Chagrin Falls CX

So, while EVERYONE decided to hit up the gnarly cross race in WV, a few of us decided to venture west and see what Ohio had to offer at the Chagrin Falls CX race presented by Solon Cycles. Weather: leaving da 'burgh at 8 am gave us hope of a clear day, 65 degrees, somewhat overcast, and a lack of rain. However, that quickly changed to some good old cross weather, 48, drizzle, and windy...... just what you'd expect..... nice.

The course...... I would call it 'multiple personality.' A typical cross course with a mix of grass, the standard run-up barriers, one short sandy-mud pit, some fast lines through a pine tree section, two greasy singletrack/mtn bike sections, and a sharp right hand turn section that you could not miss because if you did, you'd end up in a river..... literally. But, that made for a great course that made you feel like you were riding a different race in every section. Kudos to the course designer

The first race of the day was the Men's C race. A solid field of about 30-35 started out with Mike Quigley representing Pittsburgh and Pro Bikes. Mike quickly got off the line and established himself in 2nd place and didn't look back. Mike slugged it out with an unknown Ohioan for the first three laps and then turned it on, passing the 1st place rider and putting a 20 second gap into him as he crossed the line for his first WIN in a CX race! Nice job to Mike and all the C racers.

The B race/women's race then hit the line ready to rock with a field of 50. Right off the start Pro Bikes riders Todd Schoeni and Jake Grantham got rolling, avoided the yard sale of a wreck off the start, made it into the in the top 7 and settled in. The race twisted and turned, Jake took a fast line and moved up to second and Todd followed him through the muddy singletrack with a Snakebite racer in tow. Things got hairy in the singletrack and Todd passed Jake on the 4th lap and moved up to second with Snakebite racer STILL on his wheel. Jake hung in and we sat three in a row for about 1 lap until Todd put a 20 second gap into Snakebite man and Jake. First place had a comfortable gap of about 35 seconds and couldn't be reeled in and Todd crossed the line in 2nd and Jake came in 4th. 2 podium spots in 1 race, nice job guys!!

The women's race was a little different.... 6 women started. The emphasis was on quality, not quantity, in this field. Lee-Ann Beatty ( Hershey Cancer Institute/Pro Bikes), Sam House ( Carbon Racing), Leah Halloran, and Michelle Johnson ( Trek of Pittsburgh) were four STRONG women headlining the field that took off about 1 minute after the men's B race. Once they hit the course, it soon became apparent that the C race and the flurry of B racers had done some significant plowing of that course. Lee-Ann took the hole shot and has Sam and Leah right on her wheel. Once they hit the singletrack sections though, Lee-Ann utilized her mtn bike skills and started putting distance between herself and the field; drilling it all the way to a 1st place finish! Leah finished 2nd and Sam came in shortly behind her in 3rd. Michelle missed the podium by ONE SPOT and finished 4th in her first cross race! Great job LA and MJ, and to all!

No report on the elite race, we were trying to lift our muddy 50lb bikes into the truck and high-tail it to Bob Evans. But, the pancakes were delicious.....

-Todd

Pro Bikes @ Murrysville Cross

Or

Awesome Race Weekend!

WOW! What a great weekend for racing in the Pittsburgh Area! So many events, so little time! You had your choice of mountain bike, road bike, or time trial, all in the city or 2 hours away! First off, The G20 Summit race on saturday. Pro Bikes and affiliate teams represented very, very well with Craig Cozza taking a 3rd place podium spot in the men's 4/5 criterium and an overall win in the Men's 4/5 category prologue and criterium! Steel City Endurance women's rider, Rachel Teodori, took the win in the women's open criterium as well!

Saturday also had some great mountain biking in Bethlehem, Pa. at the annual Peanut Butter Festival. Pro Bikes rider, Justin Pokrivka, took a 1st place finish overall in the men's division and also SET A NEW COURSE RECORD!!! Congrats Justin! Don Powers took a respectable 2nd place finish in the men's age group 30-39, and Heath Neely took a 3rd place finish in the Single Speed class. Great job to all!!!

While those two races on Saturday were only going on for a couple of hours, three Pro Bikes riders set off to Ohio to race the 12 and 24hrs of Mohican mountain bike race. The Pro Bikes duo of Tim Mould and Lauren Mika took a well-deserved victory in the open duo class of the 12 hr race. They WON 1st place by one minute! Great job to both of you, way to race hard!! Also, Jacob Grantham tackled the 24hr solo division at Mohican and came back home with a 2nd place finish, completing 13 laps and tallying up almost 130miles of singletrack!

On Sunday, the annual "Month of Mud" series kicked off with a mountain bike time trial at Bavington. Pro bikes Rider Tim Carson took an impressive 1st place in the men's expert division, Justin Pokrivka took 1st place in the Single Speed division, Craig Cozza took 1st place in the men's veteran expert division, and Lee-Ann Beatty took a hard-fought 2nd place in the women's expert class only losing by 1 second!! Great job to ALL of you at the race!

And finally, we head North to Erie, Pa. for the Presque Isle Time Trial. UPMC Cycling Performance and Steel City Endurance showed up ready to ride. Steel City Endurance rider, Barb Grabowski, took a strong 2nd place finish in the women's overall. While Eric Milbrandt of UPMC Cycling Performance took an impressive 1st place finish in the men's overall with a fast time of 26:29, and Skip Rogers took a great 1st place win in the men's 55-59 age group. Congrats to all who made that trip!

