The Sycamore Cycles Race team has had a very busy past couple of weeks. The team has gone in several different directions to race, and has had good results from all over the country. First up, half of the team went to California to race the Sea Otter Classic, and the other half of the team decided to stay local and race in Clemson, SC at the Tiger Rag. Wes Dickson, Chris Bennett, Jimy Fink, and Ray Adams went out west for the biggest race in the country, and had a week filled with bikes. Dickson raced Semi-Pro, and got 8th in the Short-Track race, and 29th in the Cross Country. While not what he was hoping for, he was happy with this result, and looking forward to next year. Bennett raced in the Expert 19-24 category, and got 7th in the Short-Track and 3rd in the Cross Country. This was a very strong result for Bennett, and is his first Expert level podium. Fink placed 24th in the Cross Country and 7th in the Short-Track. Team sponsor Ray Adams went out to support the team in their racing endeavors, and had a great time at the race. This race is becoming a regular event for the team, and we have seen a growing contingent traveling to the race each year.
The half of the team who went to Clemson got some very solid results, and enjoyed not having to travel as far to race. Tristan Cowie, Matt St. Marie, and Donnie Kirkwood went to the Tiger Rag with several people supporting them on the trip. Cowie won the Pro/Expert race, dominating the field, winning by over 4 minutes over 2nd place. St. Marie placed 5th in the combined Pro/Expert field, beating all the other Expert riders in the race. Kirkwood got a 7th place finish in the Expert 30-39 field, beating some stiff competition in the process.
Moving on to the weekend of the 27th, Tristan Cowie, Matt Wells, and Matt St. Marie traveled to Maryland for the Greenbrier Challenge, a UCI level event, and a qualifier for the Jr. World Championships team. The course was a challenging 5 mile loop, and the terrain was similar to what our riders would experience in Pisgah Forest, so the team felt well prepared for the event. Heavy rain the night before left the course drenched and covered with mud, and increasing the difficulty of an already very testing event. Cowie entered the Pro race, and was riding with the leaders when he flatted his rear tire. After fixing the flat, Cowie had been passed by the entire Pro field, and had to work hard to get back into the race. He ended up passing over half the field on his way to finishing 8th. Wells placed 8th in the Expert 19-29 race in his first mountain bike race of the season. St. Marie took his first Expert level win, beating the 2nd place rider by 10 seconds after a hotly contested 4 laps.
All in all, this has been a very exciting few weeks for the team. We have had several top finishes, and solid results in all of our events. We are enjoying riding our bikes in the warm weather, and looking forward to our next few races.
SERC #2 at Tsali
The SYCR crew headed over to Bryson City this past weekend for the annual "Knobscorcher" held on a rain soaked Tsali trail system. The weather looked bleak throughout the week leading up to the race, and we were all hoping against hope that we would have a dry race. The team had a large group from Brevard, and were joined by Julia Tellman who traveled all the way from Chapel Hill for the race. We left Brevard on Saturday morning, and intended to do a group pre-ride on our way to Fontana Village where we were staying. However, because of the weather, our plans were changed and we had only a small contengient of riders willing to brave the mud on the course before going to the cabin.
In spite of the rain on Saturday and all through the night, race day dawned sunny and warm. We got to the race site in time to set up our tent in our pit area, and start preparing our bikes for the race. Julia Tellman, Jeff Parker, and Geoff Bergmark were the first riders off in the race, and had a course that was just beginning to dry out. Jeff Parker got 11th in his category, not bad for a roadie. Geoff Bergmark was 3rd in Single Speed against a stacked field, not far off the 2 leaders. Julia Tellman dominated her first sport race, beating 2nd place by about 2 minutes and 3rd by over 10. This is the best result from a female Sycamore Cycles racer yet.
Julia on the Podium
The next categories to go off were the Pro/Semi-Pro and Expert fields. The course was significantly drier than it had been earlier in the day, thanks to both the warm weather and previous fields going over the course. Wes Dickson and Tristan Cowie raced in the first wave of Pro/Semi-Pro, and both had exceptional results. Tristan took a very strong 2nd in the Pro race, less than 40 seconds off of the win, despite having crashed on the 2nd lap and finishing with only one brake. Wes placed 5th, gaining his first Pro/Semi-Pro podium. This would have been a convincing win had the Pros and Semi-Pros been seperated for their race.
Matt St. Marie, Chris Bennett, Gattis Tyler, Jimy Fink, and Donnie Kirkwood held it down in the expert race for the team. Matt had the high finish of the day with a 5th place, getting his first Expert podium finish. Chris was close behind in 7th, even with a tree crash injury. Gattis finished 17th after hitting a 30 foot brick wall of pain. In the 30-35 race, Donnie placed 14th and Jimy 17th, successfully battling the mud for the finish.
Tristan fighting the mud and the competition
Wes and Tristan on the Podium
This was a great weekend, and fun was had by all. A special thanks to all of our sponsors who are supporting our racing efforts, Ray Adams for the photos, and to Thad Walker who provided the feeds for everyone. Their results from this weekend put Wes in 4th and Tristan in 8th overall in the Pro/Semi-Pro field, Julia Tellman in 4th overall in women's sport, and Matt St. Marie in 10th overall in Expert 19-29. We are looking forward to our next race, and will keep you updated on our progress as we go along. Until next time, happy trails.
Thad giving Wes a feed
Jimy being awesome
Bennett holding it down
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Assault on the Carolinas!
