Percy Zahl

Personal information

License

295355

CAT

4

Birthday

1971-04-03

Height / Weight

180 cm (5'11") / 66 kg (146 lb)

biography

Percy, born in northern Germany is a scientist with a specialty in surface science and scanning probe microscopy. After completing his PhD in Physics in 2000 he moved from Hannover Germany to Golden, Colorado for a Postdoctoral research position at the School of Mines. Percy was not active at all until his first mountain bike riding in 2001.
He began enjoying technical single trail riding in the Rocky Mountain Front Range of Colorado. In 2002 Percy also fell in love with snowboarding carving it up in Breckenridge. In the spring of 2003 he moved to beautiful Switzerland, for further studies in nanoscience. While Percy loved the solo experience of exploring and photographing the Alps on his mountain bike he was soon drawn to the excitement, intensity and fun of group touring.
In 2005 he moved to Long Island, NY, working at Brookhaven National Laboratory. While Percy missed mountain biking, he was spoiled by the awesome mountain biking in Colorado and Switzerland and could not enjoy riding the Long Island mountain bike courses where there are trees to maneuver around every 10 yards. Trevor Sears, a former Junior National Time Trial Champion and Brookhaven Lab colleague introduced him to the SBRA, the local road biking scene and a great Sunday 54 mile ride called the Early Birds.
In 2007 Percy entered his first race at the Whitmore's Landscaping Super Cross Cup race in Southampton which attracts many top pro riders. He also began supplementing his riding with running and ran his first 5K race. Percy just got his road biking license in 2009, and has since logged over 7,400 miles (2009) and participated in the Kreb Friday Night race series. He looked forward to upgrading to a CAT 4 with a few more races in 2010, building upon his strong riding engine and racing the Tour of Battenkill in 2010 as a CAT 4.
With 3 Plainville Crits and one Prospect Park race he is now a new CAT 4 road rider.
Loving the real deal big and scenic mountains passes of the Alps, going over there once a year for epic riding.
Topping in 2012 an annual mileage of little over 10'000 miles, setting a good base.

Likes: Long epic rides and with a lot of climbing.

*Honorary Member: Web site design and technical support

Strengths

long distance, long climbs

Highlights

Just a few selected results and how it started all...

• WLSCC 2007 Sat/Sun, Masters men 35+ 20th/13th place
• WLSCC 2008 Sat/Sun, Masters men 35+ 12th/13th place
• Kinzua Tango 2008, Cross/MTB race, 2nd in bike part
• D2R2 2009 Report, very proud of his result of 9h19, place 29 out of 167, 117 finishers (mixed all CATs, no race, but timed Randonee), 112mi, 80% dirt, 12'850ft climbing, Cross/MTB bike.
• Kreb Friday Night Race Series 2009, win in 3-rider Team Time Trial with Craig and Chris in B group.
• Kreb Friday Night Race Series 2009
• Plainville Spring Series 2010, #1,2&3 of the Criteriums
• Prospect Park 2010: CAT 4/5, Masters
• Tour of the Battenkill 2010, CAT4 blue, 27th of 88, 3mins behind, dropped chain...
• Housatonic 3/4, Friday Nights, ...
• Qualified and participated in Open Men / Empire State Games 2010 Buffalo (Long Island Team).
• 2011 Tour of the Battenkill: 17th (http://pyzahl.blogspot.com/2011/04/tour-of-battenkill-2011-new-dirt.html)
• 2011 Housatonic RR: 20th -- out sprinted in top group lead out... :-( (http://pyzahl.blogspot.com/2011/06/housatonic-hills-road-race-hhrr-2011....)
• 2011 Tour of the Catskills: GC 16th (15th/12th/16th) (http://pyzahl.blogspot.com/2011/08/tour-of-catskills-stage-race.html)
• 2012 Dec 30 Long Island Cyclocross Series - Mixed Cat 1/2/3/4/5 12th/42
• 2013 Apr 13 Tour of the Battenkill Day 1 - Men 4-A 8th/83 4

My USA Cycling Race Results.

Visit my cycling Blog for the latest GAB.

History

Member for

3 years 24 weeks

Blog

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