Master Domination
Recent results have been very good from Lake Effect especially in the Master's category in some very prominent races locally. At RATL #3, Rudy put the hammer down early and rode solo for the overall master win.
Then at the final RATL #4, the team rode a great race together (Ed, Rudy, Phil, Chris, Jim) really having a say in every move that went. In the end, Phil Hines went off with 3 laps to go and held on for the win! Chris and Rudy then cleaned up in the field sprint taking 1,2 in the 45+!
Chippewa Creek is a classic road event held in Brecksville on an incredibly hilly 4 mile course.  Chris, Rudy, Bill, Jack, and Mike went in with one goal and came out very successful. Rudy managed to jump away up the last climb and won convincingly with Chris rolling in 6th.
Vulture's Knob #1  Lake Effect came out with four riders represented in the Expert Division and another two in the Sport category. The highlight of the night was John Proppe and Kyle Speciak rounding out the top 5 in a very competitive Expert Race. They along with Todd and Luke posted extremely fast lap times on the strenuous 8.5 mile circuit. Rudy Sroka put up a good ride on his new Cannondale riding to first sport 50+ and also caught many in the younger age groups in front of him. His son Robert was plagued by chain issues falling from 2nd under 30 sport to back to the DNF table very early on in the race. Run with Your Heart 15k North Chagrin Reservation
Very snowy (10-12") trails greeted a couple hundred runners
on Sunday, Feb. 14. Team Lake Effect showed up in force
(three racers, one spectator-Lynn). Tony flew from the gun,
leading for about 6 miles, then put in 4 more fast miles to get
second overall. Rudy and Bill ran together the whole race and
got 6th and 7th. Super pretty with all the white stuff in the
trees still, but challenging footing.
Then off to Chapin Forest to ski and prepare for next weeks
x-c ski race.
Rudy Sroka and Bill Marut
Tony Marut
Snake Creek Gap #2 
John Proppe and several local mountain bikers went down to Georgia today for the 2nd Snake Creek Gap, a 34 mile race featuring 5180 feet of climbing. John chose to ride his singlespeed like a tough guy. The website is quickly getting revamped and hopefully taken under the wings of John himself. In the mean time, the sponsors and roster page have been updated for the 2010 season. Plan for the Lake Effect Time Trial Series to be back on specific Thursdays leading up to the State Time Trial June, 6. Cap City #7 and Winter Cross #1 
The final racing weekend for Ohio in 2009 took place this last weekend. Team Lake Effect took part in both races taking solid placings even after a long season. At the holiday race in Granville, Robert Sroka lead a large portion of the B race on his single speed, but crashed his brains out on the third of five laps forcing him in the final swag spot of third overall. In the elite race, TLE members Matt Weeks and John Proppe broke away pretty much instantly. The duo managed well over a minute to third place and rolled across the line 1,2 with John getting his second victory of the cross season! Matt also got the overall series of Cap City victory winning 3 of 7 races with his Lake Effect mates grabbing the wins in 2 others followed by himself second. He placed top 5 in every race this cross season down at Cap City, fantastic cross racing this year Matt! And not to mention winning the Bike Authority A overall also! 
Sunday proved to be some seriously tough racing conditions also for those who came out to the awesome but icy Hardesty Park. Robert got revenge from yesterday taking first in the B field again on his SS. Then Matt took a solid second in the elites with Johnny (also single speeding) rolling in third followed closely by Rudy Sroka. Julie is also coming out in solid form after spiral fracturing her fibula in a cross race in October, taking second to Sam Brode in the A women. FULL RESULTS 
The Season's NOT Over! 
The Cyclocross Winter Trophy Series is less than a week away! The series begins Sunday, December 20th when the C race kicks off at 12:00 pm. Click the link above for the race flyer. Location: Hardesty Park 1615 W. Market St. Akron, OH 44313
This park is a great venue, very spectator friendly, close to I-77 and plenty of local businesses to meet your pre- and post-race needs! Pre-registration is available on Bikereg.com but you can register on site as well. Cost is $25 per racer. The weather looks good so come out and play! We also have a few items left over from the recent cross series we will bring to the race on Saturday (Cap City) or Sunday (Winter Cross) if yours: - Nike Warm Up Zipper Ankle Pants Size Large - Fossil Silver Men's Watch - 1 black knee warmer / no label - FirmGrip 2001 version L/XL working gloves - Car Keys (I shouldn't specify the brand, but they were from Wendy Park and included a Heinen's Tag) - and OVERALL awards if not recieved yet. Notify rudycoach (at) hotmail (dot) com Boughton Farm Series Finale Another cyclocross season has come and gone and Team Lake Effect would like to thank everyone that came out and raced our series once again. This year we had over 300 different racers with some of our largest race turnouts ever. The competition this year was stronger than ever as well which made for some fun and exciting racing in all categories. Thanks go out to Chagrin Valley Racing, Stark Velo, Spin and Solon Bike for hosting 5 of our series races. Cleveland area cyclocross is definately getting bigger and better each year. 
