Welcome

To the homepage of Mark and JimaLee Painter. If you have special interests, visit one of these sites: 

 

Sheep's Clothing -- The answers to all your yarn questions. Home of the Knitwits. Fibers carried, classes offered, hours, tips and advice, and features on JimaLee.

The Finley Flyers -- Home of the Tri-Cities favorite cycling crew. News, events, results. The Mountain biker formerly known as Kevin knows all, tells all.

Kamiakin High -- Information on the "Home of the Braves."

Richland Schwinn -- Bryant and the boys carry road and mountain bikes, recumbents, exercise equipment, accessories, and repair anything on two wheels.

 

 

VISIT OUR ARCHIVES:

The history of the hottest ride in the Northwest--the winning entry in the "Write like Maynard" contest; Grand Prize: One Merlin Newsboy bicycle.

Mark and JimaLee race their mountain and road bikes all over the Western states.

Two of the Marks bro, Bradley and Painter, flew down to Mammoth Lakes, CA to race the ATB National Championships. Losing 4 places per crash, Bradley was 12th and Painter 4th. Mike Henry took the Jr hillclimb, and brother Steve made the podium, taking 5th in young Jrs. Jason Jablonski of Wenatchee won in singlespeeds!

Final results for the Washington BAR (Best all-around) are in. Marc Brown finished 4th in the Masters A (30+ Cat 1-3), Monte Busselman took 5th in As, and the Jooper, Mark Painter, won the Masters C (50+). JimaLee finished 3d in Masters women.

 August 26: Bradley and Painter, sashayed to the WIM (Washington-Idaho-Montana) finals at Schweitzer Mt, near Sandpoint, ID. They joined Dan Cooley and the Henry boys, Steve and Mike, in racing Experts on the rough-but-not-too-technical course. Mike Henry scorched the Juniors to win that race and finish 3d overall in the series. Dan had a bad day but salvaged 4th in the series. The Jooper again proved it's better to be old than fast, winning the 50+ and the series, and Bradley celebrated his long-awaited return to the dirt (on a new bike!) by crashing 3 times on his way to dominating the over-40 field.

August 12: The National Championship Series comes to Crystal Mountain, WA. Many Tri-Cities riders trekked to Crystal to take on the best amateur mountain bikers in the country. Jay Webber in Sport and Al Potter in Clydesdales made the podium. The Jooper tumbled once but picked it up to ride off with the win in the Expert 50+ race.

July 24: Masters Road Nationals--Indianapolis. Mark and JimaLee entered the mixed tandem races. An OK ride of 55:45 put them on the podium for the bronze in the TT in the 90+ combined age division. Riding 70+ mixed in a field that included the mens and womens bikes, the Painters survived a handlebar-to-handlebar field sprint at 45 mph to take another 3d place.

State ATB championships--Spokane's Beacon Bomber. The pattern continues: Mark wins the 50+ but finishes behind national 40+ champion Randy Iddings in the Masters field.

State TT championships--Marc Brown, Monte Busselman, and Mark Painter win their age groups. Turbo Marc takes bragging rights for the Tri-Cities by beating the Jooper's time, and the Full Monte vows to sell his house and move away after being bested by the Master of masters. JimaLee wins 45+ womens and finishes second among 35+ women overall.

State Stage Race championships--The Jooper wins 2 of the 3 events to take the 50+ (and beat the next younger field as well). Monte B finishes 3d in the 30+. Rich Nelson takes 5th in the 4-5 45+ race.

 For complete, season-long cycling results, click pic.

 The Jooper is followed by Clint Andring and junior rider Matt Kirchner at the Walla Walla Criterium. Clint won the stage, and finished 2d in Masters B, Matt won the stage and the race for juniors, and Mark took the overall GC in Masters 45+.

Below (center): Craig Groendyke in the chase pack at Walla Walla. Craig finished 4th on GC in Masters 45+.

Visit our cycling FEATURES page

 for pictures, poems, plays.

Visit our cycling TEAM page

for team pics and info.

 EDITORIALS by the Jooper. This month, CONFESSIONS OF AN ORDINARY BIKE RACER.

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