Lucas Borkowski does not know what asphalt is.  He likes the crunch of gravel, the squish of mud, and the scrapes and bruises that go along with mountain biking.

He’s always up for a challenge, so he decided he wanted to compete in his first mountain bike event in 2015. He chose the Masons Midsummer Meltdown at Wyandotte County Lake Park.

This is his story …

Early this spring, I scribbled down Mason’s Midsummer Meltdown at Wyandotte County Lake on my calendar for June 14. I never competed in a mountain bike race before, but I have always enjoyed riding singletrack and was looking forward to the event. Unfortunately, the weather this spring has kept the trails muddy and closed. As race day neared, I recall only being able to spend two hours at the beginning of May on singletrack, and, on the morning of race day, I was craving singletrack.

I began my warm-up by riding some of the course to check out the conditions. I was excited to find the trail in relatively good shape. The trail was tacky with a few muddier sections. I also noted the rocks on the trail were relatively slick and could provide some interesting challenges.

As  I lined up at the starting line of the Meltdown and waited for my wave to leave, I thought about the disappointing DNF I had at the Dirty Kanza 200 a few weeks ago. The DNF was due to a mechanical early in the race, and it still stung. I wanted to have a good race to offset the bad, but I also wanted more. I wanted to win. I knew chasing the win was going to make things interesting. I wasn’t just racing the other competitors, but  I was also racing the elements of the trail. I rode enough singletrack to know it takes complete focus. After all, it’s a narrow path filled with obstacles, such as logs and rocks over ever-changing terrain. I knew if I started pushing myself that my elevated heart rate and fatigue would start to deteriorate the finess required to navigate some of the obstacles.

Finally! The Meltdown was under way and the start of the race gave us a good section of gravel road to stretch out before entering the singletrack. As I turned into the singletrack, I was right where I wanted to be, leading my wave. After a few quick switchbacks in the dirt, I was already working through a few waves of riders that had started ahead of my wave.

It wasn’t long, though, and I found myself alone in the WyCo jungle. The forest seemed to be getting thicker and quieter. My mind started to wander. It was getting kind of scary in there. It is the WyCo jungle after all, who knows what’s out there! Sasquatch? monGO? Flying monkeys? Oh, never mind, it’s just a squirrel. But the sound of a freehub spinning and a rider grabbing a few gears brought me back on task. I had to keep pushing. There wasn’t time to let up. I kept riding as hard as I could, trying to make the best of the awesome singletrack by leaning hard in some quick turns and jumping off the top of a few bumps.

As the race progressed, the trail took us out of the forest into an uphill grassy section. The section was soft and seemed to suck your wheel. As I entered back into the singletrack, I could feel the fatigue beginning to set in and, as I began a downhill section, I clipped a tree with my right handlebar. I should have viewed it as a clue that I was starting to outride myself and back off a bit, but I didn’t and kept pushing. The trail got a little more technical with some slick rocks littering the trail. It again took a little more energy and focus to navigate the rocky sections before beginning another short downhill.

At the bottom of the downhill, I viewed a cool looking obstacle. Basically, the trail went between two boulders about a bike width apart, with some small rocks in between. I didn’t think it looked like too difficult of an obstacle, or maybe it was just the lack of oxygen, but I thought there was no reason why I couldn’t ride it.  I soon found myself playing a game of Twister with my bike between the two rocks. Dang! I’ve got to get going! I got up as quickly as I could and began pedaling. I told myself to concentrate and enjoyed the last remaining parts of the trail before riding into the finish. Heck! I rolled into the finish area not even realizing I was done. I was just enjoying the awesome the trail too much!

Being my first mountain bike race, I feel I had a good race and learned a lot. I accomplished my goals, but I also made mistakes and found weaknesses to improve upon. My official recorded time was 40:11. Good enough for the fastest men’s category 3 age 30-39 time and also good enough for the fastest men’s category 3 overall time. I’m excited about the win, but, more importantly, I’m ecstatic about the intangible. I’m glad I got to spend my Sunday morning riding, racing and having fun with new and old like-minded friends!

Lucas Borkowski

Chalk that up as another fun win for Big D Cycling and for Keen Wealth Advisors! On a side note, Cody Jones suffered an injury prior to this race, so he was unable to start. The description of his injury can be found by clicking here. Let’s wish Cody a speedy recovery.

Randy Braley headed west to Wilson State Park, with his recently-built, custom Oddity singlespeed mountain bike, to compete in the 2015 Kansas Fat Tire Festival on May 3. The Switchgrass Mountain Bike Trail is a hidden gem, being listed as an Epics trail with the International Mountain Bicycling Association. This was Braley’s first mountain bike race and would prove to be a solid test for him, physically and mentally. While we have had mild temps to start the Spring season, early summer temps decided to arrive just in time for this race, taking its toll on several racers, reaching a balmy 90 degrees.