Ohio State Cyclocross Championships December 2, 2009 A large turnout again for the cross team down at the John Bryan Classic, aka the OH state cross champs for 2009. The day started off with Scott Marut getting a seriously tough start position but moving through the cat 4 fields rapidly (with only three laps to move up) eventually taking 4th in the 35+ cat 4 race. Great ride!  Then Robert lined up for the U18 junior field. He quickly jumped away and managed first in his age group and overall junior by nearly forty seconds! 
Nate Loman, Mike Benedict and Bill then raced in the combined Cat.3 open and 35+ Masters division also, where Nate won the overall 35+ Masters Division. Bill was 7th. Ohio 35+ Master and Mike tangled up with another rider in the singletrack section and was forced into a tree and that put an end to his day. Congratultions Nate on another great race and on your Ohio State Mens Cat.3 Masters 35+ Title. Rudy and Jeff Craft raced in the Mens Elite Masters division where they both were in the mix for a top placing riding with the group of places 4th-11th OVERALL for the majority of the race. They raced extremely strong throughout the whole race and in the end Rudy got 3rd and Jeff 4th respectively in the 45+ AG. And 1,2 ohioans with Rudy bringing home the third state champ jersey of the day. Nice racing guys. The last race of the day was the Elite Mens that fielded Matt, Shawn, Johnny and Tony. The field was large and fast as you could imagine. Team Lake Effect rode at the front of the group the whole race Unfortunately Johnny rolled a tubular tire and was forced out of the race while racing very strong within the top 5 OVERALL. In the end Matt and Shawn made their way onto the podium with Matt taking 2nd and Shawn 3rd. Tony was 10th Ohioian and 12th overall. Congratulations you guys that race was crazy fast! Boughton Farms Cross race this weekend, DO NOT MISS IT! Great photos courtesy of Julie Lewis Sroka. One to go! November 24, 2009 Kirtland Park was a big success: few mechanicals (caused by the course) and very large participation for late November! HERE are some photos from the Sroka family. Results are to the right with TLE members taking home three top 10's in the A race with Matt Weeks taking another victory for the team. The final race of the Bike Authority Series is at Boughton Farms is Sunday, the 6th of December. HERE is the race flyer with the GPS/Maps link.  We would also like to mention the newest Lake Effect member, David Thornton. Dave can be seen in action at our series, even though stationed in Pennsylvania. He is a superior time trialist and competitive cross racer alike. Nice guy, too. Only two more B.A. Cross races? Time for '10 Racing!! November 19, 2009 
Sadly, the season is slowly coming to a close. There are still two more races in our series, this sunday at Kirtland (1140 East 49th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44114-3855- Intersection of South Marginal Road, off the East Shorway) and the classic Boughton Farms following the State Championships. The Marut's have done a great job doing the overall results which you can check out on our Cross Page. Also, team member Shawn Adams is putting on a winter cross series p/b FS Concepts. The series is taking place at Hardesty Place in Akron, and has three dates: 12/20/09, 1/3/10, 1/9/10. This is a great race to shed those holiday pounds and keep some in shape for masters worlds. We will have more info as it comes. So how do I get to the race on Saturday? November 13, 2009 Since I know everyone is going, here are some directions. Hopefully your GPS has this: Allerton Sports Complex / Schoonover Stadium Campus Center Drive Kent, OH CLICK HERE is the below larger: a good thing to print if coming from the North side of Kent. 
