Upgrado

If you're gonna go fast, you might as well look good doing it...

Thanks to Eric at Cane Creek and Andy at Storck/Hawley, I have a shiny new look for the front end on the Madone. I think the turquoise Astana cover and the white spacers match nicely...

I've also swapped out my XT cranks on the Superfly for the new hotness of the colored Truvativ Noir. Since none of the other colors matched, I went with the red. Even though they have colored derailleurs and shifters, upgrading my current X.0 stuff just to get matching colors is pretty pointless, so this is as color-matched as it gets... I got out on it yesterday at Norris for a couple hours. Gears are fun!

I didn't leave Elizabeth out of the fun, as she got some fancy new brakes for her Paragon in the form of the Avid Elixir CRs. Nice and shiny with the white and the carbon levers...

Lumberjack 100 Recap

The start was a 2 mile downhill road which, as a singlespeeder, I wasn't looking forward to. However, it didn't split up the field at all, and the first group hit the singletrack as a mass of 40 or 50 riders. I passed a few more people before hitting the unclimbable sand hill. As I was pushing up the hill, 2 singlespeeders were ahead of me, along with whoever else was ahead of me at the start.

The course is essentially two loops of singletrack, the first one at 8 miles, and the second one at 17 miles long. About a mile into the first loop, a singlespeeder caught me and went by. I didn't know it at the time, but that would be the last time I would see another singlespeeder the entire day. The course was so different from the southeast, as there was very little climbing, and lots of sand on the course. The trails were also very non-technical, as you could probably count the number of roots and rocks in the 25 miles on two hands.

Overall it was pretty fun, with lots of twisty and swoopy sections. The climbs were small, and the 32x18 was enough to climb everything the first two laps, and only had to walk 3 climbs the last two laps. [except the sand hill, that I walked every lap.] There were some bumpy sections that got old real quick where the saddle would slam into you every pedal stroke... I needed 36” wheels for that!

My laps times were kind of consistent, running 2:03,2:04,2:13,2:13. The third lap didn't feel good, and the big minute drop confirmed it. So I ended up finishing in 8:34, for 7th place in the singlespeed. The called me up for awards and I won a handshake with the race promoter...

Elizabeth and Ed did good, with Elizabeth finishing on a SS in 10:30 [10th Womens Open], and Ed finishing in 10:04 [~10th Masters]. Go Knoxville!

Not really sure what is next up for me. I might go down to chattanooga for the SERC race next sunday. Other than that, the next sure thing on my calender is the Fool's Gold 100 miler down in Georgia in August. July always seems to kill the racing in the southeast, probably due to the terrible heat...

Almost Canada

Heading out today for the Lumberjack 100, way up in Northern Michigan. Should be some good times of swoopy singletrack and sand. Hopefully the viscious mosquitos will not take all my blood, because I will probably need it for the race.

The 13 hour drive is going to be quite horrible, but the race should be fun. Ed and E are coming up to represent for Knoxville as well. Now to start packing...

BKKBR Weekend

Although I haven't been posting about it, the "Better Know a Knoxville Bike Route" quest has continued. After this weekend, I have finished 29 of the 40 routes, for 1390 miles and over 90,000 ft of elevation gain. Getting closer!

This weekend's dose of pain was 5 routes for a total of 220 miles. Started out with a nice 60 mile ride on friday on the North knox rollers. I felt pretty good, and made good time and what such. Saturday was the big day, with plans to ride a little over 100 miles. The starting location for the Coulter's Bridge routes is about a 35 min drive for me, so I'm trying to do several routes at a time when I go out there. Elizabeth came out and rode the front 68 miles with me.

We started out with a nice and flat 33 mile route that went down old walland, out to townsend, and then did the tuckaleechee loop. It was an easy ride, but my legs were already not feeling so great... The next loop we did was the toughest one, as it went straight up butterfly gap. This is a super heinous climb, and I was reduced to singlespeeding the steep/rough sections in my 39x26. The rest of the climb was steep, but manageable. We climbed an extra bit to get to the campground at the top of foothills. It was definitely worth it to dump cold water all over myself...

After some descending and flats, Elizabeth headed back home, and I was on my own for the last 32 miles. I refueled at the car, and headed on out to finish it up. My legs were hating me, and the little rollers were no fun at all. I got back to the car at 96 miles, and had to go do some bonus miles to finish off the 100.

Sunday was not as restful as expected, as 9:00 am saw me back on the road again, this time out in west knoxville for another 60 miles. It turned out pretty nice, even though my legs hated me. Afterwards we had a nice cookout and hung out at the lake. A great way to relax after a long weekend.

2SWET4U

2SWET4U

2-SWE-T-4-U

Too Sweaty For You

I guess that kind of sucks for the passenger...

Disc Burner 2009

The Disc Burner 12 Hour Race has come and gone for another year. We had a great turnout with 130 racers, which made for a 60% increase over last year. The weather was perfect, with mid 80s, a few clouds, and even some nice breezes. Everything went pretty smoothly, timing went well, and nobody got lost on the course.

A big thanks to all the racers that came out, I hope everyone had a great time. Our photographer got some great shots of the racers out on the course. These are going to be available for free download as soon as they get posted online. I'll send out a link to all the racers when they are ready.

Alot of people to thank, starting with the rangers and staff at Panther Creek. They spent alot of time getting sections of the trail cleared out, mowing the group camp, and helping us out with the generator and some other supplies. Send these guys an email and let them know we appreciate all their support for the event: [John.LeCroy@state.tn.us]

Also a big thanks to all of the sponsors of the race. RiverSports stepped up with prizes of Gift Cards, GoLite packs, and provided awesome wicking shirts from Mountain Hardwear and sweet Smartwool socks to racers.

