Trek-VW does Outdoor Demo at Interbike

The annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas for Interbike got underway on or about September 23, and for the first time in 3 years, I joined the gaggle of Trek insiders to help out.  Our mission on the Trek-VW team was to help flesh out the Trek demo tents and shmooze a bit with dusty retailers from around the country as they tested our new crop of mountain bikes.  After the dust settled, I would have to call it an unqualified success! 

I brought team riders Jeremiah Bishop and Lea Davison.  We arrived partway through the first on-dirt day, to find the Trek RIDE THE BEST demo crews hard at work under a pair of 20x60 event tents.  It's in my nature to stay busy, so I dove right in to help spin pedals on and off.  JB and Lea meanwhile got into the crowd in our lounge area, where Sherie Nelson was mixing margaritas and cracking beers for test riders.

I was too busy to get many photos, but here are a few!

Trek-VW rocks 25 Annual Chequamegon Fat Tire Fest

To cap a specacular 2007 season, me and the rest of the Trek-VW team made the trip to northwest Wisconsin, for the Chequamegon Fat Tire Fest.  Now in its 25th year, the Cheq Fat Fest is a fantastic specatacle of 2500 mountain bikers racing 40 miles thru the Wisconsin woods from Hayward to Cable.  I'd never been here, and I can't believe what I was missing.  Me, Sue, Lea, and mechanic Dusty all managed to take the start, and it was the most amazing thing to roll out with a few thousand of our fellow MTB-ers.  If you ever get the chance, be sure to go!

Sue ended up 2nd after leading most of the way.  She did the whole thing without a water bottle after losing hers in the first 5 miles.  She had to stop at the medical tent for IV fluids afterwards ... and it was only the blacking out of her vision in the last 2 miles that lost her the race.  Lea was chasing in the top 10 for most of the race, but came around to get 3rd after gassing it for the last 10 miles.  I had a terrible start but that's never slowed me down ... I came in 15th after getting stuck behind a crash in the first 2 miles.  Dusty put a 38t chainring (!) on his 69er singlespeed and passed about 1500 people to get 150th overall.  What a day!!!

Sue, mechanic Steve Borkoski, and Lea after the race!

Schalk and Haywood win Shenandoah 100

Trek-VW riders Susan Haywood and regional team rider Jeff Schalk doubled up this last weekend at the Shenandoah 100, a 100 mile endurance race near Harrisonburg, VA.  Both riders persevered over the distance to claim victory in hot weather.  Great job gang!

Haywood is coming off a tremendous ride at the TransRockies stage race in Canada, and won her race by 49minutes over Trek-VW regional rider Carolyn Popovic.  Schalk on the other hand, had quite a challenge from teammate Chris Eatough, second place rider Floyd Landis, and endurance contender Harlan Price.  That's right ... I slipped it in there ... our own Jeff Schalk beat Floyd Landis!  Floyd was quite the MTBer in his day, but it sounds like the final time gap was 18 minutes.  Nice one, JEFF!

Chris was sidelined with a mechanical for the first time this season, but still takes the NUE series win, because of his 4 wins in other 100 mi series events.

Theres a short story at the bottom of this page on VeloNews.com.  I'll try and get some pix from the riders who were there!

Trek-VW sends 3 riders to World Championships

The UCI World Mountain Bike Championships are underway in Fort William, Scotland this week, and Trek-VW is represented by fully THREE athletes who were named to Team USA.  Jeremiah Bishop, Lea Davison, and U-23 rider Caitlyn Tuel are all over there now, representing the USA and Trek-VW.

I don't know the percentages, but for one team to have 3 riders attending the World Championships, that seems pretty good to me!  In fact, Susan Haywood was also nominated, but she declined in order to focus on some other end of season events.

Check out the world champs on the event website, or, look for daily news reports on cyclingnews.com.

Jeremiah was the highest placed American rider last year in 8th, in Rotura, NZ.  Lea is making her debut in the elite women's field, and Caitlyn earned her U-23 nomination by taking 2nd in the U-23 national championships race back in July.

Go TREK-VW, and GO TEAM USA!