up hill man-made barriers, a hop-off-and-run-around-switchback tree thingy and an off-the-charts-sketchy series of steep downhill off-camber switchbacks, the latter of which caused me to spill on each of my two pre-rides. In between each of the above, you have either of two surfaces: off-road technical or paved and fast. The great thing is, even though there are obstacles, you feel like you are ON your bike most of the time. It is a very challenging (serious) and SUPER-FUN course to race.

At Granogue racers are issued not one but three (serious) race numbers to wear on their jerseys (side, shoulder, shoulder), and heats are sent off by starter pistol (serious) versus whistle, which I have found to be more typical.

Pat and Weezal were off with the Cat 4’s at first gun, followed shortly thereafter by Jimmy and Lars in the U19 Men. Between the Men’s Cat 4, the Women and the Juniors, there were a huge number of riders on the course starting at 9:15 am.

From my vantage point, everyone seemed to race very strongly, handling all the technical stuff with great aplomb. Despite being utterly distraught by the performance of his practically brand new Cannondale CX bike, Pat placed a VERY respectable 13th in the Men’s Cat 4. Weezal looked completely spent and satisfied with his typical “training is for wimps” approach. Jimmy was channeling Pat in being disappointed with his 6th place finish, just out of the money, and Lars raced very well until a mechanical on his brand-spanking new Fantom CX forced him to abandon early. He’ll have that thing DIALED IN for Rockburn, no doubt. I think Pat and Jimmy have each gotten a taste of the podium and now are both victims of their own high expectations. Great results guys!

The AFC/TMR throw-down went off with the Men’s Masters B Race at the 10:10 gun, and Dave (YDT), Jim (JK) and me (SteveMC) toeing the start line (well not exactly; Jim and I were kind of in the back). I was apprehensive about the potential carnage-to-come and got a slow start. Dave and Jim were ahead of me the whole race (and as I later learned battling each other) until I was able to catch and pass Jim on the last big run up. I could feel myself pulling away, but Jim would have none of it. I caught site of Dave as we made our way through the switchbacks at the base of The Tower and was able to holler encouragement (and to let him know I was there). However, as I was negotiating the tricky downhill off-camber switchbacks of the hillside (great spectator viewing section), I took a turn too wide and ended up unclipped and hung up on the red SRAM snow fence. Jim took a better line and passed on my left, never to be seen again, well at least not until the beer tent. Dave, Jim and I finished in that order, all within mere seconds of each other and with grins ear-to-ear.

Granogue has the whole après-race thing down-pat. Podium area centrally located with some of the best up-close race viewing on the course; Big John’s Bar-B-Q (I recommend the chicken sandwich); Free beer tent with kegs from Fordham (local micro affiliated with Rams Head Tavern) served in complimentary take-home glassware; Seven-piece rock-funk-blues band as tight as could be; Oh yeah, the weather was a “10”.

Granogue…seriously…you gotta go.

Iron Cross! WOW

AFC had another strong showing at Iron Cross almost winning the team competition with 4 of its 5 riders in Single Speed division. Pat had several mechnicals which did not allow him to finish.

racers in singlespeed division: Pat, Adam, Alex, Matt

racers in geared division: Greg

Alex and Adam finished 3rd and 4th together in the SS division with a time of 4hr 31minutes

Alex and Adam racing with a nice geared guy we met on the road section

Adam receiving 3rd place award in SS division

Matt Panas finished in 5hours 2minutes

Matt Panas racing on his SingleSpeed!

Greg finished 5hours 41minutes

Pat lots of mechanical problems and would of finished around 5hours but got a DNF

Pat climbing one of the steep hills

Here is a special report from Greg aka "the Goat" who did really really well in this race:

So, here goes. Sug calls me on Friday and says I should do Ironcross on Sunday. I tell him he must be out of his mind and I am in no way, no how in shape for such an incredibly ridiculous adventure/cyclocross race. I can barely finish the normal cyclo courses. He insists that he thinks I could do it b/c I am tough. This would be my longest ride in months and off-road (mostly) to boot. He states that he needs a 5th guy for the team challenge and after me continuously telling him that I don't belive I could even finish half the distance of such a race, I finally decide what the heck and I had committed.

I purchased some 700x35c tires from bike escape in Frederick and three tubes. Its 6pm I get home, try to put the tires and tubes on, I get the front tube and tire on, not much problem. Then I move to the rear wheel, where I pinch flat a tube. Now I determine that I will only have one more shot at this as I only have one more tube. I put the tube in, pssssshh. I may be out of the race before it even starts. I had something to do on Saturday, so I would not be able to get to a bike shop in time on Saturday to get another tube. So, I decide to go to Wal-mart with a long shot of them having a tube that will fit. They did have tubes, however they were shrader valve and they didn't fit, so I found some Slime patches and purchased them, slapped them on the two pinched tubes and I was ready to go, hoping and praying they wouldn't flat on me during the race. Short story, the tube never flatted; until this afternoon when I walked out from work and my rear tire is flat. The rear tire that had the patch. That's ironic.