The Category 3 course, while posted as a 13-mile course, ended up being 16 miles, with just over 1,100 feet of elevation gain. Braley settled into a nice rhythm on the first third of the course and was feeling good, hanging with the main group. During the middle third of the race, the course became more technical, and the racers started to spread out.

The sandy conditions contributed to Randy getting up close and personal with Mother Earth on three separate occasions. He recovered quickly and continued to leap frog back and forth with several racers as the heat and sun started to take its toll. The final third of the race didn’t ease up, with an abundance of punchy, technical climbs.  At this point, Braley went to his “happy” place and pushed through to a fourth place finish in the Men’s 35+ category.

Braley wanted to send special thanks to Bollé Cycling Eyewear for providing premium protection in the mostly sunny conditions. Could you spot the new Keen Wealth Advisors kit in the photo? Find Rando!!

The last weekend in April started out the way the prior weekend started: wet with the chance of storms in the area! Even with the conditions, eleven hardened cyclists from the team rose up and got some worms stuck to the bottom bracket area of their bikes at the 2015 Bruce Michael Edwards Memorial Time Trial!

Greg Vaught put his Argon time trial bike to good use, breaking the 15-minute mark, with a time of 14:56 for the 10-kilometer time trial. The result earned him the top spot on the podium for the Men’s Master 50+ category. His son, Nigel Vaught, continues to impress with his results, completing his time trial in 9:58, which was two minutes and 25 seconds faster than his top competitor. Nigel won gold, as a result.

Kathleen Raupp and Stan Wiehe joined in the fun, with this being Wiehe’s first race. He mentioned he had a lot of fun and learned a lot.  Raupp earned bronze with her efforts in the Women’s Master 60+ category.

Kathleen’s husband, Jay Raupp, earned silver in the Men’s Master 60-64 category, with his time of 16:20. He was also the only one of the group to double up in races and race in Category 3, posting a time of 16:29.

Finally, Cody Jones earned gold in Category 5, with his time of 15:59. That’s his second time to place first in Category 5 already this season. The team sees Category 4 in the near future for him.

Big D Cycling closed out the weekend with some gravel and a little bit of mud at the Cool Hand Luke Gravel Grinder in Leavenworth, KS. Six competitors (John Field, Alvaro Gamarra, Tim Herre, Cody Jones, Joe Kleidosty, and Greg Vaught) entered the 109-mile gravel race and completed it! Kleidosty rode Vaught’s Gary Fisher moutain bike to the top spot on the podium for the mountain bike category, with a time of 7 hours, 23 minutes and 45 seconds.

The course featured scenic vistas with grueling climbs on the latter part of the race. In the first half of the race, racers had to dismount and walk up a mud road due to the poor conditions.  In addition to the long course, Shane Jones and Reg Robertson completed the 50-mile course.

Click on Tim Herre’s name above if you grind your teeth when you ride or if you just need general help with your smile!

The Velotek Grand Prix is known as the biggest stage race in Kansas. It can now have the honor of being the wettest stage race in Kansas. Big D Cycling’s Men’s Masters team competed in two categories at this stage race: Masters 40+  Cat 1/2/3, Group A (Paul Aldeguer, Jim Clevenger, and Joe Kleidosty) and Masters 40+ Cat 4/5, Group B (Ben Christian, Leo Simbaqueva, Steve VanNieuwenhuyse, Greg Vaught, and Chip Zimmer).

The local weather forecasters actually predicted the timing of this storm with good accuracy. The team’s eyes were glued to radars, as thunderstorms approached from the south. The rain started falling just before the start of the first stage, a .68-mile uphill time trial, with no aero equipment allowed. Due to lightning, several 15-minute delays turned into an actual delayed start of two hours and 15 minutes.

The wet and cool conditions made it practically impossible to warm up properly for this event. Kleidosty used the heater in his vehicle to ‘warm up’ for this event. This unproven method seemed to work, as he laid down the team’s best time trial effort at 2:15, putting him in second place behind J.P. Brocket by five seconds.  VanNieuwenhuyse just edged out Vaught in Group B, taking 2:34 to finish the time trial. This placed him tied for fourth, just four seconds behind the leader.

The rain continued throughout the afternoon during the second stage, a .96-mile technical course (made even more technical with the wet conditions) on the Haskell Indian Nations University campus. In the Group A field, J.P. Brocket and Trey Harrison displayed their good bike handling skills in the wet conditions, lapping several competitors in the field, including Aldeguer and Kleidosty. This gave the duo a commanding lead of more than two minutes going into the final stage.

In the Group B field, Vaught was able to sprint his way to a fourth place, just two seconds behind the winner.  His criterium finish put Vaught in the closest position to contend for a podium finish.

