Race report from Aaron Albright

May 17th:  I raced SoYoCo RR on saturday and turned out to be a great race for the Swashbucklers in Cat. 4. Jason Lindemuth and I worked at the front of the pack most of the race and ended up finishing 1 and 2 in the sprint. He got me for the win by a matter of inches. 

Sunday I raced the Greenbrier Challenge XC race and finished 1st in Cat. 1 19-24 group. There was only one other guy in my age group, so I mainly focused on putting in fast laps and racing the clock. I ended up with the fasted race time/ lap times of all the cat 1 age groups which I am pretty pumped on! 

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!  

Cyclocross season is upon us

Aaron Barr did his first cx race at Town Hall Cross and had a blast. Started off mid pack in the 35+ and he managed to get up to 4th, only to drop his chain going into the final turn.  Aaron still managed 5th and placed in the money.  

It's the Month of the Tour de France

For some of us, time stops for the Tour de France.  For others, they shift into another gear.  Aaron Barr is gearing up for Mountain Bike Nationals at Bear Creek Resort in Macungie, PA, for his Mountain Bike team sponsor and Tyler and Amanda Swords will be sporting the Swashbuckler colors at Bear Creek.  Check out the schedule to watch or for volunteering.    http://www.usacycling.org/2013/cross-country-mountain-bike

So let's see, I am a bit behind on the race reports for the team so I will provide some pictures as the summary.  Aaron Barr won most of his category 4 races that he was forced to upgrade to Category 3.  His first race as a category 3 race was for the Race Avenue Criterium which was sponsored by Audi Lancaster for 2013.  A bunch of us had bets Aaron Barr would take the win but he wasn't sure if he could manage the win.  The race was animated with a bunch of attacks and Jonathan Glick (Shirks Bike Shop) got away with another racer and drove it until Aaron bridged up and took the win.

In the category 5 races, Scott Bowser finished within the top 5 for most of his finishes. We picked up another rider, Jason Lindemuth a few weeks before Race Avenue Criterium and he and Scott mixed up the category 5 race up with Jason taking the win, too.

Jason Roth also raced the road trying to balance life, work, road cycling and triathlon racing and all the training involved.  He did very well since triathlons is his first sport and rode racing is a great complement to his tri training.  There is so much more to learn and experience in road racing where he and his teammates can work together on strategy and tactics while having a blast trying to figure it all out.  Check out his blog for his race reports as I don't want to put any more words into his mouth.  :-)  swimbikerundrink.blogspot.com

Amanda and her brother Tyler have been doing the mountain bike circuit as they too, will be racing at Mountain Bike Nationals next week.

The team is having a great season racing and hopefully the humidity will break for the last few months of the road racing season.  Enjoy the last week of the Tour de France and see you on the road soon.

These pictures are from the Race Avenue Criterium

Automatic Upgrade

In the beginning of June, Aaron Barr, Jason Roth, Scott Bowser and our newest member Jason Lindemuth raced the Tour of Mount Joy.  Three races in two days.

In the Category 4/5 race, Aaron dominated again with the Jason L. finishing second and Jason R. in 21st (not too bad since he was under the weather) in the Saturday road race.  Check out Jason's blog for his race report on the weekend.  Scott finished a respectable 4th in the Master's Cat 5 race. 
Sunday had a time trial in the morning and another road race in the afternoon.  I received some texts in the morning with some expletives about time trialing.  Although, Aaron won with Jason finishing 5th in the TT.  Jason L. was in the mix, too, but did not get noted in the results due to some miscommunication. 

The Swashbucklers had a great showing in the second road race, landing Aaron Barr with the GC win and Jason Roth with a top 10 GC.  Scott Bowser podium the GC with third overall for the Master's Cat 5.  The weekend results for Aaron landed him maximum points with USA Cycling where he has been automatically upgraded to a Category 3 racer.  Congratulations Aaron!