Trek Ohio Valley

As you may have noticed, its been a little while since our last posting.....hey my appologies, but come on!  Its been a great summer weather-wise and there is riding to me done!  I know, I know, thats a lame excuse but hey thats all I got.  Anyway,  as I type this there are hundreds of Trek/Fisher reps from around the country that have flocked to Wisconsin for the 2010 TREK WORLD dealer show.  This is where Trek unviels all the upcomming cool stuff that we will see next year or in dealer showrooms soon.  Make sure to check out Bob Myers blog at http://area106.typepad.com to see his photos and read about the awesome stuff he has seen so far.....personally I'm looking forward to the 2010 top fuel and fisher superfly 100!!!!!!!   

The following entry is from team member Mark Shellhamer who just completed the Mohican 100 this past weekend...Team member Lindsey Lighthizer also competed and finished 10th!!!  look for a write-up from her soon as she competes in the Mohican 100 RUN  in a few weeks or follow her blog at www.lighthizer.com!

  Let's backtrack to Thursday night. I felt the weather was going to be great for the race so I swapped out the stock Jones XRs for Revolt Super Xs. Save a few grams and roll faster, was my plan. I sat there sippin a High Life while I tried to find ways to save a few more grams. I toyed with the idea of shaving the decals off the bike. They got to way a couple grams. I figured that would be excessive.

Friday I drove down to Loudonville and met 2 of my buddies at Mohican Adventure. They race the 100k and we make this trip our "guys only" weekend away from our wives. As we sat around the campfire it started to sprinkle which lasted maybe a 1/2 hour. I thought "O crap if it rains I'm in for a tough day with these tires on wet trails."

Saturday morning proved the trails to be perfect, dry and fast. After the start out of town, 350+ riders bottleneck into the single track. It went smooth considering. I rode with some OMBC buddies Joe Merry and Steve Little through most the State Park. Toward the end I pulled away and down the final switchbacks back into the park I got off course. Here I was supposed to turn off the trail and head up a miserable hike a bike. I missed the turn. I guessed that switchback was where I messed up, I saw some ribbon out the corner of my eye. I hiked back up and got back on track. After Aid station 1, people thinned out and I could ride as fast as I wanted. Despite feeling great and holding a good pace, on every decent climb I got passed by a single speed. I tried to laugh about it and keep riding. On a gravel road climb I caught a woman single speeder, we put out a tough effort climbing side by side. At the top, I clicked into the big ring and was gone! Downhill I went, hitting 43 MPH! At Aid station 3 I came across a distant cousin of our Trek family, Michelle Johnson out of Pittsburgh. She was tearing up the trails on a Top Fuel 69er. Michelle pedaled her way to 7TH place in the Women's 100K! You go girl!!!

Between Aid station 3 and 4 was a long 26 mile stretch. I only had 2 water bottles because I knew it was mostly road and a long dirt rail trail. 2 bottles was not enough and I got dehydrated. Mile 58 to mile 70 was the toughest for me. On the rail trail I could only hold a 9-10 mph average. I wasn't thrilled but felt it was an OK pace. I rode solo for a long time till I finally got passed by a guy. I normally don't like being passed but this time I was so glad to see another racer. I didn't care.

I rolled into Aid station 4 and washed down a Mountain Dew with a ice cold Gator-aid while a volunteer lubed my chain. I ate 1/2 a peanut butter sandwich and some orange slices. I never ate orange slices before during a race, but Travis Sealer said that's the hot ticket for a large dose of potassium. I chowed down reminiscent of my Clydesdale roots! Coming in just minutes behind me was Mike Purcell. Mike and his boy Chris had challenged themselves to their first 100 miler. Chris was suffering at mile 50 and dropped out leaving Dad to solo the rest the day. I was feeling great leaving #4 while Mike was fighting off bad cramps. We rode together for miles till we came to a awful Jeep road climb. Mike wanted to sit for a bit so I labored on.

