A Good Idea at the Time

Better Late than Never...

2010-06-15T17:18:00.000-04:00

So I finished up the Burn 24 hour Race two weeks ago, but never posted a write-up. Admittedly, I’ve been distracted putting on a sweet 8 Hour race, the H8R. Unfortunately, it was last week, so all my time after the Burn immediately went towards that event. It went well, and I’ve managed to decompress a bit from it and get back into the swing of things…

So without further preamble, we’ll move onwards to the Burn 24 Hour goodness. I’ve sort of had mixed bags with the 24 hour races, but I keep coming back for a perfect one… Went with the Burn and Figured I’d try the SS to see if it might be the one.

I arrived in Wilkesboro on Friday night, and realized the field was soaking wet and full of big squishy puddles. While walking around I saw a giant pile of mangled pop up tents. Apparently, hours before I got there a giant storm came through and destroyed lots of people’s tents. Glad I missed that. I decided setting up my ragged out tent of dubious quality in the possibility of another big storm was a bit questionable so I took the great approach of sleeping at the Hotel L’Accord. Surprisingly it wasn’t so bad, and I slept great.

I hate hate HATE how 24 hour races start at 12 noon… I love waking up at 6 am and realizing I have 1 hour of prep and 5 hours to kill before the race… I hooked up with the Bike Factory Racing crew from Virginia, and they graciously agreed to help me out with some bottles and stuff for the day. I prepped the Superfly SS as my primary bike, and I had a borrowed SS as a backup, both set up with a 32x20. The burn starts with a stressful “designated runner” le mans start. Basically, this means that anyone on a team gets to have someone on their team wear running shoes, warm up, and then sprint the ¼ mile run. So for a solo rider, this means either sprinting the run, or walking the first half lap behind the entire field of riders. I went for the former and was the 2^nd solo or so to the bike.

First lap started well after I cleared the traffic, and I settled into a medium pace. Since I admittedly did not train enough for this race, I wanted to do a steady pace, and start off easy to make sure I could ride the whole thing. One solo SSer passed me on the first lap, and I didn’t bother chasing. This worked well for the first 10 laps or so. During this time, I had one or two SS guys go by, and I faded a minute or two on the 11^th lap. My 12^th lap ended up being death.

I had been racing in 80+ degree temperatures for 9 hours without sweating, and was somehow pouring sweat everytime I climbed a roller. Riding the SS felt like someone had switched my cog to a 16t. I felt like every roller was excruciating, and when the rear tire slipped on a root, I didn’t have the power to keep it going, and had to dab many times. I found myself riding off the trail into the brush a time or too as well. I finally rolled into the pit area demoralized after dropping 20 minutes

I was crushed… I had been at this point before in 24 hour races, but usually after 15 or 17 hours… not 9. I couldn’t push the gear I brought, and had nothing else. I sat in the chair of defeat for an hour and pretty much convinced myself to pack my stuff and head home. I decided to take a look at the results and see where I was. Well, it turned out that I was passed by SSers who weren’t solo, and that I had been and second place and lapped 3^rd, even with the lap of death. The SS guys that passed me weren’t solo riders…

I decided that I might as well give it one more go and see what happened on the next lap. I got ready, and rolled out 90 minutes after I stopped… I was now in 4^th place, with a short jump back to 3^rd, and nearly 45 minutes behind 2^nd. Back on the bike, and everything just clicked… I was on, and caught 3^rd place back in the first half lap. 3 laps later, and I had brought back the big gap to 2^nd and rode on by. After getting back into 2^nd, I backed off a bit on the pace and cruised for a lap. My rest was not long lived, as 3^rd went by me as I grabbed food in my pit, and the chase was back on, I passed him, and then on a slick log, I missed getting over it, and he was right there and missed it too. We looked at each other, and he bolted… I caught him and continued a high pace, did a quick pit, and then a full XC pace lap.

Apparently his legs didn’t like that and I was able to take out a healthy chunk of time. I went back into cruising mode and started counting down the laps. I was fine, but a numb finger since 3 laps back and knee pain had me dreading each additional lap as adding a day of recovery time, for such little game… Luckily, third had the same idea, and he didn’t force me to ride the 3 extra laps I had time for, and I was able to stop at 10:30am after 171 miles in 20.5 hours of ride time, and 1.5 hours of self-pity.

This unfortunately meant over 3 hours of sitting in the sun before I could drive home… I packed my stuff and hung out for the awards and food, then headed home, and finally got to bed and slept 13 hours after being awake for over 40 hours… definitely a long weekend…

Overall, I can’t be anything but happy with the way it turned out… It still wasn’t that perfect race, but I was satisfied to be at the point of quitting, and come back from it and ride strong… Hell, I was doing full XC laps after 19 hours, I wouldn’t have thought that, especially on the SS… Maybe the perfect one is still out there… or maybe, there’s no such thing.

A Mess

2010-04-27T07:52:00.003-04:00

The Cohutta has come and gone, and left me with my first DNF on a NUE race. I could complain about alot of minor things that went wrong, but in the end, it came down to weather.

Started off the day right by forgetting to take my vest off before the start. Not really an issue to ride no hands and get it back in the pockets, until I realized I put all my food in the vest pockets and not the jersey pockets... Got that fixed, and made it over the climb. Apparently my speed was appropriate to my current race placing in brush creek, as I never caught anyone until the end, and dropped the train I was leading 3/4 through.

Old Copper road was lonely again, as I was passed by a few geared people and unable to catch onto a wheel. Made it to the whitewater center and started some singletrack climbs feeling great. I caught 2 SS guys who passed me on old copper road and had another in sight, and then CLICK!

I looked down, and my right pedal had fallen out again... WTF? It was definitely torqued, especially after it came out in a previous race. I stood there in shock a minute, and tried to thread it back in, but the threads on the crank were slightly crushed in a place. I managed to borrow an 8mm and chase it back in and tighten it on. I figure it was a good 5 minutes gone.

I started the furious chase back on, and went a bit harder than I should have. 30 miles later, My pace slowly drifted from passing people like crazy, to riding the same speed, and then to falling off the back... In my mind, the event was quickly becoming a "ride" and not a "race."

By this time the fog was dense, temps were dropping on the ridge, and the wind was crazy strong. There were even some giant headwind sections on some of the climbs. I made it to aid 3 just before the torrential downpour began. I only had summer wear and the vest, and I knew if I didn't make it down the mountain before it rained that I might not make it down at all.

Of course I made it 2 minutes into the 12 mile descent and the rain came. The descent was crazy. Torrential rain, 5o ft of visibility with the fog, and huge crosswinds that I had to lean into and still got moved across the trail. I was good for most of it, but my body fat slowly lost the battle to the wind and rain.

As I approached Aid 4, I was slowing, shivering uncontrollably, and had no sensation in any of my fingers... It got to where I would brake and I could feel the bike slowing, but couldn't feel the bars or that I was braking. It was hard to even stand up and hold onto the bars they were so stiff. Got to aid 4, and hung out for a bit under the tent as people streamed by. I knew I was done when I took my gloves off and all my fingers were completely white and waxy, with no sensation at all in the first 2 phalanges of any fingers.

If I was racing, I might have convinced myself to go on, but the combination of the day defeated me, and I accepted a ride back to the start after 65 miles... I really don't know if more clothing would have been enough, I would have had to bring fleece gloves to make it down the descent, and even then with the rain, it might no have been enough. One more thing to worry about, I guess.

Kudos to those that finished, it was an epic day for sure.

Cohutta Bound, One More Time

2010-04-22T20:26:00.003-04:00

The Cohutta 100 has finally arrived, and sadly, it is my first real race of the season... Should be a good shock to the system.

Elizabeth is doing alot of the SERC races this year, so I've accompanied her to Chickasaw and Tsali for some SS action... The first race was a mudfest, and I ended up slipping back to 5th after figuring out that the XDX tires were great for the clearing the wet course the first lap, but not as great on the 2nd lap when everything turned slick as snot...

Tsali was less fun. I made it 5 minutes into the woods, hit a bump, and wound up on my top tube... I looked down expecting to see a broken chain, and instead noticed I didn't have a right pedal. The threads were still good, so it seems to have just unthreaded itself for no reason... Of course I had every hex except the 8mm I needed to tighten it back on. Eventually someone had an 8mm that I borrowed to save myself a 10 mile walk, and I managed to finish an impressive 30 minutes back. I did beat one guy though who had his left crank arm fall off. "Hey man, do you have an 8mm?," he asked.

So back to Cohutta... It will be my longest ride of the year thus far. I tried to do a run of the 65, but the fireroads were all icey snowy. The picture below is the start of a big fireroad descent. We turned back after a few wrecks...

I'm going for the whole "I've done way too many of these fricken off-road centuries, maybe my experience will pull me through." I'm running the 32x20, again, for the third year in a row. Every year I think I should use a 19, but then I get on those hills and am glad I have the 20... We'll see how it goes!

Stella shares my current excitement level

Shoes and TMI

2010-02-23T16:08:00.004-05:00

I'm the type of guy that once I find something I like, it's kind of hard to convince me that something else is better. That being said, I've owned 3 pairs of biking shoes in my life:

2004 - Sidi Bullets - Basic 3-strap velcro mtb shoe... I rode the crap out of these things, until the velcro died enough to not hold on, and the sole had huge grooves in the bottom from the eggbeater pedals, so that the engagement is quite loose...

2005 - Sidi Dominator 5 Carbon - When I got my first road bike, I went with some higher end shoes since the Sidis had done me no wrong. Fit is great, pretty stiff, and tolerable all day despite the crappy paper insoles they come with. I'm still rocking these to this day.

2007 - Sidi Dragon - The mack daddy mountain shoe... I still rock these as well, by far the most comfortable shoes I've owned... They've been through many miles of heat, cold, rain, snow, and everything in between. The replaceable sole is nearly done, though I've yet to replace them yet. I've lost one of the techno-twisting middle buckles, but they're useless anyways...

So what would make a man change from shoes that work decently well? Reluctance to buy a $100 sole for a 3 yr old pair of shoes? Boredom? Distraction by shiny object? Drawn to B-Dot supremacy?

Take your pick, but I've ended up with not one, but two shiny new pairs of cycling kicks, with the new [new = last year release] Bontrager RXL shoes in road and mountain flavor.

As for fit, for both shoes I had to drop down a half size from my Sidis to get the proper size... and even then, I can only wear them with thinner summer weight socks. Not really a big deal most of the time, but sort of an annoyance. The next size up is too large to wear even with thicker socks. Beyond that, the derby cut works well to really let you adjust out the volume in the front of the shoes to get a snug secure fit, while the toe box is wide enough for comfort. The buckles work well enough, although I sort of miss the half click release option from the sidis for easy adjustment on the bike.

After a couple hundred miles [sadly, many on the trainer], I can say that the RXL road shoes are superb... A+. I've had no issues of numbness or pain, and they are noticeably stiffer than the Sidis. The eSoles insoles make a huge difference, and is easily felt while pedaling. The vents seem to work at pushing air into the shoe, but I've only had one outdoor ride without booties to go by. The heel locks in well, and no sliding around yet. Overall I'm super pleased...

The mountain shoes verdict is still in progress. I've done a cross race and a 2. 5 hour mountain ride with them so far. On the bike, they fit well and are night and day stiffer than the Sidis. Despite the extra roominess compared to the dragons, they don't slide or move around at all either. So far, I'm still debating on the off the bike performance. I have a little heel slide while running/walking, and the super stiffness could be an issue on longer walks... So it's gonna take a while to see where these will fit in, and whether they will hurt me in a longer race where walking is an issue... happens sometimes for a singlespeeder...

But overall I'm pleased with both pairs and can't wait for the weather to stay warm enough to get some more testing in!

Powered Up

2010-02-01T08:38:00.003-05:00

I realized it has been some time since I've blogged... I guess with all those epic rides and all the long hours down in sunny Florida logging base miles, theres just not much time left for typing.

If only that were the case...

Instead, I've been working 50 hour weeks and riding the trainer every other day... I hate this damn cold, my appendages refuse to cooperate with me.

So instead I've been finding shiny things to occupy my time, like my christmas present to myself.

I decided to try and add a bit more structure to my training this year, and ended up getting a Powertap SL 2.4 hub from the fine folks up at Saris. My timing was fortuitous, as for 2010, Bontrager wheels were no longer paired spoke, which meant I could actually build the wheel into a nice rim.

I had batted around the idea before of getting some bombproof training wheels in the form of the Bontrager Classics. 32 spokes, durable hubs, puncture resistant tires, etc. But then I started to actually think, and realized that [1] I don't race road, so why do I need "race" and "training" wheels? [2] If I did do a race here or there, wouldn't I want the powertap? and [3] I like shiny things.

So instead I decided to replace my current RXL wheelset [for sale, $475] and just build up a lightweight all around wheelset. Since I like things that match I went with the new 2010 RXL scandium rims, and the DT Swiss Aerolite white spokes, which are flattened to be bladed, but are small enough to fit through a 2.5 mm hub hole without slotting. Rounded it off with the DT prolock nipples. I don't know much about them except being told they are the best, and carry a price tag to match.

After getting it all built up, the final weight for the wheelset was 1720 grams. Not bad at all with a 412 gram hub. This pushed the Madone up to 15.5 lb with the sensors/cages/pedals/everything. I don't think I can complain about that at all.

Sadly I haven't gotten to ride anywhere but the trainer and the boulevard, so I haven't been able to do a solid threshold test and get all my zones set up... But it is interesting to see all the little things like terrain, wind, cadence, etc that have such a huge impact on how much power you're actually outputting. But I think it's going to be a great training tool and I'm really looking forward to this damn cold going away so I can put it to good use!

Pieces

2010-01-08T20:20:00.001-05:00

The puzzle pieces are falling into place... Hmm, Fancy scandium rim, fancier and shiny white spokes, red nipples... Only one thing missing, what could it be?

People Pictures

2009-12-31T09:12:00.002-05:00

As I was glancing through Picasa today, I realized I never posted up the last bunch of photos from interbike...

The Man himself... The suit legs are knickers.

Same picture with a flash on... Reflective Stripes!

Levi Leipheimer

Stage 17 Superstar Floyd Landis

Hawley/Storck rock star Andy Hale

Blog Hiatus and Updates

2009-12-03T20:44:00.004-05:00

My blogging seems to have fallen off a cliff lately... Just go with the usual excuse of busy or work or being tired or family or exhaustion or friends or riding. Choose your favorite.

Since my last posts, I've been up to a little bit of everything. Some racing, some spectating, fun rides, night rides, work, home improvements, animal rescuing, etc...

I ran the Ocho 8 Hour Race back on October 17th, which went really well. Not a huge turnout, but everything went smoothly and everybody seemed to have a great time. I think having beer and pizza makes everybody forget they rode for 8 hours on a wet and super windy day with a high of 45 degrees... Some new races are in store for next year, more details on that later.

I threw in some long training rides to get back in the lap race mentality before the local Haw Ridge 12 Hour race, but that ended up being a bust. We had downpours the three days before the race, and all morning before the race and as it started.

As people were looking like this after one lap [although, Phillipe doesn't seem to mind], I decided that paying money for the privilege of completely destroying every moving part on my bike and getting to buy a new drivetrain didn't sound so fun. That and riding 12 hours in that muck... No thanks.

To make up for it, Elizabeth, Ed, and I headed west to the Lock 4 6 Hour Challenge in Gallatin TN. I had heard of Lock 4, but never ridden there. I guessed that the SS with a 32x18 would be good since it was relatively flat. We couldn't have asked for better weather, as it was bone dry, and nearly 70 degrees... In the middle of November! The race went pretty well, and I started well. Having never ridden the course, a few rocky sections and dropoffs caught me off guard, but after a couple laps,I had it down. I rode decently, but was playing catchup all day. I managed to slot into 2nd with a lap or two left and held it to the end... SS was the tough class of the day, with SSers taking 3 of the top 5 overall solo spots.

