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Prologue 2008

 

 

= Larry     = Mike

 

Greetings Race Fans!!! Here we are for the fifth year with the Tour De Schwinn!!!! Yes folks against my better judgment we are having the 2008 Tds. Once again for the next seven weeks we will be reporting the on goings of this indoor race. With me is Larry Barnhart, winner of the 2007 TdS and owner of Kokomo Cycling and Fitness.  A man of many talents some of which involves bicycles, others that are just strange... Larry?

It's going to be another long winter folks. But welcome to the start of the first stage of the Tour. However before we start I would like to suggest if you readers would like to have an idea of what has gone on in the tour over the last four years you should visit the Tour History pages. Those can be found by going to the LINKS PAGE  , there you can read a short history of each year. This year Mike has decided to expand the field to add another team. Why is that Mike?

Well Frankly...this being the 5th year I thought that we might be able to handle a few more riders, plus there is the fact that we have  a second velodyne to use this year. The velodyne is the machine we use to torture the riders on. Plus I had hoped that we would have seen more ladies entering this year since we had 3 last year, then we could have had a ladies only team. However we actually have gone down to just one lady rider, Roxane Burrous, who has actually ridden the tour every year so far. Any how what else has changed for the tour this year, Larry?

Like I would know, your the one running this circus. Oh wait, ah notes for me to read, cleaver Mike. Let's see, ah I see to shelter himself from all the blame Mike put the choices for the stages up on the BreakAway Bicycle Club Message Board with polls so the riders could vote on the courses. How did that go Mike?

The voting was light but we got enough to for me to say I tried. So with the voting mostly done and the courses determined... I might add that the choices were past courses. The first course we are going to use is for the prologue stage and the choice was the 2006 course. This was and will be a 4.6 mile course featuring a 8% climb near the middle. One other note: this year the commentary will not be done with the actual times. It I hope to be able to do will be done off the handicaps. So things will be a bit more confusing to say the least.

So who will be our first rider? I am assuming that you are doing this in some organized fashion?

Yes bottom-up. That is to say that riders have been placed according to how they placed last year in the tour with the rookies just thrown into the mix where ever I saw fit. One expectation was Ron Moore who I gave the wrong number but who cares. Let me also note that times reported here this year will be the handicap times  not the real times. There will be no reality here this year, my reality has crashed totally so I see no reason anyone else should enjoy theirs.

Ah organized chaos. I would expect nothing less. And I see that means rider #24 goes first, and it's one of our Rookies: 19 year old Stephen Sehr.  Stephen is a Purdue student and has been a member of the BABC for many years along with his mother Barb. Barb is one of the clubs wonderful volunteers, she has done most the planning for the food for our Sizzlin' Century for a number of years now.

So with that introduction let's send Stephen on his way... Stephen is underway on his Giant OCR 1(that's a bicycle). He looks relaxed as he climbs this first shallow hill while he gets up to speed. We will check back in on Stephen a little later as we get the time checks in.

Starting next will be rider #23 Kevin Wisher. Kevin is a returning rider although he did not race last year. He did ride the '05 and '06 Tours on the American Flyers Team. Just a note here, Teams will be decided after the prologue which is how we do it here. 

  That's right we use the results from the Prologue (Stage1) to determine the teams, that way teams should be fairly even. We hope. And speaking of hoping looks like Kevin Wisher is hoping for a god ride as he gets the start. Kevin's best placing in a prologue however has only been 18th, so we are not expecting him to make the top of the list today. So whose next Larry?

Next we have another Rookie to the Tour, Rider # 22: Mark Bettinger, Mark is known for his strong riding and with his wife Karen has, on their tandem , pulled many riders along the courses of the local club riders. It is unknown how he will do in the Tour however, we expect him to be one of the top actual riders but since this is a handicapped race we have no clue. Mark will get the start in a moment or two. This just in, time checks will be kept down to a min. this year as we will wait until the first five riders have hit the 2.2 mile mark before we give any reports. Reports will be the Handicapped times. The only place to see actual times will be the results page where both will be posted.

So while we wait for that let's go ahead and list the rest of the riders in order of their number and as they will start.  #21: (Rookie) Walt Kosiak :  #20 (Rookie and BABC President) Cory Jackson.   #19 MissTerryRider. #18 Charlie Skoog.  #17 Shawn Leonard.  #16 Todd Brandenburg.    #15 Mitch "Superman" Reeves.   #14 Rick Weaver .  #13 (Rookie) Tom McMahan .  #12 Markus Naegeli.  #11 Andrew Maibaum.  #10 (Rookie) Stan Shuey.  #9 Adam Cloud.  #8 Ron "the Instructor" Moore.  #7 Jeff Bell.  #6 Tom "Capt. Ironlegs" Linn.  #5 Roxane " Wonder Woman" Burrous.  #4 Ryan Hulce.  #3 Clark Griffin.  #2 Francis "the Professor" Manfred.  and last to start your 2007 TdS winner  Larry Barnhart (Rider #1).  

A very good list there Mike. Shall we look at the first 5 riders at the 2.2 mile mark then?

Sure.  At the 2.2 mile mark after the first 5 riders it looks like this: 
1st Stephen Sehr   @ 6:49
2nd Mark Bettinger @ 6:53 (+:04)
3rd Cory Jackson  @ 7:03 (+:14)
4th Walt Kosiak     @ 7:09 (+:20)
5th Kevin Wisher    @ 8:27 (+1:38)

Not sure how long Stephen will keep that led since Charlie Skoog is soon to get to the 2.2 mile mark.

