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Got something to say about TDK! This is where you can post your comments for TourdeKale events. a non-profit fundraiser benefit Bicycle, Run and Walk event Denton NC,TDK held 3rd Saturday in June annually. TourdeKale ~ Blog Comments
e-mail comments to: Info@TourdeKale.com for posting on this page below.
2009 comment ~ OffnRunning
Ladies/Gents,
results on OffnRunning website for the 2009 TDK Ride and Run. http://www.offnrunningsports.com/results/results.htm
We put results for the Farm Park AND the Summit.
We list people at the Farm Park based on how they filled out (or did not fill-out the reg form). I try and put as many people in the right category as I can but there are always people that switch events, etc. ...we dump everyone (that registers for any event) in the 135 Summit division on the laptop that goes up there... we figure if you ride up to the Summit you are in that event... but the laptop at the Farm Park has their division that was on the reg form (so some people are listed in 2 different division at Summit and Farm Park... we change it if they email us or it jumps out at us). ...so basically there will be some changes. SB -- OffnRunning
2009 comment
http://www.mockorangeracing.com/pages/mob_blog.html
Mock Orange Bikes had great repersentation for the 10th annual Tour De Kale. This event has grown over the past 10years to the best organized ride / race in the south east. This due to the efforts of Chris Skeen and the entire Denton Community. There is no better support from parking to reg. to traffic control and food afterwards.
We had over 15 riders this year to include Daryl Rains, Kelly Holems, Rich Melencio, Rick Lee, Steven Brumbley, Ken Gulledge, Paul and Julie Paisant, Teresa Dawson, Frank Mullins, Jerry Rebo, the return of Matt Mason, my wife Nancy and myself took on the hottest day of the year with close to 400 other riders.
At the start I looked around to see who is here challenging for the Summitt prize money and it is the whos who of cycling. Scotty Weiss came all the way from Minn. just for this event as well as Mark Heckman, National Crit champion, Chris Harkey and company as well Ryan Jenkins, John Patterson, Charlie Brown and a host of the Carolina Masters team. There were aslo about a dozen rider from the under 23 junior national team that had just gotten back from racing over in Belgium. To say the least it would be a fast day and inturn a hard, hot day on the bike.
With the added KOM $50.00 cash prize 13miles in we were assured that things were going to very interesting very quickly. Once out of the Farm Park a small break that contained John Patterson, Scotty Weiss, Mark Heckman and three others were up the road. Mark Heckman won the KOM and would go on to win the Summit Challenge as well. As the rest of the field is approaching the KOM I see Daryl moving up on the Left with Sara Tussy in tow. Sara followed Heckman's lead and did the double as well, taking the KOM and the Summitt Challenge prize.
With a break of 8-10 up the road there were several attempts to bring them back with a fine effort of Steven Brumbley and Rich Melencio. The break was with in15sec but with Teams represented in the break controling the situation it was not to be.
Coming into Denton Chris Harkey put in a real hard effort with his Teammate Darren Fuller following whose wheel I was able to latch onto. Harkey then put in a strong pull to seperate us from the remaining field as well as did almost all the work to the gate at the neighborhood. That was enough of a gap to keep the three of us away to the Summitt. This would be as Harkey called the "Old man train" as Chris would get 1st in the 40-49 age group, I finished 2nd and Darren Fuller finished 3rd. In the way of awards Teresa Dawson was 3rd while Julie Paisant was 1st in their respective age groups. All in all a very hot day but a very good day for MOB. Looking forward to a report of the State Games and to next weekend as we host the Tanglewood trianing ride from the Shop. Should be fun.
Rodney Simpson
Comment 2009
2009 comment
Just wanted to drop you a note and say THANK You again for allowing us to be a part of the ride this year. Thanks for inviting us back and we are already looking forward to next year. Please keep us posted on any other items of interest throughout the year.
If there is anything else we can do to help Tour de Kale, please let us know! (Trevor can be trained to be a "PR guy" if you need a local - ha!ha!) What a great thing you have going on!!!
May God Bless You !