The course was tons of fun, fairly flat, but with enough rocks, jumps, and techy sections to keep it interesting. It was really really twisty, requiring you to constantly accelerate. I think a 19 would have been a bit nicer gear since you had to spin it back up every 30 seconds... Overall a good fun day, 3 podiums for the car, and the longest day ever... We got up at 5:30 am, and made it home at 11:30 pm...

Interbike: Lance

2009-10-02T11:52:00.003-04:00

EDIT: I've just realized that today is LiveStrong day, so I guess this is kind of appropriate... who knew...

Even though he wasn't at the show, there was more than enough Lance randomness to warrant an entire post.

Sram had Lance's Leadville bike on display. Pretty sweet paintjob, nice and low key with the black and white. Shiny XX of course. Elizabeth and I bought our tickets to go see the Leadville movie on October 22nd, should be fun.

Sram also had Lance's TT bike from the Tour down Under. Pretty neat up close with how the numbers fade/dissolve from the grey to black in places.

Sram has also officially released all the posters they were making for Lance's return to cycling. I snagged the Giro one a month or so ago, they are pretty nice. They are kind of on the largish size [24x36]. I've been told I can get one more of them, as the house is not a cycling shrine... I'm thinking the Leadville one is quite cool.

If you want one, all you have to do is buy a Sram road or cyclocross bike, and then go here and follow the directions... Free!

Giro had all the Lance helmets on display as well. Hard to tell in the pictures, but they were kind of scratched up like they had been wrecked/ridden.

Interbike: Sram

2009-10-01T10:11:00.003-04:00

Some of you may know that I am a bit of a Sram fan. What can I say, it's just better... You do what you want though :)

But I did snap a few shots of some neat things they had at the show.

Colored Sram/Truvativ xo goodies. 5 Colors to match up your ride, and crank brothers even made matching eggbeater SL and candy SL pedals!

The XX is quite incredible. The front shifting feels phenomenal, and it is crazy light. The cassette is especially cool, as it is milled out of a single chunk of steel like the red cassette. The weight of the 9 cog PC-990 [xo cassette] is 300 grams for an 11-34. The XX cassette weight 200 grams, with 10 cogs in an 11-36. Pretty impressive. Overall, I want it... I don't really want to pay for it, and don't ride gears enough to justify it... But it is the real deal. Lizard not included in group price.

I also filmed the internals of a Red Doubletap shifter. Pretty slick how the rachets slide around/over/under oneanother to shift one way or the other.

Other cool things were road brake levers only [For singlespeed, bar end shifters, whatever] in both alloy and carbon. The r2c [return to center] tt shifters were neat as well, and also came in a Zipp flavor that had a larger, nicer shape to them. They also had a great after party. Woo, beer!

Interbike: Bikes

2009-10-01T09:36:00.002-04:00

Interbike coverage might as well start with some pretty pictures of cool bikes. First up, there were tons of shiny pro bikes on display:

Alberto Contador's Paris Madone 6 Series

Mark Cavendish's Scott Addict

Thor Hushovds Cervelo S2

[Still using Dura-Ace 7800]

Fabian Cancellara's Specialized Tarmac

I really didn't take alot of pictures of just stock bikes from random vendors, but snapped a few pics of things that were neat/cool/different.

This was a random super lightweight mountain bike that had been rigged up with a modified version of shimano's electronic drivetrain. Crazy light, not sure if it is really rideable though... Carbon fiber rotors? Carbon fiber chainrings? Definitely different though... The same people also had a 9 lb fully functional road bike as well.

Cool name for a track bike...

And I saved the best for last. The Trek District Carbon. This guy is basically a 5 Series Madone with a singlespeed belt drive, and some slick pivoting dropouts. I was super excited to see one of these in person since I didn't go to Trek World. Looks like the sweetest singlespeed commuter ever. Although at $3360 retail, this might not replace my $500 Soho S anytime soon... That and the whole impracticality of carrying anything on it. But who cares, it's a carbon bike with a belt drive!

Interbike: Las Vegas

2009-10-01T08:09:00.004-04:00

Elizabeth and I headed west this past week to the city of sin to take in the behemoth that is Interbike. Having never been to Interbike, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. As for Vegas itself, well, it's Vegas... We stayed in the Imperial Palace. Great location, but the rooms look like they haven't been changed since the 60s... At least we didn't spend much time there.

The show ended up being lots of fun. Really great to see people from across the country that you normally don't see. Also great to check out all the cool new bike stuff. It's kind of disappointing in a way though, as everything you see at the show was on the internet weeks ago. The USA Crit and CrossVegas made for fun spectating as well.

But rather than throw tons of random pictures at you, I'm going to do 3 or 4 Interbike posts with groups of pictures and whatsuch...

Rampaging Black Bears

2009-09-28T08:00:00.001-04:00

Two weekends ago I headed down to the Ocoee Whitewater Center for the Black Bear Rampage. I have to admit I was excited, as the trails at Tanasi are one of my favorites. I had also done this race the past two years and enjoyed it. New for this year was a lengthening of the course for Pros and Experts from 40 miles to 60 miles. With probably 58 miles of the course being singletrack, you get more singletrack here than most every NUE hundred miler.

With a less than 2 hour drive, I headed down the morning of. Nutrition for the race looked to be interesting, as there were no SAG drops. Forgetting to check my stock of gels/bloks was a bad move, as I only had a ½ pack of Clif Bloks, and one Clif Shot. Luckily I was well stocked with Infinit, and decided to carry 2 bottles of Infinit, and then carry plastic bags with servings of Infinit so I could just refill with water and dump the powder in.

I have a history of not drinking enough at this race, as the first year I did it on 2 bottles, and died during the last singletrack section. Last year, I made it comfortably on 3 bottles for the 40 miles, but also had someone to hand me the bottles.

I ended up racing the pro/open class, and they started us off with all the experts as well. [That's right, I raced with gears...{insert gasp of shock}]The 3 mile road climb was not that great, and I entered the singletrack 15 seconds or so off of the front group of 8 or so. I rode with Shane Schreihart through all of brush creek and old copper road until we got almost to the whitewater center. We turned to climb up the singletrack, and my legs immediately hated me... I had nothing.

I suffered up to the top of thunder rock, made it down, and had some more less than awesome times going up the fireroad and singletrack climbs aftewards. I stated to feel better on the rolling sections, and finally felt good as I started the second loop of the Whitewater center section. Unfortunately, it was way to late to be “racing.”

I enjoyed the rest of the ride though, and finished up in 4:4Xish, for a nice DFL in the Pro/Open... Although, I guess I can console myself that regional stud Andy Applegate was only one place ahead of me... Maybe we had the same day.

But I can't complain at all about getting to ride 60 miles of rockin singletrack on a perfect Sunday afternoon...

Fool's Gold, Part 2

2009-08-21T17:31:00.003-04:00

Go!

And with that we were off. The course looked pretty tough on paper, as it started with an 11 mile fireroad climb. Not a typo... The course then descended, and had another long singletrack climb. The rest was smaller climbs, but was still of the “up forever, down forever” variety, which doesn't leave much for recovery.

I started in the first pack, but found myself dropped by most of the geared guys on a small descent before the climb really started. I looked around, and noticed myself hanging on the coattails of a group containing 6 other singlespeeders, and no geared guys. I stayed slightly off this group until the climb steepened up and got looser about 3.5 miles in. At this point, I was working way harder than I should be at this point in a long race, and let them go. I worked my way to the top of the mountain after a short pitstop to try and fix my saddle bag [apparently velcro tends to die in the mud and not work anymore, who knew...]

The descent off the first climb was kind of shady, as it was steep enough to go 35 mph, but very rutted out, covered in loose gravel and fist sized rocks, and had traffic coming up the other side. I survived, and entered some sweet swoopy singletrack to make it the second aid station. The next section was a long and steep singletrack climb, covered with roots and rocks. The 32x20 was a good choice, but I was still standing up on most of it since all the roots made it tough to stay seated. After topping out, another long descent took me to a slightly downhill fireroad and back to Aid Station 2/3.

From here, the course went out more fireroad before hitting a doubletrack climb that was nice and smooth. The top turned off onto singletrack for another short climb, and then a descent back down to the fireroad and aid station 4/5. More fireroad took me to another singletrack, which was extremely rutted out. Climbing this section seemed to take forever, and you were rewarded only with getting to go down forever on similar rutted trails.

From here it was practically over for the lap, with only 2 short singletrack sections left, and a bit of uphill fireroad. I finished the first lap feeling great, and started up the behemoth climb again. I was rocking it until the hill steepened again, but then died, and rode like a little girl the rest of the way up. I had dropped a rider at the base like he was standing still, and he returned the favor a few minutes later.

I got caught by the women's leader at the top, and she passed me as a I stopped to pour water on my head. I caught her soon after the descent, and rode decently the rest of the day. Nothing else really exciting happened the second lap. It was actually kind of dead, as I went about 25 miles without seeing anyone else at one point.

I rolled into the finish in 9:50 and 9th place in a strong SS field, where I was handed a bar of soap and pointed to the showers. Real showers at a race are kind of a nice rarity. I got my gear loaded and hung out a bit before heading back to Knoxville to sleep in my own bed. Overall Fool's Gold was a really tough race with all the climbing, roots, rocks and ruts. Not as technical or miserable as Shenandoah, but just a darn tough day in the woods.

Fool's Gold, Part 1

2009-08-21T08:25:00.001-04:00

After a bit of construction work in the kitchen in the morning, I packed my things, and headed off towards Dahlonega, GA for the Fool's Gold 100. This was to be my final NUE race of the season, as I had already done the Cohutta 100, the Mohican 100, and the Lumberjack 100.

My drive over started out nicely enough, with me smoothly cruising west on I-40 while I watched traffic stretch for miles in the other direction. I passed the Ocoee whitewater center, and was greeted with some light rain, sunny skies, and even a rainbow.

I could almost say it was Rainbows, Kittens, and Sunshine, but I guess 2 out of 3 isn't bad. My luck changed 5 miles later, when the light rain turned into a torrential downpour. You have to love it when you're going 35 mph in a 60, and with your wipers on the highest possible speed you're still driving completely blind...

I finally cleared the downpour and made it to Dahlonega to pick up my packet. I really wasn't too happy to drive an extra 20 miles round trip to get said packet. I'm sure it was worth the gas to collect the typical swag bag of race number, 2 sizes too large t-shirt, energy gel, and company propaganda. I arrived at the race start as it got dark, and settled in for a surprisingly comfortable snooze in my car.

5:30 am came way too soon, and I got my drop bags together and sent them on their way out onto the course. I did my typical nutrition plan of 8 bottles of Infinit, supplemented with Clif Bloks every so often. From then, it was a matter of gathering the race belongings and waiting for the start. Ready, Set,

… To Be Continued

Pursuit!

2009-08-16T09:13:00.000-04:00

A friend of ours found a little north knoxville gem last week at Whittle Springs middle school: A nicely paved and clean 1/8 mile track!

Road bikes and lycra were in full force for some great pursuit racing. We started on opposite sides, and raced until a catch was made, or we hit 10 min. We never quite got to 10 min, but did have a few 6 or 8 min races. It was a great interval workout for sure.

The track is so short that it is hard to consistently pedal. Since it is not banked, the corner sections were faster to coast through, as pedaling generally led to clipping a pedal on the inside. The best technique seemed to be to hammer as hard as possible on the straight and carry it through the corner.

We did several solo races, and then a team race. I think we'll have to switch directions next time though, as I doubt that 15 miles of left turns is good for my tires. hmm...

Check out the YouTube video here

[It looks slow, but we were going through the corners at 23-24 mph.]

Walking

2009-07-31T08:47:00.002-04:00

I had forgotten I had this nice shot of me walking the sand hill at the lumberjack 100...

It was not so much good times on a SS. Steep and sandy at the bottom, then inches deep of sand the rest of the way made trying to get back on a futile pursuit. Fun Fun...

Thursday Centuries

2009-07-12T11:18:00.005-04:00

I'm still trying to roll through all the road routes in the Knoxville book, and decided they would get done quicker if I did two at a time. This was especially true for the ones that started at Coulter's Bridge, as it is about a 35 min drive to get there. A few weeks ago, I did three of the routes at once for 100 miles, which was definitely painful. I was hurting on the first 30 mile flat route for some reason, then Butterfly Gap racheted up the pain screws, and I limped around for the last 30 miles to finish up in 6:04.

I decided to start the Thursday Centuries up last week, and kicked it off with the death ride. The death ride started off nicely enough, with a 56 mile rolling loop out rocky branch to Kyker's Bottoms wildlife refuge. I refueled at the car after averaging 17.3 mph. The remaining 46 miles were the pain miles, as it went straight up and over the Parkway, then up Happy Valley and Flat's road, and then a big coast back down the parkway. [~4500 ft of climbing] I died about 2 miles up the Parkway, and never really recovered. I finally got to the top, and went to the campground to dump water on myself and reevaluate my decision to keep riding. I ignored the voices in my head and plunged over the other side of the parkway. My neck and shoulder's were killing me, so I couldn't really descend in any sort of aero position.

I turned the corner at the base and started up Happy Valley. Lots of rolling, false flat type sections were ok, but once the climb pitched up, I was toasted again. I sloooowwwwly made my way up the switchbacks, and turned right onto Flat's road. For those of you that haven't heard of it, Flat's road is about the steepest climb in the knoxville area. Whoever named it, I hate you. Death was upon me at this point, and I did some serious SS style mashing to get myself up the road at 3 mph. [Sadly, not a typo...] After another dousing of water at the campground, I headed down the parkway, and got back to the car with 102 miles in around 6:18. My average had dropped to a rockin 15.9 mph...

The third century installment finally went better. I felt great all day. Started out with a ride up the Parkway, and then down flat's road and Happy Valley, and then rode 129 back to Maryville. The rest of the ride was another loop around Maryville, that was mostly rolling hills and wind. I got doused with rain for 20 minutes or so, but by that point it was mostly refreshing. Finished in 5:44.

I'm not really sure what I'll do this coming week... Maybe one day I'll be cool enough to do the death ride of all the ascents up the parkway. I'm guessing this would be about a 110-120 mile ride with god knows how much climbing... hmm... Maybe a Mt Larry double ride?

Upgrado

2009-07-07T11:10:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-23T12:20:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-18T12:56:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-16T09:58:00.002-04:00

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

2009-06-11T14:21:00.000-04:00

2SWET4U

2-SWE-T-4-U

Too Sweaty For You

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

Disc Burner 2009

2009-06-09T13:12:00.005-04:00

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

2009-06-05T08:25:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-28T22:02:00.002-04:00

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

2009-05-25T20:40:00.005-04:00

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

2009-05-20T08:48:00.004-04:00

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.

Mud, Sweat, and No Gears

2009-05-10T20:49:00.003-04:00

Short Version:

Worst race ever... I can't say I've ever experienced such misery.

Long Version:

After a week of non-stop rain, Elizabeth and I arrived in Fayetteville to a dry field, and set up our gear in hopes that it would stay that way. After all the normal prep of getting bikes, bottles, and lights all set up, I dropped my bike off for the le mans start. As the director said we had 10 minutes til the start, the skies opened up and it started pouring rain. Muddy clay was spraying everywhere as I was going through the field. After hitting the singletrack, I immediately regretted my choice of dry condition tires, as I was spinning out on everything and sliding around. The ACXs wouold have been a better choice, but only for a little while. The rain kept coming down, and the mud spraying up made for some interesting descents after it shot up into my eyes.

