US Jr. National team meber and local boy Jacob Rathe is tearing it up in Europe. This week he finished 11th overall and scored two podium finishes at the Giro di Basilicata in Italy.

Check out the story on Jacob and the US Jr. National team below.

https://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=3858

JDS

Local girl Sue Butler starts the season out strong with a win on Saturday and a solid 2nd place finish on Sunday at the season openers in Washington. Other local CCX racers Wendy Williams, Rhonda Mazza, Shannon Skerrit and Erik Tonkin finish solidly in the top 15 both days.

Check out the stories and results on Cycling News below.

Star Crossed - 9/20/08

http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/2008/sep08/starcrossed08

Rad Racing - 9/21/08

http://www.cyclingnews.com/cross.php?id=cross/2008/sep08/radracinggp08

JDS

Last week, Endurofit athlete and friend, Jennifer Urich, summitted Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Jen headed to Africa after a successful season to accomplish one more goal and explore the continent. Making good on her intention, Jen reached the summitt of the mountain at 6:30am on September 18th. 

“Kili” just so happens to be the highest peak in Africa at 5,895 meters (19,340 ft). Now that’s some serious altitude!!!

Be sure to check back in next month to find out more about her adventure and see the photos from her journey.

Congrats on another goal acomplished and amazing adventure Jen!

JDS

Endurofit athletes Hugh Givens and Flo Liebowitz, won the Masters Men’s 50+ and took 3rd in the Women’s 45+ races respectively at Kreuger’s Farm Crit last weekend. 

Making the hole shot off the line in third, Hugh immediately joined a small break off the front. The group slowly whittled down over the course of the race leaving only Hugh and one other rider left to battle it out. Hugh wisely feigned fatigue after a pull and the other rider attacked him as planned with less than 2 laps to go. Hugh caught him at the base of a small rise and counter-attacked the rider to stay away for the win. A fine piece of riding indeed! 

Flo Liebowitz improved upon her 4th place finish by getting on the podium in the Women’s 45+, and on her single speed no less. Flo accomplished this after doing an LT test on Friday and a 5 hour climbing ride with the coach on Saturday. Now that’s how it’s done sister!

Other good results and fun times were had by our friends and previous clients as well.

Check out the results here: http://app.obra.org/results/event/13073#race_138157

JDS

4000 athletes (213 of them Americans) are participating in the Paralympics in Beijing this week.  They represent 150 countries in 20 sports.    Right now we are 2nd in the medal count.

Our athlets have some incredible stories and many new world records are being set across all sorts of sports.  These are  incredible athletes both in mind and body.  Our team has a strong contingent of military athletes as do many other teams. You will be inspired!

You can watch the action live at
www.universalsports.com   or
www.paralympic.org

You can learn more about US athletes at http://paralympicsteamusa.org

Check it out!

Sent to us by:

Kristen Dieffenbach, Ph.D., CC AASP #193
WVU - College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences
Assistant Professor - Athletic Coaching Education

What a couple of weeks it’s been for our friends and athletes here at Endurofit! It appears that everyone is enjoying some stellar late-season fitness and success, and they certainly deserve some mention here.

Endurofit friends and S & M team members Rhonda Mazza, Chad Swanson and my much fitter than I, Sellwood Cycles team mate, Erik Tonkin, all post spectacular rides last weekend in their respective events.

Chad took 3rd in a hotly contested Men’s A field at Kruger’s Kermesse last weekend. Erik snuck off and posted a smokin’ time of 26:07 to win the Sr. 1/2 Men’s race in the OBRA Hill Climb Championship. And not to be outdone, Erik’s better half, Rhonda Mazza won the Women’s A race at Kruger’s Kermesse in her first competitive outing after having their first child. Way to go guys! Just another day in the office, eh!