Thanks to all the participants and spectators at EVERY event this weekend. We've got a great cycling community, some great races, and we're ready to help it grow! Thanks to all,

Todd Schoeni
Pro Bikes

Been A While (A Season Recap)

Wow, I was the dude who helped come up with this here team blog thing and I have slacked BIG time this season. My apologies to the team and shop. It's been a busy season of endurance racing for sure. The season started off with the Camp Hilbert 5 Hour Enduro down near Richmond, Virginia, and then it was on to the Leesburg Bakers Dozen (solo). The LBD is an incredible race on some very Boyce Park like trails, but aborted after I hit my 100+ mile goal (I was coming off a DVT and didn't want to get too crazy too soon, at least that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!).

Next up was the Mohican 100. I got my goal of a sub 10 hour hundie at that one and had a great time along with teammates Aaron Shelmire and Don Powers. One month later it was off to The Lumberjack 100 in Michigan. I once again finished so far off the podium I'm not even sure what the podium looked like, BUT I did also once again, somehow drag my BONKED and sorry ass across the finish in under 10 hours. That was Big Ass Bonk #1 on the season (foreshadowing!).

Pre bonk at The Lumberjack (AKA The Big M'fer)

One week later I joined Don and Tim Carson on the drive out to the WVMBA Wayne Ultra. A 50 mile race one week after a 100 mile race SEEMED like a great idea. It was fun, and the trails were great, but I was happy just to finish and take a little rest. Of course "rest" is easier said than done being that I spent the summer looking after my 5 year old most of the day and considering that last spring I left my job and started up a web based endurance magazine called XXC. Both of those things are VERY cool and VERY fun, but also a lot of work, and combined with my lame attempts at "training" lead to very little rest.

Soon it was time for the Wilderness 101 crawled to the finish. But I did finish, and that's about all. I had sworn off any more . This race started out great and the first 50 to 60+ miles flew by. But not long after that I hit a bonk/wall of freaking EPPPPIC proportions! I practiclyenduros for the year, but endurance racing is sort of an illness. It wasn't more than two days after the race and I found myself signing up for the Shenandoah Mountain 100.


The SM100 could be the most fun you can have on two wheels! Epic climbs and some of the best down hill runs around! I had an incredible time at this race. The only downside was ONCE again bonking at about mile 75. Good God I have NO idea how I finished that race, but I did, even though it took me like 11 freaking hours! UG!! With that finish I qualified for the NUE Series this year. Sure I spent hundreds of dollars to finish MAYBE in last place in the series, but it was a goal, and I did it. And I'm damn happy about that. I owe Don Powers a lot of credit. I almost bailed on both the 101 and the SM100 and he shamed me into doing them. He's pretty good at that so if you ever need a good shaming to force yourself to register for a race, just call Don.

My racing is pretty much done for the year. There MIGHT be one more, maybe Iron Cross, but right now I'm just looking forward to some epic rides up in the mountains with the goal of having fun and drinking some good beer when I'm done. I wish the folks on the team gearing up for Cross season the best of luck this season. I thought about doing some, but with nearly 600 miles of endurance racing in my legs, I think chilling and enjoying the mountains are what's in store for me.

Big thanks to the Monroeville shop and especially Tim Carson for helping me keep my bikes in shape this season. Awesome job Tim! Much appreciated! I wish the season would have had better results for me, but anytime you can spend all day in the saddle of a mountain bike is a great day. EVEN if sometimes you bonk and vurp Hammer Gel all over yourself. Right? RIGHT???

Thanks,

Jason Mahokey

BikePGH's BikeFest 2009

Pro Bikes is a proud of BikePGH's 2009 BikeFest.

BikeFest is BikePGH's annual celebration of all thing bike. Showcasing our incredible city and our amazing cycling scene. BikeFest brings together roadies, mountain bikers, BMXers, and casual riders to enjoy life good times on two wheels, and raise money to support a bike friendly PIttsburgh.

For more information on BikeFest and BikePGH, visit bike-pgh.org or stop in a Pro Bikes location near you and ask us what this whole BikePGH BikeFest thing is all about!

Race to Lil Moe's Place

WVMBA #6

7/5/09

By Don Powers

Well here are the stats....

Distance driven - 269 miles

Drive time - 4hr 30 mins

Race distance - 1.83 miles

Race time - 8 min 12 sec

Then this happens:

That is 6 broken spokes! How does a spoke get that tangled around you skewer and brake rotor?

2009 24 Hours of Big Bear

ProBikes had a huge showing of teams at the 24 hours of Big Bear this year, and was possibly brought to victory by the new jerseys the team got in over the past week.

LeeAnn Beatty, Michelle Johnson, Lauren Mika and Cristina Frentiu made up the VeloBellas team that was engaged in a back and forth battle to the finish for a win in the Womens Expert Category. Jake Grantham, Jason Durba, Craig Cozza, Jimmy Holl, and Brian Parker dominated the Men's 5 person teams as the ProBikes Fab Five. Mike Rosenberg came in 2nd in the trials competition and was part of the Pro Bikes Sport team.


ProBikes riders nearly monopolized the Women's Solo Class Podium with 1st and 2nd place locked up by Suz Falvey and Chrissy Buerkle respectively. In the men's Solo Category ProBikes rider John McClurg came back from some early stomach problems in the hot and humid weather to finish out 7 laps.


Pro Bikes riders Todd Schoeni and Tim Mould joined forces with West Virginia's Andy and Larry to battle it out for a win in the category that most slightly insane 24 hour racers never even think of entering, the HardMan's Rigid Singlespeed.

ProBikes riders Don Powers and Aaron Shelmire rode on their Argyle clad team once again coming into a 3rd place finish in the Men's Expert Category, and barely holding off the ProBikes 5 person team to finish 4th place overall to their 5th place finish.

Congrats to all the Pro Bikes racers
at this year's 24 Hours of Big Bear!