Shirley
2009 comment
from Canaan UMC GUEST'S MESSAGE: 2009
I participated the the TourdeKale 5K run and the 60K bike ride this past weekend. I just want to thank your church and all the volunteers for their support. It was a wonderful event. You did a fantastic job!!!
Trudy Gale
2009 comments.
Hi,
The results posted show I raced the 110k race and placed 32nd. I raced the 135k summit challenge and was also in the Bubba class. Also, the
times shown don't make sense. I made it to the summit around the 3h 35min mark and crossed the finish line around 4h 50min give or take. I
guess I don't understand the times shown.
Just wanted to say thanks for all the great support at the rest stopsalong the way. Those folks did a great job of helping the riders out.
Also, the course was well marked and I especially enjoyed the volunteers from the local police and fire departments who helped out at
intersections. They did a great job as well. Thanks again for putting on a great event. I look forward to doing it again next year. Chris
2009 comment
This was my first Tour de Kale and I just wanted to let you know that this was the best ride I have ever done. You guys went way beyond any other event I have attended. Thanks so much all the volunteers were awesome and you really took care of the bikers with the drinks food and towels at the stops. Travis Louya
2009 comment
Thanks for all the hard work put into TDK again this year. It was a success as always. We had several riders to give us request and comments about the new starting changes and route. This is the only way we knew to pass them on.
There were number of riders that commented on not liking the staggered starting because when it was time for the 2nd group to start they had already gotten too hot standing there waiting and when they took off they were overheated.
Other comments were made about the route change where some bikers were coming down Science Hill and turning right on to Lassiter Mill. At points there were bikers meeting at the turn and almost colliding. They also were confused about stopping for the rest stop since they had to turn right off of Science Hill into traffic to stop. It was kind of a dangerous situation for the ones who do stop. The first group got through without any trouble other than the wide right turn because they don't stop. Bikers said they liked coming down the straight-away last year and just being able to pull off rather than turn to come back.
Bikers just asked that we share these with the even coordinators, so we thought this would be the easiest way!
It was a great 10th year and we are all so glad we are a part of this event! We love to help year after year!
Thanks again for your work all year long!
TDK Rest Stop:
Science Hill/Lassiter Mill
Sue's Gang - --- Ashlee Frank ashbug207@yahoo.com
2009 comment
I know that he are probably exhausted but you guys should be really proud of how this has turned out 10 years down the road. You have created the best event in the South east if not in the country. Nobody has the support you have and nobody does it for the right reasons like you do. You have helped more people than you will ever realize by giving them a sense of hope when they were hopeless and that is what the Tour De Kale is all about. Thanks again for all you assistance today. Mock Orange Team - Rodney
2009 comment
I have competed in the TDK 5K a number of years but this was the first time riding in the bike event. This was my first organized ride and the 60K the longest distance that I have completed. Everything was so well organized. The volunteers were wonderful. Everyone was friendly and helpful. It was a great experience and I hope to particiapte in both the run and ride again next year.