I started with the sub-5hr group with sug, alex, pat and matt. We start and then in the begining spiraling section, less than 3 mins in the race a rider hits the tape barrier, and crashes, so nicely laying himself and his bicycle right in front of my front tire. I can't brake fast enough and I hit him and his bike and fly to the ground. Matt didn't get the full grunt of the accident and was able to get up rapidly and continue. I hop up, thinking that was a good start and continue. I can't wait to get out of this freaking spiral. Probably looks awesome from the sky, but from where I was on the ground, it sucked at that point in time. As we enter the first trail/fire road I decide to settle in at a decent pace and plan and ride my own pace and let the others fly by. We reach the first wooded trail section that was mountain bike worthy mostly and only and I decide I can so run faster than I am biking. So, I hop off and start running, eating up people and finally catch a woman, who is surprised that I am just running the trail and lets me by. I then forget to grab my water bottle and it flew out of my jersey without my knowing. I put my bike down and realize its missing, I really need that bottle, so I leave the bike and venture back for my bottle, find it and continue onward. Not long afterwards we climb the most ridiculous hill ever, extremely steep, lose rock and sand, you take a step and lose two of them. Half way up, your back hurts, and the only time you can pass anyone is when they quit and step off or slip enough that you can quickly over take them. It was brutal. And at the top was check point 1. After check point one, I hear a voice beside me say " a fellow TMR rider" and this is when I meet Paul on his mountain bike. We exchange greetings and then a few people on cyclocross bikes flyby us and I decide to latch on. Hoping that I will not see him again, but later on he blew me away for good I am pretty sure. He was fitter than I. Then I realize not too far later that my seat position is not so great and it keeps numbing my nether regions and I can't take it anymore, so I stop and make some adjustments. A lot better now, but not near perfect, but I can manage it.

The race goes lots of fire roads and paved roads for a long time and then and all is well. I am pacing myself dutifully. We climb again up another ridiculous hill, not as bad as the first, but not far off, not far off at all. I start thinking this is fun, but it sure hurts like the beee-jesus.

This is a close break down of the checkpoints. CP 1 14 miles in, CP 2 28.5 miles in, CP3 44 miles in, CP4 49 miles in, and then the finish is roughly 13 miles further. That's odd, there is only 5 miles in between CP3 and CP4. There is such a reason for this. It goes up, up and up some more with probably 10 false summits, that left you swearing everything under the sun. Many, many people were walking these sections, some crawling. I decided that I wasn't going to walk any of it and gutted it out. I finally get to a nice down hill and I am cruising, watching or potholes and turn markers and out of nowhere an extreme sharp left turn, off camber and thick/soft gravel on the exteriors. I stop in time and make the turn (and notice straight marks, where someone had abuptly slammed on the brakes and missing the sharp turn......and to find out later that its where sugar and alex went down). I begin my acceleration and I get sucked into the loose stuff and I get thrown off my bike and did a nice flip, first striking my right palm into the ground in a superman esque maneuver and then quickly rolling onto my back where I crushed my banana in my pocket and squish my water bottle, exploding all of its insides over the canvas of my back. At first I didn't know if it was blood or what, I just knew that I was really wet. Bruised and cut, but still in one piece. Guy behind me saw me whip out. After a few more tough climbs that I made bikable though others chose to do afoot, I make it to checkpoint 4, tired, but still alive. Only 13 miles left, I can definitely do this and I start pushing harder where I can and catch some more people and battle the same ones for most of the rest of the race. My advantage was that I stayed on the bike on all the climbs that I could and therefore during the last half of the race, gained the respect of a few fellow riders and on one of the climbs, they saw that I wasn't planning on getting off my bike, as I passed they gave me a little extra push that helped a lot, but then 40 meters later just before the crest of the hill, I just had nothing and fell over laughing. In a state of euphoria and confusion. Then got up and continued on. They asked if I was alright. And I said yes, hoped up and got back on the horse as I didn't want to get passed by them anymore......and I didn't by all except one. Instead my motivation was to put as much distance between them and myself as I could. It wasn't until we hit the road with a few miles to go, that one of them caught me, and we shifted into a big ring and biggest gears and just hammered. I kept at it until we kept hitting the hills, and I just lightenedu up, then would go hard again, and then started catching him again, but then we entered Camp Thompson and again and I didn't have enough real estate and relaxed. It was fun, it was painful and I like it a lot better than normal cyclocross, b/c its not so much about speed as it is finding out how to battle yourself and your toughness and continuing on, on and on. The strangest thing was how I would go from complete exhaustion, to feeling fresh and recovered throughout the day. It was fun.