The first lap, although horribly bad by most standards, went by pretty quickly, and I rolled into the pit to switch water bottles and get some new glasses. Going through the field was a little slicker, but the first singletrack sections felt the same. I hiked it up the first 2 bigger climbs, and headed down a longer descent that was 4 inch deep slop. I managed to slide out, come unclipped, and somersault down the hill. After collecting my belongings, I headed up the next little roller and started back into the singletrack. At this point I didn't realize that I wouldn't be riding my bike anymore for the race.

I pushed up a bit of the slicker sections, and the wheels began to collect mud and start to clog up. Within 15 or 20 ft, the wheels were so full of mud, that neither wheel would spin, and I had to stop and pull handfuls of mud off to clear it out. I started pushing again, and the wheels stopped again 20 ft later. I tried to pick up my bike, but it was way too heavy. I'm guessing it weighed somewhere in the 80-100 lb range with all the mud. It was amazing to be trying to push the bike downhill, and both wheels would clog up so bad that it would stop. Pushing uphill was much worse, as you had the same problem, but you were trying to push it uphill with about as much traction as you would expect to have standing in 4 inches of sticky and slick mud.

Elizabeth's bike shows the conditions pretty well...

I wasted almost 3 hours trying to push, carry, and drag my bike around the course, but only made it roughly 5 or 6 miles into the second lap. I finally found a cut out back off the course, and gladly took it back to the field to clean my bike and drink beer. What an amazing waste of time and effort to go try and race this thing. This race has been an awesome event the last 2 years, but I will never ever go back if there is a chance of rain... a shame.

As Ed said, "that was the stupidist thing I've ever done in my entire life."

Check out some of the mid-race interview vids on this site as well for an up close look at the misery.

Cohutta 100 Round Two

2009-04-29T09:13:00.007-04:00

Cohutta time has finally come and gone for another year.

After a little bit of shivering in the dark and cold before the 7 am start, I rolled off in the front pack going up the road climb. However, my legs were not really feeling it at the start, and I lost contact with that group coming downhill during the stairstep road climb. Hit the twisty fast singletrack, and I was immediately undergeared with my 32x20. One or two guys caught me in this section, but I made it through it fast enough. The rest of the ride through old copper road back to the whitewater center was uneventful.

My legs felt way off going up the first singletrack section. I got passed by 3 or 5 people on the first climb, which, as a skinny climber guy, is never a confidence booster. 5 or 6 miles later I hit the fireroad I would enjoy for the next 70 miles. Passed a few on some of the climbs, and the legs were slowly starting to feel better.

A fast geared guy from Deleware caught me on a flat section, and I hopped on his wheel. Having somebody to pace off as we hit the next climbs of was a big boost to getting my rhythm back. After riding with him for 10 or 15 miles, I rolled away at an aid station to start the bigger climbs of the day. I slowly passed back 4 or 5 of the ss riders who had passed me earlier.

The rest of the day went smoothly, although the long flat section was no fun, and the last 20 miles were oppressively hot. Hitting the singletrack was fantastic, but I managed to get caught by a ss guy, and lost 20 seconds on him by the end of the race. I finished up in 7:51 for 8th place in the ss. So 30 minutes faster than last year, and I gained one place. The 32x20 wasn't quite as nice in the dry conditions, maybe next year a 19 will be better...

Congrats to fellow knoxville finishers Gary, Ed, and Elizabeth. Elizabeth managed to take a wrong turn and got 10 or so bonus miles. I'm pretty sure she was loving it. Also congrats to the plethora of 29er crew guys and gals at the race. Lots of podium places and great finishes for the big wheels.

Grindin

2009-04-12T22:41:00.003-04:00

I made the last minute decision this week to head out to Charlotte for the 6 Hour Grind on the Greenway race. With monsoons coming through on friday night, I was expecting a little mud. Luckily, the trails dried quickly, and aside from a few mud pits, the course was perfect after 2 or 3 laps. I chose to race the SS in the open class, and had an ok day. The course was pretty flat, with some short moderate climbs that were well suited to the 32x18 I was running. After having some stomach issues the first few laps, I was able to settle in and finish up the day with 65 miles in 6:15ish, and 4th place in the open solo division. Not bad for a 6 hour, and I really needed to get some racing in before the Cohutta. It's kind of hard to complain much about spending a day on the bike.

The day itself ended up being super long since we drove down that morning... 8.5 hours in the car and almost 6.5 on the bike meant that I slept great saturday night.

My bike didn't look so hot afterwards...

But, after way too much cleaning on Sunday it was back to normal...

White too far?

2009-04-06T09:20:00.001-04:00

I think I took the one step too far on the white. After switching from an all-white bike to a half white bike, I decided to top off the look of the new madone with some shiny new white speedplay zeros... They arrived in their pretty box, and after touching them once, I noticed a greasy smudge that wouldn't go away. 105 miles later, and they are permanently dirty and blackish-grey... Com'n... I guess I should have known better... at least it looked good for a day.

25%

2009-04-03T23:12:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to ride all 40 road rides in the Knoxville bike routes book. I figured it would be a good way to explore some roads I might not hit otherwise. Here we are, a few weeks and an awesome new bike later, and I've hit the 25% mark with 10 routes down and 490 miles.

"Melton Hill Park"

This route ended up being a nice 25 miles I was able to squeeze in by leaving work early on wednesday. Moderately hilly, but not bad. I think I'm finally starting to learn some of the roads out west. Maybe on the CBC ride I'll actually know where I'm going, and I won't look confused when certain people ask me questions about the roads and routes out west and wonder how I don't know any road names after being on them more than a dozen times...

"Loop through Norris"

Yesterday I decided to do a double, with 2 routes in North Knoxville. Both were full of rollers, and had 4 or 5 bigger climbs... The one on Conner road (at the end of each profile) especially sucked, even more so since I had to do it twice. Finished up with right over 80 miles with a few wrong turns / bonus miles. The legs are finally starting to turn over well after a not so good January and February. Getting closer...

"Hill Street Blues"

The Shiniest

2009-03-31T20:32:00.005-04:00

I couldn't be more excited to finally replace the Bianchi with a shiny new Trek Madone...

With all the goods it came out to 14.75 lb. I was pretty shocked it was that low, I was expecting closer to 15.25 (but I won't complain)

I've only managed to get around 80 miles on it so far, but it is definitely a nice ride. I still need to dial in the fit a bit, but it is pretty close. The big things that are noticeable so far are the smoothness and stability of the bike. It really seems to soak up the road buzz alot more than the bianchi, and feels super stable on descents and fast corners. The Sram Red shifters feel great on the hands, and getting used to the doubletap takes no time at all.

"Rollen and Dinkin Around"

Two more routes down for BKKBR, I'm slowly getting there... The North Knoxville House Mountain loop was very cool, with lots of rollers and twisty sections. I've done this loop once before, but thats been my only North Knoxville experience so far. I'm kind of excited to get out and do some more in that area though.

"Circle Around House Mountain"

Farewell

2009-03-28T23:21:00.002-04:00

The trusty Bianchi 928 lugged is finally gone. It has been a great bike for the past 2 years, but it was time to move on to something different. It was pretty much my first (second) road bike (I guess I have to count the other 928 frame that started cracking) Lots of miles, lots of good rides, and it never dropped me to the pavement. It's kind of sad to see it go...

Enjoy your new WY home... and thanks for many good miles...

The Mad One

2009-03-25T08:41:00.002-04:00

My shiny should be here and all built up by the end of the week. It is based off of the new and improved Project One. P1 is Trek's custom paint division, and for 2009 they've stepped up with some great new features. The big things are custom component choices and stock colors. Custom component choices lets you upgrade/downgrade the parts that come with the bike and make sure you get the right sizes. This makes it so you can apply the price of the items you don't want to upgrade individual components, and also makes sure you get the sizes you need so you don't end up with extra stems or bars that you can't use. For each madone model, P1 also offers 4 stock colors that you can order up at no additional cost if you want something a little different without having to spring for a fully custom paintjob.

And the greatest thing is that stock colors and component size changes come at NO ADDITIONAL COST. There is really no reason not to go the P1 route to make sure you get exactly what you want from the bike.

So for my madone, I went with the Red series framest, and chose a stock color (From the 6.9 Pro) since I'm a huge fan of the blue and turquoise. The custom options are nice, but I couldn't justify the extra cost since the stock one was so close to what I wanted. Components are going to be full Sram Red, with aluminum RXL wheels, white RXL stem, and RXXXL bars. I also managed to snag some porn star brakes for stopping duties. Speedplay pedals will finish it off (in white, of course...)

Should be shiny... Too bad it's going to rain all weekend...

Ride Time

2009-03-25T08:00:00.002-04:00

With 75 degree temps and rain coming the next 4 days, I couldn't pass up a chance to get out on some perfectly dry and dusty singletrack at Haw Ridge. I've also been needing another chance to get out on the SSFly and test that bolt-on skewer again. Unfortunately, the skewer slipped twice during the 4 hour ride, so I'm gonna have to man up and get the DT Swiss RWS skewer. Other than that, the ride was great, and I can't wait to start doing some longer races on this bike.

"Taking the Long Branch"

Road rides continued as well, with another BKKBR. This one is out in East Knoxville past Ijams nature park. Another good route with nice rollers and some fun descents. Total mileage was around 55ish. Long branch road is quite fun, I'll have to hit it again sometime. Normally when I am out this way I go Happy Creek, which is another fun road... Decisions...

I also managed to find a super steep driveway off the route I decided to climb for whatever reason. Nice little interval, but coming down was no fun. It was straight down rough bumpy concrete into 6 inch deep gravel. I'm pretty sure I was slower going down than up. First ride in the new 29er Crew kits as well. Fit is good and quality seems nice so far.

Watch Out

2009-03-19T18:41:00.005-04:00

Something big and shiny is coming...

A Lengthy Assignment

2009-03-19T16:34:00.003-04:00

After doing the route from the "Knoxville Bicycle Routes" book the other day, I've decided to see if I can get through all of them. So without further ado, I bring you parts 2-4 of my 40 part series, "Better Know a Knoxville Bike Route."

"The Old Farm Tour"

This ride makes a big loop in southeast knoxville, mostly through farmland. The terrain is mostly rolling, but it's got a few steep rollers that require some effort. Overall though, lots of nice roads that I hadn't made it on before. Also, if you would like to get attacked by the most dogs possible at once, I don't recall the road name, but there is a section where at least 8 or 9 dogs run out in a big pack. There could have been more, but I gave up counting. Definitely interesting though... From downtown the mileage was a little over 70, but I missed a turn or two and got some bonus miles.

"Old Cades Cove"

Another South Knoxville ride. This one heads out the standard way to Martin Mill and Andy Harris, but then splits off from Wildwood and heads north, and then turns east. The loop then spits you out on Old Walland Highway at Cold Springs Rd and heads out to the always fun Tuckaleechee Loop, and then back to Coulter's Bridge. From here it turns left and heads back to Martin Mill through Peppermint and Wildwood. Once again, a pretty cool route that has some really fun roads, especially the northen part that takes you out to Walland. The picture above is from the ever-changing inventory of a guy on Peppermint that makes license plate sculptures. Pretty neat stuff. Mileage was a little over 75.

"Through Marble Country"

This ride starts at Louisville Point Park. I was hoping for a nice recovery day after the previous two rides on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I'm not really sure I got it. This route was just 35 miles and 2000 ft of climbing, but constant wind and lots of short moderate rollers didn't really pan out as a great recovery ride. The turns are also poorly marked, so some guesswork and a relatively accurate computer are helpful to get around the loop. Like the first route, it is mostly through farm country. Traffic is really light as well. Pretty decent loops, but since it requires 25 min in the car to get to, I probably won't make it out here too much. (save for 2 more parts of the 40 part series, BKKBR)

If you're riding the routes from Louisville Point Park, get used to this view... Probably 60% of the turns don't have street names. Makes for a good challenge at least. (Or bonus miles)

One

2009-03-12T11:10:00.002-04:00

I managed to get out and beat the rain yesterday for a quick ride on the SSFly at IC King. Being back on singletrack with a SS just feels fantastic. It worked quite well, and definitely improves on the Rig in smoothness and stiffness. I've got some minor things to dial in, mostly in regards to the chain/cog. I've been running WTB cheap cogs and a Sram PC-1 chain, but I'm going to jump up to some Chris King cogs and a narrower 8spd chain setup. The little 5mm bolt on skewer worked well enough, but it's gonna need a few more shakedown rides to convince me that it's going to hold well...

Hopefully I won't get too attached to the SS and resign the G(eared)Fly to dust collection duties...

Sun and Wind

2009-03-10T18:41:00.003-04:00

Last post when I was talking about trading an hour of sleep for good weather was worth it, I was apparently mistaken. Monday was a perfect day, with near 75 degree temps. Instead of getting a great day of training in, I decided to take a short nap after getting back from work around 4, and ended up waking up nearly 3 hours later... and I was still tired... Curse you DST!

But soon enough, I'll switch to loving that extra hour. I think I'm back on my normal rhythm again today. I got out for a good 4 hour ride out towards Kodak to enjoy the near 80 degree weather. (For those of you that bought Elle Colquitt's bicycle route book, it was the "A Kodak Moment" route on p 142.) I ride out this way a decent amount, but don't really know the side roads that well, so I figured I'd give it a go. The route is mostly rolling, but has a few good climbs spread in there.

3 hours of headwind made for a tough and demanding ride, but I liked the route. The loop north of Thorngrove Pike is quite nice with two or three 1200ish ft climbs, and some great descents, including one that will easily top you out over 50 mph (and then flatten for 200 yds or so to a stop sign, hope your brakes work) The southern side has some cool sections as well. If you're looking for intervals, there were plenty of dog sprints to get those in for you. A shame the cool weather and rain is on it's way...

As a side note, I've got a road bike that is looking for a new home...

Check out the details here, more pictures here...

About to Spring Forward

2009-03-07T21:41:00.004-05:00

Warm weather has finally made it's way to the southeast! Hopefully it's here to stay. It's been over 60 degrees since Wednesday, and over 70 for Saturday and Sunday... I've had a nicely diversified week of riding, with a some good greenway runs, commuting errands, road bike runs, and finally some mountain biking. The tanasi trails at the Ocoee whitewater center were in fantastic shape today, and I was able to get out on the geared superfly for the first real ride. It performed great on a 40 mile loop hitting most all of the singletrack in the area.

Tomorrow is time change day... I guess it's worth losing a bit of sleep for the good weather...

I managed to find a little bit o' local honey on the roads

Additions

2009-02-24T14:54:00.003-05:00

Such a happy family...

Even though I ordered them 8 months apart, both of my shiny bikes for 2009 showed up the same day. After a frantic day of building bikes, swapping components, and tubeless fun, I got the bikes mostly up and running.

The Superfly SS is gorgeous, as expected. It needs a little more love, as I am still waiting on some centerlock rotor adaptors and a rear skewer. I'm going to go for a 5 mm bolt-on rear skewer for hopefully a little more security in the dropouts than a quick release. With the adaptors and a standard quick release, the bike weighed in at 21.00 lb with pedals. Not too shabby, as the new frame dropped 1.5 lb from the Rig. This is pretty much final spec for it, it's more than light enough.

Also shiny is the new geared superfly. The bling factor of this bike kind of caught me off guard. I mean, I expected it to be blingy, but it's kind of next level. Maybe it's the white spokes that did it. Hmm... Should be equally as awesome as the 08 superfly, as it is the exact same save for a change in crank and wheels. I didn't bother with weighing it, as I've still got a few minor things to do to it.

Now I just need to find a race where I'm actually going to use gears. Tsali maybe?

