Ferbie top Hawk in Butler STXC; Smitty gives MX a go

Andy Fehrenbach was Ripon's top short track performer during day two of the Butler University race weekend. He put in a good performance to finish second behind fellow Wisconsinite Eric Dobberfuhl of Murray State.

Eric Smith broke out to build a significant lead in the first few laps, but the effort was a bit too much to maintain for the duration, and he was forced to concede the race leadership to Dobberfuhl, who lapped the entire Men's B field. Smith dug deep and valiantly clung to a third-place finish.

In the Men's C STXC event, Andy Ayers led the three-prong Hawk attack with a fifth-place finish. Teammate Zach Smith placed ninth. Despite an aggressive start, Paul Meuer was forced to abandon with a flat tire early in the race.

The sole female Hawk, Tiffany Seering endured the course's brutal climb and the punishing tempo of the race winner and another Wisconsinite: Ashley James of Lindsey Wilson.

Eric Smith also gave the mountain cross a try and finished in fourth place among the Men's B riders.

Despite a few bike issues, it was a great first weekend. Hopefully we can get all of the problems fixed and have an even better showing at our race next weekend at Nordic Mt.

An unedited collection of photos from Saturday and Sunday can be found on flickr.

Eric Smith pulls double at Butler

I expected Eric Smith to have an immediate impact on the Red Hawks cycling program. He exceeded my expectations today with two first place finishes in two very different disciplines. Eric convincingly captured first place in the Men's B cross country race. He crossed the finish line nearly one and half minutes ahead of Missouri's Brent Davidson. Then after shearing his rear axle in a practice run on the downhill course, he proceeded to take first place in the B downhill by one second riding his cross country bike down the gnarly decent.

Eric's results capped a so-so day for the rest of the Hawks. Andy Fehrenbach experienced a mechanical early in the first lap of the Men's B cross country event and struggled to regain his position among the field. His efforts earned him a respectable 12th-place finish despite losing nearly 15 minutes due to the mishap.

In the Women's A race, Tiffany Seering discovered the steep curve between the B and A categories. After repeatedly finishing in the top two in the B class last season, Tiffany found herself brining up the rear in the A race. Ever determined, Tiffany showed her meddle by hanging in to finish just four minutes behind seventh-place Elizabeth Yarina of Michigan. It was a good learning experience for Tiffany, and I know she'll come back stronger next week at Nordic Mt.

In the men's C race, Andy Ayers was the top Hawk, finishing eighth. Zach Smith was just over a minute behind and finished 11th. Paul Meuer was 17th.

Time Trials: Week 2

So we altered our time trial course this week to make it a bit longer. (Thanks for the suggestion Brendan, though we're still short of 20 minutes. 4 laps next week?). I had the team ride three 1.05-mile laps. Each lap was the same and each included a roughly 108-foot of climb on packed limestone and loose gravel.

Times were as follows:
Eric = 13:12 (4:13/4:33/4:26)
Andy F. = 13:53 (4:42/4:39/4:32)
Andy A. = 15:56 (5:09/5:30/5:17)
Tiffany = 17:27 (6:00/5:44/5:43)
Zach = 17:50 (5:50/6:02/5:58)
Paul = 18:51 (6:15/6:22/6:14)

The rest of the evening training consisted of 8 climbs up the downhill section of our time trial and 10 climbs up the short but steep grassy slope separating upper and lower Sadoff Fields.

Hawks Tackle 3-hour at Blue Mound

The Red Hawks took part in their first race event of the 2009 season yesterday. The team and I traveled to Blue Mound State Park to participate in the 3-hour race of the Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series (WEMS) 12 Hours of Blue Mound.

I told them to treat the race as a long training ride, but of course, they could feel free to be competitive if they thought they could be.

Everyone but Andy Ayers and Tiffany experienced some type of technical difficulties. Despite breaking his chain twice and completing his third lap on one of the Specialized test bikes offered through Erik's Bike Shop, Eric was the top placing male for Ripon. He finished 14th among the field of 24 finishers with three laps in 2 hours 31 minutes and 18 seconds. (Though as I look at the results, I'm not sure how accurate they are.)

Andy A. followed close behind with three laps in just less than two additional minutes.

On his first lap out, Andy Fehrenbach stripped the threads on his left crank arm where his pedal connects. He, too, was forced to saddle up on one of the Specialized steeds to put in a few more laps. Paul had a flat and Zach's saddle came loose.

Tiffany had no major issues and paced herself for two laps to win the women's category. Her efforts (2 laps in 2 hours 9 minutes 56 seconds) earned her a fancy trophy — Ripon Cycling's first!

Everyone seemed to have fun and count the event as good prep for next weekend's season opener at Butler University.

Results

First Time Trial

We did our time trials in the prairie this afternoon. The route is just shy of two miles (1.875 approximately) with one long climb and one short steep climb. We will do this time trial weekly to gauge progress throughout the season.

Today's times were as follows:
Andy F.......8 minutes 48 seconds
Eric............9:07
Andy A......10:44
Tiffany.......12:58

Paul made a wrong turn, so his time was not counted. Zach just arrived on campus this afternoon, so he did not participate.

Check back next week to see if there is any improvement.

Team Building Exercises

The 2009 Red Hawks got of the ground (literally) on day one. We headed to the Kohler Experiential Learning Center for some team-building exercises on the low- and high-ropes courses.

From my standpoint as coach, it appears as if this group is already beginning to gel really well and that they will be very supportive of each other and each other's goals and ambitions.

The instructor noted that our group was very cooperative and quick to solve the problems thrown at us.

We completed the exercises in the morning, stopped at Ella's Della in Sheboygan Falls for lunch and then headed to Evergreen and Jaycee's parks in Sheboygan for our first ride together. Again, I was quite impressed overall with everyone's abilities and their desire to stick together as a group. "No one left behind" is already our unofficial motto.

It's going to be a great year. I can just tell.

For some additonal photos from the Kohler Experiential Learning Center visit new team member Andy Fehrenbach's flickr site.

Hilarious!