Saturday Ride May 27th, NewSpring 8:00am

Saturday ride leaving Newspring Community Church parking area @ 8:00am. Very casual pace and no-one gets dropped ride of 37 miles. Will leave Newspring and ride to Tuesday night course via Shackleford and Walker Rd. Should arrive downtown Pendleton around 8:50am if anyone wants to meet us there. Mike Madden says he'll arrive about 10 minutes earlier than the rest of the group if you want to meet @ 8:40 in downtown Pendleton!!

Some will ride a casual paced second loop. If you come late and want to join us for the second loop you should be near the intersection of Five Forks and Timms Mill Rd around 9:50am. If we are not there just reverse the course until you find us.

Let me know if anyone is interested in riding on Monday. I'll post a ride if there is interest.

Tuesday Night Ride Crash

Ryan Robinson went down last night during the Tuesday Night Ride. The crash involved a vehicle backing out of a driveway. Ryan suffered a broken wrist and a minimum amount of road rash. We wish Ryan a speedy recovery and we hope to see you out on the road soon.

Chambers hits new High Point at Lowes TT series > 27.6mph!!!

The Lowes Motor Speedway Time Trial series continued last night for the 2nd race of the season. Bob Chambers once again rose to the occasion and broke the course record for his age group with a time of 21:42:06. That's a mind boggling average speed of 27.6mph. The record stood for 12 minutes until the previous record holder took the the track and bested Bob by 11 seconds. Included below is an excerpt from Bob's post race report.

"Well, the course record for the 50-55 age group was 21:47.03. Note I said WAS. My time for the evening ... 21:42.60! A NEW COURSE RECORD! ... for about 12 minutes. Then the previous holder of the course record finished his run in a new course record of 21:31.?? AAAARRRrrrrrggggghhhhh! I didn't even get to savor those 12 minutes 'cuz I delayed in going over to see the results getting posted. But I'm not gonna complain. 27.6 mph! And I didn't have a heart attack." BobChambers

Congratulations Bob! We look forward to future reports.

Six Anderson SC Triathletes Conquer Whitelake for their first ½ Ironman finish.

Anderson had 7 triathletes attempting to finish their first ½ ironman distance triathlon this past Saturday. It’s amazing enough for anyone to complete this formidable distance but to have 6 athletes from Anderson to do it on the same day is simple incredible. The distance includes a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. Congratulations to Nadine Jacobs, Chase Bailey Dorton, Lori Seiler, David Turner, Russ Lott and Nancy Richmond. Chris Bell also from Anderson had to withdraw due to mechanical failure and a knee injury at mile 50 on the bike. Russ Lott posted a remarkable 5hr 31minute finish to lead the way for the first time 1/2 finishers.

Official results should post sometime Monday afternoon @ http://www.set-upinc.com/rp5/wlhalf/wlhalf.shtml

Saturday Ride NewSpring @ 8:30am April 5th

Saturday Ride leaving NewSpring @ 8:30am. Casual pace and no-one gets dropped ride of approximately 37 miles. We'll ride from NewSpring to Five Forks Rd. via Shackleburg and Walker Rd. Should arrive downtown Pendleton around 9:25am for those wanting to meet us there. The weather is looking great with clear skies and 70's temps predicted.

Ryan Robinson Tames Tour de Cashiers Mt. Time Trial on April 29th.

Many of you know Ryan Robinson. He's buckled down and become really serious about his cycling in the last couple of years and he's getting some fantastic results. One of his main objectives for this year is to be a top finisher at the famed Mt. Washington Hillclimb in New Hampshire which will be held August 19. That grueling event is a 7.6 mile climb that averages 12% with grades as high as 22% in spots.

In preparation for that, Ryan took part in the Tour de Cashiers Mountain Time Trial on April 29 in Cashiers, NC. Ryan was the defending champion and he defended. That event is a 2.5 mile climb with an average grade of 6.5% and maximum grades in excess of 13% (not unlike Caesar's Head). Ryan blitzed the course in 10:54, beating his previous winning time by 42 seconds. That time represents an average speed of 14 mph which is a blistering pace for such a steep ascent. The second place finisher came in 58 seconds behind Ryan and that guy finished 5th at Mt. Mitchell last year. In third was a Cat. 1 pro cyclist.

Ryan will continue his prep for the Mt. Washington event by competing in the 24th Annual Town Mountain Hill Climb in Asheville on Friday, May 5. Town Mountain is a 5 mile time trial to a mountaintop finish. Ryan was second last year and this year he's gunning to dethrone last year's winner, a top regional pro named Andy Applegate. Lets all be rooting for Ryan this Friday!
Author: Bob Chambers