Rassy road team flexes their muscles at clear Lake
Rich Wince won the Cat 1/2/3 Road Race, with Lou Waugaman coming in right behind him. Rich actually won the Cat 3 race and Lou took the win the Cat 1/2 race. Kris Kunze had a strong weekend finishing 3rd in the Criterium & 5th in the road race. Pete Basso had a real strong crit, but got pushed out of the sprint at the end. Also, Tony Muse took 3rd in the Cat 4 road race in his Rassmussen Bike Shop debut. All in all it was a great weekend of racing by our Death Squad. People should start to fear the black and white, with all our strong races we have had this spring and summer.
Great Weekend showing for Rasmussen Tri Team
It was a wild week-end of racing and the Rassy Tri team notched some great performances on Saturday and Sunday. Rassy athlete, Mike Morrison, crushes Kansas Half Ironman and Micah Moore flies to the fastest run split in a loaded Copper Creek Tri. Mo(o)re on that later.Saturday at the Clive running festival, Loran Storts brought home a 8th place overall finish, running 5:57 pace for a 10k and beating up on a bunch of 20 and 30 year olds. Storts’ full week-end was finished up with a 3rd place finish in the 40-44 year old age group and 23rd overall at Copper Creek.
On Sunday, the fireworks were blasting away….both before and during the Copper Creek Tri. After getting thunder-stormed out last year, almost 500 participants showed up to get their Hy-Vee Triathlon tune-up. TJ Tollakson flexed his pro-triathlete muscles on the bike to take home first place overall. The Top 10 overall was stacked with some of the best elite triathletes in the Midwest and country. Nathan White finished 2nd place, and Jason Maurice 3rd. both of these 20-somethings have the potential to be pro’s someday as they got off the bike and tracked down 4th place, JJ Bailey, over the 5k run.
Rassy Tri Team’s Micah Moore (former U of Colorado runner, turned Tri-Geek) finished 8th and turned in the fastest run split on the day of 17:10. (Tollakson ran 17:58). After swimming 750 yards as hard as you can and riding 13 miles over a hilly course at threshold pace, Micah’s 5:31 per mile splits were pro-level, for sure. Rassy’s Doug Vanderweide continues to be one of the top and most versatile athletes in the country at any distance, finishing 9th. Patrick Riley and Joel Rinderknecht turned in very solid performances, finishing 13th and 16th overall and 3rd and 4th in their age groups.
Rassy Tri-Chick, Lisa Marshall, scorched the women’s field with the fastest female run of the day and finished 3rd overall. Amy Hanrahan took home 2nd in the 30-34 age group.
Kansas 70.3:
About 150 Iowans made the trek down to Lawrence , Kansas for the 2nd running of the Kansas 70.3 Half Ironman. The pro-field featured 2-time Ironman World Champions, Chrissie Wellington and Tim Deboom, the amateur field was stacked even higher and tighter. Rassy athletes, Mike Morrison, Ben Garrett, Steve Feltz, Mike and Kristin Collet, Jan Mohs, Reed and Kristin Rinderknecht, were among the 2,000 participants.
Mike Morrison is making some serious waves in 2009 already with an overall win at the Jordon Creek Duathlon and a 3rd place overall finish at the Pigman Sprint, came out of the gate charging from the start and finished strong in a personal best, 4 hours and 12 minutes, 4th place overall amateur and 2nd in his age group to the number 1 ranked (35-39 year old) triathlete in the country, Tim Hola, from Colorado. Reed Rinderknecht finished 5th in the 35-39 age group in 4:29. Coming out of the water in 11th place (Morrison) and 9th place (Rinderknecht) the two worked themselves into the top 5 with strong bike performances over the tough 56 mile time trial. Morrison’s 1 hour 24 minute run vaulted him into his Top 5 overall podium finish.
Mike Collet (4:37) made the largest jump in the 35-39 age group coming from 44th out of the swim to 9th off the bike and 8th at the finish line. Ben Garrett’s, 4:35, was good for 14th in the blazing fast 25-29 year-old age group and Steve Feltz, 4:36, worked his way up from 20th position in the swim to 6th position at the finish line in the 45-49 year old age group.
Jan Mohs took first in her age group, crushing the 2nd place finisher by 33 minutes. Kristin Rinderknecht grabbed 12th in the 35-39 female category and Kristin Collett 17th in her age group.
Let’s bring home some hardware at Hy-Vee on Sunday, June 28th! We’d love to see the rest of the Rassy Racing team on the Fuller hill as we suffer running up!