Chagrin River Challenge November 4,2009 
We got a win in the Bike Authority cross series! Not to forget Matt's victory at Wendy Park, this was the second win in series only for what seemed like a handful! I guess four second places almost seems like a win to when only behind national champions! The series has been going quite well in all fields with big turnouts at every race despite the mud festivals we've had this season. Here is a quick write up from Rudy regarding last weekends Chagrin River Cyclocross races: Team Lake Effect Racing/Bike Authority won three cross races this weekend, and took quite a few other top placings.
On Saturday, Matt Weeks won the Cap City Cross race by a wide margins. He opted to race there looking to win both their series and our own Bike Authority cyclocross series.
In our series race held in Chagrin Falls by Brett Davis, Robert Sroka won the "B" race over a field of 45. At 14 years old, this was his first win in the "B" category. He leads in the series with 3 races to go. In the "A" race Tony Marut placed 4th against a very good field, his best finish so far this season. Very muddy conditions made for a challenging race. Shawn Adams placed 5th with John Proppe and Rudy in the top 10 once again. On Sunday, Robert placed 3rd and Scott Marut 7th in the "B". Conditions
were better, but the crashes were faster because the surfaces
had dried out overnight. And the ground was harder and bumpier.
Shawn Adams took first and Matt 2nd in Sunday's "A" race.
The field included even more top riders. Tony placed 6th making
for a great weekend for Lake Effect. This was Shawn's first win
this season against the top competitors from Ohio and PA.
Matt overcame an early dropped chain to rocket up to the leaders.
A very impressive weekend in both categories at three different races! As most of you know, Julie has been sidelined with a broken leg, but came out to cheer on our team, thanks!
Rudy
P.A. cross this coming weekend October 18, 2009  
Photos of our two newest members: John Proppe, Scott Gartman As this site slowly fades away into a future blogspot/facebook only websites, there are still some readers and promotion through this site. To the right are the recent cyclocross series results, hopefully the links still working. And the B.A. cyclocross page on our site has overall results and individual promoters website. This weekend has two Pennsylvania Cross races in nearby WPA. Murrysville on Saturday : http://www.bikereg.com/events/Register.asp?EventID=9178 BV Cross on Sunday : http://www.bvvelo.com/RACCOON%20CYLCOCROSS2009.pdf Michigan Double Cross Sept. 22, 2009 Matt, Nate, Rudy, Julie, Robert, Tony and Bill raced in the Tailwind Enteprises Michigan Double Cross held in Waterford Michigan over the weekend. This was a weekend event with racing on Saturday and Sunday. The fields were very competitive and the racing fast . On Saturday Matt was 4th in the Elite 1,2 race while Tony was 12th. Julie 4th in Elite Woman, Bill 5th in Masters 45+, Robert 1st Junior 15-18 and Nate 9th in Masters 35+ Sunday saw faster racing still with Matt taking 5th in the Elite 1,2 and Tony 13th. Rudy won the Masters 45+, Bill was 6th in Masters 45+, Julie was 4th once again in Elite Women, Nate was 6th in Masters 35+ and Robert was 10th in the B's Nice work Team! Cross Season Sept. 14, 2009 is upon us once again and TLE has started the season off with some very good results. Our first race that was held at Wendy Park had a record turnout of 147 racers for all fields, thats quite an accomplishment from the first race that we held 11 years ago that had less than ten racers!Matt won at Wendy Park in the 40 man A field while Shawn and Tony finished in the top 10. Robert was 9th in the B's, Julie 3rd in the womens and Gwen 6th. We had many teammates that raced strong and finished well on the 1.78 mile course. Camp Manitoc Mountain Bike Race 2009 TLE had several team members race in the Annual Camp Manitoc Mountain Bike Race on Sunday held at the Boy Scout Camp in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Camp is only open one weekend per year for riding and racing and it is truly a great venue. Congratulations to you all and Great racing on a great course. Results are: Expert: 0-39 Kyle – 5th place Luke – 6th place Jared Z. 9th place Expert 39+ Rudy – 3rd place Expert woman: Julie – 1st place Sport 0-19 Robert – 1st place Sport 30-39 Pete Baughman – 1st place Todd Bolgrin – 2nd place Jim Gilmore – 17th place Presque Isle Triathlon 2009 Tony and Bill raced in the Presque Isle Triathlon held on Saturday for their final triathlon of the season. There were nearly 350 competitors in this race from several different states. Tony was 4th overall and 1st in the 19 and under division and Bill was 14th overall and 2nd in the 45-49 division. |