See everyone is a fan of the St Johns Cycling Team!! We look forward to eveyone's support this year and hope you can come out and watch us race or join us for a ride around the Ozarks..

Well as most of you know we got hit pretty hard here in the Ozarks with a good winter storm.  We had to cancel training camp for this weekend and will look at other dates to reschedule.
The team is very excited about 2010.  We have some great races and look forward to getting out in the community promoting this wonderful sport.  Its getting that time of year where you need to get your bike checked and ready for some warm days to come. Its important you get out and ride your bike.  This area has some of the best roads to ride, take advantage of them and enjoy cycling.
We also want to welcome two new members to the team both from the KC area, Adam Miller and Brian Bradley.  A couple of greats guys who will fit into our program very well.  As always we want to thank our wonderful sponsors you see on the left and all of you out there that support us thru the year!  Get out there and ride your bike!!!!

Woke up early on Saturday morning for the second annual Tour de Bass.  Piled on tons of cold weather gear for the early start and the team all met over at Bass Pro Shops for the first ride.  Great turnout for all the rides, and a great day of weather for a nice Fall ride.  We appreciated all the organization and preparations that went into making the event a success, big thanks to St Johns and Bass Pro for putting on a great event and for continuing to help us give back to the community.  Thanks for reading, get out there and ride!

-Skip

A slurry of mud and sand make an excellent chain lube, don't let Sean tell you any different.  Sean, Cale, Jim, Jerred and myself headed up to the Mark Twain National Forest near Potosi MO for the 2nd Annual BT Epic race this past weekend.  This was Sean's first time camping, and about his third time to ride a mountain bike, so it was shaping up to be very entertaining.  We set up camp on Saturday afternoon, made dinner, prepped our race bags and headed to bed in anticipation of the early start Sunday morning.  It's still dark at 6 am, and quite cold too.  After some pancakes and coffee we kit up and roll to the start of what will be a truly "Epic" day on the mountain bikes.  56 miles of riding await us, and nearly all of it is on singletrack.  We started the day by crossing a makeshift bridge made of a flatbed trailer and several pallets to help us across a swollen creek.  After that the course was in decent shape, very muddy in places, but great in others.  I could have definitely done without the rain the last hour or so.  All in all it was a good day for STJ, all 5 of us finished, nice work!  Check the photo album for more photos from the race.  Thanks for reading,

-Skip

STJ had a good showing this past weekend at the Sedalia Criterium on Saturday night and the Otterville Road Race on Sunday morning.  Saturday night saw Jim and Cale bumping bars in downtown Sedalia in the criterium.  The race went well, with Jim finishing 11th and Cale 13th.  Great job guys.  Sunday morning brought the Otterville Road Race, I headed up the morning of and was greeted by great weather for racing.  There was a great turnout of racers, and the course was really nice.  I managed to roll across the line in 20th place after nearly 50 miles of racing.  Gateway Cup is next weekend, and then Har-Ber Meadows after that.  Stay tuned.....

-Skip

A big thanks to Jim Farasy and his family and also Jerred Brackett and his family for representing the team at the Springfield Discovery Center Ride.  This is one of the largest fundraisers of the year and so important to the continued growth of the Discovery Center for learning.  The team members from the St Johns Cycling team were called out several times and thanked for leading out this ride which had close to 300 people. They even had superstars Jim and Jerred wave to the crowd to make sure people got a view of the St Johns Cycling Team.  Thanks again guys for getting out in your St Johns gear and giving back to the community..

Just about everyone made an appearance at the annual Tour of Kansas City this weekend.  Sean and Bud both raced Saturday night, while Jim, Jerred, Cale, Ryan, Jeremy, and Kurt all made appearances on Sunday at the Overland Park Criterium.  This year the course was run backwards from years prior, which made for some interesting changes.  I was all in favor of the changes, mostly because this meant more left hand turns than right hand turns.  As our good friend Micah always says, not everyone is an ambi-cornerer.  I think lefts happen to be easier.  Anyway, I had some bad luck in my race and got caught in the second group after a major split formed.  I tried to ride across the gap but could never quite make it and ended up returning to the second group for the remainder of the race, should've been farther towards the front as always.  Jim, Cale, Jeremy and Kurt had some stiff competition in their race, but Kurt managed to pull out 4th place after making the elite break containing 14 riders (eventually lapping the field) with Jeremy coming in 14th overall.  Another great day for St John's Cycling!  Thanks for reading!

-Skip