Goat finishing the grueling 63 mile race with one last barrier:)

Adventures For the Cure Signed for RAAM 2009

See it here

We are still looking for Support people for this race. Email us at adventuresforthecure@gmail.com if you are interested.

Thanks!

Adam

Breast Cancer Awareness Race and Jimmy's Day!

Another great race in Hagerstown, MD. AFC had another great showing minus the several mechanicals by Adam(flatx2), Mike W(flat), Weezal(rear derailer in pieces), and Matt P(chain).

First race of the day was by Pat and Greg in the Cat 4 race!
Pat: 5th place
Greg: 16th

Next race was Jim Klender and Mike West! This was Jim's second race and he was rolling on that mountain bike! Mike also did really well considering he had a flat.

Jim Klender very poised!

After the masters race was the 3/4 B race with Adam, Alex, and Pat(2nd race). Along with them Jimmy started a few seconds after the B race! Adam got a great start but on the first steep hill climb got a really loud flat and was very far from the pit so had to run close to 1 mile:) Alex continued and did well in his first B race with a 4th place finish close to Chris Mayhew. Pat did well considering this was his second race of the day! This was definitely a great day by Jimmy Klose who won the U18 race and later went on to win the U16 race!! WOW

Later was the U16 which featured Jimmy, Tommy(Jimmy's brother), and Alec. Seems like AFC has a lot of brothers! Tommy looked very strong on his mountain bike and finish 4th while Alec youngest competitor out there with his mountain bike which could of weighed as much has him:)

Left to Right Jimmy, Tommy, Alec ready to start!

Special report from Alec in the U16 race at 1:30:

Okay, so there's so many things to talk about. Let's start with the BIG hill. It was very rocky and felt like it was almost vertical. It was about 15 feet tall. I tried to run it, but actually walked it. On the second lap, Alex D. (Thank you Alex) helped me get my bike up it. Darn hill. After that, there was some gravel. And then there was a slanted hill (off-camber) that was very bumpy. I did not like it. Then we went around a bunch of turns and little hills. And then the sand pit. It looked easy but it wasn't actually easy. On the first lap I had to push my bike through it. On the second lap, I made it riding through it. Then we rode in kind of a square on a flat place. And then down a short hill, u-turn, and then back around and back up the hill. I could never ride my bike up the hill. Then there was the finish line, but it wasn't actually the finish line until you did a couple of laps. I did 2 laps like I was supposed to. That made me happy. Oh, wait, I forgot about the barriers. They were before the sand pit and I did fine with them.

Alec running with bike up STEEP hill!

Thank you to all the AFC guys for staying and cheering for me.

Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross

This was another great cyclocross event at Lillyponds in Buckeystown, MD.

AFC had a great showing with 10 people in the race.

Cat 4 race
Alex: 1st
Pat: 11th
Greg(Goat): 36th

Cat 3/4 Masters
Mike W: 46th
Steve(MC): 48th

Juniors(10-16)
Avy: 13th
Holden: 3rd
Tommy: 8th

Cat 3/4
Adam: 2nd
Keith: 31st

Full results here

Now we have a special report from Avy and Holden who were both in the Juniors races:

Avy:

Avy coming down the very steep downhill section

In the beginning, I was scared that it was going to be too tough for me, because I was the youngest person signed up for the juniors race. Then I got confidence in myself to do the race and get a good placement. I was happy with my placement even though I was second to last, because I wasn't last and that was something I was worrying about. My dad took me for a practice lap and I almost missed the beginning of my race! When the race began it was raining. It felt very nice because I was sweating. Two boys went down in front of me and I almost went down with them, but instead I went around them. I knew my bike was really heavy and I was afraid the barriers were going to slow me down. The thing I didn't like about the race was the part where I had to walk through all that mud and it felt gross because I wasn't used to it. The run up was the hardest part of the race because I couldn't get my bike up that hill so Mr. Mike helped me. When I got down the steep hill the announcer said that I was the youngest person in the race and to give me a hand. It made me feel very good because I knew that I was doing a good job. I crashed once where I went down the hill and flipped over my bike. I got up quickly and and didn't get passed. I was glad that the sand pit (endo pit) wasn't built up this year because I probably would have lost time or crashed if i had to ride my bike through that. On the second lap Mr. Chris helped my over the barriers because I was getting so tired. When I got near the pit my dad squirted me off with the hose-that felt really good!!! When I was going up the hill close to the finish line I was catching up to a boy that had passed me and crashed in the beginning. I was so close to passing him but I was too tired. I crossed the finish line with a lady named Betsy Shogren. Lilypons was very fun and I enjoyed it and the mud.