Some of the riders on the start
Hey everybody! Sycamore Cycles Racing (SYCR) just got done riding in an extremely epic 9th annual Assault on the Carolinas. We started in moderate temperatures under cloudy skies with a "slight chance of scattered showers." For the first hour the group kept the pace high as we headed over Walnut Hollow and towards The Continental Divide. Right after we crested the climb and started going down 178, we started getting assaulted by the weather. The front group made a valiant attempt to descend the road in heavy rain and lightning, and I'm pretty sure that there was some hail in there too. The rain never let up, even across South Carolina, and the group continued to speed towards the climb.
Before the rain
Once we hit the climb, the group quickly splintered into a lead group of 4 and a chase group of 6 with 4 SCR team members. Our group chased hard, but weren't able to catch the leaders by the top of the climb. The chase continued across Cedar Mountain and back into Brevard. We rode hard, but had to settle for putting Wes in 5th, Matt S. in 6th, Chris B in 7th, and Tristan in 10th. Matt W had to drop out as a result of a light case of hypothermia, and only a small minority of the riders actually finished the ride.
Coming back into Brevard
In spite of the conditions, the SCR team members feel good about their performances, and are glad to both have made it out alive and with an amazing story to tell. We are heading to Tsali this weekend for the first SERC race, so stay tuned for a report on that...
After the ride
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Road and mountain mix...
The Sycamore crew has hit up several races since the Icycle, and we all have started getting really excited about the warm weather. Our first race was one of the Greenville Spring Training Series races in South Carolina, and the team had a great time racing some road. Gattis Tyler, Jimy Fink, Chris Bennett, and Matt St. Marie went down for one of the three weekends, representing for the team exceptionally well, with St. Marie, Bennett, Fink, and Tyler getting 1st through 4th respectively in the sprint finish.
The team after the finish
On the mountain bike side of things, Wes, Gattis, Jimy, and Jenna Bales-Walker went down to Florida to race in the first SERC series race. The team didn't have the best weekend, with poor course markings and flat tires holding back their results. Not to mention that the racers in Fl come into the season STRONG! Wes ended up with a 17th place finish in his first Semi-Pro effort after getting lost on the first lap. Gattis got 12th and Jimy 21st in Expert, and Jenna got 5th in the women's field. In general, our team isn't quite as comfortable with the Florida style of racing, and we are looking forward to getting on some courses with climbs!
Wes racing in FL
We are slated to represent in the Assault on the Carolinas this weekend, a ride that is based right in our back yard. We'll let you know how it goes!
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Icycle without the Ice '08
The Sycamore cycles race team started out our season with the annual Icycle mountain bike race in Fontana, NC. This is an event that the whole team looks forward to all year, and we are always excited to go and test our early season fitness in a what is usually a relaxed environment. We had a large contingent there to represent for the shop, all wearing our brand new jerseys that came in the day before the race.
The Sycamore Crew
Our expert contingent was strong and ready to race, with 6 people in that category alone. We had talked Tristan Cowie (Captain America) into racing on the team for the weekend, and he was excited about getting to race such a great event.
St. Marie on the start
Wes ended up with the highest placing on the team in 3rd, just over a minute off of first. Tristan was right behind Wes in 4th, and Matt St. Marie got 6th, both just off the lead group. The rest of our men's expert crew consisted of Chris Bennett in 10th Jimmy Fink in 18th and David Cook in 19th. Our sole racer in the Women's Expert field was Jenna Bales Walker who had to abandon due to a flat tire.
Tristan
In the Single Speed category, Matt Wells and Geoffrey Bergmark both representing well taking 1st and 2nd respectively. Wells narrowly edged out Geoffrey on the last lap to take the win by 8 seconds.
Wells on his way to a win
Sycamore also fared well in sport, getting 4th and 8th with Art O'Dell and Ray Adams. Justin Miles and Eddie Mcelyea added solid 11th and 21st place finishes for the team.
Ray Adams
Moving from the Cross Country events to the Night Downhill, we had Chris Herndon winning by the significant margin of 8 seconds. Running a dual light setup, he easily beat Gerrit Baytagh who was 8 seconds up on 3rd.
Chris Herndon Setting the Woods On Fire
Chris Bennett got 2nd in Sport DH while Jimmy Fink placed 4th in the Hardass category.
Jimmy Getting Caught By Herndon
The team is looking forward to our next event, and are excited about a new year of racing. Winter is half over, and the promise of summer has everyone wanting to be out on their bikes again. Stay tuned for more updates!
Full race results can be found at http://www.jandwevents.com/results.html
Thanks to J and W events for another year of an amazing event!
2008 Sycamore Cycling Racing
Welcome to the Sycamore Cycles Race team homepage!
The other riders who fill out our roster are a bunch with a wide variety of talents. Steven Gardner "happy feet" works at the shop as the service manager, and heads out to the races when his schedule allows and he feels up to it. Jeff Parker "Talent", Josh Schrader, and Robert Watkins hold it down on the road scene and bring the heat to the start line when they show up to the races. Chris Bennett is back from school, and now faster than ever racing expert for the first time. Chris Herndon started out on our team, but has since moved onto bigger things racing on the national and international scene winning National Championships and racing in the World Championships. He can still be found doing some races with us, and is a valued member of the ’07 12 Hours of Tsali team. Andrew Aikin (super speed junior), Donnie Kirkwood (Road Speedster), Jimy Fink (#1 Sport in North Carolina), and Jeff Courtney (Bike Shop working gravity rider) fill out the rest of our team both on the road, XC, downhill, and dual slalom.
We are looking forward to another year of racing in ’08, and will be training this winter in Pisgah National Forest and surrounding areas. Come and see us at the shop, we ride often after work, it’s a good chance to see us in action. See you out there!!!
