Kona Midwest Racing

AMANDA SWEEPS - ADAM CHAMP!!!

2007-09-09T20:09:00.000-04:00

Amanda Pilling won again at the Snowshoe Mountain Downhill race this weekend sweeping all three series races there and winning the overall title as Snowshoe Champion!!! She also won her dual slalom race telling me how her and the girl she battled in the finals were throwing elbows in the air and pushing to try and get the win! Sweeeeeeeeeet!

Also Adam Raphael took 2^nd in the pro DH which gave him the series win. So for the second year in a row Adam is the Snowshoe Champion!!!!

Kona Midwest by far has the best men’s and women’s downhillers from the state of Michigan going to the big races along the east coast and dominating! Ride Snowshoe Link!

08 KONA BIKES ARE ONLINE!

2007-09-06T08:51:00.000-04:00

Wep page looks:
http://konaworld.com/08_coilairsupreme.htm

Cool electronic catalog
http://konaworld.com/08catalog.htm

SWEEEEEEEET!
Bryan

RANDY GETS A WIN AND A 2ND!

2007-09-06T08:48:00.000-04:00

Randy had a couple of great results in his first college race. He one a short track race and came in 2nd in the XC race. Read about it here. To bad he seems to have turned into a roadie! :) Read it, you will see.

BIG DH WEEKEND

2007-09-06T08:12:00.000-04:00

Both Adam and Amanda are heading to Snowshoe Mt West Virginia this weekend for the final race in the Snowshoe DH series. Both have a great chance of winning their races this weekend and winning the whole series! Good luck guys, I wish I was going to cheer you on!

BRENT 3RD AT PONTIAC LAKE NORBA

2007-08-28T09:25:00.000-04:00

Great job Brent!!!!!!!

What he had to say about the race:

What a day for racing. Sunny skies, comfortable temps, and no rain. After a week of constant showers, the trail at PLRA turned out great. The corners were fast and tacky and there were no real slick spots to wipe out in.

First lap was riding with the main group, then I was caught up behind some riders. Kuhn, Lummis, and Mike Bartlett got away, so once I was able to pass I was on full gas to make up a 30 second split. About 2/3 of the way through the trail I had closed the gap and brought back two other KLM guys(Buccaletto/Goddard). Lap 2 saw the group together until Lummis attacked and it was him and Mike alone. I was stuck behind a rider and didn't even notice what happened immediately. Just before the end of the lap I had bridged back to the group again solo, so it was the three of us until Buccalleto(sp?) caught up after the start/finish. Mike lead out the lap and then 3-4 miles in before the campground I went by him and gapped the group on a climb. I kept the hammer down for the most part, caught myself sliding the front tire out, and was able to roll in for 3rd.

RESULTS
Photos

After a bad race at Big M, I got some decent training in and some needed recovery to get the job done. It was a fun race with the group breaking up, changing and battling for third the whole time. I had a good race and enjoyed it. That's what racing is all about. It was nice to see a large group of Elite racers out today to put up some stiff competition.

IN THE MONEY

2007-08-25T19:29:00.000-04:00

AMANDA WINS THE MAYBURY XC!

The day after a very stormy night with buckets of rain and a tornado or two Amanda fought through the rain and mud to win her first XC race of the season and get a little cash. She has been focused on downhill but still has some XC legs left in her. Great job girl!!!

It gets Better

2007-08-06T12:05:00.000-04:00

It is getting better and better for the KMR downhill crew! Adam stunned the Snowshoe crowd with a ripping race run in a light rain to take over the hot seat and hold it for his first proffesional win. Amanda again showed that Michigan may be a hot bed for downhill talent. She convincingly took the downhill win and with her new improved jumping ability secured first in the Dual!!

Congratulations KMR>

-C-

Awesome KMR Weekend

2007-07-31T10:57:00.000-04:00

KMR had a great weekend.

Adam Rapheal took 2nd in the Dual Salom & 4th in the Downhill at the Sugar Mountain National race

Amanda Pilling & Mike Filipiak took a 2nd & 4th respectively at the Stoney Creek TT.

