GamJams.net: Where Mid-Atlantic bike racers roll

MABRA Gila Monster Ascends New Mexico Podium

NCVC's Blair Berbert had a good reason to miss his club's famed Poolesville race over the weekend - it was too flat. While teammates were sucking down dust, he was out in New Mexico racing the Tour of the Gila stage race, famed for its vertical gain and beloved by climbers across the country. Teammate Paul Lengermann writes in,

The 5-stage race is comprised of a TT, a downtown crit, and three extremely mountainous road races of 94, 78, and 103 miles in length respectively.  The final stage has 9,000 feet of climbing with several climbs topping out at between seven and eight thousand feet in elevation.

Blair had a fantastic race, proving he's not only one of the best Cat 2 climbers in the MABRA region but also nationwide.  Blair came in second in the overall GC, behind only Velonews cover boy Danny Summerhill.

Blair secured his podium position in the first stage by making the final break of about 10 riders with 30 miles to go and then dropping all but Summerhill and Bill Demong (a 3 time nordic combined olympian), who nipped him at the line by just a few seconds on the famous 7 mile climb up the Mogollon.  He then held his own in stage 2, before moving into second on the stage 3 time trial and then keeping it for the final two stages.

For full results and course descriptions have a look at TouroftheGila.com.

Keeping Tempo: 4-28-08

Some quick updates to report on:

• Matt Cooke, the Mid-Atlantic's connection to the domestic pro peloton, finished the Tour de Georgia in 27th position, 5'06" off the pace and the second highest-placing Health Net / Maxxis rider behind team leader Rory Sutherland. Awesome race, Matt. Congrats. Matt's next race is Mount Hood, and he asks in the comments here if you all want more reports from him. I think I know the answer, but leave a comment and an attaboy for Matt anyway.
• Lots of folks were up in Ephrata for the stage race. Final results aren't posted yet, but this finish line video from the Cat 4/5 race is. Uninteresting? Watch it frame by frame and you'll see a crash unfold about 6' before the line, with the falling racer crossing the line shoulder first. Unfortunately for our over-zealous hero, he was unsuccessful in his bid for 25th place, which went to rider 510, who narrowly escapes the flailing arms and legs to hold on for the coveted placing.

• Some other local folks are revving it up down at Speedweek in GA, SC and NC all week. Athens Twilight was on Saturday, and then they circle counter-clockwises for races again Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So don't complain that you're tired after your Tuesday Night Worlds this week. Nick Mulder reports that some DC Velo folks are making the trip, as are the Jokers from Richmond Pro Cycling. The most comprehensive reports are coming from The Granfalloon and the Haymarket Cycling crew. Jared's got pictures (from the race as well as the computrainer TT for positioning, video, race reports, logistics and everythang. Definitely watch the videos Jared has posted throughout. He captures the computertrainer TT and some interviews with teammates.

BTW, I finally added a "Search" feature to GamJams, in the top left corner of every page. I did this to make it easier for you to find videos of Cat 5s crashing 3 months from now (see above), and to make more money for Google, in the interests of any of you who own the search giant's stock.

You might also notice the little green "share this" icon below every post. That makes it easy for you to email a post to anyone you want, or send a link as a TXT to a cellie, or even IM a link to someone. If'n you ever want to do that.

GamJams Training Mix Update

I promised you the GamJams Best Training Music Ever playlist at the end of last week. It's almost finished. You'll be outside this week anyway so won't need it. But you should have it in a couple of days.

Manny Samaniego of HPC/List went above and beyond, and sent me an iTunes gift certificate worth about half a dozen GamJams water bottles. Thanks, Manny. At about the same time, I got a note from a Junior who reads the site who wanted to contribute, but doesn't have a credit card. So I let him choose  a couple of songs and Manny's gift certificate paid for them.

Any other juniors out there who don't have credit cards and want to contribute, drop me a note with a couple of songs you'd like to see on the list. The offer is also open to anyone else who doesn't have a credit card, but not to anybody who spent all their money on a bike much nicer than mine, and doesn't have enough left to buy a song.

Also, I know a bunch of local hammers were down racing in the Bahamas over the weekend. I can't find results anywhere, but if anyone has some news please share it in the comments. I heard Nick Bax went down  when someone from the Cuban team just had to get past him for 30th in the sprint. Anybody else have some local news from Nassau?

Like which Rite Aid rider this is on the podium, and the homepage of Team Slipstream?