Here's some info on a few of the featured riders in the 106.
Travis Saeler aka Stork
He has been riding for the past 7 years and currently races for the Gary Fisher 29er Crew Stork posts regularly to his own (Official Guide to the World between the Wheels) but will also be adding his 2 cents here with basic every day life stories from the eyes of a rider. He resides in the Western Side of Pennsylvania where he rides and trains. He has raced all over the Mid-Atlantic area from Vermont, New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, PA, West Virginia, Ohio and Michigan. Normally found on a single speed stork still pushes that one gear to some great finishes. Stork has helped in creating this site and is my unofficial official IT guy. Blame him for anything crazy or messed up here at "My Area 106"!
TJ Platt (and the little guy "Alex")
TJ is one of the top racers in the Mid Atlantic/Ohio Valley area and specializes in the longer endurance (100 mile) races. He's a top finisher in many of the surrounding state series events such as WVMBA, OMBC and the Michaux Monster Series. TJ is a teammate of Stork's for the Gary Fisher 29er Crew and also moon-lites as a retail store manager for the Trek Store of Pittsburgh (Cranberry) which also is a co-sponsor of TJ's. TJ's key support crew personnel (other than this blogs author) is pictured here hanging onto his dad, is TJ's son Alex (future World Champion I'm betting). It's great to see TJ and Alex together at the races (Alex and I have hung out together at a few of the races and he's one cool dude).
Michelle has been racing for the past couple of years but has been riding the bicycle for many more than that. At one time she was partially responsible for the Laural Mountain Bike festival in Western PA near Seven Springs Ski Resort. Since that time she has moved on to partake in the mud & glory of racing the mountain bike! Tune in to read her stories as she juggles long work days and a limited training schedule. You may be surprised thinking you couldn't do it but I'm here to say Michelle can show you that its all possible. Make sure to check out a Michelle's blog she does with the Ladies of the Trek Store of Pittsburgh.
Amanda Sproat
Amanda has been a fixture in the Ohio Mountain Bike Series and Ohio State Cyclocross Championships for the past several years. She finished "2nd" overall Women's Expert this past season in the OMBC Series (and was the 2006 OMBC Champion) and finished the Ohio State Cyclocross Series as the Bronze Medalist (Women's Elite Division). Amanda has been racing now for over 6 seasons (4 times as an Ohio State Champion)coming into the sport of mountain biking from showing Quarter Horses on a National level. Her favorite trails to ride are the trails at the Mohican State Park in Loudonville, Ohio. Amanda will be a featured rider this coming 2008 season for the Gary Fisher National 29er Crewand will be racing on the new Super Fly 29er carbon machine. She has her sights set on attaining the Women's Expert Overall title for the Ohio Championship Series and several of the WVMBA(West Virginia Mountain Biking Association) races as well. Stayed tuned with Amanda & Joe by visiting their blog at: Rollin' High on the Superfly.
Joe DeVault
A former Motocross guy, Joe was turned onto mountain bike racing as a means to stay in shape for motocross. It wasn't long after Joe ditched the 250cc's for a pure human powered Trek racing bike. Racing now for over 6 years Joe has become a local fixture for winning events on a single speed, the most recent as the 2007 Ohio Mountain Bike Single Speed Champion (also finished 3rd overall SS for the 2007 WVMBA Series). Joe has won the 6 Hours of John Bryan Solo Single Speed Division for the past 2 years.Joe resides in Columbus, Ohio and his favorite trail is Mountwood Park in Parkersburg, WV. For 2008 look for Joe possibly using some gears (but, maybe not) while racing on the new Gary Fisher Super Fly Carbon 29er in the Ohio and West Virginia Series. Joe (and Amanda) are both co-sponsored by the Trek Bicycle Store of Columbus.
Chris Skinner aka "the legend"
Chris is a legend. Truly. When someone speaks of Ohio Mountain Bike Racing, inevitably you will begin talking of Chris Skinner. I have had the privilege to work with this great person for over 10+ years now and believe me when I say that he's first class all the way!! He has won countless OMBC titles (heck, I'm not even sure if you asked Chris he'd know how many OMBC titles he won) but I think if you asked him he would be more proud of the young men he is mentoring and bringing up through the ranks of our sport currently with his Team Trek Ohio Valley. In his earlier years Chris was a top tier pro duathlete then transition those talents into mountain biking. I guess you could call Chris the "Ned Overend" of Ohio but this guy rides a TREK. Chris resides in Perry County with his wife Colleen (another up and coming racer) and enjoys the trails right out his back door. He and Colleen the past couple years have help Ryan O'Dell and the Ohio Mountain Bike Series host a race at his property, the S & S Trails (that's Chris on the left side of the picture running in tandem with the Stork).
Lindsey Prososki
Lindsey is the youngest member of the team 
and has been rocking the kids races since the age of 5. This past seasonshe moved up to sport class after she earned the 2007 OMBC Novice Womens State Championship, winning 6 of the 12 OMBC series events. She also placed a shocking 2nd at the Iceman Cometh Challenge (all women age 12-18 class) besting her 2007 time by over 20 minutes. She is an absolute great young lady to be around and has her sights set on a fantastic racing future! Her goals for 2009 is to compete and challenge for the overall title of OMBC Womens Sport Class with a long term goal of competing as an Expert by the age of 18. 
Outside of the mountain bike world, Lindsey competes on her school's volleyball and basketball teams and is always on the honor roll. In fact, Lindsey was honored by her school as the "Student of the Month" (November 2007) for school achievements and for her accomplishments on the mountain bike this year. Congrats Lindsey from me and everyone at the Trek Bicycle Corporation. You give us all inspiration!! Special thanks to Dale Winfree of Dale's Bike Shop(team bike shop sponsor) for introducing Lindsey and her family to our team! Oh yeah, if you're at Ray's MTB during the winter months, you'll probably see a glimpse of Lindsey whizzing by you. Check out Lindsey's blog at "Lindsey's Space" (check out her cool new bedroom remodel - posted Dec 22, 2008).
Whitney Jones
Whitney is a full time college student living the dream in Durango, Colorado (Fort Lewis College) where along with his college course load he's also a member of a very successful collegiate cycling team (national champs 2007).
Spring through mid August you can usually find Whitney racing the local OMBC scene (under the colors of the Gary Fisher Team) and possibly handling a wrench at Orrville Cyclery, nearby Whitney's hometown of Wooster, Ohio. You can keep up with the exploits of Whitney through his blog "Bicycle Kitchen".
Austin Powell
Austin takes over the mantra as being the "official team manager" of the Trek/Ohio Valley team this season as well as competing in the OMBC Senior Expert field. Austin is one of the original high school athletes recruited by Chris Skinner for his mountain bike program and in 2002 finished the OMBC season as Junior State Champion. Since that time Austin picked up his Bachelors degree from Ohio University (Class of 2008) and is currently a 6th grade social studies teacher at Maysville Middle School (his alma mater where he finished as the class valedictorian). He's single but does have a dog named "Oakley". You can check out Austin and the team at http://trekohiovalley.webs.com/apps/blog/ . As you can see, Austin already is fan friendly and always had time for photographs. Oh yeah, he's also the proud owner of a new 2009 Trek Top Fuel 9.8.