Bryan Mitchell & Chris Filipiak both completed the WAM 300 mile bike ride. The event raised 1.3 million for Make A Wish charity. See pictures below.

Next event is the Big M race & the Snowshoe DH.
Later,

-C-

WAM

2007-07-27T21:34:00.000-04:00

Bryan, Scott, Crispy and Karen are all riding in the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Wish-A-Mile 300 mile bike tour this weekend. Here are a few photos from Fridays ride. Much cooler this year but real humid. Bryan is also photographing the event as he rides.

WAM 300 THIS WEEKEND

2007-07-25T15:08:00.000-04:00

Ok everyone the Make-A-Wish Wish A Mile 300 bike tour starts Friday! I will be leaving early Thursday morning to catch a bus to Traverse City and then the ride starts Friday morning. A cool thing this year. You can see steaming live video of the start each day, the awards Saturday night and the Heroes Hurrah finish on Sunday.

Go here:

http://dev.magicoast.com/media_center/subscribe/subscriber.jsp?sn=d987ac64bf2ee0a9eff7321c9d288eab

Or here www.wishmich.org and click the video link.

Also when there isn’t a live feed that will be showing video shot the day before and running slide shows with some of the photos I shoot.
I also hope to be bloging about the ride at the end of each day.

You can still donate here!

http://makeawish.kintera.org/wam/konabryan.

RUBY CAMPGROUND NORBA

2007-07-17T06:20:00.000-04:00

Randy took 7th in the elite mens race and Evan had a great finish coming in 2nd in the expert mens 19-29 class. Looks like it was a sprint finish as he was only 3 seconds out of 1st. Great job Evan!!!

ADAM KICKS ASS AT PLATTEKILL

2007-07-15T21:28:00.000-04:00

Adam took 2nd in the Pro mens downhill and won the pro mens dual slalom at Plattekill near Roxbury, NY!!!!! The Kona Factory team should take notice of Adam for 2008. He is rockin!!!

KMR WINS NOVI TEAM RELAY!

2007-07-15T21:24:00.000-04:00

Crispy, Amanda, Jim and Bryan won the Advanced Co-Ed class at the Novi Tree Farm time trial team relay race for the 2nd year in a row!

Full Results.

Oh, and notice who had the fastest time with a 1:28!!!! :) :) :)

BRENT 3RD AT BOYNE MARATHON!

2007-07-09T06:42:00.000-04:00

Brent got on the podium with a 3rd place in the 40 mile, 4 lap Boyne Marathon XC race this past weekend. He came in behind Mike Simonson and Robert Herriman after passing Jason Lummis
and Jon Cowan on the last ski-hill climb. YES! Way to go Brent! Results.

From Brent:

Did a pre-ride of the course on Thursday and it was pretty much the same course I have ridden 30 times. It is my favorite MI course, and I know it well. Boyne was actually the second MTB course I had ever ridden, right beind Island Lake. That was 5 years ago when I decided to start MTBing and rode only a few trails and times that year. Progression...

Race started at 10AM with a decent sized group of Elites going off. We took off and I just sat in and kept my pace. Some people went by me and I let them ride away. By the top of the ski slop I was riding with Shawn Meredith somewhere in the 7-8 place. On the downhill, I crashed and I guess he did too, not far behind me as I could hear him say something. On lap 2 I rode solo the entire time while making the passes of lapped riders much earlier than expected. At the start of the thirs lap I caught up to John Meyers and rode behind him. Before the hike-a-bike climb a mile or so in he had me go by. Not too far up the trail I caught John Cowan and rode with him. He set a good pace and flowed through the singletrack very well(yeah, he's from Boyne). We were riding 4th and 5th place. Climbing to the top of the ski hill, we spotted Herriman and Lummis, but never saw them once we got to the top. Near the end of the lap while passing more people on a wide corner, I flew into a tree sideways and tried to hug it in an effort to reducing the impact on my ribs. Luckily I wasn't too hurt, so I grabbed my bike and chased. I caught John again in the beginning of the trail and rode with him until the ski hill where I let it out. I laft him behind and had Lummis in my sights. I passed him before crossing the golf cart path and kept on climbing. I came out at the top and was ready to keep the pace high when I heard skipping. Shit, I looked back and had picked up and bush in my casette. There were leaves in it and a thin branch hanging out. I knew I couldn't stop, so I pedaled away with a skip-skip-skip every pedal stroke. Luckily the course was mostly downhill and I was able to keep away. i finished third with Simonson in first and Herriman in second. It was a great race for me. The course is suited better for my riding with longer climbs and less flat two-track.

