This report from one of our newer members (a 2009 acquisition) from the Milwaukee mountain biking contingent.

This past weekend was the Subaru Cup WORS mega event stage race, consisting of cross country, short track, super D and downhill racing at Nordic Mountain in Mt. Morris, WI.  It has been two years (and a month) since my last WORS race, so I opted to race the Sport class, which is somewhere between CAT 2 and CAT 3.  In a change of pace from most WORS races, the XC race was on Saturday, with the other three  being held on Sunday.  The Elite racers went first, starting around noon, with the following categories starting later in the day.  The Sport race wasn’t scheduled until 4 pm, so I took the opportunity to try out the downhill course.  It started with two bermed turns followed by a gap jump of 8-10 feet, with a pit that looked like it could swallow a Volkswagen.  I decided to ignore that first jump all during practice, and concentrate on the second double, the numerous slick rock gardens, rooted off-camber corners and various other booter jumps that were to follow.  The lift to the top of the hill wasn’t all too quick, so I only managed about four runs before my XC race later in the afternoon.  Throughout that afternoon, I heard racers scoff at the heat and strategize water consumption.  It was 85* with little cloud coverage and a humidity level that made sweating the most popular event of the afternoon. 

                I got suited up in my summer weight Pegasus kit, filled up my large water bottle with some go-juice, and lined up with my 29er next the other 19-29 male sport racers.  Some of the dudes looked pretty intense with shaved legs, road helmets, and serious game faces.  When the race announcer was prepping our wave of riders, he said his usual “treat each other kind,” which I tried to joke about with another racer, but he didn’t seem to care about the difference between an adjective and an adverb at the moment. He shouted GOOOOOOOOO! and I managed to get behind the lead four or five guys before heading into the singletrack.  The course wound up and down through some mud, rocks, roots and logs for a little while, and this proved to be too much for a couple of my competitors.  As they struggled with the technical stuff, I managed to pass all of them except for Joshua Rupnow, a 20 year old from Cedarburg.  Before too long, we caught up to the wave of older riders who had left a minute or so before us and he just kept passing them.  I was able to pass them as well for the next couple of miles, and near the end of the first lap, I was right behind him.  He slowed down going up the final hill before the start of the second lap, and I believe he went for a water bottle hand-up, which gave me the opportunity to pass him.  For the next 2 laps, or ten miles, I worked at putting more and more riders between us while still having fun going off the jumps some campers made and being squirted by children with waterguns.  It turned out that I had over a minute gap on Mr. Rupnow for first place.  I pondered if I had sandbagged the race, but the amount of sweat and exhaustion, exasperated by the heat I’m sure, made me feel pretty confidant that I was in the right category. 

                That night, as I nestled into the back of my station wagon, I watched ROAM on my iPod in order to get stoked for the Super D and DH races the next morning.  I knew the Super D would be fun, but I had a feeling it would still be a bit of a challenge.  With a 50meter or so lemans start,  I managed to get into the woods in forth place.  I was hoping to get in first or second, seeing as how this was a mostly singletrack, 3 mile course and passing options would be limited.  The rider in front of me biffed it pretty early and I was able to catch up with the two leaders with the first half of a mile.  All it took was one wet, rooty/rocky section and the leader went down, taking second place along with him.  After making sure they were alright, I passed them with much vigor.  The full suspension ride with dropper seat post proved it’s worth.  I had a sizable gap when the course turned back uphill for a little bit.   I huffed and puffed as I was sure my competition was right behind me.  As I neared the end of the course, I heard someone shout “hey, are you doing the Super D race?”  Enthusiastically I shouted back “heck ya” to which he replied “the course is over here!”  It turned out I had kept climbing up the hill when the course was supposed to turn back downhill towards the finish.  I was sure this would lead to my loosing the race, but I got back on track and sprinted to the end, winning with 10 seconds or so to spare.    

                The Downhill race went something like this: everyone finished before me.  Maybe not exactly, but that’s how I felt on my XC bike.  We were given two timed runs on the course, and the faster of the two was counted.  My times were almost identical, even though twenty minutes before my second run it started to rain.  It was fun and something I would do again in a heartbeat if I had a proper DH bike. 