On the Way

2009-02-18T11:36:00.003-05:00

Looks like the shiny Superfly SS framesets are now shipping. It should show up either Friday or Monday. Then I just have the fun of swapping over everything from the Rig. Not sure what it will be weight wise, I'm estimating it to be around 20.25 - 20.50. We'll see...

Does this mean I have to change my beer selection to better match my shiny 09 bikes?

Speaking of the Rig, it will be up for grabs after the switch... I'll be selling it as a bundle of the 17.5 Mocha frame, Fox F29 RL fork, Cane Creek S-6 ZS headset, Eccentric BB, seat collar, and 2 bottle cages. Give me a shout if you might be interested... Can be run as geared or singlespeed so it's quite the versatile frame.

Other than that, I've just been continuing to hone in on bikes/components for the season... No major changes, pretty much just cosmetic upgrades which should hopefully be taken care of in the next week or two. Gotta look good, right?

Barely Noticeable

2009-02-03T11:17:00.005-05:00

The weather continues to randomly fluctuate. In a day and a half I've gone from riding in full summer wear to being coated in snow and barely being able to pull my frozen car door open. Saturday was pretty nice with temps around 45 and a good ride up at Norris with E, Caleb, Andy, and Abby. I somehow made it out there with only one armwarmer, so Abby stepped it up and I got to rock the cheetah armwarmers. I feel they only improved my catlike reflexes...

Sorry ladies, I'm taken...

For Sunday, we made the drive down to the Ocoee Whitewater center for some Tanasi fun. It started off sort of chilly, but within a few hours my pockets were completely stuffed with discarded layers and I was down to just summer wear. It was so nice to see my knees for the first time in months. The trails were mostly in great shape, with only brush creek being a sloppy mess. Riding down there reminds me why I love those trails so much... I can't wait for the Cohutta and the Black Bear this year!

E and Ed rocking the trails...

Monday brought back the winter, with a steady snowfall all day. Nothing stuck to the roads, but everyone freaks out and they close all the schools anyways. It's kinda nice to see snow though, since it only happens once a twice a year here.

Randomness

2009-01-29T14:53:00.004-05:00

Good finds over the last week or so:

Recommendation Letter:

A student gave this to my professor at UT and wanted him to sign it as a recommendation letter for some scholarship. It's quite awesome... Clicky

C D Used Cars in Knoxville:

I heard this one on the radio, and thought it was a joke... Apparently not... I'm not really sure who would want to buy a "seedy" used car...

Ok, back to work on trying to be this cool:

Thats right, feel the wind! Rar!

Before the Rain

2009-01-28T16:43:00.004-05:00

Well, before the three day long deluge, I got one nice road ride in while it was nearly 60 degrees out. The day started with perfect blue skys, and I rode with bare arms for the first time since... umm... well, I don't even remember.

Made it out to the Foothills Parkway, and got the lovely road closed sign. The road was actually still open, but was covered in an inch of slush. I climbed a couple of hundred feet up and decided that it wouldn't be fun going up or down.

As I was coming back, the perfect blue skys turned into a swiftly approaching wall of dark cloud... It almost looked like mountains. When I got back nearer to town it was definitely dark and forboding clouds, but I managed to avoid the rain... At least for one day...

Back in Black

2009-01-27T10:58:00.003-05:00

The 29er Crew is back by popular demand for 2009 with some snazzy new kits. Does this mean that I have to start referring to my bikes as "XXIXers" now?

The 2009 schedule is slowly coming together. My money is in for the Lumberjack 100 up in Michigan. I'm looking to do some more of the NUEs this year. I'll be doing the Cohutta for sure as well. The Fool's Gold and Shenandoah are strong maybes right now. I want to do the Mohican also. but I'm gonna have to decide between it and the Burn 24 hour... One week is not so much enough recovery time from a 24. Other than the NUEs, I'll still be doing alot of the 6/12 hour races. I'll also be venturing out to some other race types with some road racing and xc.

The rain continues again today...Meh. Dry singletrack seems months away. Looks like Norris fireroad will be the off-road option for the foreseeable future.

Shine

2009-01-16T09:31:00.000-05:00

After nearly two weeks of rain and clouds everyday, the Sun finally made a comeback last friday. I managed to squeeze in a nice 2 hour road ride to spin out the legs and enjoy the good weather. The sun brought some warmer temperatures with it, but my feet and hands remained frozen as always. As I was riding, I couldn't help but think that I couldn't remember the last time I had seen my shadow on the bike...

Too bad it was 6 degrees this morning... Riding in 20 degrees commuting around this week is pretty much the limit for my hands and feet, which refuse to circulate blood. I'll never be next level.

Rain and Cold

2009-01-12T16:53:00.005-05:00

Saturday brought the Rain... The KnoxieCross series began with fitting cross weather, as 40 degree temps and pouring rain made for an epic day. I was not wearing anywhere close to warm enough gloves, and after a lap or so, my hands were so stiff that they were more claw than hand... Shifting and braking were painful, and my lap times slowed horribly as I was thinking in my head how many fingers were worth losing to finish the race. I managed to finish, and spent the next half hour in the car with the heat on full trying to convince my appendages to circulate blood again.

Deep squishy mud and pouring rain...

Sunday was the Cold... The KnoxieCross weekend continued with another race on the same course. So you've got the same muddy and waterlogged course, but now with a 10 degree or so drop in temperature. I sort of learned my lesson, and was wearing the warmest gloves I have (Windstopper with primaloft insulation.) My fingers were only numb for half the race and were then good. Toes were still frozen thanks to multiple creek crossings. The race went much better than saturday's, and I felt pretty decent. Warming up more would have been a smart idea, but I finished around where I figured I would after taking a sprint finish for 5th in the CX3. Lucky for me it was slightly uphill. KnoxieCross takes a month break before finishing up with 4 more races in February. Click Here for a gallery of pictures from the Sunday race.

Coming down the mudslide

Jeremy rocking the Bling

E on the SS wondering why I think its cold

Goodbye 2008

2009-01-01T21:22:00.003-05:00

Looking back, 2008 was a pretty good year to be on the bike. I started January off by getting a Soho S to commute around on and run errands. It turned into one of my favorite bikes, and ended the year with nearly 2000 miles of commuting and greenway riding on it. If you don't have a cheaper bike to just commute around on, get one! You will not regret it! Road riding was good as well, with tons of miles, and lots of new routes explored around Knoxville.

Getting new bikes is always fun, and I couldn't be happier with my Rig and Superfly. Singlespeed was something I always wanted to do as something different, but I was surprised with how much I enjoyed it. After waiting 5 months for a Superfly, I was enjoying the SS so much that the long awaited geared machine certainly felt neglected. The Rig has been a wonderful ride, and I can only imagine what joys await me when the Rig is converted to shiny carbon and horizontal dropouts flavor. Despite the greatness of the Rig, there are those days and races where you need gears, and the lightweight ride of the Superfly can't be beat. The big wheels are the real deal, and I can't imagine ever riding anything else.

My mountain bike season started off well with a win at the Dancing Bear 6 Hour race on New Year's day. A shame they didn't have the race this year. [Although, I can't say I miss the experience of riding all day with a 33 degree high and then trying to change clothes in the freezing dark afterwards...] I got my first taste of the NUE series with a good singlespeed ride in the Cohutta 100. I then proceeded to nearly burn myself out by racing a 100 miler, two 12 Hours, and a 24 Hour race within a 35 day period. I really enjoyed the NUEs, and more of those will definitely be on tap for 09...

Alot of near misses this year, with a 4th place in the SS at Dirt Sweat and Gears, 5th at the Burn 24 Hour, and 2nd at the Cowbell SS, Black Bear Rampage SS, and Tsali 12 Hour. Those days are just motivation to work harder, and a win at the Night Train 12 Hour was a nice reward.

A big thanks to all my sponsors for 2008. There's nothing better to roll on than big wheels from Gary Fisher, and best in class Bontrager bits and goodies complete the ride. Infinit Nutrition has definitely elevated my riding with customizeable nutrition products to keep the energy coming for everything from hour long XC races to 24 hour suffer fests. Thanks again, and I'm looking forward to another great year in 2009.

Cross Time

2008-11-25T08:36:00.005-05:00

After some initial slacking, I finally got around to beginning the arduous task of converting the SuperFly to cross mode. This pretty much consisted of swapping my fat and grippy 2.25 acx tires for some skinny 35c cross tires and congratulating myself on another job well done. Although, I'm not really sure what to call it. CrossFly? SuperCross? Take the easy way out and just add "CX" to the end of it? Meh, who knows...

Looking down at the skinnies felt sort of odd at first, but I soon got used to it. I headed up to Bristol, TN for the Mud, Sweat, and Gears cross series last weekend for some fun and painful times. Cross weather came and went, with most races involving a random combination of super-gusting winds, pouring rain, and bright sunshine, with a relatively constant temp of around 40 degrees. Being mostly an endurance guy, cross racing is always a shock to my system the first race or so, but it was fun day out on the bike. Congrats to area trek rep Jeff Haase for a close 2nd in the Masters race.

The 29er is definitely sufficient for a cross bike, at least for what I do... At 22ish lb, it's def a bit heavier than most cross bikes, but in the tradeoff you get much much better brakes, as well as the ability to leave some travel in the fork for rough courses. Not enough of a tradeoff to make me get a cross bike yet... Although, that Presidio looks pretty sweet... Hmmm...

Oh, and even Lance knows that 29ers are where it's at...

Sunday Rides

2008-11-03T12:34:00.003-05:00

With two beautiful Sundays in a row, long road rides have made a come back. Who would have thought that it would be 75 degrees in November?

After riding for 12 hours last Saturday, I was looking forward to a nice relaxing Sunday. I had an offer for a road ride, and figured it would be a great way to stretch the legs out and get a good recovery ride in. The duration of the ride was never specified, so I somehow assumed it would be around 1.5 hours, maybe 2. Twenty minutes in, we met up with the rest of the group, and it was decided we should ride for 3 hours. I wasn’t too thrilled with that prospect, since I was already suffering on little rollers and falling off the back. I was able to stick it out though, and it turned out to be a good ride. Nobody was in much of a hurry, so everyone could enjoy the ride and chat while I was in the back glued to the wheel in front of me and not talking to anyone. I also had some pretty sweet slow motion scenes giving it everything I had climbing and watching the single digit speeds mock me on my computer. Survival was the theme of the day. But in the end we had a nice 3.5 hours of sunny roads, so I couldn’t really complain.

Yesterday was another fantastic day, with highs on the day hitting 76 degrees. After a productive morning of extra DST sleep and getting things accomplished, E and I headed out to take advantage of the beautiful day. Even though we didn’t have a cue sheet and weren’t completely sure of the route, we decided to attempt a really nice loop towards Sevier County and then back through Walland and South Knoxville. This is the 4th of July route for the SCO club, and we had ridden it on the 4th the last 2 years, but that was it. Our memory was surprisingly good, and we only had one missed turn.

About 32 or so miles in, we were beginning to think about how that DST hour that was so nice in the morning was going to affect the time it would get dark. 40 miles in, we stopped at a gas station in Pigeon Forge (Or Sevierville? Neither? Who knows…) which we always stop at during the 4th of July ride. By this point we were guessing we had maybe 2 hours of light left. After a phone call to see if there was a quicker route back (there wasn’t), we headed onwards as planned. After seeing a sign saying “7.5 miles to the Homestead,” I did the math to find out we had 39-40 miles to cover in less than two hours. Hmmm… (As a side note, I have since been told to keep such revelations to myself if we are in that situation again.)

I guess this is a good time to mention that we were decked out in summer wear only, with no extra clothes or blinky lights of any kind. East Miller’s Cove was free_ing cold at 23-24 mph the whole way, but we were definitely at the point of trading warmth for time. We hit Old Walland Highway with right around an hour of daylight left. We were hoping to at least reach the city outskirts and lighted streets, but I had to lose the glasses soon after we hit Martin Mill, and we were in complete darkness by the time we came over the bigger climb on Martin Mill. Luckily a car caught us right before we went down, so I was less concerned about being run down and could concentrate on descending into the black. On the last section of Martin Mill, we thankfully got some help from a car who paced behind us with the high beams on. Thanks silver kinda smallish SUVish car with bike racks on top. You Rock. It was then smooth sailing after hitting the lighted part of the city.

Our adventure ended with 4.5 hours and 80 miles on the day. Good Times…

HOT Circles

2008-10-29T09:18:00.005-04:00

The Haw Ridge race turned out to once again be a fun day on the bike. Even though it rained all day friday, the course was only mildly wet and slick. I decided to race the singlespeed to start it off. To know why, you only need to look up above at the title of my blog. You know, riding in circles is just way too exciting, and I didn't want to be distracted by the clickies. Maybe.

I started off allright on the 1/4 mile of flat pavement, and was probably 10th or so heading into the woods. Had to make a few passes halfway through, but for the most part it was smooth sailing and traffic free. There wasn't a single puddle on the trail, and I finished the first lap with only a few splotches of mud. The singlespeed was great for a few laps, but the steep climbs up red hill and the hill of truth were killing my knees. The HOT is just the right grade and length where walking it would cost you minutes of time every lap, but it's steep enough that you are mashing horribly and wrecking your arms trying to get up it.

After 6 laps, I decided that singlespeeding was for amateurs, and hopped on the superfly. It was silky smooth, and it felt nice to be able to spin again on climbs and actually make it all the way over the HOT. I cut a lap close on forgoing the lights, and got to descend the last section in near darkness. After that it was lights, warmers, and vest time, as the temperature dropped swiftly.

I was pretty much locked into third place all day, which is pretty much what I was expecting based on my riding lately. After 13 laps, I did some math and was able to call it a day a lap up on 4th. After some free_ing cold times changing clothes afterwards, I was able to relax and hang out by the fire for a while. Good friends and good beer couldn't really equal anything other than good times...

Congrats to fellow 29er crew member Erik Nielson for winning the solo and Mike Biegalksi for a strong 2nd.

Since I didn't get to see Rachel fall in the water, I guess I'll have to settle for this. (For those that don't know, this trail is called Rachel's Landing... You can probably guess why.)

"Has anybody fallen in the... SPLASH"

Hill O Truth

2008-10-24T09:26:00.004-04:00

The 12 Hours of the Hill of Truth is finally upon us. This is always a great race to end the season with. It's always exciting to be able to do a 12 hour race and still sleep in your own bed the night before and after the race. Well... Without driving all night and getting home at 4 or 5 in the morning anyways.

Stay away from me Disco Ball of Broken Dreams

Hopefully this year's race will go a bit better than the last one. I got on a plane in Hawaii feeling fantastic the wednesday before the race. A few hours later saw me feeling sick in the stomach and shivering uncontrollably in an airport with a fleece jacket and 2 blankets on me. I felt a little better over the next few days, but not 100%. I had already pre-registered, so I did the race anyways. My first 2 laps were sort of mediocre, but ok if I had kept that pace all day. My third lap was awful, and I dropped alot of time. By the end of my 4th lap, I had dropped 15 or 20 minutes off my first lap and had stopped 3 or 4 times to share the contents of my stomach with the side of the trail. After that, I called it a day...

With 100% chance of rain today with one inch of rainfall expected, it's gonna get messy for sure. Looks like I'll be starting on the SS. Actually I'll probably just ride it all day. Gotta keep it interesting...

Can we top the horrendous DSG mud? Perhaps?

Finally Fall?

2008-10-20T09:59:00.004-04:00

Over the past few days it seems like fall has finally arrived. After sweating on my commute in 80 degree weather a few days ago, I'm now breaking out the winter clothing and learning how to shiver again. I guess right under 40 degrees isn't that bad, but I'll probably still complain and whine for a few weeks about it.

At least I have another month or two until the red shins return...

Although I've been carrying my camera with me everywhere, I haven't been finding many good pictures on my commute. So far, this is about the only good one I've been able to find.