No Ruby for me this weekend, but I'll be putting in some last minute rides before heading out to the USA Cycling Nationals in Vermont in 2 weeks.

TdF

2007-07-08T17:59:00.000-04:00

Almost hate to blog on top of those awesome Detroit ride photos. Wish I could have been there!

The Tour de France came to me this weekend so thought I'd post a few photos. No Kona's on the course but plenty with the spectators. See more Kona's on the streets in London than almost any other major brand.

The view off the first bend of the prologue with Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the London Eye in the distance. London was all about the bike this weekend.

Hincapie on his way to a third place finish...

Watching the finish of the prologue on the big screen in Hyde Park. So cool to see hundreds of thousands of cycling fans.

The Peloton starting stage 1 today at kilometer zero in London. CSC up front protecting the yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara who won the prologue (7.9km) by 13 seconds over second place Kloden...

Stage 1 winner was Robbie McEwen who went down hard in the prologue hitting a barrier and again today with 25km to go. His team paced him back onto the lead pack with 10km to go and he sprinted to take the win. Morale... never give up and it's all about riding with a great team. Be there Tuesday and looking forward to riding with all of you!

BOYS (and girl) IN THE HOOD

2007-07-05T10:03:00.000-04:00

Dale, our guru Kona rep, was in town on the fourth so Todd Scott took us on what is becoming our annual downtown ride in the D. Detroit for you out of town folks. :) (Click on each photo for a larger view)

AMANDA WINS AT SNOWSHOE!!!

2007-07-02T11:21:00.000-04:00

I just listened to a message on my voicemail from Amanda saying she WON her Downhill race this weekend at Snowshoe Mountain, West Virginia and took 2nd in the Dual Slalom!!!!!!
"I'm stoked about that and I'm not too broken!" she said on the message.
Hopefully there will have more info and photos soon.
Adam took 5th in the Pro Open DH race!!!

STONEY CREEK MARATHON

2007-07-02T10:01:00.000-04:00

Brent raced in the Marathon over the weekend and placed 8th in the elite/pro mens class with a time of 4 hours and 8 minutes in the 62 mile race. Full results.

From Brent:
Raced the marathon out at Stony yesterday. The rain from earlier in the week provided the trail with some good precipitation to keep the trail in good shape. The normal gravely two-track corners were there, but overall it was smooth and fast.

I rode most of lap one with the main group until the last two-track section where I decided to back the pace off a bit. Laps 2-3 I rode with Niel Sharphorn rippin it on his SS. Lap 4 I rode alone passing more lapped traffic. Lap 5 was alone until I passed Greg "I flat every race" Kuhn as he was flipping his bike back over. He came back and went by me later on in the two-track. Lap 6 was keeping the rubber side down and finishing the race off without anyone passing me. I finished 8th with a time of 4:08. I fell twice on gravel in some two track corners. The first one wasn't bad, but the second one came at about 1 mph on the tight switchback from the last singletrack to the two-track 3/4 of the way through the lap. I fell right on my hip-bone and ankle. That is when I wish I hat more fat on me. That sucker kills.

Next up is the Boyne Marathon next week. Should be some fun climbing the ski hill.

SPREADING THE WORD

2007-06-25T21:38:00.001-04:00

Me, Crispy, Mike and Amanda took Katharine, a writer for the Detroit Free Press who did the WAM story on me, out on her first ever mountain bike ride at Maybury! We put her on Amanda's CoilAir and she had a blast! It is so much fun to show new people our great sport. She crashed a couple times but just got up and wanted more. She handled the twisty trail AWESOME. Bill, also a writer joined us for the ride and he was very impressed with Katharine's riding as well. What a great time!!!!!! It won't be her last.
Below is an email she sent to me after the ride.

