CycleYouth
CycleYouth copyright 2008
CycleYouth trademark 2008
March 8
by Malcolm Quehl
Seth Kemp and Ethan Quehl went to the Clemson DH race for a fun day racing and hanging out. The day started out cold and windy. Pro Expert field was about 20 racers. Most notable was Chris Herndon, factory Specialized, current Nation Champion in dual slalom in the elite division. [The] Course started out a little wet from the rain and snow moving through the area, but racing turned out fantastic. Our 2 racers finished the day 2nd (Ethan) and 3rd (Seth) to Chris Herndon by 6 seconds and 7 seconds. Their first run was 2:18 for both of them with Herndon running a 2:12. Seth and Ethan were tied to the 1000th of a second at 2:18. They all got a second run. Herndon ran a 2:10 with Ethan running a 2:16 and Seth right on his heels at 2:17. Great day of fun for both.
Feb 18
Alex Nutt of MTB Tandems takes on the CycleYouth Development for younger riders (mostly sport and beginner). Together with the Lindners they will be working on a program to involve more young racers and develop them through the program.
Feb 21
Andy wins Blueridge Outdoors Cup.
This competition was a series of mtb events on a points system.
Se here for more
March 16
SERC opener in FL. This is not your typical FL terrain. Held near an old quarry there is plenty of hills and holes to hurt the legs. The course was very twisty and had many technical spots and many grunt climb, but had no places to rest. The Pros finished the 5 lap race in just under 2 hours while the Experts came in right at 2 hours.
Seth, Ethan and Wes had a nice start with Ethan leading at a point. Ethan faded and left Seth to chase the eventual winner alone. Seth finished 2nd and Ethan 7th. Wes had a strong showing for his first race with the new team, but a slight slip put him on the forest floor and his bike into him. Wes struggled in with some pain lingering to finish 10th.
These FL races are always quirky to a point as the courses are so different than anything else the racers compete on and different enough no to train specifically for it. However, riders still were able to polish off their pre-season training and discover any chinks in their armor.
In the Beginner race Dustin alone ventured south. The Devo team typically does the GSC events, but Dustin resides close and could not wait to get his legs racing again.
April 6
SERC Tsali, NC. A wet week and rain all day and night Saturday surprisingly still left a partially dusty course by 1:30pm Sunday for the pro/expert races. In the pro race Andy, struggling with allergies and much reduced training load previously, managed to hold on to 4th, but it was the Sr Expert race that saw the shake-down.
Seth Kemp took charge of the day leading out most of the race with Cory Rimmer in sight until on the first lap Cory's pedal broke off the axle. He managed to ride the next hour and a half with barely anything to put his right foot on and a hard cramp from the hole the initial pedal incident left in his right calf.
The rest of our Sr Experts suffered with flats, mangled chains and the like but some managed to roll across the finish line anyway.
April 12-13
Caraway Hills Omnium, NC - part of the Southern Series.
This was just a big money race and drew racers from hundreds of miles away.
The Omnium consisted of a Short Track race, a Super-D race and a XC race on Sunday. Riders competing for points and an overall purse of $750 or the winner and $8,000 total for the weekend for all classes.
In the Short Track Wes Lamberson got the hole shot and led the first lap, but the pros soon took over and 3 broke away in the single track while the rest of the field chased. Seth moved up to attack position but slid out in a loose corner and lost a lot of time, but Wes and Ethan stayed upright with Andy to have strong finishes.
Andy was racing his age group, but both classes raced together. Andy won his event.
In the Super-D the classes were separated, but a mass start insured chaos. Ethan led the race into the woods and increased his lead on the very technical downhill, but flatted while way out by himself only to finish 6th. Seth managed a decent finish to keep himself in the points chase. Wes and Cory were stuck in the pack and were forced to slow while some of the xc pros walked sections.
In the XC race Seth again took charge and by the finish was only beaten by local pro Charles Pendry, and not by much. The others finished strong and the weekend was success.
Seth took 2nd in the overall and Andy won his age group in everything.
Side note: Andy states that he has changed they way the 30+ age group races will be contested, and that this is a permanent change. The bar has been raised and the 19-29 age group gets a little break. Andy still competes in the pro/expert 19-29 events at random races though.
Devo Team attacks Fort Yargo
by Anderson
A great effort by all our boys and the first time we had all the members riding in the same event. In the 11-14 age group, our newest member of the Devo team, Mylan Smith captured the highest spot on the Devo team with a second place finish. Right behind were podium finishers Justin Hinkle at 3rd and Joe Buck with a 5th place. They were followed by Carter Anderson 6th, Matthew Hinkle 7th , Trace Nutt 8th, Graham Owings 14th and first time racer AJ Nutt at 15th.
In the kids 9-11 yr old race the devo team swept the 2-4 spots with Carter at 2nd, Dominque Woods 3rd and Graham Owings taking 4th.
last updated 7/28/2008
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