last updated 7/10/2009
junior mountain bike racing team
2009
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CycleYouth
Asheville, NC
CycleYouth copyright 2009
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Thank you to our sponsors, patrons, parents and team for making us a success
Jesus Martinez in 5th for Men's standings for National Endurance Series.
Hobby Park Race to right, Seth
SERC Round #1, Florida.
3-8-09 Seth Kemp makes a solo trip to FL for round one. This year Seth, age 17, is racing the pro class (pro/open) to enhance his fitness and training. This was a stacked field as every pro in the Southeast wanted to head South for warm sunshine and test their early season form.
Several pros from FL had been racing the FL winter series so were already at peak form. Seth placed 8th, which was a great finish for the field he was in.
SERC Round #2, Chickasaw, TN
A cold day in Tennessee after days of rain and a tornado just a few miles away led up a decent race for us. Sethy and Andy fought the wind, hill, grass and huge pro/ex field to enter the woods in the top 5. The race officials clocks were running fast so Cory and Wesley barely made it to the start line. Actually Sethy just made it but somehow still managed a decent start position. Only Bradley was prompt today since Andy made it with just 2 minutes to spare and without a number plate.
Sethy finished 4th, with Cory in 12th after a long chase and Wes behind him. Brad in the Cat I class, but Andy, probably due to his unusually short warm-up of 1 minute, succumbed to issues and had to pull out.
In the lead were Sam Korber and T Turner. Sam riding strong and appearing to ride Turner off his wheel on a last lap surge. Sethy not far off them show his form is right on track for season's goals. The other guys are yet to show off their form.
SERC Round #3, Tsali, NC
4-5-09 Interesting weekend for CY. As Wes and Andy move slowly from the previous days race and Cory comes off a rest week to race only Seth has legs to race strong. Seth has a strong showing with his 8th place finish in the stacked pro field at this always competitive race. Cory struggled to find his legs and all but bonked on the last lap, losing several spots.
Andy and Wes chose to race the Expert classes rather than not race. The day before took its toll on their legs this early in the season. Andy was able to finish 2nd in 30+ and Wes 6th in 19-29 Expert class. This made a big training week for them so expect a jump in fitness soon for them.
6 Hours Warrior's Creek
4-4-09 Andy and Wes take overall win while racing Duo-Pro class.
From the start Andy took the lead while several ringers followed. He finally distanced himself from them on the end of the first lap after two sustained climbs. Wes took over on lap #2 and after riding with a pro solo rider separated the race for the lead for good. The gaps increased for the full 6 laps. Wes crossed the line with enough time to put in another lap, but the other teams were too far back to do so, so the dominant CY team ended the day and turned attention to recovering for the next day's race at Tsali.
Germany
Seth Kemp confirmed he will attend USACycling's Junior training camp in Germany late May. This is a three week trip to train and race in order to gain international racing experience.
Seth can use all the international racing he can get as he prepares for the World Championships in to be held in Canada 2010.
Wes, while not preparing for as much international competition, is deciding whether to attend the June Germany camp.
SERC Round #4, Fort Yargo, GA
Wes opts to race Sr Ex class to make a little cash. Wes takes the win easily, but Andy opted to race pro class for a little extra training and finishes 7th - not his best day.
Sethy races pro class and more easily stays with the leaders as they attack each other. Near the end Seth drops off the front a little with T Cowie just in front, and near the finish Seth attacks Cowie on the climb and rolls across in 3rd position.
Cory still out with injury and Brad did not make it this far South.
Bike Sponsor Juggle
Through odd circumstances and ones that really have nothing to do with CycleYouth we have lost our bike sponsor. We are very close to inking a new bike sponsor and are excited to be on new rigs.
Lamberson to Union College
5-8-09 Wes signs on the dotted line with Union college. Wes received a academic scholarship as well as a small cycling scholarship to the college. He will be joining Brad Nelson on the cycling team and has already met and ridden with the current cycling team. Wes will still fly the CycleYouth colors, but will add the school races and race for Union at collegiate events.
http://www.ucbulldogs.com/article/1487.php
Pictured to the right is Wes with mom, Anet, and dad, Bob who are both also serious cyclist.
US CUP Eastern Opener
and SERC #5
Ducktown, TN
5-3-09 A very wet start to the US Kenda Cup. With one of the Kenda cup events being a Worlds qualifier event our junior racers chose to race the junior expert class for the whole series as only the junior race will be used for selection. That race is in VT early August.
Seth, Jesus and Wes filled the podium going 1-2-3. Wes and Jesus went back and forth trading positions, but Seth kept a small gap over the chasers the whole race. This was a decent sized junior class, especially considering that this area has not seen a junior expert class in many years.
Look for these three to dominate the junior scene this year.
In the 30+ expert race Andy was up against old rival, Nathan Sibly but got a gap on the downhill and kept it up the next 20 minute climb that starts the loop. Andy is looking to win the US Cup series this year.
7-5-09 Jesus race somewhere around AR.
The course was 26 miles point-to-point. Unfortunately the course went the opposite direction from what it usually runs and the first 13 miles were completely new. A pro named Ray Hall from Oklahoma showed up, I've raced against him before, but I've never been able to beat him for one reason or another.
The race started out with about 1 mile slightly uphill fireroad. Then, when we went into the single track I was second following Ray's wheel. Right away there was a really steep hill with a bunch of switch backs. on two of them I had to put my foot down and Ray gained a little on me. For a while I kept him on my sight, but I couldn't close the gap. The course was very badly marked, and when we came out to a fire road it wasn't very clear where to go. I caught up to Ray and then we found the single track again. When we were half-way into the race we were going up a steep climb and Ray flated. I figured it would be a boring race if I wasn't racing him, so I waited for him. After a little while 3rd place caught up and so I had to follow. I quickly caught up to him and dropped him on a climb. I ate it really hard on the downhill, it hurt, but it wasn't too bad. At the very end I held up a lot because I thought we were going to have to do a very steep climb at the end and I was saving some energy for it, but it turned out the finish line was at the bottom of the hill.
I finished 1st. I didn't feel very good at the beginning. I think it was because I was riding very sloppy. And when I was trying to close the gap with Ray I didn't feel tired, but I felt like I couldn't go fast. I started to feel good a little while before Ray flatted and I felt fairly good for the rest of the race.
