Dairy Capital Stampede

Woodstock.  Under cool yet sunny sky's, 4 BlackFly's entered what could be a new fixture on the race calender.  Adam, Stephen, Cam and Marty twisted and turned through the mostly flat course at the Pines, near Woodstock.  We came in a very respectable 6th out of 18 teams but most importantly had a great time doing it.

results: http://georesults.racemine.com/Woodstock-Cycling-Club/events/2016/dairy-capital-stampede/results

Paris Ancaster 2016

The beginning of spring comes with another P2A.  This honest, brutal and utterly painful event seems to be in our blood.  Someone associated with the different incarnations of our club has participated in Paris-Ancaster's every year since 2004.  This year we had ChrissyB and Drew racing the full 70km distance while Adam, Cam, JonH and Marty raced the much more humane 40km.  No matter what, the climb is still hard.  For 12 years, I've gotten up that climb without having to walk, an achievement I've always been proud of.  Well, this year my streak came to an end as the spasm's in my legs forced me off my machine.  Hill 1, Marty 0.  See you next year.

ChrissyB

Drew

Cam

JonH

Adam

24hrs of Summer Solstice 2015

The Black Fly's participated in the 18th annual Summer Solstice this weekend along with nearly 2000 other racers.  They were calling for rain at least on Sunday morning but that luckily didn't happen.  A little sprinkle is all we got!

Cam, ChrissyB, Mitch and Marty stayed over Friday night to do some reconnaissance on the course and basically update everyone: "It's a good course, quick, with a minimal amount of climbing.  Only towards the end do the hills come.  A little longer than usual at 18k's but it goes by pretty fast.  You'll like it."

There was 1 mechanical when Adam burped his tubeless tire off on his 1st night lap and 1 physical as Marty came down with a stomach issue and was able to do only one lap.  Bad timing. 
Pyzer and Lamey were as consistent as ever and new Black Fly JonH completed his first actual MTB race and produced some very quick times.  Next upgrade: clipless pedals, Jon!  Brenda used her new bike and seemed to enjoy herself as she had a rather large smile on her face after both laps. :)

As far as results go, the team finished in a very strong 23rd place out of over 100 teams in the 10 person category!  What else is new? 
 

Adam starting us off

Chip exchange between Lamey & Brenda

Off she goes!

The Lost Boys

Spring 8hrs 2015

Introducing the 2015 Intense Cycles Epic 8 Hour Relay 5-6 Person Champs: 

Dean, ChrissyB, Cam, Adam and Mitch!

Way to go fellas, you crushed it!

Our other 6 person team of Pyzer, Lamey, Muller, Fox, Tony and Pete finished with a strong top 10 performance with 8th place out of 12 teams.

Our mixed team of new Black Fly's Stephen and Jenn and old Black Fly's Marty and Brenda pulled out a 2nd place finish out of 9 teams.  Double podium!

The 10km course was very challenging with the usual slog of a climb from the start line, a whole bunch of twisty singletrack before we were met with a series of steep hills, one named the Wall of Pain, before a new technical descent into the finish area.

 

Mitch and Marty at the start

Champs!

Mixed Team 2nd place!

Paris Ancaster 2015

The 40km St. George start was ridden by Marty, Adam, Stitt and Foxy (who was making his first appearance since 2007) under clear sky's and a solid racing temperature of 10 degrees. 

At the 1st intersection in St. George, the marshal mistakenly directed the lead group, which contained Marty and Adam to go the wrong direction.  2km's and about 4 minutes later they were able to re-join with the race.  Way to go professional police officer!

Adam & Marty finished the race in 9th & 14th positions respectively and Stitt & Fox competed very well against a field full of cyclocross and 29ers MTB bikes.

Over at the 70km Paris-Ancaster, part time Black Fly Stephen cracked the top 100 while Mitch and previous Black Fly Jody had very strong results as well.  ChrissyB inaugurated his 2015 season with an under 3hr race and the Drew-man spent an epic 4hrs, 16mins on the course.

Nice work everyone!

Marty at the St. George start.

Fall 8hrs 2014

Not a cloud in the sky!  Beauty day for the Black Fly's on another great course up at Hardwood Hills.  The race started out with a false flat of double track before dipping into a bit of singletrack.  That was followed by a couple of k's of twisty turns on a packed down type field.  Back into the singletrack with the only climb before the final 2km hammerfest back to the finish line.  Out of 17 teams, we were in 4th and 5th for most of the day.  With 3 laps to go and over 5 minutes off the podium we eventually worked our way to only 31 seconds from 3rd place.  One more lap would've probably done it!

Mitch, Marty, ChrissyB, Pyzer, Lamey, Cam

Hello Mr. John Cicada!

ChrissyB finishing it off!

Crank the Shield 2014

Apparently, Adam (and Tyson) enjoyed spending 14+hrs racing their bikes in the 3 stage Crank the Shield this year.  Warriors. 

Adam Hiking-A-Biking

24hrs of Summer Solstice

Camp life

Gonna have to think back as I'm posting this at the end of September as the race was in June.

What happened?
I remember doing the pre-ride on the Friday night, hanging out around the campfire with Cam, ChrissyB, Tyson, Drew and a pretty cool night of sleeping considering it was the start of summer and the longest day of the year.

In the morning, the rest of the crew joined us:  Adam, Will, Mitch, Lamey, Hazer, and Pyzer.
We even had family support this year with Brenda, Justin, Nathan, Jet & Caelen camping out with the team.

