Tag Archives: SHO-AIR/CANNONDALE TEAM

Journal

Back on the Box for SHO-AIR / CANNONDALE

The heat was on for the Cross Country and Short Track USA National Championships at Bear Creek Mountain, July 16-20; the cross county course was intense and my preparation had turned a corner with some killer workouts; off-road motor pacing (a first!) and some killer cross-country training sessions had me pumped to tackle the race.

My start position left a lot to be desired and I was bogged in traffic on the first lap! By the end of the lap, I came thru in eighth place and thought my medal chances might be lost. Truth is, I really wanted a solid race, and so I kept my head down and pushed on. Once I hooked up with my longtime teammate and friend Alex Grant, I found some mojo.

The spectators and fans added to the excitement along the course. Some of them were kids from a mountain bike development camp I’d recently worked with. They had a piñata and I punched it hard on lap-3; it must have had some magic because my legs came back to full-strength and I surged to take over sixth place, then fifth. At that point, I knew I could get on the box. I kept pushing, and raced into third place to earn the bronze medal.

Later in the weekend, the Short Track was fun and crazy with a wild first-lap crash in front of me when Mitch Hoke put another dude into a tree. It took serious effort and some juking and jiving, but I made it up to the lead chase group of Grotts and Finsty to fight for a solid fourth-place finish!

The next weekend I followed up the Nationals with a return to big mile racing at the National Ultra Endurance Series Wilderness 101. It was sweet: the course was super-fun; riding fast and the action was great. The Rare Diseases Cycling Team with Fluge and Rob Sprig got off the front early, but my fellow Cannondale rider Keck “the Butcher” Baker got in the move. Early on, the 20-mile stretch of dirt road made it like a road race, but I marked multi-time NUE series champion “The Frenchman” Christian Tangy. My stealthy attack on the mid-race gnarly descent was just the ticket and no drafting would come into play for the rocky technical mid-piece of the race.  It was a lot of time to go solo for 45 miles, but I was fired up to put down my best effort. I won in 6 hours 50 minutes – a new course record.

Now it’s time to gear up for the final races of the summer, to try to lock down the National Ultra Endurance Series and of course prep for the big adventure of the Alpine Loop Grand Fondo!

Thanks for following my summer adventures, and for cheering me along!

Jeremiah
Team SHO-AIR / CANNONDALE

Journal

Catalina Wine Mixer

I kept hearing the term thrown around and wasn’t sure what it meant, but then I remembered the movie scene from “Step Brothers.”

Post-adventure, it makes sense sort of. We hoped on a jet boat ferry with bikes, tool boxes and gear. It was the first time I have traveled the open ocean to ride my bike, in fact. As we approached the island, I was intrigued by the stories I had heard from the years before.

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Alex and I went on a spin, climbing one of the sickest switchback roads I have ever seen. We even had a hair-raising encounter with a 3000 lb wild animal with horns. Check it out on the Team Sho-Air Facebook page and hit the like button!

The roads and trails there are steep and scenic. The views where stunning like I have only seen on the western cape. The sound of steep cliffs and beaches being smacked by waves below us. The water was as blue as bottle of Bombay 1000, a sight not easy to forget!

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We shredded and diced, being a touch more careful than if it was a race. Alex, Tinker, Max and I made up half the lead group by the mid-way point at remote feed called two harbors. Max and I managed to ride the steepest hill I have seen since La Ruta de Los Conquistadors. It was 15-minutes long and 33% in spots; it pretty much murdered the legs. At the top we navigated a knives edge ridgeline where a mistake would send you 200 feet down into the ocean. The scene was surreal, the fall line decent was like the pictures you see in alpine climbing magazines, rideable and so sweet.

As a group we stopped at the aid zones to replenish our food and water supplies. Heading home on the final climb I took turns on the front to keep the pace up, testing myself at every chance. After some spirited hammering, it was time for a nice meal water front.

Max and I displayed some brotherhood and instead of our normal lets nuke each other race face we decided to take in the unreal cliff side ribbon of dirt that was our final decent and roll across the line together!