Bryan,
I cannot thank you and the other Midwest Konas enough for that WONDERFUL experience you gave me on Saturday. It was truly one of the most spectacular days I've had in my life - fun and friendly and exciting and a great workout. I was so impressed with you TKM riders - you're true ambassadors of your sport, and so good at it!

Bill told me he's never seen better mountain biking, and we were both taken by how kind and generous all of you were to us, a newbie and someone who hasn't mountain-biked in a long time. He says you all would be killer in triathlon.

Of course, now I want to get a mountain bike ...

So again, many thanks to you.

And when can we go riding again?

Regards,
Katharine

ADAM WINS THE SUPERIOR BIKE FEST DH

2007-06-24T20:41:00.000-04:00

Full results here.

BRENT IS TOP 20 AT LUMBERJACK!!!!!!

2007-06-19T07:05:00.000-04:00

Way to go Brent! 17th place in under 8 hours!!!

Full Results Here.

Brents Lumberjack 100 Recap

2 for 2
That's two starts and 2 finishes.
I went into the race looking to beat my 8:32 from last year. Inside, I really wanted to see a 7 at the begining of my final time, but I didn't know if it was possible. I did a pre-ride of the inner-loop on Friday and the trail was in great shape.

Race started around 7am and was slow. I thought it was supposed to be a fast rollout, but I thought it was very mellow. I stayed in the top 20 or so riders and ended up riding by myself for most of the race with a SS'er from MN behind me. I did a 1:50 lap, which was around 8 minutes faster than last year. Lap 2 was 1:54 and I was feeling good, but riding all alone again. Lap 3 came and I was again alone pedaling along on cruise control until I hear a smart-ass comment about my bike come from behind me. It was none other than Lummis coming back from a mechanical problem. I picked up my pace a rode with him for a little bit on the inner loop while passing 3 people. It felt good to open the legs up a little more, but then I decided I was only 65 miles or so in, so I needed to keep my pace a little slower. Two of the riders passed me back a few miles later, but in the outer loop I caught them again and put a gap on them. I did a 1:59, which meant that I had 17 minutes to spare on my last lap in order to beat 8 hours. I knew that all I had to do was turn the cranks and I would achieve my goal. Yeah, that happened, but my mental game went down hill. I was at the point where I was wondering what the hell I was doing. I do not like having an inner and then outer loop go by the pits/parking lot, beacuse there were a few times I wanted to call it a day and go sleep. On the outer loop, I broke a spoke, but easily stopped and twisted it around another spoke before going again. There were a few times I was feeling sleepy tired, but I knew the bugs would kill me. Once I got over that monotonous flat and bumpy section, I was doing much better. I got to the climbs and got back in a rythm which helped. I ended up getting 17th overall in 7:56, 36 minutes faster than last year. I think if I would have had some people to ride with on the last lap, I likely would have been able to keep the pace up. I did get passed by 3 people on lap 4, which costed me places, but that is endurance racing.

Overall, it was a great weekend. A blast. Rick puts on a top notch race and great awards banquet. This is quickly becoming Michigans best race. Sure we have Iceman, but LJ100 is a class of its own. -Brent

Checking in

2007-06-17T16:36:00.000-04:00

Checking in again to say hello. From my last post I've had a 7th place (Vet) result in the London Beastway round 4 and a disappointing 26th place finish at the 12 Hour race at Bristol Bikefest. Bristol was an amazing course and the weather was perfect. The course was super fast and flowing. If you add climbing like the Boyne 24 hour course with flowing rocky downhills similar to Pontiac Lake that was the course. The Hei Hei was the perfect bike! Unfortunately we lost a rider before the race and started with 3. Then one of my team mates broke his Specialized frame on his second lap. I doubled up while he tried to get something worked out but it was unfixable. He ended up borrowing demo bikes and rode mine on the last lap but we just lost too much time to the other teams. After riding 3 other bikes though my team mate pulled his best time of the day on my Kona (on his last lap). He was amazed at how much faster it was than the other big name rides he tried on the day. Kona did well at the event winning competitive pairs (Torq Kona) and the competitive team (Paligap Kona - UK Kona sponsered team).

