Thursday, May 29, 2008

Total Domination!!!

The girls displayed total domination this weekend!!!
State Road Race/Oregon Cup #4 - Becka wins and settles a few things! Tina drilled it with 1k to go and still finishes 3rd. It was pretty close, thought she might come around at the end and get second, Susan finished 7th. SWEET!!! So we go 1st, 3rd and 7th on Saturday. I WAS STOKED! Of course I didn't have my camera. I poached this from Kenji. If anyone has photo's of the race, finish or podium please contact me at mark@veloforma.com

Picture of the podium Becka Hartkop Veloforma/ZYM - 1st, Kori Kunz Poplollies - 2nd, Tina Brubaker - Veloforma/Zym 3rd.

We are now 1st,2nd and 4th in the Oregon Cup. Becka is winning and Tina in Second, Alice is in 4th. I say Rock star is going to move up a little after OC # 5 and we will still keep our lead.

Albany Criterium!!
Veloforma/Zym Ladies go 1,2,3!!! This is the second time this year that the women do the sweep!!!! Tina gets the win, Becka takes 2nd and Miranda wins the field sprint for 3rd. This was a perfectly executed race. Tina and Miranda go off the front for a while after Susan had taken a 3 lap flyer, to see if the girls had any game. Looked like Tina and Miranda are going to make there move stick, but it gets brought back!!! As soon as it does, Becka goes solo for a few laps. Tina attacks again dragging Jan Moss with her, but keeps attacking Jan on the front head wind straight to solo bridge to Becka. At this point it's game over as Tina and Becka love to go hard. Back in the field Susan and Miranda are controlling the field. Making sure that no one goes off the front. There where a few tries but with the horse power we had left in the field no one was going any where.

Miranda and Susan in total control and on patrol!!!

Tina and Becka kill'n it!!


What the spectators saw all day, Becka and Tina Fly'n!!!!
Great job ladies!!!!

Side note: It was a great weekend of racing. The women in the Oregon pelaton are racing really well. There are a few that need to move up to Cat 2's and I hope Kenji is keeping an eye on them, I know they are not to mandatory up grades yet. Since they race with the 1/2's anyway why not... plus if they go outside of Oregon to race they get to race with the big girls so to speak. Which in return just makes you a better rider. Plus helps ad depth to the womens pelaton - right? IMHO if your getting points in the Oregon Cup then it's time to make the next step. You've earned it right? Lets keep building a strong women's pelaton!!! Any how great job to all the ladies that have been racing really hard all season! Please understand my statement above is meant to be positive.

Oh and special call out to Norrene Godfrey for doing the Mens 3's and the Women's race! This is something our ladies will be doing soon... it 's great training for NRC races as the speed is much higher and constant!!! Good Job Norrene.

Cheers
Mark

Friday, May 23, 2008

Mt. Hood Classic

OK just some photo's!! I am stilled slammed in the warehouse/computer work to get anything else out. The ladies did awesome!! We had a little bad luck but overall we did GREAT!
Our view every morning from the trailer. Thanks to the Penningtons. They allowed us to park in their back yard, which is an orchard.



The girls getting ready for the TT!! We opted for the deep dish wheels instead of rear discs. Turns out we should have gone with the discs as there was a tail wind. Who would of thought!!




Mark Duff and Luke Pennington hanging out at the criterium!! Check out the new kit.



Alice getting some help from Hilary before the the start of the TT.



View of Hood from the backyard @ the Penningtons.

Tina being the trooper she always is... this lady is tuff. There was a group of 6 that could not catch her. 6 versus 1 and she still finished about 10 mins. ahead of them.

The group hanging out at the trailer after the finish on top of Mt. Hood. Only one day to go now...


Only the criterium is left now. Becka is stoked!!


Rolling out the rigs before the Crit!!!



Just before the start of the crit!!! The wind was blowing and the course was typical of every year. Dirty and the hard right hand descending radius turn had claimed Alice before the start. Basically because we had too stiff of a tire on for her. Even with the bad luck before and during the race (Alice got taken out by a Cheerwine rider) she never came out of the top 10.

Special thanks to everyone who helped out!!! Ted and Sharon Duff, Carrie Goodbrake, the Pennington Family. Susan for bringing the beer to the Crit. Tim "Hitman" Hittner for the loaning us his disc wheel set. John Weist, Carl "Cdog" Hoefer for loaning his disc. David Godfrey for helping me out before the prologue with the UCI. Luke for just making me laugh out loud!! And to all our sponsors for making the team happen. And last but not least all the girls for their hard work!!!!!