After a wet and soggy Saturday, the team was given a reprieve from these nasty conditions with some dry weather and cool temperatures for the final stage on Sunday, a road race consisting of a 28.26-mile loop around Lake Perry. The Group A field completed two laps (with prime bonus seconds for the top three to cross the finish line after the first lap), while the Group B field completed one lap.

The day did not start without any drama. Vaught and Kleidosty received a text from Clevenger at 7:59 am, “So sorry flat tire on the way going to miss the start.”  Vaught quickly texted back, “Quick change! Get movin!” The race started at 9:05 am. Kleidosty, also known as monGO, has a special relationship with Clevenger. He often times does monGO-speak when talking with Clevenger to keep him focused and to motivate him to excel in all he does. This tactic worked, as Clevenger realized he had enough time to get to the race, with some assistance from a helpful Highway Patrol officer.

With help from VanNieuwenhuyse and Vaught, Clevenger rolled up to the start line at 9:05 am. For some reason, the officials did not start the race until 9:10 am. Clevenger did not have time to use the restroom before the race, but the Group A field, to Clevenger’s benefit, agreed to stop for a restroom break during the race!

Kleidosty communicated with Aldeguer of his plan to attack on one of the steeper hills to contest for the prime bonus seconds. Kleidosty was able to break clear and won the prime bonus of  three seconds, getting a gap of 30 seconds on the field. Kleidosty sat up and rejoined the field after winning the prime.

Much later in the race, one of the General Classification contenders, Brian Peters, had an unfortunate flat going into the final turn onto the dam. Kleidosty saw this as an opportunity to gain position in the GC, and led the field across the dam into the final climb. Aldeguer was able to break clear and took second in the road race, while also earning a six-second bonus for that finish.

Overall in Group A, Clevenger took fourth, Kleidosty was fifth and Aldeguer was sixth, with the top seven finishers getting paid.

Going into the Masters Group B road race, Vaught was in the top five, with a good chance of getting on the podium. Vaught had plans to attack on one of the many hills on the course to get some separation on the field. With the giddiness of VanNieuwenhuyse in a field of rocks (he’s a rock collector), he decided to attack on the first significant climb!

The headwinds were too strong, and everything came back together before the midpoint of the race. The Tulsa Wheelmen had a strong team at this stage race, so Big D Cycling wanted to keep the pressure on them and force them to work hard throughout the race. Vaught’s attack forced Tulsa Wheelmen to the front of the peloton to chase him down.

The field was still intact going into the final turn onto the dam, so it was all about positioning going into the hilltop finish. Vaught was sitting close to the front, so Simbaqueva saw an opportunity to get into better position and possibly help lead Vaught out into the finish.  As he went by Vaught, he yelled for Vaught to grab his wheel. Simbaqueva glanced back to check on Vaught, but he was not on his wheel.

Simbaqueva decided to position himself behind the GC leader. As the hill steepened, the Tulsa Wheelmen team started to fade.  Simbaqueva stated, “Now, it was all or nothing for me, so I put my head down and buried myself.” Simbaqueva made it past the Tulsa Wheelmen team and came in second in the road race and fifth overall in the GC. Simbaqueva knew this was a team effort, saying, “I can only thank my teammates and their tremendous efforts.”

Special thanks also goes out to Keen Wealth Advisors for their tremendous support of our team and junior cycling in Kansas. The team also thanks Bollé Cycling Eyewear for keeping the wet debris out of our eyes during the soggiest stages of our lives!

Special thanks to Roger Harrison of Lanterne Rouge for providing the road race images for this story.  See more of his images on his Flickr site.

Nick Comiskey, Joe Kleidosty and Greg Vaught set out to lay down a good time at the Sunflower State Games Team Time Trial event in Lecompton, Kansas, on April 11. The trio did just that, setting a time of 28:37.64, with the second place team coming in at 30:03.86. They set an average pace of 24.2 mph in the Merckx division (no aero equipment allowed). Even more impressive, the trio’s race ages covered three decades (race ages in 30s, 40s, 50s)!

The trio only practiced once prior to this event, riding the course after a Spring Fling event a few weeks ago. The wind played a factor at this event, as there was a brisk enough wind that the three had to work in an echelon, as most of the course had a cross wind.

The course also had several decent climbs in it, so it took communication and effort to keep together on the climbs. Kleidosty was amazed by the number of TT teams who were separated, observing this on the return route after the lone turnaround on the course.

A brutally placed climb was right ahead of the finish, with steep pitches reaching 10 percent in some areas of the climb. Comiskey took the lead on the climb and Kleidosty paced Vaught into the finish line for a sweet Sunflower State Games victory! Chalk it up as another win for the Keen Wealth Advisors-sponsored team.

Big D Cycling is travelling to Bazaar, KS, on April 12 for the bizarre road race that is affectionately called Bazaar Road Race.