Because I'm pretty sure it's not really love until you write your names on a rusted out industrial sized trash dumpster. I would have loved to have seen the moment this happened... Maybe they were huffing markers and there was something magical about how the moonlight glinted on the dumpster. Something profound about the shadows from a streetlight? Who knows... Godspeed Johanna and Wesley...Godspeed...

Black Bear Rampage

2008-09-30T08:53:00.005-04:00

The 2008 Black Bear Rampage down at the Ocoee whitewater center turned out to be another great time on and off the bike. Tanasi is one of my favorite trail systems in the southeast, so its always great to get down there and race.

I had decided to rock the singlespeed, and got a little excited at the start as I jumped away a little too hard on the road climb. But I settled back in, and thought I hit the singletrack in first. But I had apparently been watching the wrong guy, as I found out at the end of the race that one guy had slipped by on the doubletrack and I hadn't noticed. Where were you on that one eyes?

But the rest of the race went without incident. My form isn't quite what it was earlier in the spring, but I felt good and had a consistent race. The 32x20 was close for most sections, but a 19 would probably have been better. There are quite a few long flat/rolling sections that I was pretty much spun out on. I finished up the race in 19th overall, and 2nd in the SS.

I think this year's BBR was a definite improvement in most aspects. Adding the road climb was a great way to start, and basing the event at the WWC is much better than the overflow lot. And the inflatable kid's slide was more fun than it probably should have been. My one complaint would be having to wait 3-3.5 hours for food, and that there was nothing to drink at all besides monster energy drink... Well, that and the god-awful retina burningly ugly shirt. But overall, the BBR was definitely good times.

More Shenandoah

2008-09-05T08:58:00.002-04:00

I managed to snag a few clicks from the Shenandoah race last weekend. I ended up rocking the glasses in the helmet for probably 70% of the race, which is odd, as I'm normally the guy that wears them in the dark, in the rain, whatever... I never take those things off.

There were a couple of nice creek crossings...

This picture just looks funny as it was taken at just the right angle with the glasses in the helmet to make it look like I'm actually wearing them.

I'm way too excited about being done. Sorry for the overreaction, I'll try to calm it down for next time...

Nowhere Close

2008-09-02T14:13:00.003-04:00

The Shenandoah 100 ending up being one of the roughest days I've had on the bike all season. With a tough course with tons of climbing and rocky technical descents, it was not so much a place that tolerated mediocre legs.

The race started off decently, and I was making up quite a few places on the initial rolling climb. However, I started to fade to the back of the group I was with on the first major climb. I still felt decent, and didn't do too badly on the first rocky singletrack section. However, coming down a descent 15-20 miles in, I heard a loud pop and hiss as a sharp rock punctured the rear tire. I got the wheel off and found the hole, but it was too large for the sealant to get. As I was getting a tube in, 2 or 3 other people came down and punctured in the same place.

I got rolling again, and hit a long steep singletrack climb, where you could see 50 people ahead of you walking up the mountain. The walk seemed to take forever up to the top. Another fast descent full of rock gardens and off camber roots saw me down to the aid station at mile 45. I was a bit undernourished, as I had decided to roll with 3 bottles only for the first 45 miles, not expecting it to take me well over 4 hours to get there. As the race wore on, I was getting more and more frustrated as my legs would come and go and as the rocks continued to destroy my hands. I could make time on the climbs, and then immediately lose it all trying to come back down with my fingers feeling like they were breaking apart with every bump in the trail.

The last 30 or 35 miles turned into a painful slogging up and down the course to just get it done. I can't remember the last time I did a race where I was just completely over it mentally. After tons of mashing up climbs and bouncing down the rocky descents, I ended up finishing in 10:11, and couldn't have been happier to be done with it. Not really an ideal day, but you've got to take the bad with the good. At least the race had a great atmosphere and tons of food to smooth everything over. Maybe next year...

Dirt Sweet Dirt

2008-08-29T09:55:00.005-04:00

But its back to reality this weekend, as it's finally time for the Shenandoah 100. I'm super excited about this race, as everybody (and I mean EVERYBODY) has been talking it up nonstop as the best endurance race and party of the year.

I'm back on the Rig again, so that should be a rockin good time. If things can come together, I'm hoping for a top 5 finish after being within a few minutes of one at the Cohutta. I haven't looked at the weather yet, but I'm about 95% sure it will rain... It always does. Heading out early tomorrow, so I should probably be typing less and actually start packing...

Roadie Racin

2008-08-29T09:15:00.005-04:00

My day as a roadie ended up going pretty decently. Road races rarely excite me, but the River Gorge race in Chattanooga intrigued me as it ended with a 3 mile climb and summit finish. It turned out to be an awesome course, I would love to have that route as a training ride. Lots of rolling stuff, long steady climbs, short steep climbs, and a crazy fast 50 mph descent thrown in for good measure. The race went pretty much without incident, and I stayed in the top third away from the evil wind for the whole time.

When the climb started, I attacked and got a good gap on the field. No one followed at that point, but about a mile or mile and a half in one guy was pulling up towards me and caught me. We went back and forth for the rest of the climb, with me dropping him a bit and then him catching back up. He gained a good chunk of time on a 30+ mph descent before the last mile, as I was a bit sluggish getting over the big gears cresting the hill. I led the race until he caught me at the 100m mark and went around. The road sort of flattened out and he jumped with 50m or so to go and I just didn't have the legs to go, so I was left with a second place in the cat 5. 3rd was nowhere to be seen. I was sort of disapointed to lose it in the last 100m after leading the entire climb, but thats how it goes somedays. I could throw out a couple of excuses, but I think I'll just go with "I didn't make it to the top of the mountain fast enough" instead.

>Observation 1: Whats with the ginormous roadie numbers? The two numbers we had to wear took up about 60% of the real estate on my back... I could barely get into my pockets with the clutter. And apparantly that wasn't enough, so we had to have bike numbers on the seatpost as well...seriously? Do you want to go ahead and magic marker it on my calf and arms too?

>Observation 2: People do weird stuff. The race started with about 9 miles of flat rolling terrain, and one guy attacked and rode it all by himself... at about 300 yds in front of the group. There really wasn't any teamwork either. Another guy pulled by himself at 30-35 mph for almost 4 miles. I mean, thats awesome and all, but why do that to yourself? And we can't forget about the guy that got really pissed after getting DQed for crossing the yellow line... after getting 3 warnings. Not sure what he was going for there.

Waiting for my Rocket

2008-08-20T12:55:00.002-04:00

January is a long way away, but I'm already super excited about the newest addition to the stable.

Oooh, Horizontal Dropout Goodness

The rig has been such a great bike, I can only image how much better it will be in shiny carbon flavor and losing 2 pounds. I'm 95% sure it means that I can just drink more beer and still be the same speed, right? And having the classy 29er Crew paintjob will pretty much max out my style points as well. Only 5 months to go...

Huh?

2008-08-18T09:01:00.003-04:00

I could have sworn that Jeremy was out on vacation, but I keep seeing his car around town.

I think it's great that Jeremy has no problem showing his sensitive side. He says that the "poetry of the paint" is a "window into his soul." Whatever that means...

And if you think it looks good now, just wait til he gets around to getting the rainbow racing stripes done.

Fontana Night Train

2008-08-12T13:17:00.004-04:00

The 2008 Night Train 12 Hour ended up being another good time. After last year’s course of 1200 ft of climbing in 5.5 miles, I was sure they couldn’t add any more climbing. Instead, I was greeted at registration with a new course profile showing 2400 ft of climbing in 9.3 miles. I had a good feeling about the race, as I couldn’t have asked for a course better suited to me. It kind of helps when you have to hold your bike and all your riding gear to break 145 lbs.

This year’s race started once again with a short lemans run. The run was sort of different, as we had to run/jump over all the bikes that were patiently waiting to be picked up. I had a sad moment on the run, as my bling finally bit the dust and broke. Perhaps I’ll write a strongly worded letter to express my disappointment that my 99 cents only bought me a mere 500 miles of offroad bling. So I was left with only the chain for the day. Jeremy Hargroves ended up being the first guy back to the bikes, while I was close enough to the front in 4th or 5th. The course went down a paved road for 100 yards or so before going straight up the steepest climb on the course. I ran the first steep section of the climb, and then middle-ringed it the rest of the way up. It only took middle-ringing it once to keep me in the granny gear every other time up it.

I managed to pass a team guy or two on the climb and was rewarded with some great rolling and twisty NC singletrack. The middle part of the course flowed really well and has some nice little rollers you can carry your momentum over. I totally forgot about a rock garden on a downhill section and took a horrible line through it going way too fast. I don’t know how I managed to stay upright, but I was super thankful my front teeth didn’t end up embedded in a big rock. After some more rolling, the climbing began again, this time with a long gradual climb (maybe 1.5 mile or so?) of doubletrack and fireroad sections. I was glad to see that most all of the climbing added was pretty much smooth and wide open. After reaching the top of the fireroad and getting up a short singletrack climb with switchbacks, it was time to not pedal for a bit and roll back down the mountain.

The new singletrack descent at the top was nice, and connected back to the trail from last year with the Lewellyn descent. This descent is really fast and super rocky, so it definitely bounces you around and does a nice job of making your fingers feel broken with the quickness. After reaching the bottom, all that’s left in the course is a mile or so of rolling singletrack, with 3 or 4 short steep climbs you can just power over. I rolled in for the first lap 2 minutes off of Jeremy. I was with him at the top of the climb, but he crushed me on the descent. I suspected he couldn’t hold that pace for long, as I was going a lot harder than I wanted to at the start.

I didn’t see him at all the next lap, but caught him at the top of the climb during the third lap. We rode together for a bit, and I dropped him a bit on a rolling climb, but he caught me again at the bottom of the Lewellyn descent. I was able to drop him soon after though, and never really saw him again. After this I was putting 4 or 5 minutes a lap on him, and we had both left everybody else way behind. Of course, I didn’t realize how much time I was gaining until 5 or 6 hours later, so I was still working harder than I probably had too. The climbs got more and more fun as the day went on, and the top 1/3 of my cassette was definitely coming in handy. Lewellyn continued to destroy my hands, and I had to double up the fingers on the brakes to make it down after the fourth lap.

The rest of the race went smoothly though, and the pit stops were hovering around 5-10 seconds. Dave and Mike from Infinit nutrition were on hand for the day and did a great job of keeping me fueled up. They were mixing up infinit all day for all the other racers to try as well. Infinit definitely kept me rolling well on the day, as my nutrition for the entire race was just 11 bottles of infinit and ½ a pack of clif bloks. So much simpler than juggling gels and e-caps and the like…

I almost had a nice boost of confidence when I was on my 10th lap and found myself in the bottom 1/3 of my cassette. I was thinking, man, my legs must feel great, I haven't been this far down my cassette in hours. And then I realized I was in the granny gear...

After getting some splits, I realized I only had to do 11 laps, so I was happy to grab the light and get the lone night lap over with. I rolled into the finish with 102 miles in 11:18, with over 26,000 ft of climbing. Definitely good to win a race, and the Superfly was smooth despite all the rocks. I felt surprisingly great the next day, with no soreness at all. If you're looking for a low-key race with a party atmosphere afterwards, the night train definitely fits the bill. Next up for me is an attempt at playing a roadie racer for a day, but then I’m back on the Rig for the Shenandoah 100.

Night Train Quick Stats

2008-08-11T09:41:00.002-04:00

Miles: 102
Ride Time: 11:15ish
Climbing: 26,000+ ft

Definitely a tough course and a long day, but I had good legs and ended up winning by about an hour. Full report coming tomorrow.

All Aboard...

2008-08-08T08:33:00.005-04:00

Racing returns this weekend with the Night Train 12 Hour race in Fontana NC, presented by none other than Infinit Nutrition. I'm not expecting an easy day, as last year's course had 1200 ft of climbing every 5.5 miles.

I did this race last year, and ended up in third, so we'll try to improve on that. This guy with the tree trunk legs actually won it. I still haven't figured out how that happened with all the climbing, but who knows... The funniest part of last year's race was definitely the start. Jeremy Hargroves got a little bit of a false start on the lemans run, and had a 10 or 15 ft gap when they actually started the race. We were supposed to run around the yellow tent, but no one could see the smaller blue tent behind. Jeremy turned the corner and got smacked down by karma for the head start and went down tangled in a tent line. I was quite entertained.

I've got the classic "run with one hand on the pockets" going on to keep my stuff in them.

The rest of the race went pretty smoothly. I started out in a hole, but ended the last lap only 4 minutes off the leader. I made the cutoff, but didn't go out for an additional one, as I figured bringing back 4 minutes in 5 miles probably wouldn't happen. But I'm excited about this year as the big wheels are going to be a huge advantage in the rocky mess that is Fontana. And after a month of not racing, I definitely feel rested and ready to roll. Should be good times...

System Reboot

2008-07-30T12:16:00.003-04:00

Well, so much for nationals...

After a nice allergic reaction (cause? no clue...) over the weekend that seems to be lingering, I've decided not to risk a 12 hour drive to Wisconsin on the hope that I'll feel good by Saturday. It's possible I might be good to go, but my memories of racing the Haw Ridge 12 hour last year slightly sick don't make me eager to try it again. I ended up with my only DNF of the year after dropping 20 minutes on my 4th lap and puking 3 times. I was looking forward to checking out Madison, as everyone I talk to tells me it is quite an awesome place. But I can't really justify the expense and time not knowing if I can even finish the thing, much less be competitive...

On the bright side, I'll actually get to race the Fontana Night Train 12 Hour next weekend. [Click the link to check out their excellent photo selection skills] With over 1000 ft of climbing every 5.5 miles, it's a course that suits me well. Definitely bringing the gears for that one though... And maybe I'll even do the Fools Gold 100 now. Perhaps...

Consistency is Key

2008-07-18T09:09:00.003-04:00

A big part of 12 and 24 hour racing is being consistent. Setting a steady pace that you can handle is always a good idea to ensure that you stay strong and that you're not sitting on the side of the trail swatting moths away from your light at 3 in the morning. Knowing what to eat and drink, how much, and when to eat it keeps you fueled for the long haul. And rolling through the pits with the quickness every lap keep things moving as they should. Throw all this together and you get the added bonus of looking the same whether you've ridden for 2 hours or 20 hours.

Consistency is kind of one of those things that if you do it right, no one really knows you've done anything at all.

However, I often feel the need to flaunt my consistency. That's why I spend a lot of time practicing my positioning for when I go by the cameras. Head down 12 degrees, hands perched on the ergons, eyes focused on the terrain, bling .... umm, well, blinging. Now that's the kind of consistency you can't miss.

Soho Much Better

2008-07-10T10:50:00.003-04:00

I decided to park the car back in January and have been commuting it ever since. The Trek Soho S has been my A to B rocket, and I couldn't be happier with it. The singlespeed is simplespeed, and the matte black is super sweet. Being able to spin on the bike is so much quicker and less frustrating than fighting traffic and burning gas. The greenway system in Knoxville keeps growing, which makes commuting even more convenient. I think the current tally is around 40 miles of greenways in the city, with plans for more. Although, you do have to watch out for the occasional but elusive Knoxville lemurs.

You don't want to see this, so whether you're heading to work, running errands, or just catching a flick, hop on the bike and give it a go. It's amazing how much better you feel spinning on the bike while everyone else is trapped in their cars. And who can complain about saving money and reducing greenhouse gasses? Join the pedal power revolution today.

On a side note, a great part of my commute to the U of T is always the 2 or 3 minutes I spend basking in the glory of the MovinCool. This little guy keeps our servers cool by shooting freezing cold air out at maximum velocity. According to the sticker, it cools at a rate of 24,000 btu/hour. I don't really know what the hell a british thermal unit converts to, but it sounds impressive… But anyways, this thing takes you from sweating to shivering in a minute flat… Ooooooh, yeah.

