Written by Don Hamstre from Schiavi di Don
History and Myths: Kenny Haakon, the man behind the list
The Kenny Haakon list is a well-known list on which the riders with the highest amount of results and wins get honoured. But much less people remember the time when Kenny was on top of the world. Today, Kenny is 82 years old, and we spoke with him at the OCM Hall of Very Old Legends Retirement Home in Vejle.
‘I remember my first season very well. Even though I was just a youngin, I knew how to sprint much better than the other riders. In fact, one time I was so fast, that I finished both first and 7th in the same race! Ow course Norwich-London was the highlight of that season, and when I won, I thought that that moment of joy could never be topped. But straight in the next season, I managed to become World Champion! After three seasons on top of the OCM rankings at Team Z, I felt a change of scenery was needed, but my transfer to Team Zyte did not turn out to be the right choice. I became older, and never got back to the top rank, but when my old team started competing again, I returned and had a nice few seasons to end my career. I ended my career with a 4th place, which shows that I still had it in me to compete. It was time for some other goals in life though!’
 Kenny Haakon
Source: LINK
Classic Highlights of the Month
Victor Mahan made it 2 out of 3 Div1 climbing classics for Team Oasis this season with an impressive win in Provence. Cees-Jan Mensing won the other Div1 classic this month in Helskini.
Helsinki GP mini was won by a former OCM Front Page writer, Cremtec, as Otto Alards proved that 88 really is a magical number.
The last classic of the season in Div3, VCK Classic was won by Australian Lochie O’Hara for his team Tailgunning Sandbaggers.
The only Downhill Classic, Classic Oslo, was won by home team FretexHIBAS. I hope they didn’t sell the trophy in their charity shop!
Bali Classic, which always has at least one team show up on entirely the wrong continent, was won by Rinaldo Faila of BCTeam
Before the Tour (but probably after)
Written by Yuri
Season 60 brings us 7 relatively short Tours all across the OCM Divisions, from Top to the 7th. The Top and Zyte Divisions already had the chance to run the Tours and it must be said, they were a success!
On the Top Division we had the Taiwan Black Bear Tour that was won by the current World Champion  Bernard Cowell (Spin Doctors), while on the Zyte Division, the The Two Pass Tour was won by  David Hornbostel (Equipo Easy On).
Starting out with | | the tour in Taiwan, we had 4 different leaders including the local star Zhuo Xiong (Lots o Huggin Bear) and the hilly duo Eric-Jan Diggele (Drollevangers) and Abraham Mazimpaka (MrSjaakBraak) before Bernard Cowell stole the show on the final stage. In the end, we had a Top5 within a 1 minute gap. Bernard, Zhuo, Eric-Jan, Honori Borrell (Team Oasis) and Roland Bijlsma (Holwerda Cycling).
Abraham Mazimpaka (MrSjaakBraak) not only took stage 1 victory home, but also the Young Classification!
If you just followed the first 3 Stages in New Zealand, our winner might come as a surprise. With some brilliant and bold tactics, team Kremer was in full domination winning the first 3 stages with 2 different riders (Mariusz Polak 2x and Micha? Hebel). By winning 2 Stages, Mariusz Polak also become our expected first SC winner.
But the Tour winner only led after the final Stage. David Hornbostel (Equipo Easy On) won the last Stage and the Tour in style! He finished just 21” in front of Jirí Racko (CyclingClubChomutov) who was in the lead after Stage 2 until the final King Stage. Once again, we had 5 riders within 1 minute. Joining David and Jirí we had Davide Moneaole (Bilsky), Micha? Hebel (Kremer) and Blader Hedlund (LFC Rado team). I think we can’t ask for a better Start!
LFC Rado team not only took 5th place home, but also the YC with Spiridon Gorbunov. For sure an unexpected result for the Team!
Who’s excited for day 19 when we go to the Alps to race the next new Tour, the Rundfahrt der Schlösser der Alpen. By the way, if you are one of those waiting for the new Tour’s Merchandise, you will need to wait a bit longer. No Jersey has been released yet. For sure they will be worth the wait!
The Travels of Fujimoto
Written by Finz
In this column, the famous Fujimoto Masaaki travels around the world to visit the nicest places on the OCM Calendar. First off, he shows us a well-beloved part of his own home nation!
Hakuba Village Race is a race in the ancient Shinano Province, once part of the holdings of Matsumoto. Today it features mountain ranges and onsen with magnificent views. Starting in Omachi, the race leads to Hakuba the name giver, exploring the Japanese Alps and showing the riders a decent technical race with climbs and descents.
From Omachi the riders head east with a false flat climb towards Shinmeisha shrine in Miasa, a small hamlet on the slopes of the famous Alps.
The road from Miasa leads us to Ogawa, labelled one of the most beautiful villages in Japan. A steep but short climb before a long downhill toward Kinasa. From Kinasa the riders are waiting a long false flat up the mountain climbing westwards again.
The climb to Hakuba Minekata is long and winding and ends in a short and technical descent into Hakuba village where the riders pass through the city centre to finish the race with a decisive climb to Hokujo. A side peak of the famous Karamatsu mountain. 15 U turn bends will give the riders their last test before they can relax in the Happo pond onsen and a magnificent view over the Japanese Alps.
Younger Gun of the
| | Month
In this brand new section, The Don hand-picks a U23 rider that shows great promise, and will try to predict his future. Will he prove to be a visionary, or will he just look stupid/
Our Younger Gun of the Month this month, is the American Jonathan Schaeffer.
With an AV of 55, he seems to have reached a level of competitiveness that you wouldn’t expect from someone with two goods and an average as his best potentials. But will he be able to win a lot with his lack of extraordinary stats? My predictions:
A TvA YC win
Win in stage 1 of La Génération Future
A career as helper
Who would win?
21 year old Fabio Borges or 37 year old Fabio Borges?
The Dark Side
The place to be for all your Time Trial news!
The World Championships ITT are always the highlight of the time trialling season. The cream of the crop in Time Trialling shows up for a great clash. This season, it was team Andeby that had the edge over the others. They had the early lead when Frederik Dale set an early best time. But when the final 10 riders started, Xavier Izzard, former winner, just narrowly beat his time. Only two riders remained, Harold Faivre, and Jeroen Hoste. Their splits were incredibly close, but in the final kilometres, it became clear that it was Hoste who would win. Congratulations to him!
Hemorrhoid Corner
This section will keep you informed about unlucky riders who got injured. Poor them!
Is one injury a cause for a chain reaction? Many around the OCM world seem to believe so. So farm confirmation from higher up is yet to be given.
Injuries in TF always hurt. Let’s hope young gun Izak de Meulder will learn from his mistakes, as he got overeager and took too much risk in a descent.
Former Germany YC winner Hannes Traa managed to get food poisoning by eating some bad pancakes. He recovered on day 6.
Elias Roesner overstretched his calf on the road to a 4th place in Grand Prix Casablanca. After the race, it turned out that he will have to rest and heal until day 16. What a bummer start to the season!
The Final Straight
We close off with the latest gossip!
Rumor has it that Don is struggling to keep thinking of gossip from around the OCM world and needs help from the community to write this section. So weak!
We’ll be back next month with more news on all the wheelings and dealings in OCM!
If you have ideas for your own section, or for new sections for us to write, or even if you want your rider mentioned in one of the sections, you can contact main editor Don Hamstre through PM. Especially input for Hemorrhoid Corner and The Final Straight is welcomed!
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