June 15th 2008 Campmor H2H race #4 The Darkhorse Gallop

JUNE 15th 2008! THE DARKHORSE GALLOP!
you have cleaned up at the spring cleaning, you've gotten your climb on at tymor and you met Marty's Challenge, so now its time to saddle up on a DARKHORSE!

the campmor h2h race series rolls into stewart state forest for the Darkhorse Gallop. promising more hudson valley singletrack goodness and rolling course nirvana. no heinous deathmarch here, no babyhead rocks, no soul-sucking climbs, just fast, flowing, rolling singletrack. yeah it will be fast, yeah you will use your big ring and as easy as people might say it is it will hurt! but boy will it hurt good!
got a singlespeed? bring it out and see the light!

more details as they come to light.
the campmor h2h race series continues to grow and improve. look forward to another season of great racing!

August 3rd, 2008 baby!

ok folks, save the date, mark your calender, tattoo it on your forehead or shave it into your dogs back! AUGUST 3RD 2008! the 6th annual drakhorse 40! so that gives you plenty of notice to get it going. i can already hear the trainers whirring in the backround! hopefully this will give you something to think about thru the long dark winter.
we have some surprises in store for the 6th annual running. we will also have all your favorite elements of the 40 back and bigger than ever. the chicken bbq, the preem cards, the frosty refreshments, the lemans style start, tasty stewart singletrack, and of course george and his ever sunny demeanor.
pre-reg on bikereg. pre-reg is up now!
got an issue with the date or a comment? email us!

the end is nigh!

cue the opening scene of apocolyspe now, chopper blades cut the air with there whoomping, and the doors jim morrison begins to croon eerily................this is the end...........this is the end beautiful friend....the end......

and so on sunday the 2007 installment of the H2H race series comes to a close. its bittersweet in a way. its been a long season for the darkhorse crew. we bit off a huge piece of racing cake this year and it left us feeling a little bit like after thanksgiving dinner where you should have passed up that second slice of pumpkin cheesecake. two series races and the 40 really took a chunk out of the summer. george felt as if he spent all his waking hours in stewart clearing trails and getting poison ivy and i had to suffer a little extra listening to him complain about it! but all in all i think it was a very successful season. its pretty amazing that we can get a very competitive field of 300 racers to show up week after week especially since the season runs from may to october! big props go out to all you racers! thanks for coming out and making the scene!

so the darkhorse crew stepped out again this weekend in full force. some were even sporting the newly redesigned uber sweet team jersey! first out of the gates was sir richard the steady! fresh off altitude training in utah he took the hole shot off the beginner start and never looked back! claiming yet another victory in the series and i believe taking the overall top podium spot for the season! good show sir richard!
on to the sport class. we had quite a crew flying the colors. bobby showed up on his big wheeled one gear felt, chris had his ss seven, i had my seven sporting a single cog, georgie and the rave-in-ator where representing the geared carbon squishy bike crowd and tony was there on the one gear voodoo flying the DH colors as well. after a little parking lot pre-game warm-up crit we made our way down to the start. the usual suspects were out in force for the series finals and it looked to be a good field. i little bs and a little more warm-up and i suppose we were ready to go. tom rossi wasnt content to start the race intact so he got both a flat and a crash out of the way during his warmup! he figured turning his hip into 80% lean ground chuck prior to the start might just give him an extra edge! they sent the one gear blokes out towards the back which was fine with us. the first few miles of fireroad saw the ss class pacelining it. it wasnt until we got into the singletrack that things started to break up a little. tom, not content with one flat prior to the start figured a second one would set him right. couple other mechanicals thinned the field a bit more as we started to mingle with the elder statesmen of the pelaton and the youngsters who left before us. i basicly settled in at this point. i wasnt feeling bad but didnt have the snap in the legs either. about 3 miles in i realized that i had ejected both my water bottles! sweet, at least it was cool out. there were three of us one speeders mixed in with a group of total about 6 and we soldiered on for the first lap. prior to the b turn off i handed off my co2 inflater head to a ss conhort in need. ive had some bad flat mojo working lately. not sure how i got the jinx but i figured that by helping a bro out maybe i could lift the curse. more on that later..... coming thru the start i stopped to pick up my spare bottles and took off on the long fireroad. after a gu and a little too much drink i wanted to die. apparently riding a lap with no water then ingesting a whole bunch is a bad idea. pace edited at this point and felt better as i went into the singletrack. now i was basicly alone. just riding along. i knew that 2 other ss guys were just up the road and i was content to dangle a little . as the lap went on i felt good and was really enjoying the course. the singletrack was a nice mix of flowy buff sections and arm and back busting rock gardens. the fireroads were well roads. i was having a blast and psyched to turn into the b loop and blast down toward the finish. i made it about 500 yards and i boogered a rock section and felt i square thump on the rear. oopsie. then i heard it........wish wish wish wish wooooooooooosssssshhhhh. flat. sweet. so much for karma. i ran it in. yeah.
the darkhorse crew did well over all in the sport class. mr rave, the flying scotsman, represented with a strong 3rd! we will have to await points totaling to see if he can keep the overall top spot on the podium. georgie boy, showing what a training diet high in ipa can do for you, had another 3rd! bobbie piloted the felt 29'r into i believe 4th and the webb-man cracked in to the top ten as well! good show boys!