4th O July

2008-07-06T21:47:00.002-04:00

To celebrate the 4th, the local club team always has a big group ride and cookout, which always ends up being a nice tough ride and a great time. This year was no exception. There was a good crowd of 40 or so people rolling out at 9:00 am for either 35, 65, or 100 mile options. I decided to do the 65 to maximize my relaxation time, although I'm sure memories of the 100 from last year helped to make the decision for me. The 100 mile option adds a loop though the homestead development, which has some of the biggest and meanest climbs in east TN. I vividly remember weaving diagonally up one hill at 4 miles an hour in my 39x27 while the sun beat down on me and the top of the hill mocked me in the distance. Good times...

The ride went well, although the start was sort of stressful when my saddle slipped a mile in and rotated forward, and I had to stop to fix it and chase back to the group. As it always hits some nice roads in areas that I don't normally ride, the route is usually pretty fun every year. Lots of little rollers, a few bigger climbs, and some sweet views kept it interesting. The pace was good, and having Geri and Spencer decide to do the 65 made for some nice intervals trying to chase them down when they decided they wanted to ride.

After the ride, the club had a bbq/pool party. Hanging out and relaxing at the pool was definitely a great way to end the day. My lack of time in the sun definitely showed though, as I was left with the "neopolitan" tan of strawberry red shoulders, vanilla sleeves, and a chocolate biker's tan on the rest of my arms. It looks fantastic, let me tell yah... For Saturday, I had planned on doing the Rocky Top 100k, which combined my interests of riding bikes, eating pizza, and drinking beer quite nicely. However, I woke up at 7:00 am to a torrential downpour, and decided that riding in the pouring rain would probably be for amateurs. It eventually dried out though in the afternoon, so I still ended up getting a good ride in, and even got homemade pizza and beer later on. So overall a pretty sweet and relaxing weekend.

Black by Popular Demand

2008-06-30T06:32:00.001-04:00

A lot of people seem to think it’s cool to tell me I don’t match. I mean, it's kinda close, right?

So for everyone distressed by my lack of color coordination, check it…

No more will you have to tell me that I can probably find some black shorts on chainlove.com or that the “light turquoise on the shorts doesn’t go with the cornflower blue on the jersey.” I mean, seriously, turquoise? Ladies, it’s clearly cerulean with a hint of malibu. Com’n…

But now that you can’t comment on that, you’ve got to fill that dead space in the conversation with something… I suggest: “Oh my god, Dave, ________”

You’re so fast.
Where did my inhibitions go?
Can I make you a sandwich?
Those big wheels are so manly.
Your arms are so huge.
Can I buy you a beer?

As always, ladies choice…

Dubya C

2008-06-27T09:54:00.004-04:00

This past weekend while I was spinning for cowbells, the mountain bike world championships were held in Val di Sole, Italy. 4 time consecutive world champion Julien Absalon was going for 5, but didn’t make it happen. But his misfortune reminded me to dig some old photos out of the archives.

A little backstory: Back in the summer of 2005, I was touring around Europe a bit, and happened to be wandering around in Paris, and came across a bunch of expensive bikes lying around everywhere, as well as small crowds of spectators. Since I speak pretty much no French, it was difficult trying to figure out what was going on. After running into some Australian guys, I learned that it was part of a stage race. The course for the day was an individual time trial through the streets of Paris. Most of it was on cobbled streets with descents down stairs or ramps, and then climbing back up the short steep ramps between the stairs. It was pretty cool to watch the guys flying down stairs and whatsuch. The race ended at Sacre Coeur, the highest point in Paris.

This was back in the day when I had just purchased my first mountain bike a few months earlier (for riding on the pavement, of course.) I knew nothing about racing, barely knew what singletrack meant, and still thought xtr was impressive since a crank cost almost as much as my bike. But I had somehow managed to read or hear what the rainbow stripes meant. And so when I saw Absalon finishing the race all decked out with his rainbow stripes and shiny gold bike from winning the Olympics, I headed over to get a picture.

He was just hanging out at the finish, so I went up and motioned with the camera to get a picture. I said something to him in English and he just looked at me like I was a complete moron. Whatever, smile for the picture.

Ring It

2008-06-23T09:23:00.003-04:00

After skipping it last year due to racing too much, I finally got my cowbell fix this past weekend. In the past, the race has been held at the US whitewater center, but for whatever reason this year's race was held at Fisher Farms in Davidson, NC. The course only had 4 miles of singletrack, but included 3 miles of grass/field sections to increase the mileage. The singletrack was mostly tight, twisty and rooty, with quite a few techie sections of skinnies, rock gardens, bridges, log piles and the like. Overall, it was super flat, with only one short steep climb and 2 or 3 longer uphills. On a side note, this race is the only one in the southeast that has a "King of the Mountains" competition on the first lap. I just find it funny that the flattest course I've raced on crowns a king of the rollers.

Bling Bling... Also, something about this picture reminds me why I'll never be a good roadie.

The race was kind of tight at the start, as it was a mass start on the bikes with a downhill gravel road. It didn't exactly break things up. I had gotten a good spot near the front so traffic wasn't bad. Apparently, Dejay and Fuzzy were not at the race, and were just messing with Rich to psych him out. I couldn't complain. As I was discussing gearing at the start, Rich tells me he is running a 32x20 because the 32x18 was too big after preriding for a couple hours. Great, I was running the 32x18 and didn't even bother bringing additional cogs. As I didn't preride the course, the gear choice decision was running through my head for most of the first lap. My legs felt better than they have in the past weeks, but they still didn't have the top end snap in them. Surprisingly, the heat wasn't bad at all, with highs in the mid 80s or so. It even rained for a few minutes... although it was weird as the sun was still fully out as it rained.

The race itself was pretty uneventful. Just the usual ride in circles, drink some infinit, and stop when people wave their arms at you at the end and tell you you're done. I was in 4th for the first 5 or 6 hours, and then got bumped to 2nd when Rich and the roadie guy with the tree trunk legs slowed and dropped out. I saw Rich riding slowly through one of the field sections and finally passed him as he stopped to chat with the yazoo guys. That was the last shakeup in the placings for me, as I never really saw the soulcraft guy that won. Damn flatlanders. I needed another 500 ft or so of climbing per lap to have a chance. The 32x18 ended up being perfect, as I was never in danger of having to walk any climbs and wasn't too spun out on the rest of the course. Running the 20 would have definitely been a mistake. My legs felt best when climbing, and I was able to drop most of the pro guys with their fancy shifters going uphill. They could then of course resume crushing me on the flats and roots. With lightning and thunderstorms approaching, the race was ended half an hour early. I couldn't complain as I was locked into second and actually got to pack my stuff up in the daylight.

Moments after this shot was taken, I flexed my guns too and put him to shame but the camera missed it.

So overall, not a bad day on the bike to put down 112 miles in 10.5 hours and win not only money, but beer as well (and of course a cowbell also)... It's like they knew I was just going to spend the money on beer anyways. The geared guys were super fast on the day, and Tostado took the win with Nat Ross and Chris J rounding it out.

The golden ale is tasty, although, I'm not 100% sure on the kayaking turtle. I mean, let's be realistic here. If it was a turtle kickboxing or playing croquet or something, I could understand, but kayaking? Com'n...

Back to One

2008-06-20T09:05:00.003-04:00

With the Cowbell Challenge coming up tomorrow, I'm finally going to be back on the singlespeed for the first long race in almost two months. At least my thumbs can relax for 12 hours. The race is shaping up to be as much of a throwdown as the DSG, as Dejay, Fuzzy, and Dicky are all going to be representing in the singlespeed class.

Rumor has it the course can be run completely in the big ring, so we'll see if the pool cues of power are up for it... The legs have felt better the past few days, but who knows what will happen tomorrow.

Oh, and Rich, Fjear only works on people fatter than you... and you forgot my imposing bling to make up for my lack of kabush chops. Com'n!

Random Video of the Day:

Classic...

Spin to (Not) Win

2008-06-17T22:54:00.000-04:00

I would like to be able to say racing made a comeback this past weekend, but I can’t really back that one up. At least I got a nice training ride out of it…

Check out that number plate...

Since racing only one race a day is clearly for amateurs, I went for the double XC of the singlespeed and expert races at the local Haw Ridge XC race. However, my legs quickly let me know that they were not at all interested in racing at XC speed. So my singlespeed race instead turned into an endurance training ride. After finishing 2 laps of the 8 mile course, I had about 15 minutes or so to switch bikes and bottles for the expert race.

Well, I would have used that time to switch bikes if I had gotten around to bleeding my front brake on the superfly. So instead I rolled out for the expert race as the only singlespeeder. The ½ mile flat road start against the gearies quickly saw me spinning madly as everyone dropped me. I did manage to make it to the singletrack before 1 of the women who started about 15 or 30 seconds behind, but that was it. The course was pretty tough for Haw, as it went straight up one of the rockiest, rootiest, and loosest climbs in the entire park. That one definitely ended up being a walker all five laps.

After the bad legs at the start, I began to feel better with every lap. My laps were pretty consistent, with laps 2-5 all being within about a minute of each other. On the third expert lap, I finally started catching some other racers and managed to pass 3 people. I knocked out the 40 miles in right at 4 hours, so it wasn’t terrible for an endurance pace on the ss. I was pretty happy with that considering how tough the course was. As for results, I ended up with a pair of 3rd places, which sounds good until I point out I only had 5 other competitors between the two races.

Not really sure what happened to my legs. They had finally been feeling good for the past week, but apparently not good enough... Thats how it goes though somedays, everythings shiny, and then Bam!

And just like that, you're left with only the disco ball of broken dreams... Nothing else to do but pick up the pieces and roll with it.

Googled

2008-06-12T06:49:00.003-04:00

Random, but months ago I was out driving and saw the google street view car. I noticed yesterday that google finally updated the street view cities, and wasted the 20 minutes necessary to find myself. Dave 1, Productivity, 0. [I actually saw the street view car twice, but couldn't find myself in the other location]

View Larger Map

Thats right ladies, it's got power windows

Summer Returns

2008-06-11T09:25:00.003-04:00

Around Knoxville the temps have been ramping up quite a bit the past few days. I guess that means my tan lines are only going to get worse...

At least my legs finally feel like they're making a turnaround. With the local Haw Ridge XC race going on this weekend, I'll have a good chance to see if I'm back on form for the Cowbell coming up on the 21st. I'm interested to see what the course turns out to be, as the venue has changed since I last raced the cowbell. Rumor has it that laps are in the 6 mile range, so it sounds like it might be a bit of a hamster wheel.

Disc Burner

2008-06-08T23:42:00.007-04:00

I guess next year I'll have to get a more dark beer friendly color for the glasses...

Well my first attempt at promoting a race is finally (almost) over. We had 54 solo riders and 10 teams come out. The heat was pretty oppressive, with afternoon temperatures staying in the mid to upper 90s. Without a single cloud in the sky, it definitely wore on the riders as the day went on. The race as a whole went well, and there were only a few minor snags. Some removed tape sent a few people an additional mile or so off course, and we had some minor timing issues that had to be resolved early in the race. We had a few racers with minor injuries, but everyone stayed hydrated enough that we didn't have heat exhaustion problems. The course itself was in perfect condition all day, and the racers put down over 3000 combined miles.

Promoting the race was a lot of work, but I definitely learned a good deal to improve on the race for next year. It was a strange feeling being on the otherside of a race like this. I almost feel like it's more work to get stuff ready to go sit in the sun for 12 hours than it is to race for 12 hours. I suppose thats what happens when you get used to surviving for 12 hours with only a tub of powder and some jugs of water.

A big thanks to all the racers, volunteers, and family that came out to the race. I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to send me any comments, complaints, or suggestions for next year.

Toast

2008-06-06T09:22:00.002-04:00

I was hoping to be back to good by this point, but my legs are still flat and I seem to feel tired all the time. The Burn has apparently taken its toll on my body. I suppose racing 325 miles off road in an 8 day period may have something to do with it. I'll start feeling better after an hour or so on the bike, but then my legs will just decide they don't want to put out any kind of power. Luckily I've only got one bigger race between now and nationals, so I should have almost two months to figure it out and get back to good. I'm kind of relieved to not be racing the Disc Burner, as I don't imagine it would go down well. I suppose I would be able to finish it, but competing when your only strength is a willingness to run yourself into the ground is probably frowned upon... unless you're Team Dicky, who would probably tell me to subtract three teeth from my rear cog and run a fixed gear for recovery...

One Week Gone

2008-06-02T15:10:00.002-04:00

The recovery after a 24 hour race is never really good times. Usually it takes days and days before I can even think of getting back on the bike, but I was surprisingly not that sore at all. No bumps or bruises either, so that was nice as well. I took Monday off, and was back to commuting for the rest of the week and doing some recovery spins here and there. My legs were feeling good enough at the end of the week that I decided to put in a 3 hour ride on the rig on Saturday morning. This proved to be a pretty poor decision, as the leg strength has definitely not returned. Singlespeeding is not very friendly for recovery riding, and I felt like I would have needed a ginormous cog on the back to make it work. So I was instead left with lots of mashing and ridiculously slow climbing.

The Disc Burner is swiftly approaching, and I’ve got the fun week of making sure everything is going smoothly for that. I’m excited that the weather looks to be perfect. No rain for about a 6 or 7 day period with Saturday right in the middle of it. Accuweather even described the predicted weather for the day as “delightful.” So it will probably be a sort of hectic week again, but hopefully the day itself will go smoothly.

Swing Swing

2008-05-28T15:17:00.003-04:00

Since it would be a shame to break tradition, I was awoken in my tent on Friday night by the sound of rain. Luckily the rain was light, and the trails were bone dry for the entire race. There wasn’t a single puddle of water or drop of mud at all. I had plenty of time to kill before the noon start, so I wandered around and chatted for a bit. I ended up pitting in the same place as last year. I was pitting with Florida's Chris Johns and Chris Janiszewski, and we were right next to Mark Hendershot and the pair of Daves from up north. It was kind of funny that we were all back and in the exact same spot as last year.

The race started with the hated “designated runner” lemans start. This meant that the team riders could have a team member running the ¼ mile loop in tennis shoes and then tag their team rider to start. For solos this is kind of lame, as you don’t want to sprint the run when you have 24 hours to ride, but you also don’t want to start behind 200 slower riders. The run wasn’t too bad in the end, and I was in the top 20 or so getting to the superfly. Coming up the first climb required some traffic control, and I rubbed a couple of wheels in the slowdown. The pace for the first lap was pretty mellow, and I rode the lap with Mark and Chris.

The second lap started well, but I was soon worried as my legs were feeling off already. My legs felt like I had already been riding for 6 or 8 hours, and I hadn’t even made it 10 miles. My back was aching a bit as well, and I began to have a bad feeling about the race. It was bad enough I even worried a bit about even being able to stay on the bike until it got dark. I fell back off the pace of Mark and the Chrises, and was passed by another solo rider. After another couple of laps, my legs warmed up and felt a bit better. My pits were going well, and with the handoffs I barely had to slow down at all to grab a new bottle and go.

The Burn course is quite nice, as you’ve got tons of berms, not too much climbing, and some pretty sweet descents. The last descent is especially cool, as it’s like a roller coaster with huge banked turns. I had forgotten about all the roots and rocks, as the course was definitely thrashing my hands out more than I would like. It flows pretty well, and is broken up nicely with rolling climbs and descents. Passing was tight on the first lap, but after that there were no problems. I managed to run over a black snake on the 5th lap or so. I kind of thought it was a moving root at the time and didn’t realize it was a snake until I ran over it. Temperatures were quite warm during the race, but it didn’t really bother me that much.

