Missouri State MTB Championships...no news is par for the course.

Awhile ago someone asked me why I bother having a cycling blog...it's a lot of work for no recognition.  Maybe that's why I like it....It's just like cycling. 
Case in point: In trying to learn about what happened at the Missouri State MTB championships this weekend, I was hard pressed to find a single item about the results in any news outlet.  I find that a little pathetic.  Luckily, I knew which blogs to check out.  What I learned is most certainly some newsworthy stuff for COMO and yet, 48 hours after it happened, it doesn't appear as though it's going to show up in the local news....so this is what we are left with......crappy second-hand news-esque blog reporting.  I'm no journalist, and certainly no reporter. But if Kermit can throw on a hat, and overcoat and pick up a microphone and call himself a reporter - I guess I can too.

Thus, I'm only too happy to pass along these stories - mostly because they involve three regular non-Pro guys that threw it down this weekend and cleaned up at this weekend's Missouri State MTB Championships in Castlewood that resulted in a number of State Championship jerseys coming our way. 

But if you want the real stories, do what I did, and go right to the source - visit the blogs of the cyclists themselves. All the links are below.



First off, John Schottler took the State Championship jersey in the Cat 1 field, besting among others, Kansas' Aaron Elwell who recently took 14th against an amazingly competitive field at the Pro Mellow Johnny's MTB race in Texas.  Schottler opened up an insurmountable gap of about 3.5 minutes on his rivals to finish in 1:52.03.  The worst part of the day wasn't even the heat and humidity, but rather that this was the best picture anyone captured of the new State Champion crossing the finish line:

Unrecognizable or not, he has the jersey now.

And in the singlespeed competition, Dan Miller brought home the State Champ's jersey winning the competition over Pro racer and former singlespeed National Champion, Deejay Birtch:  Here's a photo of Miller in the classic Team Seagal jersey holding the Team Niner Pro's wheel early in the race.

And on the podium...

It's actually a good thing he took 1st, because I'm pretty sure if he was 2nd or 3rd, he would have disappeared from this photo altogether.

And here's a shout out to COMO peloton member, Mike Best, of Ashland who brought home the State Championship jersey in the MTB Marathon division.  Best's blog is entitled "Lanterne Rouge", which signifies the special designation for those fnishing dead-ass last in a race (something I'm all too familiar with), but which he may need to consider changing after this weekend's performance.

By my estimation, COMO cyclists are now the reigning State Champions in the following (did I miss any?):

Cross Men's 1/2 - Josh Johnson
Cross Men's 3 - Dan Miller
MTB Cat 1 - John Schottler
MTB Singlespeed - Dan Miller
MTB Marathon - Mike Best
Road - Women's 1/2 - Pamela Hinton

Newsworthy for COMO, a town trying to enhance its cycling identity?  I would think so....