Smoketown Criterium

Saturday was a busy race day Aaron Albright.  He did the Smoketown Crit in the morning and finished 7th. He was lined up in good position going into the final corner, until a rider slid out and crashed on his own - in front of him. Shooting out way wide to avoid it, almost coming to a stop, he had to punch it all the way to the line making up a lot of ground that he lost.  Disappointed, that's just how bike racing rolls sometimes.  

After finishing up at Smoketown, Aaron drove to Reading for the French Creek MASS XC race. Yes, he did two different races in one day.  He raced Cat. 1 at French Creek and finished 6th (out of 18 or so).  So not bad for my time with the 1s but his performance definitely suffered from having the criterium only a few hours before it, and Aaron noted he wasn't properly hydrated/ nourished for the hotter temps. He had cramps most of the race. 

Don't forget to bookmark the team's web site for the results ticker from road-results.com: http://www.parenfaire.com/cycling/index.php

Aaron Barr - Cat 3 Race

Paul Williams

Race reports from Aaron Albright

My first race of the season was the Bike Line XC at Fair Hill MTB race on April 27th.. I did Cat 2 19-29 and got 1st place. I took the lead as soon as we got into the single track and opened a gap over second place by about 2 minutes and maintained that for the rest of the race. It was pretty fun!  Link to results- http://www.midatlantictiming.com/resultsdetail.php?did=391

Saturday at Turkey Hill I finished 2nd in the field sprint in the category 4/5, after riding at the front all day and slightly missing the sprint strategy at the end. I was positioned one place to far front leading into the sprint, and ended up doing the lead- out for Ben Strine who took the win. Sunday I went down to Newark, DE for the Iron Hill Challenge and finished 1st in the Cat. 2 19-29. It was very muddy but a lot of fun! I am upgrading to Cat. 1 for my next mtb race, which will probably be the Greenbrier Challenge near Frederick, MD on May 18.  It is also a USAC XC nationals qualifier. 

-Aaron Albright

Says and Torrey at Turkey Hill Classic

Swashbuckling 2014 Season

Can I use the excuse I got buried under snow this year?  Even though we all had lots of snow to deal with this winter, we adapted and trained in whatever fashion we could.  Thank goodness I don't race anymore as I hated the trainer.  Kudos to those disciplined and committed to working out on the trainer.  Your training has paid off. 

The Swashbucklers started the 2014 racing season in March with the Salisbury Road Race in Amish country, PA.  Jason Lindemuth and Mike Montgomery fared well in the 4/5 race and Aaron Barr unfortunately did not in his race.  Coming into the start/finish, he plowed into one of the barriers and sliced or gashed open his shin pretty deep and crashed hard as a rider did not YELL - "barrier!" or something.  So Aaron had nowhere to go but head on into it.  He has healed up fine since March.  Other races this season included:

Daniel Harwi Memorial 27th Annual Lower Providence (Apr 13 2014)
2014 Philadelphia Naval Yard Criterium (Apr 19 2014)
Farmersville Road Race (TM) (Apr 19 2014)
Nittany Cycling Classic (Apr 19 2014)
Poorhouse Road Race (PCA BAR) (May 3 2014)
Turkey Hill Country Classic (May 3 2014)
Piscitello Law Great Valley Criterium (May 4 2014)

Check out our web page for team biographies, the results feed and much more about our team activities and races.  http://www.parenfaire.com/cycling/index.php  I will do my best to post racing summaries on the blog.  Like us on Facebook for daily banter, racing information and Swashbuckler Team-sponsored races and events!