Monday, November 29

A look back on a lovely November

Autumn Crossing from CinéCinnati on Vimeo.


In November we said goodbye to Autumn as the last of the leaves fell from the trees. The sun began to set on the end of our races and on nearing end of cross season. And winter winds made us bundle up as the races became slick with frost covered mud. The BioWheels/Reece-Campbell racing team continued with a strong November showing, securing their results in the overall and some racers beginning to come into their own as the season wears on. The team has travelled to Columbus, Lexington, and Louisville with a couple of stops in our backyard with the Gun Club race in Miamiville and the Buckingham Financial John Bryan Ohio State Championships outside of Yellow Springs.

Karen Hamilton continued her strong consistent finishes and is looking towards a top-three finish in the Category 3/4 Masters Women. Doug Hamilton, Harry Wicks and Tony Franklin battled weekly in the hotly-contested Category 3 Masters 45+, while Scott Murschel has been doing double-duty fighting in the Category 3 Masters 35+ and steering his titanium Moots towards potential top tens in the OVCX as well as Columbus' CapCity series.

A huge congratulations is in order for Steven Gers. Steven achieved his first podium with third place at Lexington's Promotion Cross after five years of strong finishes in 'cross racing. Steven is always in the top ten if not consistently finishing fourth or fifth so he is extremely proud of his strong finish, in the Lexington's Kentucky State Championships no less!

Brian Collier is continuing his incredible season. Brian finished the summer with a third place podium in the England-Idlewild mountain bike race and winning the Mens Elite overall in the Kings Cyclocross Time Trial Series. Brian has battled weekly for incredible results, bringing home five podium finishes with two second place finishes. Brian is looking to secure a top-three in the overall in the Category 3 Mens 35+. Nate Mirrus is also riding strong and consistently and could even give Steven a run for his money in the top five in the overall for Category 3 Mens 35+.

Jaden Sempstrott is having a strong season in the Category 3 Men Open. As the season has progressed Jaden has gotten closer and closer to the front of the race. In October Jaden captured a podium in CapCity's Dublin race with a second place finish. Jaden used his momentum from Lexingtons fourht place finish to capture a Silver medal in the Buckingham Financial John Bryan Ohio State Championships. With his strong racing Jaden has sewn up a solid sixth place in the Category 3 series, one of the largest and most competitive categories with nearly 200 racers participating this year. Jason Mott has also emerged from a long season coaching the Covington Catholics's Mens Soccer team to take home a seventh place finish in Lexington.

Gerry Schulze is Misses Consistency this year proving to be a top five finisher is just about every race she enters. This includes a fifth place in her age group at the legendary Iceman Cometh, a mountain bike race in Michigan known for its difficult conditions. In the OVCX, Gerry is a constant contender in the front end of the Elite Womens race. Although there must be something about Lexington for Gerry — for second straight year she has battled onto the third step of the podium,

Amanda and Jacob Virostko, long time racers with BioWheels, are coming on strong late in the season. Amanda and Jake are jointly racing with Shamrock Cycles, a local frame builder in their new home of Indiana. Jake is crushing the singlespeed category and Amanda had a great November with two second place finishes.

Bridget Sempsrott, Joe Bellante and James Billiter are three racers who are new to the Elite Categories. Bridget and James are in their third year racing and November provided them with some strong results to secure their place in the Elite Women and Men categories. Joe has been having a great year in the Mens Elite Masters with a strong November full of top ten finishes and a silver medal in the Buckingham Financial John Bryan Ohio State Championships.

Phil Noble continues to terrorize the North with a second place in CapCity's Halloween race. Phil also battled for third place in the Elite Masters 35+ at Infirmary Mound with Mitch and Joe finishing just behind. And Mitch continues to carry a strong presence with strong finishes in Louisville and Columbus, all while being highly involved in the OVCX series and races like the Buckingham Financial John Bryan Ohio State Championships.

Thursday, November 4

BioWheels Racing's TJ Turner Promoting Races From a War Zone

Article taken from CX Magazine online- http://www.cxmagazine.com/ultra-long-distance-race-promoting


by Ken Getchell
Ask a bunch of race promoters, and most  agree that, at some point, they wondered whether their race would bomb financially while anxiously waiting for the pre-reg numbers to climb past financial breakeven. When TJ Turner, promoter of the on Thanksgiving weekend, thinks about bombing, the stakes are a little higher. Among other distractions, he recently had his planning for this year’s race interrupted by a rocket attack. TJ Turner is full-time military, and this year he’s promoting his race long-distance – from his current home in Afghanistan.
The race, the 13th race of this year’s Zipp OVCX Tour presented by Papa John’s, continues its tradition of also serving as the Ohio State Championships. Turner has been the promoter of the race since its inception in 2003. And while he is unable to discuss his military role in Afghanistan, other than to say it’s pretty much eliminated any chance of him personally competing on the cyclocross circuit this year, he hasn’t let a war, an eight-hour time difference or 7,000 miles interrupt his race planning. “The race must go on!” he said recently via email. Fortunately, he’s scheduled to return stateside by the end of October and should be able to attend his own race.
So how does an officer in Afghanistan promote a race in Ohio through a publication based in California via a press agent in Philadelphia? “It’s pretty easy, actually,” says Turner about his long-distance operation, “with e-mail and a scanner.” Turner also has teammates in Ohio who can take care of anything that needs to be handled hands-on, in particular Phil Noble, who designed the course, but he’s directing even them from a third of the way around the globe.
In truth, it’s as much a story about the rapid and universal adaptation of internet communication as it is about personal persistence. The internet is so ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget that it didn’t even evolve into the widely-used and commercial entity we know today until roughly the same time that a certain Lance Armstrong discovered he had cancer; and kids who were born in the internet age are still racing as Juniors today. Things we take for granted, like following live coverage of races on www.CXmagazine.com, daily Tour de France updates, finding out what the friend of a friend’s friend had for lunch on Facebook and other commercial use of the internet weren’t even permitted on the network until March, 1993¹.
Of course, the irony is that the technology that military officer Turner is using to organize his bike race was first conceived in 1969 as a method of maintaining military communication in case of a rocket attack or the detonation of nuclear warheads¹. Today, universal online communications have rendered time zones and geography mostly irrelevant. While communicating with Turner, I didn’t even realize at first that he was on another continent. Still, you have to give him credit. TJ Turner clearly isn’t “just another promoter,” and it’s entirely possible that he may be more bad-ass than anybody else in American cyclocross this year.
For more information on Turner’s race, the Buckingham Financial John Bryan Classic and Ohio State Championships, see BikeReg.com or www.OVCX.com.