OMBC Mountwood Race report by Wayne Bowers

April 14th, 2013 was the first Ohio Mountain Bike Association (OMBC) race for 2013.  The race was held in Waverly West Virginia at the Mountwood campground and is a combination West Virginia Mountain Bike Association (WVMBA) OMBC race.  This means that both state’s worth of racers will be combined into classes.  There is always a big crowd and today was not disappointment.  The race was slated to start at high noon but was moved back to 12:30 due to the # of registrants.  There end up being 130 sport riders in my wave start.  Awesome!

The race goes off in 3 waves.  Expert, 5 minutes, Sport, 5 minutes, Novice.  We take off and I get into the top 10 or 15 sport riders.  The route takes us up a gravel road to a sharp left into double track which we follow for around a mile and a half.  Somewhere in that mile and a half a guy locks bars with me and goes down.  I never see who it is and feel bad but he came into me and I am fortunate to still be upright although he bounced right off of me.  I guess my winter weight training worked!  Not long after this I began to lose all power in my legs.

We are flying up these hills and it is taking its toll on me.  I haven’t “raced” like this since last November and my body is not happy with me.  I was hoping to sprint with this pack all the way to the singletrack  but, I am shutting down.  My legs are seizing up and all power has been shut off.  Crap.  My heart rate is fine though?  Well, it’s still double track so I move over to make room for those banging around behind me and watch as at least 30 riders and an old grandma backpacking and a three toed sloth go by.  I need to work on my start!

What seems like hours goes by but it’s really only a minute or so, people stop passing me and we hit the singletrack.  YES!  The trail is perfect, the legs are mostly back and I start attacking again.  I get back 10 or so of those that passed me and work the trail.  The next 13 miles is all singletrack and just fly by.  I am treated to spectacular views, long climbs, fast downhills, tricky little rock sections and then more of the same.   The end comes too soon and before I know it I am told the finish is to the right.

I finish the 14 miles in 1:19:17, good enough for 13th out of 27 in Sport Veteran 35+ and 39th out of 130 sport riders overall.  The event was run very well.  Thanks to OMBC, WVMBA and Mountwood for putting this race together.  Thanks to CAMBA Eddy’s, The Bistro on Main, Rudy Project.

Back in October of last year CAMBA started a jersey contest. We received 18 amazing designs from 8 designers. The club leaders voted for the top 3 of which 4 won. Wait a minute… Oh yeah, we had a two way tie! We posted the top 4 designs to our Facebook page and held a public vote which was announced at the CAMBA holiday party on December 14th. If you didnt attend you couldnt see the winning design… until now! You can get a peak at teh winning design by Chase S. here. For winning the contest Chase will get one of his jerseys and a CAMBA pint glass (you do know we have pint glasses right? Hats too!) Thats not all though. You can have a jersey too. We placed a bulk order of jerseys which we should have by mid May. Just in time for prime riding season. You can purchase a jersey for $70 at any of our events including trail building and group rides.

The 2013 Ohio Bicycle events calendar is now available online here. The calendar lists all sorts of events such as tours and races including OMBC and 331 racing events. If you are looking to fill out your riding season this is a good place to start looking.

The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission is holding a survey for a cycling festival in Cleveland. Lets make sure Mountain Biking is represented as well. Provide some feed back here

Reveal The Path will premiere in Cleveland, OH, at the Breen Center for the Performing Arts at Saint Ignatius High School, 2008 West 30th St. at Lorain Ave in Cleveland, on Monday, Jan. 21 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $11 in advance at www.imathlete.com/events/revealthepath. Tickets the day of the event will be $15 at the door. This event is a benefit for the Heights Bicycle Coalition and Bike Cleveland.

The CAMBA leadership has voted on all of the jersey designs and have whittled it down from 18 submissions to the top 4 jersey designs. A big thanks to all of the designers who submitted a jersey. It was a hard decision. Now its up to you to decide which jersey the club will use for 2013. The jersey can be found in the CAMBA facebook page here and the vote for your favorite design can be found here. While you are there take a moment to “like” CAMBA to keep up with whats going on. The winning design of the jersey contest will be anounced at the CAMBA holiday party and fund raiser at Spin Bike Shop in Lakewood on Friday December 14th. More info on the holiday party can be found here. The last chance to vote on the jerseys will be Friday December 14th at 5PM!

When?  Friday, Dec 14, 2012

Time? 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Dont forget the deadline for the CAMBA jersey contest is only 11 days away on October 15th! If you have a design, get it submitted! We cant wait to see your designs!

1. Designs must be submitted by October 15th to ”rick at camba.us” Please include the best way to contact you in case you are the winner.
2. Download and use the “race cut” jersey template, provided by Primal Wear at http://www.primalcustom.com/templates.html.
3. Designs must include the CAMBA logo (here).
4. The winning artwork will be submitted to Primal designers for final edits and Primal logo additions. CAMBA and Primal reserve the right to make changes to fit the needs of the organization, the jersey style and the manufacturers.
5. Submissions will not be returned to the designers and CAMBA will not provide payment of any kind.
6. Designs and included artwork MUST be original.

Any questions can be directed to “rick at camba.us”