                The whole event was amazing, but most importantly, I have two more medallions than I did before, and these ones say “1^st place.”  It was pretty cool to win, especially on my 5in travel bike with dropper seat post.  The SRAM stuff I got from the team order worked perfectly, as did the Hayes brakes I got through the pro-deal.  I hope to see some more Pegasus riders at the next one though.  We need to be more like the Mighty Ducks and less like the evil team, and ride together. 

Take care,

Joey Sielen

Winner, winner, Wheat Meat vegan replacement chicken dinner!

Andrew’s account of track racing at Northbrook last night. Congrats, Andrew! Pegasus is becoming a force to be reckoned with at the track.

Really fun night at the track. All of my favorite races were on the schedule: tempo, points, and traditional scratch. Sean came up with me tonight for his first night as a 4. Let me say first- Sean has f*cking talent and is going to be an awesome racer. Henry also did a lot of hard work tonight but unfortunately, its always against 2 dudes who love to go out and stay out, which sucks for a sprinter like Mr. Loud. His efforts were still good enough for third in the omnium, but I’ll let Henry tell his story.

So here are my races.

In the 10-lap tempo, I took a long half lap sprint with maybe 8 to go and picked up two points, no one followed and it didn’t require much gas, but I didn’t want to try and get away then, so I sat up and got back in. Two or Three laps later, Sean took a flyer and picked up 2 points, he stayed out but the pack was gaining fast after turn 2, maybe 25 feet before he would’ve been caught. I counter-attacked as he was coming in and picked up that lap and then stayed out for another. Ernie was yelling at me to hold for one more but I chickened out, I should’ve gritted down and gone for one more, it probably would’ve won me the race. Instead Ricardo did his thing and nipped me for first.

I recovered pretty fast from the tempo and set my mind on the points race. I’d been sucking at them all season long and wanted to score a few points tonight. I was holding Jeff Perkins’ wheel closely and he held Ricardo’s. Then it happened maybe 6 laps in, we broke, the three of us and we went with it. I was so happy to be a part of a legitimately strong breakaway. Unfortunately, Jeff couldn’t hold on after 2 or 3 laps and we lost him a lap before the sprint, I let Ricardo work that lap and then came around at the line to take first. We joined back up and kept on going. We never got more than 1/3 of a lap ahead of the field but they just couldn’t organize to get us. A few laps later, Sean made an awesome move and connected, then a XXXer joined too. I think linking up took it out of them though because they couldn’t manage super strong pulls and eventually the field got us. Ricardo and I were probably out for 12 laps though and in that time, I definitely picked up some points. After we folded back in, I settled and tried to pull myself together to finish, I gave the final sprint a go on the last lap but it was too little too late. I ended up getting enough points for 3rd though. After being shut out of points races all year long, it felt awesome.

Finally there was the scratch race. Just a simple 9 lap scratch. Nobody was trying anything of note. I made up my mind to follow Jeff’s wheel again and it definitely paid off. There was a prime with two or three to go and a couple riders I don’t normally pay attention to went out. I just forgot about them and focused on the final sprint. That was a mistake, a Garnier guy managed to hold himself out there for the finish. When I came up on him in my final sprint, I actually thought we;d lapped him, unfortunately not. Coming through with one to go, Jeff waited in vain for a move to follow but nobody made one. He sprinted out of turn 2 and I held his wheel close, we zipped past Ricardo who couldn’t react in time and coming into turn 3 I made my move around Jeff. It stuck, and I cruised in for 2nd. So I placed 2nd, 3rd, 2nd. The first night I placed in every event and the first time I got 2nd overall in the omnium. All in all it was an awesome night for me.

 Race report late in getting posted from last week at Northbrook. And sure Ben, you can swear, but we’re putting in some f*cking asterisks.

(Am I allowed to curse?)
Race report of sorts from tonight’s [Last week’s] racing: 3rd place in the 25 lap points race: This was the main event for me, I’ve been hungry for this points race since getting dropped but still having a good time at Spring Prairie. I’m at the end of a training block, and I’ve been feeling better every week. I’m leaving tomorrow for a 2 week vacation in Spain, and it would be great to go off on a high note. Winning a points race is a new short-term goal for me, even though I’ve had basically no results in it this year. This is also the first night that Dave Moyer and Al Urbanski upgraded to 3, making my 4s field less like chasing two guys and more fair. And I think Al or Dave may have won the omnium in the 3s tonight.