so where does that leave us? well its party time! look out for date and venue info on the banquet. should be a rip.

well its been a fun ride! a good series, good venues, and a great crew of guys and gals. i have to say i had a blast racing in the ss class. if you can call what i do racing! got some work to do over the winter and am hoping to come back strong next season or at least not any worse! keep your eyes peeled cause rumor has it darkhorse might be feilding quite a crew of singlespeeding freaks next year. and they might be running big wheeled bikes to boot!

i'll give george till thanksgiving and then its time to start planning for next season. stay tuned cause we got some cool new stuff coming for the 40!!!!

tymor(e) or less

tymor park tied one on this weekend to host the penultimate race in the hudson to highlands series. i unfortunately was unable to attend. life just gets in the way sometimes and to be honest the opportunity presented itself to be able to go on saturday and i passes it over with flying colors! just didnt have the motivation, the miles in my legs, or the confidence. a relaxing sunday at home with the fam sounded good to me.
team darkhorse stepped out in force once again and grabbed podium spots like sailors on shore leave!
mikey rave, the flying scotsman, grabbed up a 2nd place to help solidify his lead in the 30-39 sport class. hey mike i hear a train a comin' and its name is EXPERT class!
bobby swart stomped his way to the 3rd spot on the 40-49 podium edging out the infamous roger racer!
in the 50+, captain kegerator himself, georgie "sunshine pils" zubalsky nabbed another 3rd place! hey george looks like you may be hitchin a ride on the expert express as well!!!!
man i better get myself some legs soon, it might start getting lonely in the sport class with a good portion of team darkhorse facing possible expulsion into expert.

well one week to prep for the finals at ringwood. rumor has it the course is sweet.

see ya all at the finals!

welcome to the jungle!

"your in the jungle baby!" ah and yes we were this sunday and what a jungle it was! man what a sweet day! great weather, great event and some great new trails. its really nice to see a new venue opening up in the area. lots of high quality work went in to those trails and it showed. good technical sigletrack, tight and twisty with a little bit of rocks thrown in for extra flavor!
team darkhorse was out in force and showed they were ready for a throw down! the rave master dominated the sport 30-39'rs despite a few over the bar incidents and a rock drop that sent him into orbit. podiums spots were also grabbed up like ice cold ales by bob swart and georgie boy himself! the sport ss cat was heavy with darkhorse jerseys and at one point we had quite the paceline workin! good old fashion team tactics up the climb!
all in all a great day! thanks go out to the guys at town cycle, jorba, and all the volunteers who put blood and sweat into making those trails! a+ boys and girls!

now get your legs back and head on up to lagrangeville this weekend for the tymor challenge! rumor has it tim has been living in the woods, cutting new trails and refining the course to make it the best one yet!

guilty!?

i debated whether or not to comment on this but well here it is anyway. this whole thing really bothered me. dont care what you think either way, he did or he didnt, it just bothered me that the sport is this fubar. he seems like a good guy and well maybe he just got mixed up with the wrong crowd!
i can say that its pretty cool to see him mixing it up in the dirt. i realize there are mixed opinions about this as well.
hey floyd, get back to your roots. keep the knobby tires rolling and if you want to come to the 40 you can be my guest! hell if you want you can even crash on my couch! might not be pro-tour livin but hey gotta take it as it comes!

