Gopher Wheelmen Cycling Club

From: Lynne
Date: Aug 12, 2007 7:31 PM

So I jumped ship and joined Hollywood. Hahahaha. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

If I was seasoned and placing in my races, I’d worry about it and have
sent out a pre-emptive email. There’s always next year; you never
know, my zipper could break just before the race again (Yes, my
zipper on my only Gopher jersey broke a few minutes before the race-I
was on my way to get my money back when Kristy with Hollywood let me
borrow hers-what a lifesaver! The women here are so nice and
supportive).

Race recap:

Lovely 4 mile neutral start with a lot of friendly chit-chat; AUC
chick tries to take a flyer off the front and is reeled in; Birchwood
(so, half of the women’s 4 race) start riding tempo to knock off us
weaklings, this fails but does wear me down for the Mountain (I mean
hill); Birchwood does an attack at the top of the hill; you’ll have to
ask Cheryl how the rest of the race went as it was bye-bye Lynne.

However, on a side note, I ran over a couple of wild turkeys crossing
the road and had an early Thanksgiving dinner. Yum. (Just kidding!!!
They were kind of cool though-a huge family of wild turkeys). And
honestly, the back side of the course was lovely (the same canNOT be
said for MY backside as highlighted on Skinnyski). The tunnel was
fun. Trying to catch Kristy (Hollywood) and Jacki (Peace Coffee)
after I fiddled with my GU and looked up to see them in the distance
was not fun. Riding the rest of the race by myself was SO not fun.

I finished. DFL. The end. Have a nice evening.

Lynne

From: Dan Schueller
Date: Aug 10, 2007 11:46 AM

Sara was missed at the track but the girl’s gotta rest a little after
that long Superweek. The women’s field was the smallest all year at
only 5 riders which included an out-of-towner who won most everything.
But no women crashed this week.

For me, last night was one of the funnest racing at the track this
year. If any of you have even the slightest urge or curiosity about
track racing, you really should take the track class because it is such
a blast racing on that track. Plus it’s a great group of friendly
racers and officials which make it an amazing experience.

The first race was a 16 lap Tempo race which means every lap the first
guy gets 2 points and the second guy gets 1 point. I kept getting
outsprinted in the first 3 sprints so I decided to attempt a breakaway
which worked for about 4-5 laps. While I was away I rang up 9 points
but when the group caught me they blew by and I got dropped for the
first time at the track. But nobody in the group dominated the points
and my 9 points ended up winning with two people tied with 8 points.

The second race, a miss-n-out, I usually do well at but I really blew
this one. Early on I got boxed in at the bottom of the track. I never
got out and ended up 7th.

The third race, a 60 lap points race with sprints every 10 laps, was
the Cat 3 State Championship points race for the year. I got a couple
points early on but the highlight was after the 3rd sprint I broke away
with Sean Yeaton and we lapped the field (the first time anyone’s done
this in the Cat 3s this year). So we both got 20 points and I was
leading by 2 points going into the last sprint. But Sean won the last
sprint for 5 points and I got 3rd for 2 points so I ended up with the
silver medal with 32 points to Sean’s 33 points (Lionel Space was 3rd
with 18 points).

From: Berde, Sherry
Date: Aug 6, 2007 10:39 AM

Firehouse 50
50 miles
4 women TT
2 hours 23 minutes plus some change.
Avg speed, 21 MPH.
3rd place/5 teams.
First Place, 2 hours 21 minutes, plus
Second Place, 2 hours 21 minutes, plus
RECORD for 4 women TT (Berde, Musser, Sturla, Reynolds, 2002)
Still holds at 2 hours 10 minutes plus!

Julia Mairs (GP), Colleen Gegen, Jules Taylor and myself completed the
4 women team trial at the firehouse 50 event last Saturday.

We practiced 3 times (full team) and we did a race together at the
Tuesday Nite Time Trial last Tuesday where we learned what our
limitations were. We knew going into the event that we would need to
pace the hills.

Our event started at 7:32 AM. We arrived to the course at 6:45 AM.
Had a good/easy warm up. It appeared to be calm and the weather was
coolish. The team got to the line before me, while I was back at the
car putting my hydration aero camel back into my skin suite. Colleen
had initially helped me but screwed it up by tucking it into my jog
bra, which bunched it up. It took a while to figure this out. I got
to the start line with only 30 seconds to spare. Julia put my ankle
timing band on, and off we went.