In short, I worked on my position all the time, and looked for good wheels near the front. In between sprint laps I just kept up and got wheels, and ‘worked hard’ to recover, while keeping pace and getting good position. I thought actively about conserving energy, and using it smartly. In the sprints, I came around dudes in between turns 3 and 4 and in the straight. The WDT rider who won (probably) was out in front a lot, and then there was a Turin rider, and Jeff Perkins, and Brean was up in there. F*cking Nico was pushing, throwing elbows, trying to get 2nd wheel from the Turin rider (I was third), and got yelled at for it by the field. I think in retrospect its fair play, but I wouldn’t want him to do it to me. It would freak me out. Josh Ryan, my coach, suggested that we should practice contact, and in more sketchy setups than we’ve done, like wheel rubbing and hitting bars. He said, “short of someone coming across and taking out your front wheel hard, there’s a way out of anything that you might run in to.” or some such. He said that in Keiren races riders will hit bars with their knees, to push their front wheels and fuck em up. He said ‘if it’s done wrong you can bring the guy’s wheel towards you instead of away from you, and then you take yourself out’. (He said he hasn’t done it, but he’s had it done to him).

3rd place in the snowball: Snowball is like a tempo in that every lap gets points, but the number of points increases as the laps go on. In our ten lap race, the winner of each lap gets 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, and then the following places get less points. So in the last 6 laps the points go out 5, 3, 2, 1. So I won one of the earlier laps, third I think, and then I got more points in later springs. Andrew took a flyer, and I was at the front when he did, so he got about a quarter laps before anyone came around me. That lap was great, he got 5 and I got 4 points. We must have looked so f*cking good in 1st and 2md like that, go Team!

Hooray! Andrew Yeoman won the Unknown Distance race last night at Northbrook! Ladies and gentlemen, this is how a winner snarls. Looks like he’s simultaneously giving a terrific Hipster Eye Roll, too:

More Northbrook photos by Ed White

Have a little more Pegasus Pink to start your weekend off right.

That’s Al from Cuttin’ Crew in the lead there.

As I hear told, TJ and Jon (of the Milwaukee contingent) did a great job Tuesday at Kenosha, too. Good week at the track!

Feast your eyes on our new caps from Cognition Caps out of Madison Wisconsin.

You can get your hands on a Pegasus cap or basically any other design your little heart desires just by heading over to their website and contacting them.

this ain’t no one size fits all joint either, if you have a giant size head or a pinhead they can make a cap to fit your mellon.

Photo by Tim Strege of Half Acre

Last night was opening night at the Kenosha Washington Park Velodrome. The weather was beautiful and people were happy to be out. It was a great night for racing, but during the final Men’s Cat 4/5 race there was a crash involving several people. Two guys walked off the track, one had to be Med Flighted out. Obviously, it was a very serious injury, and we ask that you keep him in your prayers, and maybe take some time to be thankful that you and yours are (hopefully) happy and healthy.

Photo by Tim Strege of Half Acre

Kenosha News

As mentioned in the previous post, our very own Henry Loud performed spectacularly in the Monsters of the Midway Men’s Cat 3 race. Read his account below.

Photo by Matt/puffer fish. Thanks!

Monsters of the Midway was my first criterium back in 2007 and while I didn’t place very well, I performed a whole lot better than I expected to. Then in 2008 a teammate soloed away from the pack for the win and I got nipped at the line for 3rd place. That was a little disappointing but I really couldn’t complain about a top 3 finish and I got to help a friend win (not that he needed any). But this year I had no idea what to expect. It’s my first year as a cat 3 and my performance leading up to Monsters had been less than stellar.

As if to add to my nerves, the start was delayed a while because of a crash in the cat4 race. Some people rode around to stay warm but I stayed in place until the ambulance left the course and the officials told us to take a lap. When the race finally got going, I settled into a spot toward the front and stayed there for a while. A couple of attacks went off the front but none of them stuck for very long because of the 20mph head winds on the backstretch. At one point I saw a group of 5 strong guys get off of the front so I decided to test out my legs and bridged up to them. Nobody followed but we got reeled back in soon after hitting the headwind.