The race course brought me back to Aid station 3. I told them to keep an eye out for Mike because he was having a tough time with cramps. Soon after came the infamous climb off Wally road. That gravel road climb sucks but I climbed it slow, granny gear with a 34 tooth big cog on back helped out! I'm not proud but hey I'm 220 pounds!

I felt great at the end and was shredding the last 6 miles to the finish. I good number of those miles was the first 4 miles of the state park backwards. I finished at 6:20 PM. 11 hours 20 minutes. Much better then last year but the course was different and much drier this year.

In the end I was really happy. In the past my fitness spiked throughout the race, from hitting the big ring on some parts to sitting along the side of the trail dry heaving. Today I had none of that. Looking at the results page, I came in #92. That took some wind out of my sail! Mike Purcell did finish and got #99!!! Way to go Mike on your first Mohican 100!!!!!!! My good buddy Chris shaved an hour off his best 100k time coming in 7 hours flat!! Must have been that "High Life" he had for breakfast with an energy bar at 6:40 AM! My other good buddy Bob finished the 100k. He wasn't happy with his time but he had several mechanicals right at the start of the race. Props to him for pulling through!

Special thanks to TJ Platt (29er Crew from Trek of Pittsburgh) for going over my bike with new cables and drive train. The bike rode like new and never missed a beat. It makes all the difference in an endurance race.

Hope you enjoyed my story, I enjoyed living it. -Mark Shellhamer

The following is a post from team member Mark Shellhamer who will be competing in this weekend's Mohican 100....Best of Luck Mark and Lindsey!

This Sat. all my hard work will be put to the test. I will be riding with many but be racing myself. So far the weather looks ideal partly sunny 75 degrees!

Most OMBC races I take in stride even have fun with but not the 100. Last year was my first 100 mile race and took me 13 hours. That didn't bother me as long as I finished before dark. I just made it...barely. I can truly say I was a changed person when I crossed that finish line. Unlike XC races the butterflies are here. The race starts at 7:00AM and I'll most likely be still be riding close to dark. The course is well marked and the aid stations are really nice and full of helpful people. Some even fill your water for you while others oil your chain! Either race you choose 100k or 100 mile the beer at the finish is some of the tastiest around. Filling your new Mohican 100 glass and enjoying a sip is almost as nice a well deserved shower.

If all goes well, I'll be back with a post race review. Till then get out and shread some single track! Mark

     Sunny skies and a surprisingly dry trail highlighted todays OMBC event at The Wilds, near New Concord this afternoon.  If anyone remembers last years Wilds race, then they surely recall the mud bath that hounded many riders, including this one.  Yesterday was tainted by many pop-up rain showers and a significant thunderstorm in the early evening, so I was expecting an encore of mud.  As I hopped out of my brother's truck this morning though, I was shocked to notice that I didn't land in standing water like last year!  AOA did an amazing job of preparing the trail as usual so most of the wet areas had some type of drainage or simply were not wet to begin with, in fact the trail was almost that ideal "tacky" consistancy.

     Trek Ohio Valley had an admorable turnout, Mark Shellhamer and Lindsey Lighthizer participated in Saturdays "Muskingum Mayhem" endurance event at The WIlds/AEP in preparation of the Mohican 100 (look for a recap from Lindsey or Mark soon!).  Today, team members Codi Crippen, Jordan Morowzosky, Sean Launder, Cato Coleman, and Austin Powell represented the team for the OMBC event.  Unfortunately the team encountered some bad luck today as BOTH Codi and Jordan suffered broken chains, but still managed to finish the event (a feat in itself!)  Sean is only 18 days removed from hernia repair surgery but also managed to cope with the pain and finish.  Cato took a sabatical from working on his new house to put in a strong finish while I managed to have one of my best rides in a long time and was fortunate enough to finish 3rd.

