French Creek Race Report

Our first note from the French Creek race is to wish a speedy and safe recovery to our friend and teammate Dave McClain. Dave endured a tough crash while racing Saturday and fractured his jaw in 3 places. Our thoughts are with the McClain family and we look forward to having Dave back in the saddle again soon.

Unfortunately, due to Dave's incident Sally was unable to tear up the women's elite field. No doubt Sally would have done extremely well, since she bears the title "Queen of the Technical Downhill". The McClain boys represented the family well as Kyle took 7th in the Junior 13-15 race and younger brother Keenan swept up 3rd place in the Under 13 class.

The Mountainside men had a stellar day. Andy Hoover again prooved his incredible level of endurance as he hammered out another 1st place finish in the men's 6-hour endurance race. He finished a solid 3 minutes ahead of second place. One begins to wonder if he doesn't have a 3rd lung. Congrats Andy!

And being no stranger to 1st place finishes, Mike Funk nailed another top podium finish by winning the Expert Men's 50+ class with a time of 2:221:52. We think he hides his cape in the trunk of his car ... yeah that car over there. Awesome racing Mike!

Although his main job involves reeking havoc in the Men's Expert 19-39 class, Chad also found time to be team photographer. Chad had another awesome race this past Saturday as he placed 6th out of 26 expert riders. Don't let that knee brace fool anyone ... he is one fast dude!

Leader on and off the course, Mike Laub once again showed his mad skills by finishing 11th in the Elite Men's division. Mike had a great race on Saturday and proved it by leaving behind 15 elite riders. It appears as if he didn't even break a sweat doing it. You da man Mike!

A picture is worth 1,00 words. Although hoping for a better finish, Melissa was able to pull off 9th, just missing 8th by 2 seconds in the Women's Elite U-40 class.

In the Men's Sport division Craig Shambaugh knocked down 18th place on a very fun, but technical course. Word is someone heard Craig mumbling that there were not enough bridges. Don't worry folks, he's on it.

Why wouldn't he be smiling?? It was a beautiful day to be racing and Ben Moore took 23rd in the Men's Sport division. Nice job Ben!

A special thanks to Janice, Judd and Jen who provided great team support to all the racers.

Race report written by: Melissa Mertz

Photos by: Chad Cherefko