You meet the nicest people in Millersburg

Robin Zimmerly (Team CycleLife) writes in with a MABRA roll call from the Tour de Millersburg:

I can name a few, but I'll miss a bunch...

Paul Mica, Andy Shaw, Greg Abbott, Zach Allison - NCVC elite men   
Keith Reeder, Matt Albanese, Lance Lacy - ABRT/Latitude
Judd Milne, Bill Gros and others - Squadra Coppi
Ramon Benitez, Dave O, Brian Vaughn and Mike Githens from IMI
Amanda Watson, Jen Cheng, Evelyn, Cheryl O - Artemis women
Amy Westefeld of NCVC [who swept the Cat 4 women omnium]
Lorena Candrian, Jen Rasmussen, Lesley Golenor, Michelle Bote of HPC
The whole C3 women's squad was there, etc....
CycleLife of course
Evolution
Bike Doctor

She goes on to praise the course, the organization and the promoter: "This was hands-down a fantastic event and the promoter hopes to make it the biggest stage race in the area.  Bob Roll wants to help him do that. The event doubled in size from last year and I think it'd be one to really encourage all of MABRA to get up to.  Beautiful area, awesome courses, amazing support from the town. The locals were there to give us [free!] homemade cookies, turkey wraps, bottled water, fruit, granola--after every race.  Some locals on the Board of Business Development even approached us in a restaurant to ask what teams we rode for, and to have us explain some of the racing rules, etc, and to ask what more they as a town could do to improve the weekend..."

Never content to just go out and win races, however, the CycleLife women are always trying to recruit a new lead-out specialist. They may be onto something with this one:

Here's what everyone else had to say about the event (these all have full reports of course, and most have pics and/or video as well):

• Lorena Candrian: "As if people just become happy and nice just by virtue of living there. I'd love to spend an entire summer living there. It was the perfect place to have a stage race."
• The C3-Sollay.com Chicks in Black, on their Amish host family: "this experience will live with us forever, and the Smuckers have earned a special place in all of our hearts."
• Pedal'n Around Kyle: "Only the Redlands Bicycle Classic garners more community support but what I saw spoke volumes to me. I have to say I was shocked and felt touched when a local gentleman came up to me looking for some cyclist he made friends with last year." And also, "I also told (Bob Roll) if he typed VS.com takes you to a video sex site and not Versus."
• TerribleCyclist: "What a race. Beautiful area and the people in town were so nice. I had folks waving and wishing me luck everywhere I went. It started to make me feel important... or good... or something."
• Plain Jane: "If you can make it next year, put Millersburg on your list of things to do. You won't regret it."
• The Long Ride: "I gotta say kudos to the town of Millersburg and to the race promoter for putting on a great event. The way the town came together and the amount of spectators was inspiring."
• On Cycling: "Pretty cool to be able to small talk with Bob Roll in this setting. We talked about his tour experience, frustration about travel and airlines and I thought it would be entertaining to run my race strategy by him for the crit (just try to hold on to the back - what do you think?) Bobke laughed and said, well - you might want to get up to the front at some point."
• Even Burt Hoovis was uncharacteristically charitable: "The town of Millersburg definitely gets into the race, and the event is well organized. Last year, there were 75 racers, this year there were at least 200. I think the race has all the signs of becoming a big thing on the local scene in the next few years... "
• And the local paper also ran a review of the Millersburg Feel-Good-Hit-of-the-Summer.