The race followed the same pattern pretty much until the last few laps. About then I started getting frustrated because I kept on getting boxed in and finding myself mid pack. That was not where I wanted to be in a race that was surely going to end in a group sprint. I was still around mid pack on the backstretch of the final lap and couldn’t figure out how I was going to get to the front without killing myself in the wind. My answer came soon enough in the form of a XXX rider along the outside, I jumped on his wheel and fought to stay on while he brought us into the top 15. I’m not really sure where I was when we exited the final turn on the inside but all I knew was that I wasn’t in the running for the win. I just saw people in front of me and told myself “GO! GO! GO!” I found a line zigzagging to the outside around rider after rider. I saw a Burnham guy up ahead and knew I had the momentum to catch him so I clicked up again and again. Then I had no more gears to move up, I was in my 53×12 and spinning it as hard as I could, passing Jeff for 2nd place. I wanted to throw both arms in the air I was so happy! But I’ll save that for my first win.

lots of riding and racing going on this weekend including a 2nd place at Monsters of the Midway by our cat 3 ringer Henry Loud

Photos by: never drown out

andrews bike rolling on Revolution Wheelworks rev-50x’s was in attendance as well, he rode it to a top 20 in the 4s race.

henry also won the first 3’s race of the season at nothbrook thursday night, kid is on a roll…

photo by: frankshapiro

watch out or he’ll bite your face off.

a bunch of pegasi also hit up kettles for a much more relaxed ride involving grilling brats and drinking beers.

we even had a run in with some of the suckers employed by hayes bicycle group, fortunately they are easily placated with grilled meat products and beer.

other happenings included a WORS race and a top 25 finish at Wheels on Willy by Tony Valenti in his 2nd race ever, watch out for this kid in the future.

Photo by Ed White

The Washington Park Velodrome will begin its 82 year of operation with the Tuesday Night race series beginning on May 19. Racing began at the Velodrome in 1927 and continues on. “The Kenosha track has been the training ground for many of our countries’ top riders past and present” states Len Cabaltera, Race Director, “Our focus is to continue developing riders to race at the National and international levels.”

The Tuesday Races series begins on Tuesday May 19 and continues until August 25th. Registration opens at 6 pm and racing begins at 7 pm.
The categories includes Junior 10-14, 15-18, Men’s , Women’s, Masters 30+ and Masters 40+. The full race schedule per category is listed on the website.
Special events throughout the year are Mayor’s cup 75 lap points race, Bob Pfarr Memorial 150 lap Points Race, The Kenosha News Junior Trophy Race.

The Tuesday night series is sanctioned by the American Track Racing Association, with support of the Wisconsin Cycling Association.

Other events include a Monday night stock bike program beginning June 15 and Wednesday night Masters Program beginning May 6.

Washington Park is located in Kenosha, Wisconsin at the intersection of Washington Road(Hwy S) and 22nd Avenue.

More info including a nighlty race schedule can be found at www.333m.com, and www.Wicycling.org.

Contact info: Len Cabaltera, Race Director email: lcabaltera@aol.com

Oh yes, we’ll admit it, we’ve got a triathlete on Team Pegasus. A bike-handling-ninja ass-kicking triathlete! Or does that make it sound like she kicks the ass of bike-handling ninjas? Well, she could! Michelle competed at the APSMLT (quite a mouthful, eh?) this past Friday and cleaned up. This year she’s focusing on track and other triathlon events. 

The Appalachain Power Smith Mountain Lake Triathlon on Saturday was such a well run, well organized event!  Thanks to Setup Events for the great sprint distance race.  Let’s start with the good stuff – I got second place in my age group!  I was hoping for a Top Ten overall finish, and wouldn’t you know I was only 24 seconds off from that.  But, as I said on Friday, I have not been specifically training for this race, nor had I tapered, or swam in a wetsuit since July, or practiced transition, or done any bricks…

Saturday morning started at 6:00 a.m. after going to see the Walkmen play on Friday night.  I woke up, took the dogs out, had a cup of coffee and rechecked that all my gear was in my transition bag.  I loaded the bike up on the car, put my race wheels in the back, and put some Nutrigrain Waffles in the toaster.  I woke up Aaron (he grumbled the whole way there about how bike races always begin at reasonable hours… wtf is wrong with triathletes?), put some yogurt, maple syrup, a spoonful of peanut butter and two waffles in a bowl, and we headed down to the lake.  Unfortuantely, we left 15 minutes late.  The drive was going to take us an hour, and packet pickup closed at 8:15.  As we got closer to the state park, my stomach started to turn.  We arrived right at 8:15, and Aaron dropped me off at transition to get my packet and my chip while he switched out my wheels.