Next race for me is next weekend for a 24 hour race called Mountain Mayhem at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire, UK . It's the biggest mountain bike event in the UK with 450 teams and 2500 riders in the race. They bill it as the world's largest 24 hour race Yes... ought to be interesting in the woods at night with 450 other teams on the course at the same time. I am not a big fan of 24 hour events but I'm helping a team out that lost a rider. Since it's supposed to be the Iceman of the UK thought it was worth the pain to say I've done it.

http://www.mountainmayhem.org/index.php

Look for me at the Tour de France prologue and stage 1 in London on July 7-8th. I'll ride down to the event and be on the side of the course wearing my KMR kit in case you see the team colors. Back in the states July 9th - 23rd and looking forward to riding with everyone!

Jim

RACE NEWS

2007-06-12T20:44:00.000-04:00

Randy took 6th at the Bloomer XC race and is ready to peak! Read about his race and training here.
This weekend is the Lumberjack 100 in Northern Michigan.

FREERIDE CLINIC

2007-06-10T17:11:00.001-04:00

Amanda and Bryan helped out at a Freeride clinic today. The idea was to give riders who only do xc rides a taste of basic trail/freeride skills like bunny hops, log rides, small drops and skinnies. It went great and the two of us ended up helping out and teaching the ladies in the group a few things. The ladies who came out were real eager and really pushed themselves to try new things. I always love to see women try hard types of bike riding as its not the norm. Erica and Liz were Awesome!!!!! Of course we showed off our Kona big bikes, gave out some stickers and sponsor swagg and had a real fun day. Thanks to Matt for High Gear Racing for setting up the clinic and having us along.

Amanda demonstrates how to do a log ride.

Some comments from the clinic:

"Bryan - Thanks so much for all of the help today. I had so much fun and rode lots of things I have never even attempted. Some of those log piles were really easy once I tried them. I can tell already I will have more confidence in my riding. I am going to get some knee pads of my own and go back out and finish that skinny Thank you for giving me the confidence and knowledge I needed to try it."

"Bryan, I would like to thank you for your help and encouragement for my first ride on the skinny. It was great to finally be able to attempt to ride the skinny. I have a few scrapes and bruises, but other than that I am fine. Also I enjoyed riding your bike over the rock garden, it looks like I may have to invest in a downhill bike in the next few years. Thank you very much for the gift bag, that was kind of you to give it to me."

"Thanks for all your help and coaching today. You helped Erica (better half) out a ton, especially with the skinny. Your help is definately appreciated, especially since i am an XC guy and it is becoming a FR/DH chick whethr she fully realizes it yet or not. And that isn't something i can help her with. She only started riding last July and i already know her nxt bike will be big travel bike. You were definately a great guy i my books for being so helpful to her and the others."

London Calling...

2007-06-05T06:01:00.000-04:00

Well monsoon season is finally over in the UK and the trails are starting to dry out. Good timing as I just was able to pick up the new Hei Hei while in the states a few weeks back and starting to get some races in over here in Europe. The bike is great! I just need to get back in race shape. Finished 9th in last weeks Beastway race in the Vet class. Beastway is a weekly racing series in the London area that runs for a few months. Pretty nice because it runs on Wednesday night and does not interfere with the bigger weekend races. So I'll be at Beastway again this week and then on to the Bristol Bikefest a couple hours away near the border with Wales on Saturday. Supposed to be a great course and a nice weekend long event with camping, DJ, live band etc.. Looks like close to 700 people entered for the Saturday 12 hour race (teams, pairs and solo) that I'm taking part in. I'll be in my Kona colors but riding with a team from the London Phoenix Cycling Club. A great group of people that I ran into over here with 2 competitive male and 1 female team in the event.

http://www.bike-fest.com/bristol/ if you're interested to see what events look like over here. Miss those great Michigan trails!! Don't know how good it is until you don't have it.