All Tri Bikes 15% off
Save on all in stock Quintana Roo, Orbea, and Specialized triathlon bikes. We have plenty of sizes of each bike in stock ranging in price from $1599 to $8500. With tri season upon us it is time to maybe buy a little speed and improve your bike splits this summer. How many of have seen a nice tri bike fly past you during a race, and thought, "Man I wish I had one of those!" Well there is no better time than now. We only have select sizes, so be sure to take advantage of this deal before it is too late.
Steve Fuller Has A Great Race at the Dirty Kanza 200
Finish. One simple word with many meanings. 85 people started the 2009 Dirty Kanza 200. The Flint Hills topography, the 90+ degree heat, and the headwinds all combined to finish off 70 of the starters at various points along the route. In the end, only 15 people were able to cross the finish line.Leg 1 - 61 miles
After a few final words, and a warning or two from this year's host, Jim Cummins, 85 riders rolled out of Emporia, KS at 6 AM towards the town of Cottonwood Falls. After a neutral start through town, my legs and bike were feeling good, so I sat in with the lead group of 30 to gauge how the day was going to go. The group motored along at a solid 20+ MPH or so until the first climb. After the climb a group of 10 riders were headed off, leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces and reassess the day's goals. I settled into a comfortable rhythm and started grinding out the miles. Occasionally, the comfort of "the zone" was punctured by the appearance of a video crew passing to set up for the next shot. At mile 30, I turned south only to discover a rock had cut my sidewall. I swapped out the tube and got back up to pace. A few cold water crossings and I settled into "the zone" for the rest of the leg. I arrived at checkpoint 1 in 23rd place. I booted the tire with a dollar bill, refueled, took some Aleve for my back, and hit the road about close to 11 AM
Leg 2 - 42 miles.
This started with a long steady climb out of town, followed by a screaming fast descent and some river flats into the town of Elmdale. The Aleve was kicking in and I settled back into "the zone". Nothing really notable in this section. We followed the twists, turns and rolling hills northwest along Diamond Creek Road for about 15 miles until we turned back northeast for the final push into the town of Council Grove, KS at mile 103 or so. I started standing on anything but the most shallow climbs and it made a huge difference in my speed and how my back felt for the rest of the race. I made the checkpoint around 2:30 PM and immediately took a peek at my rear tire. The dollar bill had worn through and more of the tube was pushing through the hole in the sidewall. While I went to work on a Gu packet tire boot another rider offered me the spare tire out of his drop bag, which I took. I refueled, and refilled my camelback. I emptied it and a double strength bottle of Accelerade in this section. I took in three more Aleve and headed out.
Leg 3 - 39 miles
A short pavement climb out of town and we were back on the gravel again. The temps were continuing to rise and the heat was starting to take its toll on the riders. I had passed two riders laying in the shade, both apparently overcome by the heat. Mile 121 - 125 was Lil Egypt Road, easily the most gnarly section of "road" I've ridden on. Steep downhills with lots of ruts in loose rock and flint, paired with steep uphills made of the same stuff. Miles 125 - 135 pounded at us with more rollers, but my legs were still feeling pretty good. A downhill mile of chipseal took us within striking distance of Checkpoint 3, before turning up and away across a few more gravel rollers before dropping us into the town of Alma, KS. I had been staying on top of my nutrition and hydration and my legs still felt strong. I went into the convenience store and returned with a Budweiser tallboy, a quart of gatorade, and a turkey sandwich and proceeded to refuel. The temps were starting to drop as the sun sank in the west, and if I could get through part of the last leg in the sunlight, I knew I'd be able to finish. I had two more flats this section, one front, one rear. At the checkpoint I bought a tube from another rider and left.
Leg 4 - 62 miles
The first road out of town was Clapboard Ravine Road. It's earned the name. It meandered along the flood plain of a creek past some old houses and rose up through an area called Clapboard Canyon. On the way up, I looked down and see a small box turtle walking along the road. He looked up at me as I passed, and it put a bit of a smile on my face as I thought back to the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare" that you read as a child. I had another flat on the descent. One tube for the last 50 miles. Near mile 155, another rider and I had to dodge a dozen loose cows. Near mile 160, I met up with two more riders and we rode together into Eskridge. The convenience store was closed but we managed to get a Coke and some water at the local bar. A few miles outside of town, our headlights illuminated an angry beaver and one of her kits. We rode one last long climb up and then turned and rode south for the last 25 miles. I had flat #5, ten miles from the finish and had to dodge an indecisive opossum a bit futher up the road. At 2 AM, I hit the pavement at the edge of town, the road in front of the hotel and make the turn into the parking lot, crossing the line 20 hours and 10 minutes after I started. Good enough for 9th place in the open class and 10th overall.
