Tour de Gap 2012 is just around the corner! Come ride with us on a great ride for a great cause on Saturday, July 28. Visit our website at http://tourdegap.wordpress.com/ for registration and route information. We'd love to see you there!

October ABC Road Time Trial Results

Wow. Was it ever windy at the time trial! There was a strong south wind blowing the entire time so the times are a bit slower than normal. Here are the results:

1. Richard McLamore - 25:52
2. Luke Allen - 27:19
3. Greg Allen - 28:00
4. Luis Anderson - 29:03
5. Chuck Patton - 29:48
6. Ronny Koehn - 30:48
7. Jonathan Martin - 32:13
8. Todd Sage - 32:32
9. Travis Green - 36:00
10. Caitlin Hanisco - 36:11
11. Drew McConnell - 37:41
12. Yetro Eliaita - 37:48
13. Genienne Koehn - 41:01
14. Vera Garcia - 49:59
DNF - Craig Jones (flat tire)

We're so glad you all came out and rode! This was the last ABC time trial of the season. Look for them to start back up in the spring.

IMBA Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day

Next Saturday, October 1, is the IMBA (International Mountain Bicycling Association) Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. Make plans now to bring your kids out to Buck Creek Trails from 9:00 am till noon. Come for the whole time or just a bit of it. Just make sure you join in for part of it! Many thanks to Bill and Beth Shelton for heading this up here in Abilene. It should be fun! If you have any questions about it, feel free to give us a call.

September Road Time Trial Results

Another time trial is in the books. Here are the results:

1. Gaylon Knowlton - 23:01
2. Richard McLamore - 24:19
3. Patrick Stevenson - 25:11
4. Christeen Hodge - 25:19
5. John Freemire - 25:35
6. Craig Jones - 26:23
7. Chuck Patton - 27:44
8. Ron Cost - 28:02
9. John Pugsley - 30:08
10. Caitlin Hanisco - 31:40
11. Yetro Eliaita - 33:44
12. Mike Heddinger - 34:16


Thanks for coming out and riding, everyone! There will be one more time trial this season. The October one will be on Thursday, October 6. Since it will be getting dark earlier, we will move the time up by 30 minutes this next time. So, sign up will be at 5:30 pm and the first rider will take off at 6:00. Hope to see you there!

Road Time Trial Tonight

It's the first Thursday of September which means it's time for the road time trial! Come join us at Mueller's on FM 18. Sign up will begin at 6:00 pm and the first rider will take off at 6:30 on the 10 mile loop. Please bring a non-perishable food item as your entry fee. This will be donated to the Food Bank. We finally have a forecast that doesn't give us a high in the triple digits, so come out and enjoy riding in the "cooler" weather.

Luke Update #2

Here is the latest update from Luke. Enjoy!

We raced the "EKZ" Swiss cup race Monday. The course was a four lap race with punchy climbs and descents.  It was much more extreme than any course I have raced on in the States. It included a two foot log drop, a 4 foot gap jump (which was optional; it could be bypassed but you would lose about 10 seconds and get passed by about 5 guys), a super steep switchback that was almost impossible on a 29er, and, best of all, a super sketchy downhill steeper than any I have ever ridden. On top of that, the downhill was slick with mud and had a huge rut down the middle. I was so gassed in the race that I endoed here on the third lap in front of tons of spectators! Luckily, I landed on some nice orange pads laying on stacked hay. The course, however, did not have the rocks that we have at Buck Creek.

At the start line we got interviewed as team USA for German TV, which was totally awesome! We had to start at the very back of over 40 racers though, which was not ideal. One thing that is awesome about the Europe racing scene is the spectators are not just parents lining the course, but tons of fans yelling in foreign languages. I can happily say that there were at LEAST the number of spectators there as there are at a Wylie Bulldogs football game.

We moved up quickly once the race started and formed a train of me, Lucas (US national champ), and Keegan who was 2nd at Nats. Zach and Joe were not too far behind us.  The Europe kids were aggressive and had no problem elbowing you for a better position going into the singletrack. I ended up finishing the race in 12th, 56 seconds behind Lucas.  It was also pretty cool seeing juniors racing for the actual Specialized team, and beating them! The race was age category 15-17, so some of the top guys were older. I missed the podium by less than two minutes!  Our next race, the World Cup, is Saturday and should be huge. Racing in Europe sure does make you glad you are a bike racer, because it is the sport here! We Americans were some of the only guys that did not have someone holding an umbrella over us at the start line for shade, whereas in America only the pros do that.  The food here is duh-lish! I will probably not be ready to leave come next Monday!

-Luke Allen

Thanks for the update, Luke. It sounds like you're having a great time. Good luck at the World Cup!

Luke and Team USA

Luke Allen, Abilene native and BikeTown employee, got the chance to race over in Europe as part of the USA Cycling Development Team. He left for Germany on August 18th and will spend about a week racing over there. He's sending a few blurbs back to us to share with everyone here on the blog. So, read and enjoy a bit of Luke's adventure.

I arrived here in Germany yesterday. I did not sleep on the plane, except for about an hour before the flight attendant woke me up to ask if I wanted a drink... We met up with four other guys in the Frankfurt, Germany airport, the first and second place guys from nationals, the top 15 year old, my teammate Zach Carlson who was fourth at nationals, and then me.  USA cycling selected five guys based on results from nationals, the ProXCT series which is a national series around the states, and the regional camp we attended in Colorado Springs in early June. It is very cool here in Germany, and the mountains are beautiful. They are super thick with huge trees mixed with patches of green "golf-course" looking grass. Everyone speaks crazy German, but it's okay because I do, too. Well, just "your fly is unzipped" because my mom says that in German, because her mom said that to her brothers in German growing up. Today we are racing a "smaller" race in Switzerland with about 30 15-16 year old juniors registered. Our coach said the Swiss junior national team will be there and they are wicked fast, along with the Rabobank junior team. We race at 1:30, and got our "USA" team kits yesterday. They are sweet! My bike and gears are performing great so far thanks to Jim and Gary at BikeTown! Thanks everyone for the support! I will try to write again later this week before the big world cup at the end of this week.

-Luke Allen
 

We've known and ridden with Luke for many years now, and it's great to see him get the chance to race at this level. His hard work is paying off. Good luck, Luke!