Mile 1-12. First five miles were tough for our group. The race
starts with about a 5 mile climb over the divide. Our goal was to
pace this section and get over the hills! We passed the last place
group on the hills. And then we were “sorta” ready to go. The next 5
miles were also challenging basically getting into sync, and getting
our head back in the race. I reevaluated our goals (time for 2 hours
15- 17 minutes, was clearly not going to happen and told myself
finishing together, safe and sound, is the way to go!)

Mile 13-24. The gentle rollers/flat section. This was a section to
start making up time. We worked really well together on this part of
the course, and clearly it was the best section for us. Our average
picked up from 18 mph to 20.5. We all felt really good. We passed
the 4th placed team after we took the corner, ready for the rough road
section.

Mile 25-42. Rough road, windy, narrow, and somewhat hilly, never
ending. Racers tend to ride towards the middle of the road in the
woods. It is difficult to pass racers (passed several individuals
doing a solo TT). This is the section where I heard many groans,
screams, etc. and the non verbal were strong as well. At one time
Jules yelled out to me and Julia “We are not going to finish the race
with you two up the road.” “Gap Gap Gap”, was often heard during the
day. I wondered if we would be on talking terms after the event.

Mile 42-50. 8 miles to go to Grandview. Tail wind. Lots of people
on the road to pass. I feel the excitement of our team finishing
together, intact. Or MPH increases to 21 mph.

The last corner was tight, but we took it all well. We quickly saw the
finish banner.
I was very happy to finish this race together with friends.

Thanks for reading. Sherry.

Hi GW’s,

I wanted to start off my saying, the bridge collapse in MSP was front page
news down here and it was on all the news casts. I was very relieved to
hear none of you were hurt and way to go Dan S. for helping the victims.
Everyone down here sends their condolances to MSP.

My first two weeks in Sydney have been AWESOME! All I can say is 60 degrees
and sunny for winter is my cup of tea. I joined a bike club 4 days after I
arrived. Turramurra Cyclery sponsors Peloton Sports Inc., my Aussie cycling
club (website www.pelotonsports.com.au). They are the largest club in New
South Wales and have made me feel right at home. They do 5 group rides per
week, however the weekend rides start at 6:45-7am. It has been quite an
adjustment getting up really early for them. I did get to sport my GW kit
during my first few rides. As Ted Free predicted, the Aussie’s wanted to
know what a Gopher was and what we would ever name a team after one!

They have had ~50-60 very friendly people show up on the weekends for the
long rides. The rides are split into 3 groups A,B,C based on your
comfort/ability level (A are = cat 1/2). This style makes it very enjoyable
for all rider levels to participate without the fear of being dropped by
the super fast pro males. The bonus is that coffee is mandatory at the end
of every ride. The team is ~90-95% men, with only a handful of women. I
have been told that the women’s scene down here is not good at all on the
road. In fact, a lot of the races the women actually race with the men, but
are scored amongst their own groups. The other thing I thought was very
strange is that in the women’s scene there are A,B,C,D categories (similar
to our 1-4), but you can put yourself into any category you want aside from
the A group. You don’t have to obtain x number of points ot “up-grade”.

If you like to climb hills, you will love the northern suburbs of Sydney
where I live and the club rides. They do 4-5% grade climbs that are ~4km
long. I, not being a good hill climber have a lot of work ahead of me. It’s
been good fun though, as I always find a sassy Aussie teammate to gasp with
up the hills. My only consulation is leaving several of the experienced men
in my dust during the flat sprints at our Tues/Thurs hard core crit riding
session out at the olympic park.

I will be ordering my Cannondale track bike tomorrow, so I can rip it up
with the Aussies in a few weeks. I have 2 Velodrome’s within 45 mins of my
house and I have been told the women’s scene is much larger for the track
than the road. I have been told by my mates that I can expect up to 40
women at a race. How cool is that! I’ll let you all know how my first track
race goes.