After receiving some congratulations, collecting my drop bag, my finisher's glass, and a prize from the swag table, I rolled through the Burger King drive-thru, get some food and then rode back to the hotel. I put the bike bike in the truck, ate and finally crashed about 3:30 AM.
Salsa Bicycles Now in Stock!
We have received our full shipment of Salsa bikes, including the much sought after Selma 29'er single-speed frame. Feel free to check out the Salsa bikes and then come in and ride one at our shop. They make very high quality frames, bikes, and equipment to match our demand to deliver only the best products to you, the consumer. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Rassy Tri Team with Great debut at Summer Daze Triathlon
Jeff Bratz takes 3rd (Pictured Left) and Reed Rinderknecht wins in Newton sprint triathlon. The race consisted of a 500 meter swim, a 18 mile bike ride, and a 5k run. Here is how Bratz interpreted his race. The Swim was a pool swim so that made for a bit of interesting swimming as we didn't sign up until race day and this was a TT start I got seeded behind many slower swimmers in front of me. Navigated slower swimmers and found myself with a decent time.Got out of pool and onto bike with a decent transition. Headed out to the turnaround point and started passing folks pretty quickly. Goals here were as follows: 1) Open up legs and see how I felt after three hard weeks of training 2) Not to get passed by teammate Rinderknecht before the turnaround(Reed had a 5 minute later start than I did). Bike went well didn't get passed by Reed until ~mile 14 of bike. Felt pretty solid and had passed many of the folks that had started ahead of me. One guy that I had passed(with a 5 minute head start was drafting off of me after the pass) and I leap frogged into the finish line with him leading me into T2 with a 25 second lead.
Quickly transitioned and saw him in front of me about 200 yards. This off-season has been a lot of running faster(for me), and I felt "great" off the bike. Caught him within 1/4 mile and as I passed him, patted him and "encouraged" him to run with me-he didn't. Ran 7:41/mile... very pleased with that. Last season I was struggling to run 8:30's.
Net result 3rd place OVERALL. This was a VERY small race, but I am still pleased with the outcome. Great showing for the team as we got 1st and 3rd place overall.
Great Showing in Iowa City by Rasmussen Race Team
Old Capitol bike race consists of a road race on Saturday and a criterium on Sunday. Rich Wince and Brent "PIG" Mitchell had the best weekends of all the guys on the Rasmussen Race team. PIG ended up getting second in the CAT 3 race and Richard had a win in the CAT 4 Criterium. Richard Wince's race report talks about the factor weather really played in this weekend’s races. Saturdays road race had what seemed to be 50 or so in the field as we headed out. I hung out mid pack for the first 1-1/2 laps. Half way through the 2nd lap, on the tailwind section, I move to the front and had this wild idea that I could breakaway and TT it to the end. That worked for about 10 minutes. Between the field having to kick it up a gear to catch me and one too many hills, it seemed we had whittled the field down to about 20 people. The final lap is where I perfectly executed my plan to stay out of the money. I found myself pulling the group for the final 5 miles (seemed no matter how slow I went, nobody was interested in pulling through). In the final quarter mile someone attacked for the finish. I immediately responded, caught him and decided to continue hammering it to the finish (now spun out with my 53x12 and about 400 yards away). At 100 yards from the finish I was gassed and watched the field continue on without me. I think I finished around 10th place.Fot the Criterium on Sunday I hopped on the internet Saturday night a Googled “Crit Race Tactics” and proceeded to study up. The plan was to stay no further than 10 spots back, and on the front, but only for a few aggressive attacks. I talked before the race with Todd Juhlen and Steve Reynolds to be watching to join me for some breakaway attempts. When the race started, the road was still 99% covered with water from the early morning rain which made for sketchy riding. My back tire washed out a bit on the first right at the bottom of the hill, but it wasn’t enough to take me down. From that point on, I was very cautious on every corner (I have enough trouble with dry pavement!). This left the only logical attack point to be the hill. We had a few attacks up the hill, but nobody was strong enough to stay with me if I hammered it too hard, and I’m not strong enough to TT away from the field, so those were all short lived. For the last few laps I stayed in the top 5 taking more than my fair share of pulls. I had a full PRC cheer squad that kept yelling “GET OFF THE FRONT RICH!!! Thanks Ladies. With one lap to go I stayed in the #2 or #3 spot all the way around. After taking the final turn to the finish line, I turned on the afterburners and never looked back. I think I ended up about 5 bike lengths ahead of 2nd place.
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