My Area 106

Austin Powers... not! Its "Austin Powell"

Austin Powell. Austin Powers? I'm sure Austin has heard this before.

Each time I say Austin's name I think of Mike Myers saying "yeah, baby" in his usual Austin Powers twang. Or, could it be that its one of my favorite movies? 

Well, this Austin Powell is the new team manager for the Trek/Ohio Valley MTB team. It just so happens that Austin is one of the original high school students that Chris Skinner recruited for his high school mountain bike programand went on to win the 2002 OMBC Overall Junior State Championship.

Austin completed Mr. Skinners mountain bike class along with the others in Maysville HS as he finished as the class valedictorian. Today, he's found at Maysville Middle School as a 6th grade social studies teacher following his graduation from Ohio University this past 2008.

Austin will be competing in the OMBC Expert Division this upcoming season on-board his new 2009 Top Fuel. Sweet! I feel like an editor of a popular mountain bike magazine in showing off the pros bike and how its spec'd out. Notice Austin's choice of the Fox F100 and ultra cool old school set of "icon" bar ends..."Yeahhhh Babyyyy".

Make sure to stay up to date with the team via the teams at: www.trekohiovalley.com.

Bob

Deep Freeze January

Read in the paper that even with all the snow we've received this January in Northeastern Ohio, we would need an additional 10 inches by Friday to break a record. It has been down right frigid and a ton of the white stuff for this month. Matter of fact, I'm fairly certain my last bike ride was January 5th. Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy the winter bike rides but I usually stay off the roads when there's a couple inches of snow on them (unlike my bud Travis). Our weather lately reminds me more and more of a typical mid-western (Madison, Wisconsin) style of winter.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of Dave O'Connell (Trek Demo/Tech Rep) visiting the 106 for a quick 2 day blitzkrieg and to visit a couple retailers of mine. Following an off-site clinic on Sunday we ventured up to Ray's MTB to visit and share the final day of the weekend Pro XC event that was held over the weekend. The big news was that Trek Pro Emily Batty (Canada) won the womens Pro XC event held on Saturday.

One evening last week I shot this photo from my car while driving home from the Pittsburgh area. It was a fantastic sunset with the sun setting on top of the white blanket of snow; thought I would share.

Bob

Win Bob's Swag #5 Winner

Mark Shellhamer is now the proud owner of a new Helmet Hero (winner of Win Bob's Swag #5 contest) so I"m hoping we'll see some interesting photo's coming from Mark this spring and summer. Congrats Mark!! Thanks again to everyone that submitted a comment in hopes of winning this fabulous prize.

FYI - Last summer Mark had a bike stolen right out from under him as he left his bike unattended outside a local convenient store. Now, lets hope someone else doesn't make off with his bike and the helmet hero on board. But then again, if Mark catches him the photo's might be a bit interesting, hey?

Stay tuned for an upcoming Win Bob's Swag #6 announcement.

Bob

Race Day?

I had the pleasure of meeting up with several members of the Trek/Ohio Valley ATB team this past Sunday at a local popular watering hole in Zanesville, Ohio, as the team began preparations for this upcoming 2009 racing season.

The team tends to meet on Sundays for the usual OMBC races, but this time it was to help plan the direction for the team.

Additional team news will be released as we get into February - stay tuned.

Special thanks to Austin Powell (Rider/Team Director - pictured here in the red T Shirt) for putting together and hosting this fun time and to Chris Skinner (founder, and prior team director - sitting in back with black ball cap) all your time and passion in building this program!!

Bob

"Learning to fly"

When I look at this picture Tom Petty's big hit "Learning to Fly" comes to mind as my youngest team rider Lindsey Prososki takes flight inside Rays MTB (Cleveland, Ohio) during a recent weekend as she "tuned" in her new free-ride bike, a 2009 Gary Fisher Mullet. If you visit Rays at all, you've probably seen this young lady whizzing by with her signature smile (heck, whenever I get off the ground like that its going off a bridge upside down).

No doubt we have some young talented riders in this area. Names of Sroka, Bercaw and Prososki will give this area some future stars in USA cycling. Not only do they compete at a very high level, but each one seems to be top students, and I'm really impressed in the fact they all manage and publish really cool blogs (I tend to use my own R&D when I check out their sites (you know R&D - ripoff and duplicate) - just kidding.

Here's to these fine junior riders...keep it fresh and exciting so you don't burn out. Best of luck!!

Bob

What's on my Ipod?

Thought I would share whats loaded these days on my Ipod. I'm definitely a fan of Coldplay (got to thank Chris Eatough for turning me onto them) and Johnny Cash, but I'm sure there's something here you might want to add to your collection. Oh yeah, I've been listening to my tunes through a new set of Bose earbuds, which are fantastic!! As always, I listen to my tunes on the shuffle mode.

CAMBA's New Years Day Poker Run Ride

Well, I hadn't planned to ride this years New Years Day ride in downtown Cleveland with the CAMBA crew, but when I woke this morning I thought what the heck, sunny skies, dry roads why not? My wife sort of gave me a push so I quickly gathered up my gear and loaded up the Element. I missed not having my riding partners from last year (Travis, Michelle and Pete), but none of us seemed to be real anxious to plan it this year. Thus, I ventured up to Cleveland by myself but knew I would have plenty of riders to keep me company. On my way into Cleveland I came up on a fellow Element owner, with a vast arrangement of stickers on the back side. We ended up taking different routes to the starting point and I never did get to meet the driver and find out more about him. I must say, he did drive a fine automobile.