Tussey Mountain "Queen Stage"

yay! a picture!

Donna said yesterday was fun but long and with the temps changing and the wind picking up, everyone was suffering from pollen and dust. She got to chat with Amanda Carey, the current leader of the Women's GC, which she enjoyed. She admitted this morning she's feeling a little rough around the edges--but only two days to go! Temps today are supposed to be in the mid-70s, which should help with some fast riding.

Today's stage is pretty awesome and I wish I was riding it too. Trails and roads I rode in college all in a big epic loop. Donna and Jill have 3.5 hours to go 26 miles to make the cutoff and those 26 miles include a short hike-a-bike, long trail downhill, the fireroad climb the whole way up the backside of Bear Meadows Road (multiple miles), the notoriously rocky John Wert Path (which I tried to ride once in college on a rigid 26"-wheeled bike with toe cages and gave up), another fireroad climb back to Bear Meadows, then down super fun Lonberger Path (which we also called Magic Carpet Ride) and Three Bridges to another road climb back again to Bear Meadows to the CP. Once they get through the cutoff at the CP, they get several miles of great ridgetop riding on the Tussey Mtn Trail, fun singletrack descent and then mostly road to the finish.

The course map:

The elevation profile (eep!):

RB Winter Today

Today is another remote start at RB Winter SP in Bald Eagle. Kind of a cool stage format with multiple timed sections interspersed with regrouping and a "social" pace between the timed parts. With cooler temps forecasted, it should be a fun day.


Donna and Jill both finished yesterday in fine form and were feeling pretty good last night. Jill, however, says she has now ridden Raystown enough for the rest of her life and has no desire to ever go back!

Info for today here: http://www.tsepic.com/generalinfo/stage5

And here's a stage map.


Results at Cyclingdirt.org

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

We have 3 hours to complete one 20 mile loop at Allegrippis trails at Raystown. Then we have to do a second lap... Pray for us!!

Rays-Ville-Town Stage Today

Today is a remote start at the Whoopty-dippy-doos at Raysvilletown. Two laps on the malfunctioning manic rollercoaster ride! Donna is feeling a little better this morning than yesterday--the third day always seems to be the worst when you ride this many in a row--so hope that she's over the hump and wish her well!

TSE updates

If you fine folk out in interwebz land wish to see the daily results and stage recaps, wander on over here: http://www.tsepic.com/ and you'll see a link for 2011 Results to the right of the page. There's some photos in there, too, but I understand there's bunches more stuff on the BookFace if you book your face. Go see how my honey is doing!

As well as checking in here for first-hand accounts of the mayhem!

We made the cutoff!

It was hot.
On our bikes for 6 hrs 24 min.
43 miles
Didn't DFL (didn't finish last)
No time to write more
Must go to sleep now
47 miles tomorrow!

Sent from my mePhone

Quit Your Whining

Fell and hit my head on a rock---1 staple in the back of my head---lots of blood... All 45 minutes before i started my time trial...

I was sitting on a chair on our porch and fell backwards off onto the ground.

Race was good--hot and very difficult. 12.5 miles in 1:27 hrs.

I was 12 and Jill was 13 out of 15 women---very happy with results!

My head hurts...