Eagle Distributing of Knoxville stepped up big with 2 Kegs of Fire Rock Pale Ale, made by Kona Brewing Co. out in Hawaii. Great beer for sure. The Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale, along with the LongBoard Lager, are now available in the Knoxville area at Food City and Kroger, among other places.

Endless Bike Co. provided some cog vouchers for the SS winners. This is a super-cool local company that makes some great SS cogs and spacer kits, all in western North Carolina. Check them out at www.endlessbikes.com

If anybody has any comments or suggestions for next year, let me know at DiscBurnerMTB at GMail.com

Mohican 100

Another 100 Miler in the books. Ed and Gary from TeamEd made the trip up to Ohio with me for some more pain. The Mohican is a pretty sweet course, with 40 or so miles of singletrack, followed by mostly pavement, doubletrack, and fireroad for the remainder. The singletrack was quite nice, with lots of rolling, twisty, and flowing sections, sprinkled with rocks and tech sections. The first 20 or so miles of singletrack is almost non-stop except for 2 or 3 road crossings.

My lack of riding my mountain bike showed on the singletrack, as I was bouncing everywhere and I wasn't making very good time. I managed to wreck and bust my bad knee with the top tube early in, which didn't help. I felt much faster on the road sections, as they were mostly up/down, and had some surprisingly steep climbs on them. One fireroad climb around mile 82 had me weaving paper boy style to stay on the bike in a 32x20. I guess there are hills in Ohio... I finished up in 9:12, and Gary (ss) rolled in at 9:23, and Ed finished up in 10:30ish.

Nutrition went great, and I felt strong with just 7 bottles of Infinit and 10 clif bloks. It's still amazing to me how the infinit almost completely replaces solid food and gels. Good to see such huge 29er crew turnout as well. There were probably at least 10 or 15 team riders rockin it.

Next up is putting on the Disc Burner 6/12 Hour Race tomorrow, and then heading north to the Lumberjack 100.

Heading North

Heading out tomorrow for the Mohican 100 to see if I can improve upon the 8th place SS from the Cohutta... We'll see... I haven't exactly been on my mountain bike lately, but hopefully road fitness will reign supreme.

Racing my other 29er

I don't do too much road racing, but it's fun to do one every now and then. I decided to enter the local Omnium (TT, Crit, Road Race), minus the TT because it started an hour away at 7am... Way too early. I upgraded to Cat 4 last year, but hadn't done any races as one yet.

Having never done a Crit, I was sort of nervous, but all the corners were safe and it was actually quite fun. We even got a little teamwork in, as we had a rider in a two-person break, and formed up with 4 at the front to try and slow the pack down a bit. The break got swallowed up in the last 100-200 meters, but one of the SCO teammates won the sprint. As for me, I had decent position going into the last lap, but had to bridge a small gap, and lost a lot of places, gained them back, and found myself 20 ft off the back of the lead group going into the slightly downhill sprint (~.2 mi). I went hard, but didn't make it to it, and got passed by about 20 people, and just sat up to finish in 30th or so. Survived with no injuries, so that's a victory, and it was a good time.

The road race the next day looked to be a better course for me, with 2 major climbs, with 20 miles of rollers in between, and 13 miles of downhill to the finish from the last climb. It started well, with good position in the front during the first climb, but my legs hated me, and I was gapped about 30 sec off the lead group of 6... The chase group that formed was super-unorganized, and was going nowhere... Our team kind of killed it, as we had 3 out of 6 in the break. But the other 8 or 9 guys along with us did not cooperate at all. One or two guys would pull for a bit, and everyone else would sit. The break said they averaged 24 between the climbs... I would estimate the "chase" at 18.

After the second climb, I was in a group of 3 making it over first, then forming up with 3 others at the bottom, and tried to stay away for the downhill stretch. We got caught though, and there were probably 15 or 20 guys in the group now. At this point, no one was working, and we coasted/soft pedaled down. One of my teammates, Phillipe, pulled for a while around 22 (on a road you could hammer down in the low 30s easily), and then I pulled beside him and we dropped to 18. No one else came up. After the 1k to go, people finally started jumping around to sprint for 7th. I missed a jump, and got swallowed up, and finished 19th.

The road race was fun though, with nice climbs and fast twisty descents. I still can't believe I missed the group on the climb, but oh well... It is what it is. I need to get a lot better at jumping on wheels when people go. It's amazing how a split second delay in jumping or being in the wrong gear/cadence is the difference in 15 places in a race. Something to learn from. I won't be hanging up my fat tires and endurance legs anytime soon, but the road races are definitely an entertaining diversion.

Injury Prone

I really don't have too much more to say about DSG. It was miserable, and probably the dumbest thing I've ever done... I got a cyclingnews.com pic though while I was still riding the first lap...

Since then, I've pretty much been falling apart. My random knee pain has continued since the Cohutta, but is at least getting better. For a while it was the stabbing pain every pedal stroke on the road bike after around 40 miles or so...

The day after DSG, while I was messing around with the water hose, I managed to put a nail through my foot thanks to a section of fence that had fallen down. It turns out that Sanuks with flipie flopie bottoms are not puncture resistant... I should write a strongly worded letter. Anyway, that took me off the bike for nearly a week, but is at about 90% now.

After finally being able to ride again mostly pain free, I managed to find some gravel on a road ride and went down... I came out pretty lucky on the crash, with relatively minor injuries of scrapes on the forearm and shins, a big chunk out of my knee, and some holes in my hands. Bike survived with only a small scratch on the right shifter...

Maybe I should just try and go a week without hurting myself.