Hera foundation big gear raffle!!

George and I have donated 2 entries into the darkhorse 40 to the Big Gear Raffle to benefit the Hera Foundation for ovarian cancer research. go and buy as many as you can!!!! you can win some great gear and possibly even free entry to the darkhorse 40!!!!!!!

help us support these gals and their fight against ovarian cancer!!

singlespeed-a-polooza 2010!

well folks SSAP 2010 is in the books!
after what seemed liked 2 straight weeks of beautiful weather mother nature decided to drop the temps and add a bit of moisture to the mix.
we spent Saturday afternoon prepping start/finish area, the beer stop, marshal locations, and putting the finishing touches on the course. it was a dust bowl!
well when we were wrapping up a little after 7 the temp started to drop and the skies looked a little ominous. i held out hope!

around 4:30 on sunday morning George turned on the basement light to let me know that it was raining and cold. we looked at weather.com just to confirm this. after a big cup of coffee it was time to get fired up! into the chilly morning rain we went.

george spent the pre-race hours shuttling racers from the upper parking area down to registration which was at the finish. logistically it seemed like a good idea but it turned out to be a bit far from the parking. sorry. lesson learned.

despite the conditions we were able to get the start off just about on time. little after 9. couple waves later and we had 250 racers in the woods! thankfully we only had one semi-serious injury for our dedicated team of emts to deal with. on weather days like this that is always a major concern!

the hotdogs went in and were being handled by our crack team of "dog boilers!!" the kegs got tapped and sampled! all was ready for when racers began to filter in. big thanks go to Koop, Joe and Richard for there work on the food!

in what seemed like the blink of an eye we had the top 2 racers come thru for their first lap! our man Monty and James Harmon were neck and neck!! it was on! not too far behind the top 2 women came thru and some awfully fast sport guys had gotten themselves into the mix.

little slower on the second lap as the condition "deteriorated". at least the rain stopped! apparently "major mike" was a "less than pleasant experience" on lap 2 for a number of riders!

1 hour fifty minutes and guess who comes across the finish line! Monty baby!! team darkhorse represent!!! awesome job. Harmon held on for second and Josh Wilcox rounded out the podium!
Nikki Theimann crushed in the open women with a time of 2:15 which would have put her solidly in the top 30 of the mens field!! awesome job!

in the sport ladies field Amanda Wisell showed that riding in the mud of Vermont can make you a fast little lady! she smoked the course despite the less the favorable conditions! Bike 29 representing on the big wheels!!

the most hotly contested battle has been the NY/NJ race for sport dominance! a little birdie told me that the NJ guys were pulling out all the stops and training like mad over the winter to keep the cup in Dirty Jersey! well they didn't disappoint! by just over a minute Ilya Cantor took the win! MTBNJ keeping the cup on Jersey soil!

also, the highly anticapated racing debut of "Thor the God of Thunder" was witnessed on sunday. some people believe his registration to be the reason that mother nature decided to provide such nasty conditions! conditions be damned thor donned cape and helmet and lined up with the elite men! apparently even the "nectar" of the gods, which was rumored to be a mixture of high grade tequila and cheap canned beer, couldn't help the "God of Thunder" in the stacked elite class! paced thru most of the race by team Darkhorse racer Sal "my sideburns beat up your honor student" Crochiola, Thor finished in a magnificent DFL in the elite open mens division. Thor could not be reached for coherent comment after the event.

all the results can be found here!!

pics can be found here

awards went off great with the pros taking home piles of cash. the custom trophies were a huge hit!! tons of schwag for the winners and non-winners alike!

SUPER SPECIAL THANK YOU SECTION!!!!!!

thanks to all our racers!!! we appreciate you guys coming out to our little race party! especially in less than stellar conditions!

THANKS TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS!!!!!
especially the lovely young ladies who do our scoring!!! we couldn't do it without you gals!!!!!
special thanks to the beer maven's Beth and Danelle!!!!!

THANKS TO ALL OUR SPONSERS!!!

NINER BIKES!
WTB
CANE CREEK
THOMSON
SWIFTWICK
STANS
INDUSTRY NINE
ERGON

TERREPIN BREWING!!!!!!!!!!!!

course map

check it peeps!
the course is official!
there is a gps file and it will be posted on mtbnj.com
there should be some arrows out on the course by this weekend

SS course made official

on a brisk spring morning, half past dawn, the Darkhorse Trail crew featuring Mike "the axe man" Rave, George the Mayor, and Hawaiian Mike made a final push to solidify the SS course. a few hours, couple gallons of 2 stroke chainsaw fuel, and some frozen toes and fingers later and the course has been set!!!

all i can say is that this is quality stewart riding. some old stuff, some new stuff and some redux stuff.

here is a little teaser. "major Mike" returns with a bad-ass new reroute, we created a new trail called "cedar knob" which utilizes a very unique "feature". an old trail that had fallen out of service comes back into the fray, and the course passes thru one of stewarts older and more unique "structures".

when all is said and done the course comes in at 12.75 miles. yeah its a little short of the 14 we had hoped for but we went quality over quantity. so consider it a gift or a curse or whatever. its what you get!!

we are stoked and hope you are as well.

more details to follow shortly and a gps file will be posted as well.

Closed!

registration for SS-apolooza is closed! we have reached the 250 field limit. if you missed it well you suck..........no ok you don't really. send us an email at darkhorsecycles@frontiernet.net or call the shop and get added to the waitlist.

see you all there!!

Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock

less than 50 spots left! get in now or be disappointed when all the cool kids are racing there singlespeeds!!

trails are shaping up and the course has been nearly finalized but is still top secret!!! some new trails will emerge as well as some re-conditioned old favorites!!

get signed up!!!!!!

SS gets famous!!

Singlespeed-a-polooza gets famous!
mentioned in the "download" section of this months mountain bike magazine!!
hoo-rah! no wonder it hasn't returned any of my calls!

get yourself signed up now. rumor has it they have added extra flights at Stewart Airport to accommodate all the big wigs flying in!!