Palmarès

This past Friday Motofish celebrated the end of our first road season with a team movie night at the studio screening the new film Chasing Legends. It was a great way to wrap up the season and to welcome new riders to the team. We also handed out our new kits for the upcoming CX season.

Looking around the room it was pretty fulfilling to see many faces of new friends that have been brought together by a love of riding. It was also a great reminder of the many levels of success that MFR has had in its first year. Certainly the cold and wet days of winter training rides seem far away.

As the seasons eased into Spring and the racing started the results came. After missing half of the season with a broken collar bone Sabrina Hirsch finished 27th in her first year in CAT 3 with 5 top 10 finishes and and 8th place in the LWV Skagit Flats CAT 1-2-3 race. On the men’s side Cal Spranger was our most successful racer notching a 7th in the Redmond Derby Days Crit and 5 wins at Seward Park in the 5:30 race. Given that Cal just started racing about half way through the season his results are even more impressive. Chris Cumming won the Wenatchee Time Trial in CAT 5 and won the Washington State Time Trial Championship in CAT 4-5. Chris also had 3 top 10′s on the road this year. Greg Sweney had his best race at Vance Creek where he got 5th and he also finished 5th in the Wenatchee Omnium Time Trial and 9th overall at Wenatchee. Clive Pursehouse and Dennis Schleder had great seasons as well with Dennis notching an 8th at the Wenatchee Omnium Criterium.

Part of the idea behind the creation of Motofish Racing was to encourage new racers in the sport and to this end MOFI has been successful as well. Angie Morgan had her first race at the Tour de Dung and just a few weeks earlier Greg Sweney, Brian Carlson and Dennis Schleder all had their first taste of road racing at the Volunteer Park Criterium. Brian ended up being one of our most consistent racers.

Motofish is also especially thankful to its sponsors that supported us through our inaugural season. Cascade Bicycle Studio and owner Zac Daab not only provided us with a total of six new BMC’s but he was also was our fit guru, race tactician and friend. Full Speed Ahead provided MFR with component support and helped to create a couple of very fast TT bikes with Vision cranks and wheelsets.

We are now looking forward to the beginning of our second Cyclocross season and we would like to welcome our new riders to the team including Charles Gardiner and Elise Wright. MOFI should be fielding 8-10 men in the CAT 4 Master’s 35+ Category this year. Elise, Sabrina, and Amy Miller will be racing on the women’s side and Charles will be riding as a 3.

There are essentially two definitions of the word palmarès; one is a prize list or list of winners and the second is a record of achievement. On both of these definitions MFR should be proud but we are probably the most proud of our record of achievement. The achievement is not necessarily reflected in the results but in achieving largely what we had hoped when we began which is to encourage new riders to get out there and race. The other part of our idea when we began was to create a small team where we could begin friendships and where our families would be welcome and to that end we have been successful as well. Looking around the studio on our movie night there are kids, wives, husbands, friends – even a few dogs running around and mixed in with that bunch are some bike racers too.

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