Donavon Hottman, Fred Thompson, Frank Quinlan, and Bill Wells had their sights set on earning a gold medal at the 2015 Sunflower State Games Age State Championship in the Masters 65+ category on July 19, not letting the likelihood of rain deter them from their goal.

The course is a 29-mile loop in southeastern Shawnee county. The race started with a 3.5-mile neutral roll out. As the race progressed, the racers encountered light rain and a 2-mile section of road with new chip seal applied.

Attacks occurred throughout the race, but nothing got away until a final punchy hill just before a right turn to the finishing line straight. The pack was strung out after that final climb, and Hottman and Wells were able to gut it out to the finish line, earning gold and bronze in their category, respectively.

Quinlan has attended and completed every single KBAR race so far this year, a testament to his durability and competitive nature.

Greg Vaught came unclipped in the final sprint to the line, but was able to slyly glide across the line for a bronze medal in his Masters 50+ Category. Jay Raupp earned yet another podium in his Masters 60+ category.

Joe Kleidosty was a little out of position and did not respond to the final sprint quickly enough, but he able to still get silver in his Masters 40+ category.

Podiums galore for our Big D Cycling team, sponsored by Keen Wealth Advisors!

Jay Raupp, and his wife Kathleen, joined Big D Cycling in 2015. Jay has attended almost every KBAR race event this year, and he has shown improvement as the season has progressed, culminating with two, second-place finishes at Tour of Lawrence on the last weekend of June.

I asked Jay to give me some of his thoughts on the weekend, after he was done counting his winnings.

Following are the reflections of a man, who is not quite 60 years old, but he gets to ride as if he were 60 years old. Yet, he rides like he’s 40 years old…

Watching the Masters 40+ Tour of Lawrence race go by Sunday morning at tire-numbing speed made me thankful that USA Cycling ages its racers in horse years, so that, as a 59.8-year-old, I race up in Masters 60+.

We do our own brand of racing in our drive for points toward the Keen Cup.  No one wants points more than Reg Robertson, who had an incident on the 15-corner Haskell Campus course on Saturday. Reg finished that race, and on Sunday, he rolled out onto Massachusetts Street looking like a 12-speed M*A*S*H unit, going after more KBAT points.  What great spirit Reg has!

On two beautiful mornings for racing, we gave our rivals all they could handle.   Despite my mantra of ‘Don’t Let Dean Parker Get Away’, he did so with a half mile to go  on Saturday, winning by three seconds.

On Sunday, he was picking up cash all over.   Literally.    Cruising to the start, he stops, reaches down, and picks up a dime.   One lap into the race, where our Masters 60+ field of 10 included Reg, Donavon Hottman, Frank Quinlan, and Bill Wells, a $100 prime was announced. Dean used his motor to go pick up more cash, tooling away too easily.

I caught back on while he was considering which of the many cool downtown Lawrence shops he should go to for a shopping spree, but with me were two of his 360 Racing teammates.  Then, a merchandise prime came up, and Dean was gone for good.

A surprise third prime was put up for the field, and the real surprise was, I got it.    The downtown Lawrence criterium course is so much fun, with the little rolls and fast corners and excellent course control by the corner monitors.

Though Dean took first, I was able to conserve enough in the race and obtained a lead-out off Andy Brown of 360 Racing, winning second with a bike throw.

Special thanks to Donavon for hosting the team’s Tuesday night criterium practice we used to tune up for these races. Thanks to Joe Rehm for attending the races and obtaining the finish line photo. I can’t wait to spend some of my winnings at BikeSource, our local bike shop with great service and products!

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!