Take care,
Amy

Take care

From: Dan Schueller
Date: Aug 3, 2007 3:13 PM

The track races last night were a good diversion from the images drilled
in my mind of seeing all those people in shock on the bridge. But I
didn’t race that great partly because I didn’t care too much about
doing well. The first race was an unknown distance race and after about
16 laps I took a gamble and took off with hopes of the bell ringing.
But it didn’t and I regrouped. The bell rang two laps later and I
took 6th in the sprint.

The second race was a 2-lap Chariot race where I qualified for the
6-rider final but then took last place in the final. I hit 37.0 mph in
the final but it’s difficult to beat guys like Taylor Olsen who can hit
40 mph and Dan Currell who can hit 39mph. Then I took 5th in the last
race which was a 50 lap scratch race.

In last Saturday’s Masters Championships I took 4th in the match
sprints (I realized this is my worst track event because it requires
brute sprinting strength and I’m more of an endurance rider), 2nd in the
1,000 meter time trial, 4th in the 3,000 meter time trial and first in
the points race (State gold metal, yea). I also was in a team 4,000
meter time trial with Lionel Space, Kevin Shaeffer and Dan Currell where
we did a 5:07 (29.1mph average). I was most happy about finishing only
..2 seconds behind Jim Cullen in the Kilo time trial, and he was using
aero bars while I wasn’t. Results:

Masters 40-49
Masters 40-49 1000m TT
Place Racer Name Club Time
1 Jim Cullen Loon State 00:01:16.530
2 Dan Schueller Gopher Wheelmen 00:01:16.770
3 Todd Cravens Team Urthel 00:01:17.220
4 Fred Stephens U/A 00:01:19.070
5 Kevin Schaeffer Loon State 00:01:19.230
6 Doug Regester MCT 00:01:19.780
7 Thomas Oliphant Flanders 00:01:25.370

Masters 40-49 3000m TT
Place Racer Name Club Time
1 Jim Cullen Loon State 00:03:53.160
2 Doug Regester MCT 00:03:59.640
3 Kevin Schaeffer Loon State 00:04:02.670
4 Dan Schueller Gopher Wheelmen 00:04:04.890
5 Todd Cravens Team Urthel 00:04:14.740
6 Fred Stephens U/A 00:04:21.090
7 Thomas Oliphant Flanders 00:04:26.610

Masters 40-49 Points Race
Place Racer Name Club Points(Race) Laps
1 Dan Schueller Gopher Wheelmen 3 0
2 Kevin Schaeffer Loon State 2 0
3 Thomas Oliphant Flanders
2 0
4 Todd Cravens Team Urthel 2 -1
5 Fred Stephens U/A 0 -6

From: Sara Brokaw
Date: Aug 3, 2007 9:32 AM

Rolled up to the track in record time due to entering an empty freeway
at Stinson. This allowed MORE than enough time for a super-relaxed
warmup. Fresh off 6 days of racing where my warmup consisted of an
easy 30 minutes of spinning for a hr long crit, I knew I needed a bit
more intensity compared to that warmup to have a go in the first race
of the evening. 15 minutes of easy riding followed by 10 more of
increasing intensity, mild accelerations.

First race lined up with 11 women for a Tempo race (points 2,1 for
first riders across the line in every lap). For the first time ever I
was able to use the banking on the south end of the track to
accelerate away from the field, and I can tell you it really works!!
Opened up a nice gap but chased down by Dahlman sisters, one which
grabbed the win (I got 1 point). State Crit Champ rolls by & says hey
lets work together, but I couldn’t (warmup better but not ideal). I
try just to maintain my position rolling a good tempo. Alan comes by
& pulls for awhile. I yell at her to move up track so I can come
through & work together, but she won’t…she wants me to go around, so
I just sit on her monitoring chasers behind. With 2 to go I attack
her & hold her off for a final placement of 4th.

Lined up for the second race a miss & out with 13 riders (two racers
sat out the first race for match sprints finals…need to try this
match sprint thing next year). I’ve been successfull rolling around
the track in the sprinters lane on the front in this race before, just
setting tempo high enough that I make it through the first few
eliminations, so I ended up doing the same with Birchwood with a
Rodent connection (BWARC) on my wheel. Early in the race after one
elimination I think, I hear muffled chaos behind. The gun sounds
again stopping the race. Seemingy half of the field went down
(Grumpys, Bella, new girl in black, State Crit Champ. I think I
might be missing a few.). We start again with a few less riders, & I
use the same tactic. Eventually getting 3rd to the Dahlman sisters,
but not without valliant encouragement by Rodent Wheeler on the
backstretch of the track yelling, “Beat Them!” ! I think we might
have their number.

