Cross Season Has Arrived

The Virginia Beach Wheelmen made their cyclocross debut (not including last years Trashmore on mountain bikes) this weekend. Joshua, Tim and Jon raced the Corkscrew Cross. Then Tim, Jon and Jennifer raced Urban Cross the next day. Good showing for the team and good placings. But more importantly we all had fun and are hooked on this cyclocross thing.

Thank you Shawn B. for the pictures. AAB racing was at Urban cross and did well in the C race, and Jimmy D. made Coastal Cycling proud in the B race. Good job to all the 757 cross racers this weekend (especially the caravan that made the trip to Ironcross).

All About Bikes

The Virginia Beach Wheelmen would like to welcome All About Bikes as a 2008 sponsor. With the closing of Bike Zone we needed a bike shop sponsor and All About Bikes stepped up. Thanks, and we are looking forward to a great year.

Golden Sponsor

Once again the Virginia Beach Wheelmen would like to say thank you to Gold's Gym. They have sponsored our team again by giving us all free gym memberships. This gives us the chance to really work on our strength during the off season. It really seemed to help us last year and really helped keep us out of the bad weather at times. Thank you Sandy and all the managers at Gold's Gym. Again remember to support the companies that support local cycling.

Legs of Stihl

Once again the Virginia Beach Wheelmen will be Powered By Stihl. We just want to thank Stihl for their continued support of our cycling team. Its quite motivating to think of this large international company supporting cycling at pretty much the lowest, local level. Stihl was represented last year on the front of the jersey. Many people who saw it were surprised and excited...we were too. Look for them on our 2008 jersey as well, and look for them the next time you need a chainsaw, edger, weeder, or any of the other thousands of products. Lets continue to support these companies that support us. Thanks Stihl.

Cross Over Again

Another week, another first time cross rider.
Nice bike Jon.

5 members of the Virginia Beach Wheelmen showed up at Ipswich to welcome Jon to the CX world. I think we are all getting a little more comfortable on the bikes. At least me, I am trying things that I didn't a couple of weeks ago (so my crash numbers are still staying the same).

Well Jon was packing up leaving a truck pulled up with another CX bike on it. Nice to finally meet you Albe. We are going to try and ride CX probably every Sunday. Maybe its almost time to start the Seashore Supercross Time Trials.

Another member of our team Amanda Goyet ran the Rock n' Roll 1/2 marathon this morning. Her husband James made her stop and kiss their baby at mile 10 for a photo-op. This took about 2 minutes. Finishing time 2 hours 1 minute 45 seconds...she blames James for not achieving her sub 2 hours. Good job anyway Amanda.

Moving on

Bike Zone is closed. I spent Friday afternoon and night there loading up the last of the merchandise and stuff. They have had their "moving" sale for the past month and got rid of a lot of stuff. So the Virginia Beach Wheelmen will be looking for a new title sponsor this year.

The closing of Bike Zone means more to me than just losing a sponsor. I started working for Rick, the owner, in 1996 when it was Bike Line. I was the service manager, store manager then just part time guy who came in when he was needed manager. So after 11 years of working there, plus 3 years of working in that shop when it was A-1 Beach Bikes, the turning in my keys and the emptying of the store was a little sad for me.

As a team, we were hoping to use our kits for two years. We got new jerseys last year and were hoping not to have to order new ones for a little while. Since I do have to redo our clothing, I was wondering if anyone wanted to buy (for cheap) our jerseys from this last year. It would help our team recoop some of our money back from last year to use toward next years kits.

I have limited supply. Small, Medium (19" and full zipper), XL. I will let them go for $40 each. Good price for a training jersey, and now they will be a collector's item.

There are rumors spreading about the future of the Virginia Beach Wheelmen. I will just say we are keeping our options open. Thanks for everyone's input. Any further advice?

New sport, new goals, new blog

Most of us have decided to give this cross thing a try. Well we all tried it last year on mountain bikes at the Trashmore race. Just look at the bottom of the results page and you'll see how we did. Check us out this year to take it a bit more seriously. We have decided to take this off season even more aggressive than last year, so watch out come March. So watch this blog to keep a look at our progress and most of our training secrets.