Endurofit athlete Flo Liebowitz and Sorella Forte team members Kim Reuter, Anne Linton and Sherry Jako are enjoying good form at the end of the season and have been rocking the house. Flo finished a solid 9th in the women’s 1/2/3/4 field at the Swann Island crit and went on to win the Master’s Women’s 50+ State Crit the very next day. Anne found a new love in CX racing and won the first Women’s 45+ event at Kruger’s Kermesse. Kim finished 2nd to Beth Burns in the Masters Women 30-39 category at the OBRA Crit Championship only to return the favor on Monday night at PIR by out kicking her at the line to take the win with fellow Sorella Forte team mate, Sherry Jako, taking 3rd. Great work ladies! Way to finish the season on a high note!

Like I said, what an end to the road racing season these guys and gals are having. A BIG CONGRATS to you all! I look forward to hearing the tales and seeing the results from Kreuger’s and the Eugene Celebration Stage Race this weekend.

Good luck to everyone!

JS

With many photos to come soon after I retrieve my newly purchased laptop after a crashed mother board I plan to add them from some of the races I have attended so far to watch many of the women that we got to know last year while putting on women’s cycling clinics, supporting the ladies’ record setting RAO ride and through my wife being on the Sorella Forte Cycling Board of Directors.

I was doing what we all do when we’re supposed to be working (fortunately for me, this actually counts as work…well, sort of), I was trolling through the weekly local racing results (don’t worry folks, I’m not in them so I’m not hunting my own kill) when I came across some pretty amazing stuff.

First off, I was not surprised by the fact that friends and regular seekers of knowledge Colleen McClenahan rocked a 4th place finish at her first go at Tabor and 6th last night, with an unfortunately dropped chain on the finish, and is now sitting in 4th overall. Of course, newbie to the track Kim Rueter, but Cat 3 on the road is winning every track event she enters over there. (I can’t wait to be a cat 5 again too, I just hope I don’t get dropped!).

Of course, newbie to the track , but Cat 3 on the road is event she enters over there. (I can’t wait to be a cat 5 again too, I just hope I don’t get dropped!).But what really caught my eye and blew me out of the water, was how many of the women who came to last year’s clinic series are either winning or placing in the tops of their respective fields or have upgraded and hanging tough.

Abby Jenkins, Jan Moss and Sarah Tingey are consistently winning or placing in the top of their categories, and Libby Evans & Kaytee Petross just upgraded and are killing it already top contenders regularly, Jen Urich has PR’d in every duathlon and running event she’s entered this year and Shana Sturtz is riding strong as well and it just made my heart sing to see this, (especially during a week like I’ve had). Flo Liebowitz’s TTT team lost by 3 minutes without anything aero over a 27 mile course w/ 4-person teams (you do the math!).

Great job ladies! Maybe we actually did do something that made a difference and  helped the sport Adnan?

Either way, I’m just glad to see women’s cycling going strongly, and growing as quickly as it is, and to the overall development I see going on in every arena of cycling as of recent. If we were to only allow the press to determine our perception on reality and provide our sense of hope in any area of our lives, we would have all quit years ago, and now look what has happened!

The Cross-Crusade, (a legendary, local cyclo-cross racing series), is now getting over 1,100 entrants in most of the races. Many of the fields have almost doubled in size as have the number of people coming out to training races weekly. Erik Tonkin and his Sellwood Bike Repair, Kona Bikes and River City Bikes sponsored ‘cross clinics reaching similar numbers  It’s awesome to see what could be perceived as something that is “bad” easily get turned into something very, very good!

Leave it to Portland to lead the way in just about everything. Although, it doesn’t take a jack-ass to realize that if you’re not only thinking about ‘you’ all of the time that life tends to get better for all, starting with you oddly enough! (Ranting sort of stops NOW!)

I am truly grateful to be a small part of it and I look forward to witnessing even more of it in the future. Things are headed in a good direction and I love what I am seeing.

Keep up the great work everyone!