Last race of the evening was a 30 lap points race. Gathered a point
by using the banking again to accelerate away from our now 5-person
field (U of M sprinter, BWARC, Dahlmans). A split in the field (minus
one Dahlman) prompted me to roll tempo at the front to try to keep one
of them at bay. However, the race came back together. Later, it was
apparent they were on to me & my new-found use of the banking and
immediately neutralized an attempted attack. Hard race lots of
chasing, barely held off BWARC in the final sprint to obtain 4th in
the points, 3rd overall in the omnium (though of a depleted field).

If you’re looking for something to do Saturday evening, there will be
rodents racing at the track starting at 5pm. If the weather looks a
bit sketchy, call the track hotline before you travel: 763.785.5651.

Rodent Schueller looked to be having a good evening as well, so
hopefully he’ll have a rpt coming.

Sara

From: Dan Schueller
Date: Aug 2, 2007 1:13 PM

I can safely say that last night’s bike commute home from work was a
disaster. I took my usual route from downtown St. Paul to Brooklyn
Center which takes me all the way up the West River Road from Fort
Snelling. I was under the 10th street bridge climbing the hill on the
bike path when I heard a crunching noise. I had my headphones on so
this wasn’t too loud. Then I looked up and saw a cloud of white dust.
It looked like a mist of water and I thought the St. Anthony dam just
broke. Then I tasted cement and saw the path just ahead of me covered
in rubble. So I thought part of the bridge must have broke (because I
couldn’t see the whole bridge through the dust) and my first thought
was “boy I’m glad I wasn’t 20 seconds faster today”.

I turned off my headphones and it was silent except for an eerie sound
(that reminded me of a horror movie) of many people moaning and crying.
I leaned my bike against a tree, walked closer and saw all the cars and
damage. Because of the groaning and moaning I knew I had to climb up
onto the roadbed to see if I could help anyone. I’m pretty sure I was
one of the first people on the scene and I didn’t really worry about
the road breaking further, especially since I had a helmet on which I
wasn’t about to take off (yes that was my yellow helmet mentioned in
the news).

So I first went to where a black car was bridged across the crack with
another car on top of it that had three people in it. I told them they
needed to get out and the woman passenger said she thought they were on
top of another car and that she was too scared to get out and just
wanted to hold my hand. I told her that they were on the car but that
it was wedged in pretty good and didn’t look like it would budge if
they tried to get out. After holding her hand for a short time I left
downslope to one of the other 5 or 6 cars with people still in them.
These cars were parked on a pretty steep slope that made it quite
slippery (at least I was wearing my mountain bike shoes and not my road
bike shoes).

Most of the people in these cars were speechless and in shock (none
were hysterical) so I just calmly told them there was a route off the
bridge because I just came on that way, and that I’d walk with them
over there. This seemed to help convince them to get out of their cars,
so I did this with four or five people. One woman was on her cell and
she said something to the effect of “I’m telling you it collapsed
and I’m still stuck on it.” Another woman had high heels on and she
was slipping badly until I held on to her waist while she took them off.
There was a steep piece of cement they had to climb down to get onto
the bank so I suggested they do a crabwalk down it, and that seemed to
work but some had more difficulty than others. The scariest thing then
happened when I put my foot on a large broken piece of cement while
helping a large woman into her crablike stance. The cement piece broke
loose and slid down towards another woman who was almost to the bank.
My heart about stopped watching it slide towards her but luckily it
missed by about three feet.

Then the last person on that section of road, a man with an injured
hand who I think was in the red car at the very bottom, walked off just
as the first rescue help arrived. A rescue worker yelled that everyone
should get off the bridge and I thought “hey, good idea.” I told
him that this man with the hurt hand was the last one off this section
and I then retreated into the crowd now forming along the River Road. I
noticed that it was about 6:25 so I figure it took about 15-20 minutes
to help get those ten or so people off that section.