My legs were good until around 7 or 8 hours in, and then they began to feel toasted again. I was kind of bummed out, but knowing that a lot can happen at night, I figured I might still have a shot at a decent finish if I could just stay on the bike and ride all night. My hands were pretty trashed at this point as well. On every bumpy descent they were getting quite a shaking, and my fingers were once again killing me. I need to get this figured out, because I get the same pain earlier and earlier in every race I do… Damn you proximal phalanges…

I wasn’t so good at math on the day either. Grabbing my Moab light, with its supposed burn time of 8 hours on high, I headed off on my first night lap. I rode the first half of the lap with the light on medium, but didn’t quite think it was enough, so I switched back to high. Arm and knee warmers were quickly needed as the temperature dropped, and I began to think I didn’t bring enough warm clothing with me. Going with the theme of the day, my night laps were quite inconsistent, with my legs swinging from good to bad and back again every few hours. With all thoughts of a podium spot fading away, I was in “stay on the bike make it through the night” mode. At this point, I hadn’t had to use my front derailleur yet, so I decided that another goal would be to finish up the race without using anything besides the middle ring.

Dropping temperatures meant I couldn’t get down the full bottle of infinit every lap, and I was down to drinking a little under half a bottle a loop. To get the rest of my calories, I stopped in the pits for about 2 minutes every lap to eat a pair of clif bloks, drink some burn, and complain about being cold. I had an interesting experience a little before 4 am, when my battery ran out. Luckily I was on the last climb of the course, and the moab has backup LEDs. Even with next to no light I was able to pass a few people on the climb, and began the final descent back to the transition. I was quickly caught by another rider who was kind enough to slow down a bit and light the way. I quickly swapped the lights and headed back out. My hands sort of leveled off during the night and the pain sort of dulled as the hours went on, so that was a nice bonus.

At this point, the temperature really started getting to me. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but it was probably around mid to low forties. Every lap also had a big open section for ½ mile or so that received a nice cold breeze from the lake to chill me out even more. I was in summer wear with arm and knee warmers, and my teeth were literally chattering every time I went through that section and on some of the descents. My lap times had a huge drop as I couldn’t get or stay warm at all. Finally the sun came back out around 6 am and I was able to ditch my light and hope for it to warm up. However, by 8 am, it felt like the temperature hadn’t gone up at all. I even stopped for 5 minutes in transition to sit in the sun like a lizard to try and get warm. After that, I felt ok until I took about 6 pedal strokes and was chilled immediately.

Luckily it warmed up a little after 9 and I was able to ditch the arm warmers. I finished my 25th lap around 10 am, and checked the results to see if I had to do another lap. Once again, my math skills failed me, as I was convinced I couldn’t move anywhere in the standings if I quit then. Apparently this was wrong, as Virginia Trek rider Shawn Tevandale was able to ride for another 2 hours or so and finish another lap and bump me back to 5th place. Oh well, 5th and 4th are the same as 40th at the burn, so it wasn’t too big of a deal.

So despite a sub-par performance, I can’t help but come away from the race relatively satisfied. I made it through the night, finished in the top 5, and rode almost 190 miles. My nutrition went well, and I wasn’t really hungry or too tired during the race. No stomach problems, no cramps, no mechanicals. With the exception of my legs, everything went really well for the race. Congrats to Chris Johns pulling off the win in his first 24 hour race, definitely impressive. Mark put in a solid consistent ride but finished up about a half hour back of Chris. Javaun Moradi rounded off the podium. I knew at the start that Javaun would be a guy to watch, as I raced against him at Conyers a few years back and he rode really strong there. I was ahead of him for about 8 hours or so until my legs started to hate me again. Chris Janiszewski was riding strong but had some stomach problems 12 or 13 hours in. Many thanks to the Chris' Dads, they definitely did a great job of making sure I got out of the pits quickly and had what I needed. The drive home was awful though. Even with all the burn I still had to stop 3 times on the 3 hour drive to stretch or try and catch a few minutes of sleep. Since I won’t be racing the disc burner, it seems like I’ve got almost an entire month until I race again… Looks like actual training might make a comeback.

Burned

2008-05-27T08:18:00.004-04:00

What a long weekend...

The Burn 24 Hour race was a great time, even though it didn't really go as I hoped. The day was definitely full of extremes for me, with my legs, lungs, and motivation swinging from highs to lows and back again all day. But I kept the pedals turning and didn't stop, and ended up finishing the day in 5th. I was actually in 4th but apparently can't do math after 22 hours on the bike. Endurance driving after the race was a questionable decision, but 32 oz of burn kept my eyes open enough to make it home. Onward to finding some time to chill and relax for a few days...

Apparently I subconciously choose my beer to match my bikes... who knew?

3 Equals 2

2008-05-19T08:05:00.010-04:00

With an 11:00 am start time and only a 2 hour drive, I was able to get a good nights rest and didn’t have to get up too early to make the race. I arrived at Tsali around 9:30, and dropped all my stuff off at the transition. This year the transition area was in the parking lot, which was a huge improvement over its former location. In previous years, getting things to the pit area required carrying everything a ¼ mile up a fireroad, which was not so much fun. As I was preparing my stuff, I noticed something quite odd. There was this strange blue stuff all over the sky. I didn’t know what to think, I’m only used to seeing grey and black. I brought the Rig and the Superfly, and wasted probably 10 minutes looking back and forth at them trying to decide which one to ride first. I’m not sure what I was thinking at the time, but I finally settled on rolling one lap on the singlespeed to see how muddy it was.

The race started with a lemans run up the ¼ mile fireroad. I managed to be the 6th or 7th guy to the top in spite of my retarded looking running style wobbling back and forth with both hands on my jersey pockets to keep them full and my bling swinging wildly. The 32x20 was decent for most of the fireroad climb, but every time it flattened out or turned down I was losing tons of time. I was slightly spun out on the middle sections of the course, but it wasn’t too bad. The climbs were really fast by necessity, and I was beginning to think that maybe the ss was not so much a good idea. Since Tsali doesn’t drain, the course was still super muddy. Lots of nice mudholes all over the course made sure that cold brown water was flung on you 5 or 6 times a lap. The final flat section made up my mind on the bike selection, as I was once again spun out. Tsali is just an odd combination of long moderately steep climbs and fast flat/slightly downhill sections, and I was rarely comfortable with my gearing. There really aren’t many chances to make use of your momentum either. Although, it would probably be perfect with a front derailleur and some chainrings to 3x1 it.

I kept seeing Chris throughout the first lap until we hit that flat section at the end. At this point I felt like I was going backwards, and I was passed by another solo rider. Hopping off the rig, I grabbed a bottle and was on my way with the superfly. I quickly passed the solo guy who had gone by me halfway up the fireroad climb. The superfly felt so much better for this course, and I didn’t have to thrash out my legs trying to turn it over all the climbs. This also gave me a chance to really compare the two bikes riding them one after another at race pace. The superfly is definitely a little snappier coming out of the corners and a bit softer of a ride on the bumps. 6 laps in, time was flying by, pits were quick, and the legs were good.

However, it wasn’t to be. Not sure if it was going harder than I should have on the SS the first lap or my nonexistent training week with finals after DSG, but after my 7th lap I was definitely not feeling it anymore. But with 5 or 6 hours of riding left, the only option was to just roll with it and hope no one got close enough to make me work. The next few laps felt like they took forever, but every lap completed was 11 miles closer to being done. I was down to drinking only half a bottle a lap at this point, which is generally frowned upon when 100% of your race calories come from the bottle. After 2 and a half night laps, I finished up the race in 2nd place with 130-something miles. The night laps were quite cold, and I was shivering profusely even after I stopped to get my arm warmers. It looks like the third time was the charm after all for the 12 Hours of Tsali.

Knee warmers and socks are 70% of a pair of pants, right?

Congrats to Chris on his win, he definitely had the better legs on the day. I suppose if things had gone a little better for me we might have actually had a race, but that’s how it goes sometimes. A big thanks to Cory Rimmer for helping me out in the pits filling bottles and lubing drivetrains. He thought he could just say hi during the race and walk away, but I put him to work instead. Surprisingly, the drive back wasn't too bad, and I managed to make it back to Knoxville by a little after 3:00. I’m looking forward to this week for a nice easy recovery week of spinning to try and get ready for the Burn 24 hour race on the 24th.

Geared Up

2008-05-16T10:00:00.003-04:00

I've made the decision to bring out the gears for the first time this season for the Tsali 12 Hour. This is actually going to be the first race ever on the Superfly, so thats kind of exciting, I suppose. Clicky Clicky. I imagine thats how it goes anyways. We'll see if I get halfway through the race and realize I've only used 2 or 3 gears.

What's this? A race without rain? That just doesn't seem right. I guess I'll have to get by on staying dry and riding high on the superfly...

Ooh, So much rhyming potential with 'fly'... But I won't be "that guy."

Upcoming

2008-05-14T11:11:00.004-04:00

It is time once again for the 12 Hours of Tsali. I've done this race twice already, with mediocre results each time.

Two years back, it was the second 12 hour I ever attempted. Of course it rained as the race started, and I still had no idea what the hell I was doing in the longer races. Tsali is a sloppy mess when it is wet, so I won't say it was enjoyable. The rain stopped an hour or two in, and the rest of the afternoon was cloudy skies with intermittent thunder. It was kind of odd though, as halfway through the race they made everyone stop due to a severe weather warning, but it didn't even sprinkle. So after another lemans start, we were back at it again. Once it got dark, the rain started pouring again, and the trail was lit up every few minutes by a flash of lightning. Despite having time to do another lap, I called it a day and finished around 8th place.

[Writing about the mud of two years ago reminded me of one of my favorite Tsali moments, which occured during the horrendous conditions of the 2007 SERC race. I'm sure anyone who was there remembers how bad the trails were and how destroyed their bikes were afterwards. The bike shops should have to give kickbacks to goneriding for all the brake pads they sold. But anyways, I had caught up to one of the expert women just in time to watch her slide out in a corner and land in a 6 inch deep puddle of muddy water. As she picked up her bike, there was a sucking sound and then a plop. Looking at the bike, the grip on the left side of the bar was gone. We sort of looked at the bar, then the puddle, then gave each other the universal WTF look. One of the funniest random race moments I've experienced... She declined to attempt to fish the grip out of the muck.]

Last year's race was only slightly better. Due to some problems with trying to get our bikes onto the rack and having to call random people at 6am to try and borrow a hitch rack, we made it to the venue only 25 minutes before the start. Trying to get dressed, registered, and get my stuff together at bunny speed was not really how I wanted to start the day. At least it didn't rain. As there were about 15 knoxville people doing the race and offering support, I figured I wouldn't have any problems with getting my bottles filled and minimal support duties taken care of. So with the same lemans start up the gravel road, I hopped on and plunged into the dusty cloud that filled the entire course for the first lap. It took about 3 laps for my eyes to finally flush out the dust and feel normal again, it was quite ridiculous. As I was coming through transition, I kept noticing that my empty bottles I tossed down were not getting refilled, and as I switched bikes, chains were not being cleaned/lubed. I was sort of confused as to why nobody was helping me, but didn't think too much of it.

I was a little more worried when I grabbed my last mixed bottle 5 hours in. Luckily, when I came through the next lap, Mark had just started mixing me up a new batch so I was able to just grab it and go instead of mixing my own. After a few more unmotivated laps and wasted time in the pits cleaning chains and minor repairs, I started thinking about the burn 24 hour race that was coming up the next week, and decided to just hit 100 miles and call it a day. Accomplishing that, I packed my stuff up and headed down to where the knoxville crew was camped. I was kind of bummed out at the lack of support. I have no problem racing unsupported, but I usually like to know that going into the race, not finding out in the middle.

At the campsite, Abby greeted me with a "How was your sandwich?" I gave her the raised eyebrow and look of confusion. "The sandwiches I made you, how were they?" It turned out that Abby had been supporting my competition and neighbor in the pits all day. She found his nutrition stuff and made him sandwiches, mixed up bottles, etc... So random, but it made for a good laugh after another forgettable day at Tsali.

So, back to the present... The third time is gonna be the charm. I'm still sort of indecisive on what I'm doing for the race. Options are:

1. Race open with the neglected pile of carbon in my corner.

2. Race open on the Rig, being "that guy".

3. Race the SS class with the Rig.

Looks like I've got til 11:59:59 tomorrow...hmm...

Dirt, Sweat, and Metaphorical Tears

2008-05-09T09:54:00.004-04:00

The big show has finally come and gone again. Only 359 more days until the next DSG… Sigh… This year’s race started, as all my races seem to, with a healthy thunderstorm the night before. The rain stopped an hour or two before the race though, so at least I didn’t have to get my things ready in the rain.

The race started with a lemans start again. I made it through the whole run without repeating last years “slip n slide” incident. Apparently that was not forgotten, as Jeremy mentioned it before the start and a handful of people around remembered me as “that guy.” I made it through the field section without incident, and started passing people as we hit some of the doubletrack climbs. The mud was horrendous. I hate to be the guy that says “and that was the worst __________ ever.” But it was without doubt the worst mud I have ever experienced. I got to experience the thrill of trying to push a bike up a hill, and having the wheels stop turning completely due to the amount of sticky mud. The clearance on the rig fared better than most though, as I passed 4 or 5 people with immobile wheels before mine finally stopped. Mr. 24 himself managed to snag the picture that I think best shows the conditions of the day:

Descending in the muck was definitely interesting. Coming down the back side of 911 hill was super shady the first lap. It was pretty much just sliding sideways and praying the bike turned enough to keep you out of the trees. There was one other doubletrack descent that was pretty bad as well. I figured a ton of people had wrecked there when I came by for the second lap as there was a small crowd of people there watching people descend. As I slid sideways and barely made it down upright, there was a collective “aww” of disappointment. The second lap was better, but still extremely sloppy. By the third lap though, things had dried off enough that things weren’t too slippery and the wheels spun freely.

I was keeping a pretty steady pace while downing a bottle and a half of infinit every lap. I cannot say enough about how good the infinit stuff is. Check it out, it is the real deal for sure. During the second lap, I had caught Jake Kirkpatrick, but then he took off right as I caught him. It was weird though, as the next lap, I caught him in the exact same spot, and went by and never saw him again. This put me in third place, where I stayed for most of the race. Dejay and Fuzzy were gone from the start and were unfortunately out of reach. From this point on the course was in perfect condition. The next 4 laps went without incident, and I began to calculate the number of laps I needed to do to finish. I actually got a nice mental boost when I forgot I was on eastern time and realized I had one less lap than I thought I did. It's weird how I can do all these laps and remember nothing about them... As I sit here I can't really remember anything specific about a big 6 or 8 hour chunk of the race.

On my 7th lap, Greg Martin caught me, but I soon passed him back as the course turned uphill. At this point I was ready to start increasing the tempo to finish off the last two laps. However, coming down 911 on the 8th lap, I punctured the rear tire. I spun the tire to get the sealant rolling around, and CO2ed it. Air still gushed out of the too big to seal hole. I just couldn’t believe it as I saw my pro podium chances at the greatest event on my race calendar deflated. 3 or 4 minutes later, Greg came by, and I never saw him again. I’m sure there’s no bigger boost of energy or cure for cramps than seeing your competition with a mechanical in the late stages of a race. After begging a CO2 I was back in action, but the whole affair cost me 10 minutes or so. I XCed it for the remainder of the lap and even caught back up to Nat, who had gone by as I was fixing the flat. Nat was kind enough to pull me through all the flat sections where I was spun out. I did a quick light switch and continued on at high pace until I hit the first big climb. ¾ of the way up, my legs were killing me, and I had to back off to make sure I finished the lap. I toasted myself the 8th lap after that flat and didn’t have quite enough to finish at full XC speed. This left me with a 4th place finish in the pro singlespeed.

