Ride!

Wednesday, July 30th - Ladies Clinton Road road ride, United Methodist Church, 65 LaRue Road, wheels down 6 p.m.

Thursday, July 31 - Dave VW and Jeff Lenosky leading XC ride at Mountain Creek Bike Park with free XC lift ticket - meet at the base of the lift at 5:30 p.m.

Friday, August 1 - the ever popular Friday night Clinton Road road ride, United Methodist Church, 65 LaRue Road, wheels down 6 p.m.

Be there.

Rides, more rides, and then some more rides!

• Thursday night TTC's Dillon VW is leading a XC ride at Mountain Creek - and it includes a free XC lift ticket! Hit the bike shop for your lift ticket before you meet him at the lift at 5:30 p.m. He'll give you a good tour of the XC trails at Mountain Creek!
• Saturday, July 26, TTC's Cliff and Diana will be going on an epic road ride in the Catskills. The route is 82 miles of paved and decent dirt roads. Elevation gain is 7,600 feet of climbing, with the worst grades at 14 to 16%. Road bikes with 25mm or larger tires will do fine, and you can make do with a rear cog of 26 teeth, but 28 teeth is definitely better. A cyclocross bike would be ideal! Bringing a spare tube is a good idea. The basic Strava route is here- http://www.strava.com/routes/589645. With all those hills and distance the ride won't be hard, just steady, with an average speed around 11-12 mph. They plan a deli stop or two along the way, and probably be rolling from Boiceville around 9:30 a.m. If you're interested, e-mail -diana.rooney@gmail.com, or give her a call/text at two zero one -566-five five two five.
• Also on Saturday, a special trail maintenance project is going on at Jungle Habitat. Meet at the gate at 9 a.m., bring water and gloves - we'll bring the rest. We'll work until noon. Paydirt eligible for all you H2H racers out there! 
• Sunday, July 27 is Race #3 in the NYS MTB series at Stewart, the SOS MTB Challenge. If you like Stewart, you'll love this race!
• Do you like good riding and good food? Would you like an event that combines both? Then you should definitely check out the Tour de Farm NJ! It's a cycling and tasting tour of NJ farms - gourmet farmer's breakfast, tastings at each farm, and healthy post-ride hors d'oeuvres. A few TTC members have already signed up, so join them and make it a party!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Racing recaps - distance and downhill!

We've been remiss in recapping the results of our TTC race team and club members for the last month or so, so here we go! Let's cover some endurance events and downhill racing first. 

• First up is the Wildcat Epic Events Wildcat 100 on Jun 28 - this is a great distance event just outside of New Paltz, NY, with a 50K, 100K, and 100 mile option. Lots of fun camping out, a great family run event. TTC's Norm Albrecht finished an outstanding 14th overall (11th in the Open Men Category) in the 100K race, and reported that the event is well worth the trip - check it out next year!
• Speaking of distance events, the always popular BearScat 50 took place on June 1, and as usual, TTC had a great showing. All the TTC riders finished both laps - woohoo! Norm Albrecht and Rich Vandenbos had strong showings in the Mens 45+ class, and Joe Neubig rode a strong singlespeed race, as did David Van Wart, who finished 3rd in that class. Brad Tasik, in his first BS50 at age 16, finished an awesome 20th, and Dillon Van Wart moved up a place from last year, finishing 9th in Open Men. They were joined by John Marshall, who also finished in the top half of the Open Men class. If you've ever thought of trying a distance event, this is a great one to start out with! 
• Downhill racing - our small but mighty downhill team has been rippin' it all season long! Back in May, Titus Nicholson got 1st place (U14 Men) and Quinton Johnson got 9th in 15-18 Men at the Eastern States Cup race at Mountain Creek. Quinton also finished 7th at the ESC race at Plattekill. At the Gravity East series races at Mountain Creek in June - Quinton got a 1st (U14) and Quinton a 7th in 15-18 Men. In Speculator, NY, Titus once again won the U14 class, and Quinton place 5th in the 15-18 Men's class. If you want to learn more about downhill racing, Mountain Creek has a fun Thursday night series - check it out! And you never know when people like World Cup racer Neko Mulally might show up .... just like he did a few weeks ago! 

Up next - XC, state champions and BMX!

Verge store closes tonight, plus a few ride reminders!

• The Verge store closes tonight, July 8th! If you want to get in on the lower shipping and handling, place your order by the end of the day today. Kits will be available again later, but you will pay a higher shipping cost, so take advantage of the savings, and order your gear today! 
• Ladies Road ride at Clinton Road will be on Wednesday, July 9, 6 p.m. - weather permitting. Don't forget our new meeting spot - 65 LaRue Road, Newfoundland, NJ - the United Methodist Church parking lot. 
• Thursday night, July 10, ride the XC trails at Mountain Creek with a free XC lift ticket - meet us at the lift (get your ticket first!) at 5:30. Lightning will close the lift (ask us how we know!) so keep that in mind. 
• Friday night Clinton Road ride - all welcome! Remember, new meeting spot - 65 LaRue Road, Newfoundland, NJ - the United Methodist Church parking lot.
• Next week, the USA Cycling Mountain Bike Nationals come to Bear Creek, PA. It's a great venue, and only 2 hours away. Any Cat. 3 or Cat. 2 riders are eligible to race - no need to qualify! The Nationals will head back out west again for 2 years after 2014, so this is a great chance to ride a national course, and tons of fun meeting people who have come from all over the US to race. More info about schedules, registering, etc. can be found here .