OBRA TTT Championships / Silverton Road Race!!!

The Veloforma/ZYM ladies are still on a role!!! Bring home 2 more wins this past weekend.
OBRA Team Time Trial Championships happened in Corvallis, Oregon. Under cloudy sky's and very little wind. Conditions seemed to be fast this year. Times were a lot lower than in years past. So I'm going with fast conditions on top of teams just going good for all the great times!!



Veloforma fielded two teams. Our elite squad (Tina, Becka, Susan, and Miranda) and Team DEVO - Laura, Eva, Carrie, and Jen. (aka our development squad). Both squads rocked it. I was really impressed with how well DEVO rode. I made them ride ironman style (no aero equipment) and we did a mix of 2 -cat4's and 2 - cat3's. They posted and excellent time of 1:12:36 for second place in the women's Cat3's. With how well they rode this year, it's going to be a tough inner squad battle for next years victory, plus ttt squad selections!!!

Carrie, Eva, Jen and Laura getting there medals!!!!!

The elite squad used the motivation of trying to catch Devo. Plus the fact that Tim "hitman" Hittner mentioned that they would get a Steak dinner of there choice if they broke 1 hour!!! The elite squad caught every women's team out on course and posted a winning time of 1:05:07. This time actually put them high in a lot of men's fields and placed them 33rd out of 70 teams.

Tina (showing what fuels us - ZYM), Becka, Miranda and Susan!!!

Below I am demonstrating our extreme aero position.

Ok - on to Silverton Road Race. Great course, great promoter, = fun time!! This should be a must do on your list for "hard person" style races. This race was also an Oregon Cup event so a lot was on the line. Doing the TTT the day before, the girls knew they still had to perform. It was race # 5 in the 7 race series. We had fresh legs in Alice Pennington so we knew we had something to give and give it we did... Alice and Becka countered an attack by Jennie Slawta on lap two to ride away from the field.

This attack split the field hard. It left Tina a little isolated with no team members present in the chase group. Miranda and Susan feeling the pain of the hills and the suffer fest of the day before were in a 5 person group a few minutes back. Tina did damage control following wheels and making sure Kori Kunz "poplollies"stayed put. Kori put in alot of attacks on the last lap trying to crack Tina but "Earthquaker" wouldn't budge.
Tina - always in control.

Susan and Miranda in the 5 person chase group. Shout out to Stephanie Chase for racing in loaner shoes about 5 sizes to big (she's the ironclad girl on the right of the picture above) I bet the feet and such ended up being a little sore. What a trooper!

So to wrap things up Becka and Alice stay away till the end. Alice gets the win, and Becka gets 2nd. Next group in Jenny Slawta jumps Tina and Kori for 3rd. Kori 4th and Tina 5th.

Oregon Cup standing with two races left.

1 Rebecka Hartkop Veloforma 346
2 Tina Brubaker Veloforma 310
3 Kori Kunz Poplollies 292
4 Alice Pennington Veloforma 240
5 Heather Clark Bend Bike 'N Sport 165
6 Christi Binstadt Poplollies 140
7 Jenny Slawta Team Landshark 105
8 Molly Wheeler Team Landshark 105
9 Jill Howe Poplollies 91
10 Erin Playman Gentle Lovers 80

Rock star will be at the last two events, so the top 3 is going to mix it up a little. The next OC event is Mt. Tabor on June 15th. This will be the first race back for Hilary Billington after her bought with pneumonia. We are super stoked to have her healthy and be back in action. So we will be given it! As the girls always do!!! The last race is in Bend Oregon and part of the High Desert Omnium on August 3rd we have something special in store on this day, so stay tuned, it's going to make for fun times.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers
Mark

The Gentle Lovers is Proud to Present - Heartbreaker '08!!!!

This should be a grand time for all. Women get to race for Veloforma Swag!!!!

The ladies will be racing for -

Veloforma squadra bar size 40 - full HM Carbon!!

Veloforma SLX full carbon road fork - works great on the track too.

Veloforma T-shirts

Zym hydration products!!!!

Special thanks to all who help support this in such a timely fashion!!

Now go out and support the race, have fun and of course race HARD!!!!!!

Info can be found at the link below:



http://www.obra.org/track/flyers/2008/alpenrose_heartbreaker.html

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

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.

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/

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

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!!!!