Trudy
2009 comment
I absolutely loved it. Again, you guys out did yourselves. The support, friendliness, and cause were above and beyond. Todd Clapp
******************************************* below is a couple of 2008 comments**************************************************************
2008 This homespun charity ride, which has remarkable support from the small community of Denton, innocently built in an incentive to its bike ride: prize money to the first three riders to reach the top of "The Summit," a subdivision on High Rock Mountain, jutting up from High Rock Lake. The result has been noticeable stair steps up not only the mountain, but in the level of competition if you want to be first up the hill. This year, the ride reached the level of an out-and-out, unsanctioned race. Only everyone started en mass and the only thing that sorted folks out at all was the speed and the terrain. Thus, you had all imaginable skill levels rolling out from Denton Farm Park. The turnout seemed to be the largest yet at TDK -- they used up all their parking. GVC had a big contingent. My teammates on the Masters Team thought that putting me into the money on the climb would be no big deal for them or for me. Hah! I could only laugh at that error in expectations as Jeremy Conn, Darren Fuller, Ryan Jenkins, John Patterson, Charlie Brown (seriously, that's his name), and a host of other racers that looked like they could go fast and wouldn't mind the $150 first place prize appeared at the start. And that was just the men. The women had the strongest group I've seen at an event like this. It was "forget easy, here we go" as Kale Watkins, the ride's paraplegic namesake and one of this year's beneficiaries, led the ride out of the park. By the time we reached Jackson Creek Road at 20-25 miles into the ride, I had lost track of the number of attacks. Teammates were keeping track of them, though. Mark Griffin, Will Shore, Dave Petree, and especially Rodney Simpson, were riding like the Mason home was going to go into foreclosure if they couldn't get me to the hilltop first. When we reached Jackson Creek, Will dutifully followed John Patterson up the road. This guy is a former pro who only knows one speed. He was putting the wood to the entire field for much of the day. When Bridge to Bridge champ Jenkins went to link up with them, Rodney and I looked at each other. My turn. I jumped across, one more rider bridged, and a 5-man break was formed. Charlie Brown saw the threat and bridged up with Mark, the only other rider able to follow him. Patterson and Jenkins were putting the squeeze on me and Will by this time. We were hanging in but calculating how many miles of this we might have to endure. It was a relief to see the field approach. Patterson didn't feel that way, though, and quickly went again, solo this time. Rodney came to the front and chased. Dave Petree came up and got me out of the rotation (thanks Dave) and he and Rodney were unrelenting. Patterson held off their chase for a long time. When he was finally caught, Mark began a series of late attacks, despite being well-cooked from numerous earlier efforts. Will made sure I was well-positioned on the run in to The Summit. Also still in the front group, now all back together, were Ross Mason, Andy Mitcheltree, Dave Meredith, and Revon Johnson. There's actually a climb before the climb, on Hwy 8 just before the turn into The Summit. We reached its foot with a substantial group, all of the hard riding having gone for naught. Amazingly, Patterson accelerated again on the Hwy 8 hill and shredded the group down to 15 or so riders entering The Summit. From there, it's about 2.5 miles to the finish line. Will was near the front of the line. Will attacked just into the subdivision, but the terrain is too unforgiving to permit a solo move. The hills are tough and in between them are downhills and short-lived flats. There's no way to stay in rhythm and there's no avoiding repeated hard efforts. It's an extremely demanding, punchy stretch of road. When we reached the foot of "the wall," still around a mile from the finish, the puzzle was tough to solve. Conn, Patterson, Fuller, Brown and 10 or so others were still there. Maybe I should have just followed wheels. In hindsight, probably so. Instead, I attacked. The wall hits a grade of 18%. It's not too long -- maybe 200 meters -- but at that gradient, it's tough. That reduced things to 5 riders left in the front group at the top. Without enough of an advantage to work with against this now very small but very select group, I rolled towards the next stair step as we all eyed each other for the next move and another rider or two rode back on. As we reached the next significant uphill, I dug deep and attacked again, not sure of the finish line placement. Nearing the crest with very little gap, there was no finish line and I was beyond red-lined. Not good. From there, it was a short coasting section, then a less severe rise to finish line. Nothing to do but forget how you feel and play your cards in the sprint. As the five of us hit the rise, Brown initiated the sprint. My reaction had too little left in it to get on him.Jenkins and Conn came closer but couldn't match him either as they took second and third and I took 4th (and will therefore keep the day job). The 15 miles back to the park were more pleasant. We stopped at the rest stop at Healing Springs which, like the rest of the ride, was staffed with friendly volunteers (and stocked with cold gatorade among other things). What a blast of a ride. Great route, great support, great cause, and plenty of fun to go around. A novel concept for some of us, but ... YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO TREAT IT LIKE A RACE! The GVC was well-represented on and off the podium and there should be other stories to tell. MLM
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Tour de Kale 2008, Denton, NC Bike Ride Inline Skate Review
Denton Farmpark, Denton, NC is becoming a home away from home for me every June. Hundreds of cyclists and a skater or three met at the park out in the country to honor Kale's superbly supported charity ride last Saturday, June 21st 2008. Let me tell you, the Denton folk know how to mix gatorade at the rest stops! Not a watered-down barrell out there. More.......
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