***Photos coming soon!***

-JS

After an awesome off-season and working through injury and illness, Katie Reynolds has persevered and is having some of her best performances on the bike of her career.Katie finished just of the podium in 4th at the Athens women’s 3/4 circuit race and just nailed the 2nd place spot in the coveted Roswell criterium in Roswell, GA.

What’s impressed me the most about Katie’s progression as an athlete this year is her attitude. He focus had become so much more positive and in doing so her confidence has risen and the results show for themselves.

After working through a neck injury and being sick, Katie was worried that her fitness might had suffered more than she had hoped, but because of the training she had done previously and a belief in herself and the work that she had done, she has come back stronger, fitter, smarter and faster than ever before. I’ve honestly seen an injury, illness or work obligation that takes someone off the bike after a period where they had been close to burn out or where they had been struggling, save their seasons and take their fitness to levels they had never dreamed of before.

Keep that in mind folks, when you either get sidelined by life, injury, illness, work or whatever. Often times, as long as you have been training leading up to the event, quite often the time off is exactly what it takes for the body and the mind to get the rest and recovery it needs to truly adapt to and get stronger from all of the stress that we put it under through training and every day life.

Katie’s story is a perfect example and is one of many that I have seen go this way over the past few years. So, if you are forced off the bike for a few weeks, don’t fret. Instead, enjoy the down time, make the most out of it and stay positive and you might come back stronger than ever before yourself.

Congratulations Katie, and thanks for the wonderful example for us all.

-JS

Strong local hard man, 50+, super nice guy and amazing graphic artist (I mean come-on, who do you think helped design this sweet site?) found his way onto the podium already this year in what sounded like a wild and woolly sprint finish on Sunday.

In his own words…

“Ah, race day! Well, there were ominous signs of bad weather as Brad (yes, Brad Ross of Cross-Crusade and Endurofit Blog fame) and I rolled up to the race. Snow… lots of it… in the hills probably not more than 100 feet higher than where we were. Clouds and wind, too! Nice! It was hard to warm up but fortunately I brought lots of clothing to wear. I used it all and still had a hard time warming up. By race time, I decided to transfer my numbers to my wind vest. Good call. Sorin Suditu was kind enough to give my legs a rub down with hot cream.

I followed your plan exactly. Just sat in for the first 40 miles. The weather kept the field together: strong cross wind and heavy showers punctuated with periods of sun. With about 20k to go I started to move up. It was not easy because the field choked the narrow roads. But by about 5k to go I was up in the front 15-20, and was able to hold position on the right. By now it is SLEETING SNOW pretty hard. Wet and nasty. Ick!

I heard Kenji Sugahara say that the outside right was good coming into the hard left-hand turn about 500 meters from the finish. I was able to hold speed and pass a few guys who took the inside line. Tempo was high… maybe 25mph… and a couple of guys were looking at each other, so I hit it super hard down the right side at about 250 meters and got WAY clear and… ALMOST made it to the line before I started to sag a bit. One guy got about a bike length, another just pipped me, so it looks like third but I have not seen official results yet.

So… I guess I went just a touch early. So, good result. While I was feeling kind of cold at the end, I felt totally comfortable and do not feel like it was a stress at all. Race time was about 2:30 for 51 miles. I’m happy.”

And we are too! Hugh’s a good friend, supporter and supportee of Endurofit and this is just the first of many strong finishes to come from this guy this season. I’ll bet me winter gut on it!

My hat’s off to all ye hard men and women who are out there racing in weather that I am not likely inclined to go out and get my mail in.

CHECK OUT THE RESULTS at OBRA.

-JS

If you were one of the many who did the earliest season race here in the Portland area then you may find yourself in this article.

And if you didn’t, I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading about it. Check out this article sent in to us by Flo Leibowitz whose team, Willamette Valley Cycling, was largely responsible for running the race.

“The Cherry Pie Road Race name originated because in the early years of the race top award recipients received whole cherry pies as prizes.”

For the full story and many more links to related information and organizations, check out the full story below.

VIEW ARTICLE

Thanks Flo! Enjoy!

JS