Has Charlie regained his form after his crash during a training ride last October. That crash kept him out of the 2007 Tour.

We kind of were expecting Mark B to be in the top spot at least for now but things are far from over.

So True.

So while we wait for the next set of results to come in ,what other strange things do you have for us Mike.

Well I was thinking about a word from our sponsor or should I say Host, not that we are parasites or anything.

Well you have been called worse Mike.

Any how now for a word from our Sponsor/Host.  Kokomo Cycling and Fitness. Here's the owner Larry Barnhart. Larry...

Thank you Mike, I would like to thank the riders for once again doing the Tour and remind them that Kokomo Cycling and Fitness is the only Shop in tour dedicated to Cycling.

Thank you for that Larry now back to the race. We now have the first 10 riders pass the 2.2 mile mark and the times look like this. Larry?

Sure. They look like a bunch of numbers that make little sense to anyone.

Thanks. Here they are folks.
1.Charlie Skoog           6:39
2.Stephen Sehr             6:49 (+:10)
3.Mark Bettinger          6:53 (+:14)
4. Cory Jackson           7:03 (+24)
5. Walt Kosiak            7:09 (+:30)
6. Shawn Leonard       7:13 (+:34)
7. Todd Brandenburg   7:16 (+:37)
8.Mitch Reeves            7:23 (+:44)
9. MissTerryRider       8:03 (+1:24)
10.Kevin Wisher         8:27 (+ 1:48)

I am sure things will change a bit as we still have Markus Naegeli, Clark Griffin and Francis Manfred to ride.

Yes with 14 more riders yet to come things will defiantly change. Bored yet?

Yes.

Ok  Well Rick Weaver just pasted the 2.2 mile with a time of 7:05. It is a  good time but he will have to do better if he wants to stay in the top group.

Next to come to the 2.2 spot is Rookie Tom McMahan, @ 7:27 which about mid-field so far, he is an unknown in the tour this year so we really can't say much more.

And here comes Markus with a time of 6:54. That changes things a bit as Markus takes over the 4th spot. Just ahead of Cory Jackson. However there are at least two more riders that can best these times , for both Clark Griffin and Francis Manfred are yet to start.

Coming in far down in the list is one of our past winners Andrew Maibaum with a much slower time of  8:03 which ties him with our "MissTerryRider", who is a rider who wishes to remain unknown at this time so their name will not appear in the program at this time. I bet a lot of other riders would have liked to have thought of that themselves.

  Well we will have to announce it sooner or later. Don't we?

Don't know, never came up before. But speaking of coming up here is our next rider ,  Stan Shuey.  Stan is another of our rookies this year and is the oldest rider we have this year as well. Stan's time ....  7:43 which puts him ahead of Andrew so far.

  With nine more riders to go let's look up the road to the finish line and see how the first 10 riders finished.

Ok

  1.Charlie Skoog  11:41
2. Mark Bettinger      12:11 @ :30
3. Stephen Sehr         12:17  @ :36 
4. Cory Jackson        12:34 @ :53
5. Shawn Leonard     12:38 @ :57
6.  Walt Kosiak         12:41 @ 1:00
7. Todd Brandenburg 12:43  @ 1:02
8. Mitch Reeves          13:12 @ 1:31
9. MissTerryRider      14:01 @ 2:20
10.Kevin Wisher         15:49 @ 4:08

Looks like Mark got by Stephen but could not conquer our tallest rider Charlie.

One has to wonder if Charlie's experience did not help him since this is Mark's first race on the Velodyne and Charlie had done three year's of it.

Or Charlie is just faster. The real surprise so far however is young Mr. Sehr, we did not expect him to be this high up in the standings.

Well not we did not but if you will recall another young rider a couple of years ago did some great things in the tour, that would be Seth Wall from the 2005 tour. A great rider in the making was he.

To speed things up a bit we are going to list all 24 riders 2.2 mile time here and then go to the finish line, call for a pizza and see what happens.

Ok then here we go.
1. Francis Manfred  6:20
2. Charlie Skoog     6:39
3. Stephen Sehr       6:49
4. Clark Griffin        6:50
5.Adam Cloud        6:50
6. Markus Naegeli   6:54
7. Mark Bettinger    7:02 
8. Cory Jackson       7:02
9. Rick Weaver      7:05
10. Walt Kosiak      7:09
11. Shawn Leonard  7:13  
12 Roxane Burrous    7:16
13 Todd Brandenburg 7:16
14 Jeff Bell                7:18
15  Ron Moore          7:21
16 Mitch Reeves        7:23
17 Larry Barnhart       7:26
18 Tom McMahan      7:27
19 Ryan Hulce           7:35 
20. Stan Shuey           7:53
21. Tom Linn             7:58
22. MissTerryRider   8:03
23 Andrew Maibaum 8:03
24.  Kevin Wisher      8:27

  An impressive  list of times.

  There are a few surprises but how will it all hold up by the end?  I say we just let every go to the Results page  and find out for themselves. But before we go I would like to say hello to RooCycler from down under. Hey Roo and congrats on the December win in trivia.!!!

Well this was short and still somehow boring, but I guess you get that when it gets done late at night and with Mike still being a basket case. So until next time folks when we will try to have something worth while to read, enjoy the results and don't forget to look at the Team pages as the TEAMS are now set.

 

Stage 2 - The Wall

Stage 3 - The Stairway

Stage 4 - The Time Trial

Stage 5 - The Hill Climb

Stage 6 - Mike's Revenge

Stage 7 - Epilogue