Week four of the 2012 race season was a busy one for the CONSOL Energy Racing team. Five members traveled across state lines to compete in two separate races. Although the venues may have been far from home, the results were exactly as expected. We brought back hardware.
Travis Olson, Jonathan Sheets, Joe Sheets, and Jason Steward represented CONSOL Energy in the 9 Hours of Cranky Monkey mountain bike relay at Rocky Gap State Park in Flintstone, Maryland on Saturday. In the nine hour relay format, trios, duos, and solo riders try to complete the most number of laps around the 8.5 mile course within the 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM window. Johnny, Joe and Jason made up one team in the trio male category while Travis teamed up with Chris Jones and Jeff Gernert from Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling to take on the trio male 105+ (combined age) group.
The moderately technical course looped around the shore of Lake Habeeb for the most part, with a climb up the rocky face of Evitts Revenge thrown in at about the 3 mile mark. Dry conditions made the first several hours of the race fast and dusty, but intermittent rain showers during the second half of the day turned the last mile of the track into a quagmire.
Joe, Jonny, and Jason fought mud, rocks, and gravity to finish fifth out of fifteen teams, completing 10 laps in 8:22:32. The rain slowed us down near the end, but we were a full lap ahead of the next closest team. A few minor mechanical issues (my rear wheel fell off at one point) and a couple minor crashes (Johnny crashed in the same spot on consecutive laps) added to our time, but at the end of the day we were standing on the podium.
Travis and his team avoided mechanical issues and serious crashes on the way to completing 11 laps in 8:03:57, good enough for second place in the highly competitive twelve-team division. Travis is riding really well, and we expect him to keep the CONSOL jersey at the front of the pack in many more races this season. All CONSOL Energy Racing riders saw personal best lap times for this race. Here are the full results.
While the rest of us were riding bikes in the mud this weekend, Mandy Anderson was running in the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. Mandy wore her CONSOL jersey in front of a combined weekend field of around 30,000 participants and ran the 26.2 mile distance in and incredible 4:13:36. I think this was Mandy’s first marathon, and unless she plans on running another one this year, it will be the only marathon for the Consol team; nobody else has that level of running fitness.
Good job everyone! Below is one picture from the Cranky Monkey race; professional photographers were on hand and many more pictures will be available in the coming days. Hopefully Mandy will share some marathon pics as well.
Dirty Monkeys - Joe and Travis after a wet and muddy lap
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