It got really hot during the daytime with little to no breeze.

As far as the race went, everyone performed amazing (what else is new?) and the team flirted with a top 10 finish before eventually settling on 11th place out of 116 teams.  By far the best 24hrs result we've ever had for the club!

Proof that I attempted Chico's Mud Bog! (@ 0:20)  Almost made it through: Click here

More team pics courtesy of Apex Race Photograph.  Click here 

 

SPRING 8HRS 2014

Paris - Ancaster 2014

April 27, 2014

Brenda's back, ChrissyB, Drew and Adam rode new bikes and a few of us battled coughs and colds yesterday were the headlines of yet another edition of Ontario's Spring Classic.

Nice but cool temps and a steady headwind were the weather conditions yesterday for the BlackFlys.  However not really that muddy considering the winter we had and the rain this spring has brought us.  Most of the mud collected on our bikes was from the usual mud chutes towards the end.

Great results by all including our 70km finishers Chrissy B and Drew.

The St. George race produced three top-34 overall finishers with Adam 4th (who also won the Mens 40-49 category), Marty 10th and Lamey 34th.  ChrisL did a great job of pacing his buddy but very well could have opted to stay home in bed.  Brenda and Marty competed in the Couples category and finished in 3rd place.

Nice start to the season!

Adam,Lamey,Brenda,Marty before the SG-A start

Brenda working her way up

HELLO!

2013 Fall 8hrs

Dean chasing down his prey

More pics here.

2013 Fall Epic 8hr Relay @Hardwood Hills Ski and Bike

Not pictured: Adam Herring. 

L-R: Deaner, Cam, Marty, Lamey, ChrissyB

A quick, killer course of mostly single track action was just what the doctor ordered for probably the last Black Fly race of 2013. 

Team Black Fly Racing–The Grey Fly Edition (avg. age 41)–had a fine showing at this year's Fall Epic 8hr Relay. Despite a cloudy and slightly chilly start to the day, we were blessed with sunny skies and toasty temps from late morning onward. 

The course was devoid of any monster climbs or epic drops. Instead, we rode through Switchback City, with one tight twist after another... after another. This was the kind of course that made you question your bar width as there were a few moments where breezing through the trees on the downhills required a bit of reflex. Tight as a grape, as one of us muttered. 

We chased the 3rd spot all day to finish 4th overall out of 24 teams in our class–a decent showing, to be sure, but as Cam put it, we didn't really want to hang around for the podium ceremonies anyway. We finished, as Dean said, where we wanted to.

Cheers brothers, for a fantastic day of racing, rapping, and napping. Word to all Flies abroad–you were missed, as always. 

2013 Steaming Nostrils

That. Was. Tough.

Marty finished.  Thank God.

Marty and Adam

Adam & Marty

Chris L.  Don't crash hotshot!

Ian & Mike P.

Ian and Mike

ChrissyB

Amongst the Amish

Karl, Mark & Theo

Fall 8hrs at Hardwood

Yesterday in what was probably the last race of the 2012 season, 5 Blackfly's + our team photopgrapher, William, went up to Hardwood to continue the tradition of the Fall 8hr race that was started last year.  Overcast sky's were in order but luckily it only rained for about 5 minutes but it made the roots and the rocks rather slippery.  It was a thinking-man's course, for sure.

Since it was a little cool and breezy, most of us used our cars for naps and incubators which is why we came up with a new category besides the fastest lap:  Who can stay awake the longest.  Nobody won.

The always smiling Drew-Man at the start.

Blazingly-fast ChrisL (The Lungs)

ChrissyB eating up the course!

Why so serious?

Thinking of the incubator...

Victoria's 100

This was from the Victoria's 100 at Mansfield on Sunday Aug 19th where Adam did the 80km in 5hr 9min and was 3rd in the 40+ age group.

"Felt not too bad, there are some nasty climbs at Mansfield that we don't see in the 8hr." - Adam, during the post-race media scrum.

SUMMER 8HRS

The Blackflys returned to the Summer 8hrs after a 2 year absence and came back with 2 top 10's including a 3rd Place!
The weather was perfect summer racing conditions and the course was very dry and dusty (name of the game this year) and as Hardwood always is, technical with lots of roots & rocks and twisty singletrack. 
Unfortunately, this caused a bunch of endo's including 2 by Hurricane Dean and a rather hard one by Mario.  Heal up, lads!
Young Justin entered his 2nd career race, this time choosing the running bike and runriding his way to a brand new Nerf football.  He climbed the 1st half all by himself and then coasted down to the finish.  Way to go, bud!

Cheers for a great time, guys!

24hrs of Summer Solstice

So, back in the winter we heard the disappointing news that there would be no Hot August Nights 24hr race this year. Our premier event of the season was cancelled!  Making lemonade from lemons is our specialty though and we decided to enter a team in the 24hrs of Summer Solstice.  Great decision!

The weekend was a great success.  Although our numbers were down (missing key riders like Stitt, Marty, Muller, Ian and Adam “the turn coat” Herring) and we weren’t able to secure a site with power or water, we all had a great time.  The course was VERY fast (but longer at 18km) and VERY dusty making the night laps a lot like driving in thick fog.

The icing on the cake was that we had perfect weather.  We dodged the extreme heat of earlier in the week and it didn’t even threaten rain until we were packing up to leave.  The only rain we had was chocolate ;) 

Next year we’ll be sure to be quick enough to get a powered site so that we can have those Xmas lights we keep yearning for!

Let’s make it a new ritual fellas!