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Mt. Hood Cycling Classic Prologue

Thanks to Laura McGraw for taking pictures and putting together this awesome 'poster'!!

A Big Thanks in advance to Carrie Goodbrake for all her help this week!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironcladcycling/2491661450/

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Eugene Roubaix Video

I was so busy with the company and team stuff. Better late than never, right??? I never got a chance to post our first sweep. Veloforma/Zym women went 1,2,3 at Roubaix which was way cool. They set up an executed everything perfectly. Tina and Becka got the gap they needed into the mile long gravel section and once they hit the berg it was Bye, Bye. They finished about 15 mins ahead of the field. Miranda won the field sprint of the remaining peleton to give Veloforma/Zym Elite there first podium sweep. Laura McGraw of the Veloforma developent squad, and all around hard woman, won her race as well. This lady knows how to dig deep into the pain cave. I couldn't believe how hard she finished. She is turning into quite a racer in her first season of bike racing.

Now on to the videos!!! Thanks to Zak Winter for the vids!




Well thanks for watching. In just a few days the ladies of Veloforma/Zym will be Racing in the Mt. Hood Classic Stage Race. Watch here for more details. Until then, have a wonderful day.
Cheers
Mark

Monday, May 5, 2008

Alice Pennington ROCKED Table Rock!!


Click on this image to see the intensity in Alice's eyes. Eye of the tiger baby!!!

Table Rock weekend! It simply ROCKED!!! Thanks to all who came out and made the racing fun and fast. Thanks to the promoter, volunteers, obra officials. We all don’t say it enough but Thank You! For those who did not make the journey down, you missed out. The weather was off the hook!!! You also missed out on awesome burgers after the race, grilled up by the local 4H club, it looked as if there cook out was a hit. I hope they made an ample sum for there organization. This will now be an annual race for the Veloforma crew.


BIG BIG Thank You and Huge team hug to the Hartkop’s!!!! They opened there home to us and made the weekend that much more special. It was full of great racing, great people, wonderful food, good conversation and a true genuine feel of being at home. Thank you so much. Becka you have wonderful parents. Oh I almost forgot!!!Awesome coffee too. http://www.solarroast.com/ good stuff!!!! a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguzZb1sbLX-9NRpxoi3a6lDFBl3djZEycRe_BQZ6BNq3J6GkbwZpzJYDkm0jiDHV7B6S1pQXqCFMFcuWvftLwAq5Eljv47bThNT5vcRboOaCIVoICQGlQowozzsuXPc6zWblXCrs_pLMn1/s1600-h/2008+OBRA+SAMS+VALLEY+RACE,+VELAFORMA+022.jpg">


NOW on to Racing!!! IT was a great weekend for theVeloforma ladies!!! We were fortunate to add super star Alice Pennington to the squad a few weeks back. In her rock star form she won the race in the final 200 meters, opening up a gap of about 10secs over teammate Becka Hartkop 3rd and Kori Kunz 2nd (poplollies). Look at the intensity in those eye’s (great shot Tom). All photo’s provided by Hartkop Productions.

Tina “earthquaker” Brubaker was 5th and still retains the Oregon Cup Lead! Where is the Oregon Cup leaders Jersey this year???? Miranda Moon was 10th and Susan Piethman was 14th. Great job to all the Veloforma/Zym ladies!!!

Our development squad rocked it as well going 1,2. Excellent job Ladies!!! Carrie Goodbrake showing her climb prowess add another win for the team. Laura Mcgraw is showing that she is developing into an all around rider. Great job ladies. They will soon be joining the elite ranks.
You can tell in the picture above Carrie is a natural born climber... look at that form!


Unofficial top 5 Oregon Cup Standings after Table Rock!!
Tina Brubaker 205 pts
Rebecka Hartkop 171 pts
Kori Kunz 167pts
Alice Pennington 140 pts
Heather Clark 90 pts
I think Alice has just put herself in the mix for sure! We now have 3 Veloforma ladies in the top 5. Way to go Ladies!!!!

Wish I had time to post more. But got to go!!! More pic's later in the week. Got to get the girls ready for Mt. Hood!!!!