There was plenty of room on my rack still, with only 5 bikes allotted per rack.  I believe there were 450 people total who were registered, so it was a great size race.  I was in the second wave, and there was a mandatory 8:45 pre-race meeting on the beach.  I got set up, had time to change and use the bathroom, and made it down to the beach with my wetsuit half on by 8:45.  I didn’t get to warm up, but the sun was out and it was humid as hell, and I was already sweating in my wetsuit.  I tested out the water just to make sure it wasn’t a total surprise.

There was a really moving motivational speech by Dick Kelly, a triathlete in Roanoke who was diagnosed with AlS in January.  For everyone out there who’s complaining about not meeting their goals in their first races of the season… 5 months after being diagnosed Dick is now wheelchair bound.  He was hoping to be able to complete at least 50 yards of each leg of the triathlon, but was unable to do so come race day.  He instead sat on the beach, in his wheelchair, reading off his notes that his wife and grand children helped him to hold.  Last year in this race he was third in his age group.

After Dick’s speech the men 35 and under were the first wave to go.  There were three minutes between the waves, and I quickly found myself in the water in a horizontal position.  I tried to hit the start button on my HRM, but accidentally hit the totals button instead.  Oh well, so much for timing myself.  My swim started off horribly.  I don’t think I had my wetsuit on correctly because for the first 2 or three minutes I felt like I couldn’t breathe.  The water was cold, but it was certainly warmer than the ocean a couple weeks ago.  I spent the first half of the swim trying not to hyperventaliate.  I sputtered, lifted my head a few times, and finally got into some open water that I could start to calm down in.  My heartrate was skyrocketing through the entire swim, and I exited the water in 12:41.  It was such a relief to get that damn wetsuit off.

I jumped on my bike and started off through the rolling hills.  I slowly started passing people, and my legs felt pretty good.  There was a tailwind on the way out, so that helped to calm my heartrate, and I tried to force myself to drink some water.  We opted to leave the QR set up as a road bike instead of a TT for this event.  I knew that the bike course was going to be hilly, and it just didn’t seem worth it to put aerobars on for a measly 12+ miles.  Of course, there were plenty of dudes out there in full aero helmet/bars/disc wheel setups, but I was totally comfortable with just my carbon race wheels.  I purposely tried to save a little for the run this time, and I made sure my heartrate was low as I came into transition.  I came in first in my age group in the bike, and going into transition I was 6th overall.

Into T2

Aaron found me in transition 3 and was yelling supportive things.  I think I looked back over my shoulder and said something grumpy about the run ruining it all as I started off on the 5k course.  It was supposed to be “flat to rolling”, but it was mostly rolling, up hill on the way out and down hill on the way back.  I started off slow, but maintained my pace through the hills.  I took water at the two stops, mostly dumping it down my back instead of drinking it.  I didn’t take a Gu or any nutrition with me on this race since I expected it to be over in under an hour and a half.  Mile one went by fast, and I got passed by two or three women by the time I reached mile 2.  I had one girl I had passed on the bike that I was specifically trying to hold off, but right past mile two she flew by me, and I couldn’t keep up.  Mile 3 wasn’t marked, so I probably only sprinted the last 200 yards, instead of the last 2/10ths of a mile.  But I came into the chute in 1:20.56.

In the Danskin Women’s Triathlon I ran a time of 1:19:08.  That’s almost 2 mintues faster, BUT… Danskin was the end of July, it was a flat course, and I averaged 8:30 on the run then (and 8:56 on the run now).

So the first trophy on my shelf is for a 1:20.56, good enough for 2nd place in my age group.  Not a bad way to start the season!

Finish