TBB on VeloNews.com!

That's right, Team Brown Bear members Dave Simmons and Rick Mangan were featured in the results of the VeloNews article on the 24Hours of 9 Mile National Champs. Both Vino and Rick competed in the Solo National Championship category.

VeloNews Article

1. Chris Eatough, Trek-VK, 20 15-mile laps in 23:28:51
...some other riders...
28. Team Brown Bear (Vino), 7 laps
...some other riders...
32. Rick Mangan, 4 laps
...some other riders...

Congrats to both Vino and Rick!

Greg and Brian raced at 9 Mile as well, but weren't cool enough to race in the Solo National Champs field, so were not mentioned in the article. :)

If TBB was in the ProTour...

With this year's exciting installment of the Tour de France having just finished up, we'll take a look at what TBB would look like if it was a ProTour team by comparing each of our team riders to current professional racers. And what are the odds, we have 9 riders and one director sportiff, just like a real Tour team. :)

Without further ado, I present to you, the 2008 Team Brown Bear squad:

Andy (Fabian Cancellara)

Andy, much like Fabian, is a powerhouse rider with massive thighs that can put out huge amounts of watts when needed. He is also not against working for his teammates and winning world time trial championships.







Brian (Alejandro Valverde)

Sometimes he can sprint. Sometimes he can climb. Sometimes he can get dropped by the leaders and lose huge amounts of time in the overall standings. It's a crapshoot, really.








Brooks (Andy Schleck)

A promising rider that could one day be the GC leader for TBB, he dances on the pedals with ease on the climbs while others around him suffer. Although he still has to get out of the shadow of his brother...


Dave (Alexandre Vinokourov)

The only one on the team that is currently serving a suspension for doping...but we all believe that he is innocent! Dave's attacking style is a perfect match to that of his Kazakh brother. And you wonder why we call him Vino...







Greg (George Hincapie)

He can do it all. Sprint. Climb. Time trial. Crash on the cobbles at Paris-Roubaix. Plus, he is the only team member that the women seem to flock to...and can you blame them?



Heather (Tom Danielson)

She said she couldn't climb, and then she dominated at the Alps in France much like Tom does at Brasstown Bald in Georgia. Unfortunately, Tom is usually injured, and Heather's current pregnancy "injury" is keeping her from having the season that she was expecting.

Mary (Dave Zabriskie)

Possessing great time trial skill and a zany sense of humor, both Mary and Dave are riders that are underappreciated by opposing teams. They are also perfect candidates for future GC contenders if their climbing improves...something that usually happens with age and experience anyway.





Rick, Director Sportiff (Bjarne Riis)

Rick is the mastermind behind the scenes of TBB. Many don't know the full background on him, but supposedly he was a big time pro back in the day (even unexpectedly winning a Grand Tour), that only recently admitted to doping. Oops!


Scotty (Sylvain Chavanel)

Scotty is the wildcard on the team. He has an attacking style, but sometimes choses to attack at the wrong times or too frequently. But it could be said that he is the most entertaining TBB rider to watch due to those attacks. And they even sometimes work out. Unfortunately he chooses to go on long blogging sabbaticals, so we don't know what he is up to sometimes.




Trent (Magnus Backstedt)

Trent and Big Maggy have the distinction of being the only two ProTour riders that weigh above 190lbs. Being that most professional riders weigh less than 150lb, the smaller riders are scared and intimidated by the sheer power that Trent and Magnus possess. They also give the other riders on the team an excellent draft to work with...almost like motor-pacing!

One

1

That's all we need folks. Just one more jersey and we will be at the minimum of 10 and then we can place the order.

So far we have:

Greg - Summer race cut SS (1)

Vino - Winter jacket (2) and club cut SS (3)

Trent - Club cut SS (4) and wind jacket (5)

Tonia - Club cut SS (6)

Brian - Race cut SS (7)

Brooks - Race cut LS (8) and race cut SS (9)

Anyone else need anything? I heard a rumor that Rick may need a winter jacket. :)

Once we hit that magical number, we'll just need everyone to send in their money and we should be set (except for Trent, he's a go-getter and already paid).

New Jersey Order

Hello all TBB members. The time has come to try to piece together another order from Champion System. We only need 10 pieces total (doesn't matter what style of jersey) to meet the reorder minimum, so we were hoping to do that sometime in the next month to ensure that we get them with plenty of time to spare before next season.

So...what does everyone need? :)

Dorks on a Podium

The title says it all.

The season is winding down here for TBB members. Heather and Mary have wrapped up their successful tri seasons, Trent's 24-hr race season concluded at Afton with great improvement, Scotty got married and disappeared, team doctor Andy got homo-erotic on us, etc. There is still some season left though.

Dave, Brian, and TBB Director Sportiff Rick will all be competing at Chequamegon this upcoming weekend.
There are still 2 more WORS races left on the calendar.
Then, of course, cross season starts in earnest with 11 WCA races on the schedule this year (not finishing up until Dec! *yikes*), where freshly-upgraded Brooks will look to do the Brown proud.

Afton TBB Pics

Here are some glorious pics from the 24 Hours of Afton.

All pics are courtesy of Alane, the official TBB photographer.

Campsite: Good to go.

The 3 Solo Brown Bears, ready for the start.
Game on. Right after the LeMans start.
Brian and Vino on the first lap.
Brian cruising around.
Trent carving a corner on his Top Fuel 8.
Vino ready to attack an unsuspecting racer.

NGP*

Alright Brownbears, keep the pics coming. Remember, they don't have to be as homoerotic as the good doctor's.

*not gay porn