A Gran Fondo it was!! So not a race but a mixer that made it a lot more fun! A few drinks on the beach and a buffalo burger wrapped up the weekend. Now I understand the wine mixer, it was an unexpected great surprise.

I can’t wait for 2015!

JB

Journal

Making a Return to Big Racing, National Ultra Endurance Series: Cohutta 100

An 8-hour drive had me scrambling to get my bottles and feed options set up for my first 100-mile mountain bike race of the year: The Cohutta 100, which takes place in the steep mountains of the south end of the Appalachians. My new Team SHO-AIR van added some comfort and novelty to my journey, and I arrived in Tennessee to enjoy meeting a few fans and other racers at the venue for a Friday night autograph session and registration.

On Saturday, the start gun went off at 7 a.m. at the ‘96 Olympic Whitewater Center. The early morning fog was thick. Five hundred racers fought for the first singletrack. I used my XC skills to slot in second wheel and stay out of trouble. After a hard 30-minutes of serpentine singletrack on the Brush Creek Trail with the pace driven by tattooed tough-man Rob Spreng, the race settled down into a sustainable pace – the day would be a TOUGH one; 14,200-feet of climbing over the course of 100 miles.

My training had been very hard in the mid-week leading up to the race, with a 5-hour blaster just two days previous when I emptied my tank. To succeed over 100-miles, I knew my nutrition strategy and hydration would be essential, so I held with the lead group that was 8-man strong at the time.

Around mile 45, my motor warmed up and my power was coming on so I decided to drive the pace. The hardest part of the day was where the racecourse descended way down 2,000 feet into the neighboring state of Georgia for the Pinhoti Trail, and then took us back up a monster climb where we were greeted by… more climbing!

I punched it on the big climb and the quickness of the Cannondale F29 was apparent as I cranked out a good rhythm full-pace.  I was flying through the dark canyons of green pines and rhododendrons. The last piece of trail was an amazing singletrack: mostly downhill-thunder-rocks-express! Alternating dry southern oak forests singletrack ribbons on steep hillsides was super fun.

Feeling strong makes a big difference versus suffering through the last hour of one of these hundred-milers. They can be a suffer fest! But I cranked it out, and took the win. It was a great feeling to start my 2014 endurance season with such a good day in the saddle. I enjoyed a post-race swim with friends, celebrated the win and a return to epic racing.

Next stop is Team SHO-AIR’s own epic: The Catalina Island Gran Fondo! Check out the team’s page for more info about the big ride.

Uncategorized

Bishop Tops US PRO XCT Standings After Three Rounds

April 1, 2013 —  Jeremiah Bishop (Harrisonburg, Va./SHO-Air-Cannondale) held on to the lead of the USA Cycling Pro Mountain Bike Cross Country Tour (Pro XCT) after the third event on the 2013 calendar, the Fontana City National US Cup, on March 30 in Fontana, Calif.

Bishop leading solo last lap
Bishop Leading Last Lap at Fontana National

Todd Wells (Durango, Colo./Specialized Racing) was able to win the Fontana City National cross country event after Bishop suffered a broken chain while leading the race in the event’s final minutes. Bishop regrouped to finish second after leading the majority of the race before suffering the mechanical mishap. Rounding out the top five in Fontana were Cameron Jette (CAN/Scott-3ROXRacing) in third place, Benjamin Sonntag (Durango, Colo./American Interbanc) in fourth, and Mitchell Hoke (Boulder, Colo./Kenda-Felt) in fifth.

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Bishop Continues to Lead the 2013 Pro XCT Series

Bishop remains in the lead of the Pro XCT men’s standings with 600 points, with Wells in second place with 525 points. Sonntag enters the top five in third place with 310 points, ahead of Sam Schultz (Missoula, Mont./Trek Factory Racing) in fourth with 280 points and Ryan Woodall (Ocala, Fla.) in fifth with 275 points.

The Pro XCT series continues at the 2013 Sea Otter Classic, April 18-21.