     Upcomming events are the Mohican 100 on May 30th and OMBC #5 from East Fork near Cincy....Hope to see you all there

As some of you know, my brother Adam has just started to dabble in the wonderful world of mountain biking.  Its been great for me because I've acquired another riding partner as well as the occasional trailside entertainment.  This past Saturday we made a trip out to The Wilds to survey the trail for this Sunday's OMBC #4.  It has been a full year since I have been out to The Wilds and my brother's maiden voyage, so needless to say it probably would have been wise to pack a trailmap...no such luck.  Now keep in mind that between the two of us we have a valedictorian, 3 college degrees, and 2 honors diplomas....turns out we are the dumbest mountain bikers ever.  From the Wilds parking lot we spent the better part of 35 minutes trying to locate a trail that would lead us to the north country camp where the race would start.  Eventually we gave up this dream and just decided to follow the orange arrow markers and pray we were going the right direction.  For those of you who have not ridden out to the Wilds there are several different trails that intersect each other, AOA has done an amazing job of designing a trail network that is challenging yet allows a rider develop a "flow".  Anyway, my brother and I eventually became separated so I stopped to wait.....and wait....and wait.  Now, those of you who have never met my brother, he is a very capable athlete and has pleasantly surprised me time and time again with his trailriding ability, but after 10 minutes I decided that I had better turn around and go check on him.  As I continued to ride backwards I became slightly more concened, another 5 minutes pass and I've resorted to staring at the trail trying to count how many different sets of tire tracks were left.  Finally, after a mild panic attack, I see my bro...cool and collected chilling in the middle of the trail...waiting on me.  I'm thinking for future rides we will get a set of these for each other. I wonder if Trek makes a kick-ass team version?

The following story was sent to be by team member Mark Shellhamer...As much as I love this guy I'm starting to really hate him...

It was such a great looking day. So I decided to take a bike ride to one of my favorite lunch spots and have a sandwich. With the recent addition of 10+ miles of new rail trails added to the existing creates a 40 mile rail trail! I get on 5 miles from my front door and end up in Astabula! With 5 more miles through town I end up at Lake Erie!! I at lunch and headed for home (after skipping some rocks across the Lake) Total 100.23 miles 6:44 minutes. Sweet!!!!

I'm glad I went solo, some of my riding buds (Stork& TJ) don't like to stop and take breaks. I always hang out at the Lake for a bit before heading home. I didn't set any land speed records but had a blast anyway.

Stop reading and get out and ride! Mark

As you may have noticed this website has been in "sleeper mode" for about three months now....lets just say we tried to revamp our previous site and due to time constraints and an unwelcomed virus to the host site we are back here.  No worries though, the site will be up and running at this address and make sure to check back often for race recaps, product reviews, and rider blogs....happy trails

     Here she is... a beautiful 1999/2000 Trek VRX 300, in a stunning dragonfly green metalllic.  I know what you are thinking....a little behind the times right?  Maybe, but I can still remember being a freshman in high school and drooling over the Trek cataloge which featured the "new" VRX lineup.  Before you wrinkle your nose, think about how far suspension designs have come in the past decade.  In the eight years that I've been in the sport, I've witnessed the "Y", Joshua, VRX, Fuel, Sugar, Cake, Top Fuel, EX, Session, Remedy, and new this year, the Roscoe. 

    Does anyone else remember when full suspension bikes were regarded as little more than a novelty?  Serious racers swore by their 23lb hardtails and any bit of suspension travel was seen as "inefficent".  Fast forward several years and the quest for lighter weight meets more travel is in full swing.  Take the 09 EX 9.9 for example...around 22 lbs, and almost 5 inches of sweet front and rear travel!  The engineers who developed this VRX above would have probably thought such a bike was science fiction.

     I was able to acquire this VRX via a very sweet ebay deal and its primary duties will probably be reserved as a spare, or loaner bike for any guest of the trails, although I intend to use it a lot this summer as a fun trailbike.  I have yet to take this bike out for its maiden voyage, however, when I do, I'll remember to pay homage...because without these early suspension designs, we wouldn't be riding what we are today.

Alright so here we go....the first blog entry from Trek Ohio Valley....Being new to blogging I will try to keep this short and very sweet.  2009 will usher in some new and exciting changes with the TOV team.  Stay posted in the weeks to come to view the emergence of our new website where you will find rider bios, photo galleries, videos, ride schedules, race results, and overall shenanigans