Stretched chains, flat tires and decapitated bikes!

Ah September, summer comes to a close and the H2H race series kicks back into action. team darkhorse and many other brave souls crossed the hudson river on sunday for the latest race in the h2h series. august was basicly an off month for the series so the WMBA chainstretcher had everybody itching to get back into action.
they must put something special in the water over there, or maybe its the proximity to the nuclear plant but those boys seem to look at course design a little different then some of us! now dont get me wrong, i love blue mountain, ride there lots and think it is some of the best terrain around bar none. but these guys set about to make a it a day of pain and they accomplished it in spades. we all knew what we were in for from the course map. lots of singletrack, lots of climbing, lots of technical terrain, lots of rocks, lots of logs, and of course a big steaming plate of hurt!
i had done a roll call to the shop during the week and gotten a fairly reluctant head count. the usual suspects were in, but they also knew what they were in for. i had a hectic weekend ahead and let it be known that i may not be quite on form. word on the street had the smart money on me making it a no show! well fiddledy foo on you. sunday morning i was up early and out the door headed to westchester. i paid my due and spent a bit catching up with all the usual suspects.
then sent us foolish enough to take on the mountain with only one gear out with the 19-29 year olds. great, not only will i get run over by the guys in my class but also by a bunch of younger fitter guys on geared bikes! sweet! it seemed that most of us had the same idea and poked or way thru the chaos for the first couple miles. i managed to crash in the depew singletrack and basicly give myself a charlie horse in my right ass cheek. sweet! love that. so that made the first trot up neds all the better. i had been fearings neds. not sure why but that old bastard had me a little intimidated but after the first time up it wasnt as bad as i remembered. i was glad to hit the upper singletrack but thats where the course really grabbed you by the short ones and didnt let go its grip. stinger lived up to its name but i knew that i had tougher terrain to come. MFT, "my favorite trail", kicked my ass. i can only imagine the MFT stood for something a bit less friendly then "my favorite trail, or at least it did to me on sunday! first lap done i come up the road to see mr rave standing on the side of the trail. now this is a bad sign, mr rave is very fast so either he has lapped me and finished or something has gone terribly wrong. i give him a "what up?" and he lifts his decapitated reba from the ground. hmmmmm, he broke his fork off clean at the head tube, thats not good. day over for mike. major bummer. i hear a few hoots and hollars from the gallery and off i go for round 2. the depew singletrack is much better this time around with less traffic. able to make some time in there and feel reasonable but am definately on the edge. i catch up to tom rossi on neds and we share a moment of suffering as we push our bikes over the top. from then on out we rode with each other on lap 2. thanks go out to tom for pushing me along and sharing his water, of which i had run out. i had about a 1/5th of a bottle of sports drink but it seemed to only make my mouth more pasty. thanks also go out to whoever the spectator was who shared his water with me and the crazy sick dude on the cross bike who rode a bit of the 2nd lap with tom and i! big props go out to him! MFT proceded to kick my ass again and i was happy to turn down the road and head back toward the finish. about a mile or so from the finish on what is one of my favorite pieces of singletrack, 2 live crew, the bike started to get a little squirrelly and feel a bit off. now i was at this point completely blown and had cramped and was hovering in the danger zone. so at first i thought maybe i was just lossing it but oh no, my rear tire went flat! damn it! oh well. too blown to do anything about it and of course wasnt carrying anything to fix it with. rode it for a bit, ran thru the rocks, made it to the road to the finish, rode for a little and then said ah hell and ran it in to the finish! sweet sweet finish!
have no idea how long i was out there, 2 hours and something. collapsed on the ground for a bit, got some water in me and talked to some of the guys about there experience. i then saw the familiar colors of the horse coming up the road. georgie boy pulling thru to finish up. i gave him my best lisa woo howl to which he replied with the 1 finger salute! georgie had a fun time! he looked like i felt and i'm sure i looked worse!
well the chainstretcher is in the books. i didnt stick around to see the experts and pros. rumor has it that harlan came out and smoked it. that dude is from another planet.

next up in the h2h series is the town cycle race at jungle habitat.

next weekend is overlook bikes race at wilson state park in woodstock. if you can go up there and support those guys. a good bunch all of them!


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