Holden:

In the morning the rainy forecast made me kinda nervous. I was thinking the rain might have made the course very slippery. Then I realized it would be my second race at Lilypons and only my second time on my Dad's cross bike-the Lemond Poprad. When we left our house and got on the road we saw that Mr. Klose was right behind us and that Tommy and Mr. Fabella were in the car too. Once we arrived, I noticed that last year's "endo pit" was not built up and they left it flat. They probably thought the course was hard enough with all the rain we had. I was interested to find out that LilyPonds is named after a Metropolitan Opera singer. My piano teacher mentioned it to me before I came and then I noticed a plaque at the Farm. Unfortunately I was unable to ride my warm up, since my dad was using the Poprad too. I was really proud of all the AFC team members who raced before us like Adam, Alex, Mr. Klose, Mr. Mike, Pat, Goat and my Dad. Then I got to thinking to myself "Heck, if Pat has the courage to race with a cast on his broken wrist then why wouldn't I want to race". My Dad took my sister on her warm up lap to pre ride the course and Tommy and I lined up for our race. Avy barley made it back in time for the race to start! They lined up the women and then we just went. I got close to Justin up front like my mom told me too and Tommy was next to me. At first when I saw the barriers I was scared they would slow me down a lot, but then I got in front of some people. Tommy was ahead of me and then when we went between the two ponds I saw Tommy and then a lady, so I went left and passed them. Then we had the deep mud trench and I got off my bike and pushed it through. On the gravel road I deliberately went through the puddles to refresh myself. I really enjoyed once you got off the gravel section and back onto the trail section with the announcer and big hill. I dragged my bike up the hill and it was pretty steep and then rode down the steep section. I think I passed most of the people in the very beginning. Whenever I saw other AFC people I got more energy. Near the end I felt like I was going to throw up but, I finished and found out I got third place. I think Tommy did really well for his first race and I think this was my best race ever.

Tommy coming down the very steep downhill section

Adam very muddy finished 2nd in the Cat3/4 race

Keith very composed in the Cat 3/4 race!

Charm City Cyclocross race in Druid Hill Baltimore

Awesome race put on by C3 team! AFC helped with this event by setting up the course and breaking it down. We also had the first ever Beer Garden! This was a big hit and we hope we can do this at other races!

AFC had a big turnout in this event!

Cat 4:
Pat: 27th
Alex: 1st
Mike: 75th

Keith in long run in the sand pit

Pat working hard going uphill. Notice the GREEN CAST!

Masters 3/4:
Keith 23rd
Steve: 52nd
Dave: 54th
Mike W: will be back next week:)

Steve(MC) getting back on his bike after sand pit

Cat 3/4:
Adam: 5th
pat: 62nd
Matt Panas: will be back:)

Adam on a warm up. Notice his OmniPod(insulin pump) on his left arm

U19 Juniors:
Avy: 3rd
Holden: 10th
Lars: 6th
Jimmy: 3rd

Here is a special report from Jimmy Klose first Cyclocross race:

My race was the Superfan U19, at the Charm City Cross Race. We were the first race of the day with the official blowing his whistle at 9 a.m. on a picture perfect Sunday morning. Fellow AFC riders in the race were, Lars Tambeaux, Alec West, and Holden and Avy Rohr. It was a slow course at first, but as the race went on it began to dry out and was really fast. My favorite part of the course was the twisty hill leading up to some barriers. I had some problems, including not being able to clip back into my pedals after the sand pit and having my chain fall off after the big set of barriers. On the positive side, I got back on my bike smoothly and was able to ride smooth and fast on the turns. Now for the details of the race itself. I got off to a slow start but passed a couple people on the prologue. Seeing some of the kids that I knew were going to be a challenge to beat, they were already about 150 yards ahead. Good thing it was a 40 minute race. As I road past some women and flew up the hills, I finally saw some juniors in sight. I recognized them from the Turkey day race and knew that I could catch up as they slowed. Once I caught up with them I pulled way ahead and maintained a steady pace. On my third lap around I crossed the finish line with Alex who was competing in the Cat 4 race. As he finished happily, I still had one lap to go. For the last lap I was all by myself and crossed the finish line in 3rd place. It was a great day for everyone and since this was my first race I plan to do many more and keep practicing.

Next week Ed Sander!!