Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Pittsburgh bicycle racing. Past and Present. Limestone at the Kiln


During the 1980's, Pittsburgh was a powerhouse as far as cycling went. There were great racers from here; The Chew brothers, Matt Eaton, Ron Lutz... Davis Phinney lived in the Chew house off and on. Pittsburgh had good bike racers...

We have had our stars come and shine for sure. Mike Friedman and Sinead Miller both represented us proudly...

This past weekend was the final MAC cyclocross race, Limestone at the Kiln. Looking at the results, it makes me proud to be from Pittsburgh.

It looks like around 10 people drove the 4:45 each way to race a cyclocross race. Pittsburgh walked away with: Elite Men Win and 7th, B Men 1/2 and overall jersey, Elite masters 2nd... On top of this, plenty of other results to be proud of. It is really awesome how many people are traveling out east and making a showing for our city. Personally it was also very awesome to have friends from home yelling at me during my race, and hopefully vice versa. Hopefully this trend continues next year.

Here is a video Keith Hower shot of his weekend.

2012 Limestone at the Kiln Cyclocross MAC #8 from Keith Hower on Vimeo.

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

PA State Championship... BMX vs. CX

This past Sunday was the PA state Cyclocross championship. Mostly the Western PA state cyclocross championship, as in the "Elite field" there were only a handful of guys not from Western PA/WV.
I managed to keep my bike upright for MOST of the time,and won my first state championship in 20 years. 21 in cyclocross years. Im old.
This is my medal.

When I raced bmx, if you won something you could run it on your front plate the following year. I rocked the 1PA for two years straight as a kid. Kind of a cool idea.

I told a friend of mine who runs a a real cycling website to watch the first turn, as it kept raining and the conditions changed before our first lap. A change in conditions is not a big deal when you have the skills that I obviously do below.