Friday, July 31, 2009

Team Update: The women ride, crits and more!

It has been an exciting summer so far for Team Excelerator p/b Pinnacle Auto Company. While the hillclimb took up a lot of time and attention, team riders have been busy riding and racing.

Two of our ladies rode in the Little Red Riding Hood tour in June. Derai Paul and Emily Price enjoyed brisk but pleasant weather in Logan. Over 2500 women participated in total. Emily rode the 36 mile option while Derai pushed herself hard to complete the 45 mile option. Derai is riding this year after dusting off her bike. She last rode regularly 16 years ago! She's been getting back into things this year and has already put her goal time for next year on her to do list. We had the team car there to support and there were plenty of families around as well. This female only ride benefits breast cancer research and it was a great day for all involved. Great job ladies!

The Ogden Cash Crits have been well attended by TE riders as well. Ben Towery was successful in not only finding someone to watch his daughter so he could race but put one in the W column for TE as well, winning a prime 2 weeks ago and then taking 3rd in last nights final crit. He missed 2nd by a tire width! Check out the photos on http://www.jossiephoto.com/. Ben also finished a respectable 13th in the Chalk Creek Road Race last weekend. This was the race where he crashed last year, so it was nice to get that monkey off his back.

Coming up for TE is the ULCER Team TT. Ben, Kevan and Jim took 7th out of 22 last year in this event. This year the team is stacked with these 3 being joined by Chad Holmes, Todd Anderson and Blake Mason. The goal is to break the 5 hour barrier for the 111 mile race. And our resident mountain goat, Jerald Olsen, will once again tackle the RANATAD, the Race Around Nebo and Timpanogos is a Day. Good luck to all!!

And finally, The local outdoor TV show, At Your Leisure, aired and excellent piece on the Powder Mountain Hillclimb. If you didn't catch the show, here's a link to the clip:
http://www.atyourleisure.info/episodes.asp?season=7&episode=47&category=4