I can’t say I’m not once again a bit disappointed to lose this one in the final stages. But it definitely gives me some more confidence as I start hitting the smaller regional races this month. I beat all the amateur guys, geared and SSers, and the list of guys in the pro cats that beat me is pretty much a who’s who list of endurance superstars in the US. Onwards…

Well, maybe I should at least take solace in the fact that I can claim the record for the most expensive flat ever ($500)… I need to figure out if I'm gonna really commit to this whole SS thing though. I could have used a second bike to swap out with all the mud and whatsuch...

But the rest of the Knoxville crew fared well, with Jeremy taking 1st in the amateur solo, Abby and Derek taking 3rd in the amateur duo, and the Knoxville team of Josh Reed, Jacob Prater, Andrew Howe, and Mike Biegalski winning the amateur team class. Congrats to all!

And I got to meet the man himself. Gary is without doubt an interesting guy, and his passion for bikes is impossible to miss. It’s kind of a cool feeling to meet the guy whose name is on your bike (and every piece of your clothing.)

Oh, and Gary says park the car and get on your bike.

SSUSA

2008-05-05T08:37:00.008-04:00

The “Trifecta of Singleness” ending up being quite an entertaining ride. Fayetteville greeted us with a dark and cloudy sky, but the rain held off and left the course in perfect condition for the entire race. The crew that showed up was a random SS mix with tons of costumes, some cross dressing, lots of pink, and even a guy on a fixed gear. Announcing and commentary was handled by the capable and styled out crew of Nat, Yuri, and Rebecca.

Disco Rebecca and Nacho Libre Nat show off the goods

The first round of the race was a 2 lap XC race on a modified version of the 12 hour course. The SS course cut out 2 miles and 2 big climbs. I really didn’t have any interest in hurting myself since I had the 12 hour the next day, and had a nice spin around the course. I had remembered the course as being kind of rough, but it seemed a lot rockier than I remembered. Fuzzy didn’t seem to be interested in pushing anything the day before DSG, so I spun behind him for most of the race. After the first lap, we were required to drink a cold PBR before continuing on. I’m not really much of a PBR guy, but it sure was cold and tasty after riding a hot lap on the course, went down fast, and stayed down. A lap later and I finished up the first stage somewhere around 10th-ish. This was good enough to put me through to round 2.

Enjoying a mid race PBR with Fuzzy

Round 2 was a hill climb competition amongst the top 15 guys from the first race, and the top 8 went on to the final round. After a neutral leadout, I found myself in the middle of the pack at the base of the climb, fought through the traffic, and was in 4th right behind DJ about ¾ of the way up. My legs were letting me know the entire time that the hill climb was not a good idea for tomorrow. A look over the shoulder saw only Ohio Rob anywhere close, so I hopped off and ran the last pitch to save my legs and get to the top in 5th. However, I apparently missed the unsaid rule of not getting off the bike, so that ended my SSUSA aspirations.

It was all good though, as round 3 would likely have seen me bested by a girl or a strong breeze in the gladiator style SSUSA feats of strength. It was pretty entertaining watching a bunch of skinny bikers in spandex chugging PBR and attempting to joust while Yuri, Nat, and Rebecca hopped around in their sweet costumes. Congrats to Ohio Rob on his jousting victory and to the LaLonde Brothers on their crushing victories in both the XC and the hill climb. Those guys can fly for sure. So overall I got out of SSUSA exactly what I had hoped for: a lot of laughs, a nice pre-ride, and a heaping scoop of randomness.

Deja Vu

2008-05-04T15:53:00.004-04:00

Blingin it out for SSUSA

I'm pretty sure I've been here before. Something about the whole "pouring rain the night before a big race" and the 13000+ feet of climbing seem familiar. Another long singlespeed race starting with a sloppy muddy mess and ending with me standing one step off the box... SSUSA was a good time though, with tons of randomness and craziness. Full stories will be up in the next day or so.

Propensity for Precipitation

2008-05-01T23:03:00.000-04:00

I'm not really sure why, but it seems like every time I do a mountain bike race, it rains... So I shouldn't really be surprised to see that I will be once again spending another weekend covered in mud. This makes me three for three on the year, a perfect record so far! On the bright side, it might not rain for SSUSA. I guess I should take what I can get. Onward...

Rewind: DSG 2007, Part 3

2008-04-27T23:01:00.000-04:00

After the race, I enjoyed a rocking bbq dinner and a few pints of the good stuff. The schwag raffle was pretty crazy, with 4 or 5 frames and complete bikes raffled off, as well as a ton of other stuff. Jeremy scored some Surly singlespeed hubs, while I won a pair of size large freeride shorts. After the raffle, they just flung tons of random bike goodies into the crowd, including everything from grips to bottles to lube to chains to CO2 kits to sandals. That’s right, CO2 kits and chains… Plenty of cursing thrown about as people risked bodily injury trying to catch a chain or other heavy object flying through the air at rapid speed. After the excitement of the schwag toss, we helped Ross finish packing all the stuff back up, and laughed at his apparent inability to perform the simple task of mixing warm pedialyte with chilled saline before adding drink mix and then diluting it with water but not forgetting to have the sliced apples in the plastic cups and the potatoes in the paper ones and the pills in the tray organized by color and then size… COLOR AND THEN SIZE, Damnit Ross, can’t you do anything right?

For whatever reason, we decided to head on back to Knoxville that night. The drive itself was uneventful, and we made it back to Jeremy’s house around 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning. I would rate the tiredness level as “deathly.” After a quick shower to rinse the half inch of dust and grime off of my entire body, I settled down on the couch to get some well deserved sleep.

That’s where the story should end. But with less than an hour of sleep down, Jeremy’s cell phone alarm goes off. It turns out that the days are cyclical, and 5:00 am comes around again. I can’t even describe the level of disorientation involved in trying to find that damn phone to get it to stop making noise. Five minutes later, I finally find it in the kitchen under some papers, and get it to shut the hell up. I get back to bed and immediately fall asleep. However, at 6:00 am, Jeremy’s dog, Boogie, decides that he needs to whine…extremely loud. Boogie fails to respond to me yelling from the couch for him to “stop whining.” “Go to sleep dog” and “shut the hell up” are met with an equal amount of success. After guessing he probably needs to go to the bathroom, I yell at Jeremy and Abby in the next room. “Jeremy.” “Abby.” “Boogie.” “Bathroom.” … No response. After 2 more repeats of this, I hear:

Jeremy: “Did you hear something?”
Abby: “Is that Dave?”
Jeremy: “Is he talking?”
Abby: “I think he said Boogie.”
Jeremy: “Eh… I’ll deal with it in the morning.”
*silence*
Boogie: “WHINE,WHINE,WHINE”
Dave: “…SIGH…”

Rewind: DSG 2007, Part 2

2008-04-25T08:12:00.002-04:00

This fine gentleman fired a shotgun to start the race... Welcome to Fayetteville

I didn’t grow up on a farm. Maybe if I had, I would have known that fields have holes in them… big holes. I made it about 10 steps, and then my right foot went down in a 2 foot deep hole. Instantly, I was on the ground and sliding down the wet hill like it was a slip n slide. Fifteen seconds in, and I’m already “that guy.” 10 or 20 feet later, I was able to stop the slide and get back on my feet. I even managed to make it the rest of the way to my bike without incidence. After catching back up to Jeremy on the gravel road, we were soon joined by another rider, who for the sake of anonymity will be named “JT.” JT recognized me from a XC race earlier in the season, so we were greeted with a hearty “Hay thar Bike Zoo.” JT was quite the little conversationalist. Jeremy and I were sort of breathing hard on the first few climbs, and JT’s conversation never even paused, he’s got some lungs. Half an hour and around 500 “uh-huhs” later, Jeremy took off, and left me with JT. Jeremy underestimates my sneakiness. I made it ten minutes before I turned around and told JT that I wasn’t feeling well, and that he should go ahead by me. In the open field starting the second lap, Jeremy soon heard, “Hay Bike Zoo, I’m coming, I’ll be up thar in second.” And then JT sprinted away up to catch Jeremy. What’s that I hear? Nothing…

The race itself was quite rough, with 3 major climbs that required the granny gear after only a lap or two. The course was a good mix of rocky doubletrack, wide-open fields, and twisty singletrack. Even with the full suspension, it was beating me up after a few hours. Jeremy and I settled into second and third in the amateur. I never really felt great, and Jeremy was putting a minute or so a lap onto me. At least I was pulling away from the guy in fourth. The last hill on the course was especially painful. Even in the granny gear, it was just steep and rocky enough to bring the hurt after a few laps in. About halfway through, I finally started gaining a bit on Jeremy and began trying to pull back the 10 minutes or so he had on me. About this time, we saw JT lying in a truck on the side of the course. “You OK JT?”… “I don’t feel so good; I should’ve eaten more than water and bananas.” Yea, that’s probably a safe bet.

I finally caught a break with 2 laps left when Jeremy got a flat, and I went by him as he was fixing it. Knowing Jeremy’s XC speed, I gunned it, and hoped to never see him again. This worked for a little over a lap. And then it happened… As the course doubled back on itself, I looked over and saw Jeremy coming up on me, and he was only about 30 yards back. Apparently the expletives that immediately slipped out of my lips were more audible than I thought, as Jeremy’s head snapped up instantly and he saw me. So we both took off, but Jeremy caught me as I went down trying to cut a corner too sharp on the descent. The rest of the course was open flats along with the one bad climb. I was able to bridge the gap on the flat, and luckily Jeremy had toasted himself catching up to me, so he didn’t even jump on my wheel when I went by. I put a minute or two on him in the last mile and finished up the race in second.

66.67% SCO Podium

Rewind: DSG 2007, Part 1

2008-04-24T06:54:00.001-04:00

Since I'm super excited about Dirt, Sweat, and Gears coming up at the first of May, I've decided to recount the journey of last year's race...

More Cowbell?

So I finally convinced Jeremy to do a 12 hour solo race. To get him to register, it took months of talking it up along with many a disparaging comment in regard to his sexual orientation and a constant questioning of the existence (or lack there of) of his male reproductive system. So off we rolled towards Fayetteville, TN. After a possibly scenic drive of perhaps between 1 and 6 hours, we arrived at the historic cotton mill preserve. We went to the registration tent to pick up our hefty swag bags containing a pint glass, socks, t-shirt, cowbell, and other random goodies. I of course didn’t check the size of my shirt until the next week and ended up with a large…sweet! Afterwards, we set up our tent along with Ross Spence, support crew to the stars.

Our camp ended up being right beside Nat Ross, who is the endurance king of the big wheeled Gary Fisher crew. After grilling some burgers, which at the time were of course the greatest thing I had ever eaten, we hopped back in the car to head to Wal-Mart for survival supplies. Apparently, when it gets dark in the middle of nowhere in April, it gets cold…really cold…who knew? After getting a few things to stay warm, we pitched the tent and settled in. Since the race started early at 8:00 am, we set the alarm for 5:00 am to ensure we had plenty of time to get ready, eat, and get organized. For absolutely no reason whatsoever, I say again, Jeremy set the alarm for 5:00 am.

After being woken up way too early by the digital cacophony of Jeremy’s cell phone, we got dressed and headed off to consume the bountiful goodness of pancakes and sausage that were provided. The temperature was warming up nicely, so I was able to start the race in full-on summer wear. Since it was a lemans start, we dumped the bikes off at the bottom of a grassy hill in the field. I was racing my pair of ProCalibers, while Jeremy brought his Tanasi hardtail and his NRS full suspension. Ross volunteered to help us out in between his duties as the crewman of DeJay and Fuzzy (fast SS guys). As the time was ticking away, we lined up in the field to await the run start. Jeremy decided he wanted to be in the photos, so he moved to stand beside Tinker before the start.

The field in the field

Cohutta 100 Recap

2008-04-22T13:12:00.005-04:00

The Cohutta 100 started off on a great note, as we awoke to pouring rain on our tent at 2:30 in the morning. Luckily, the rain stopped around 6:00 as we were getting up, so we at least started the race dry. I rolled up to the start and got a spot around 30 riders back or so.

1 The race started with a 3 mile paved road climb to mix up the field. By the time everyone who started in front of me started rolling, I was 2 groups back from the Eatough peloton of 15 or 20 people that had formed up ahead. I didn't push it on the climb, but quickly passed the 2 groups and found myself a few hundred yards back of the front group. I should have been more aggressive and bridged the gap, but my brain was in enduro mode. Stupid brain... The brush creek singletrack wasn't in too bad of condition, and I managed to pass a few more gearies in the woods and on the paved descent down to old copper road. After about 30 miles or so, the singletrack ended and the fireroad of forever began.

2 Although people had told me the fireroad was steep, I had just shrugged it off, thinking it couldn't be that bad. I was definitely wrong. Most of the grades I was comfortable enough to spin, but they definitely wore on you as the hills just kept coming. It seemed like you were climbing forever. The "rollers" at the top of the plateau were probably the most painful because they were super steep and just kept coming at you. The fireroad was nice and sticky in most places, so it kind of bogged you down climbing. I wasn't aggressive at all on the descents, as there were lots of slick places and sliding gravel going on coming down. The big descent was a mixed blessing, as my back wasn't enjoying being in the roadie tuck for extended times.

3 After the big descent, there was a nice 10 mile flat section. This would have been awesome on gears, but it was pretty miserable on the SS. All you could really do is spin up, and then get in the roadie tuck and coast until you slowed down enough to get resistance on the pedals and spin back up. It was a weird mountain biking experience of looking over you shoulder hoping to see a geared guy who was going at the right speed so you could latch on and let them pull you up the road without getting dropped. This section ended with a turn off that quickly became two long steep climbs in succession.

4 I was so excited to finally hit the singletrack. The forever fireroad had definitely lost its charm, if it ever had any at all. My legs felt great, and I caught a few more gearies as I made my way up the first singletrack climb. Things were flowing nicely through the quartz loop and another connector heading up to the final descent down thunder rock. By this time in the day, the trail conditions were pristine. After thunder rock, all that remained was the long road section back up to the whitewater center. I tried to hang on to a geared guy who caught me on the road, but was way too spun out.

I rolled over the line with a time of 8:22:08. I was pretty excited about it until I realized that I was only 20 seconds off the podium and exactly four minutes off of Floyd Landis. Beating Floyd on a singlespeed would have been the stuff of legend... I guess there's always Shenandoah or maybe Fool's Gold to give it another shot. My nutrition planning ended up working perfectly, as I felt strong only drinking 7 bottles of Infinit and eating 1 pack of clif bloks for the whole race. I must have looked strong, as no one tried to convince me to eat a sandwich.

The singlespeed ended up being a good choice, and the 32x20 was perfect. I couldn't have pushed anything bigger up those fire road climbs. Overall it didn't really cause massive pain or suffering as expected, so I will probably do alot more of the longer stuff on the Rig. Being so close is definitely going to get me fired up to be more aggressive in these events. I didn't start far enough in the front and missed the lead group in the woods, and then I finished the race like I had more laps to do instead of going XC style and finishing with nothing left. Maybe I'll learn something from the experience...

Congrats to Rachel Apking, Andrew Howe, Jason Stephens, Greg Casteel, and Jen Smelser on their 100 mile finish, and to Phillip Burgess, and Jeremy Chandler on the 65. Jeremy was towing a bob trailer up all those steep hills, so I'm sure he had a fun day. Looks like Mark Morgan had a good 35 race as well, finishing just off the podium.

UPDATE:
Apparantly due to the SS winner supposedly getting extra feeds/support on the course, he has been DQed, which bumps me to 9th in SS. I can now complain about being 15 seconds off the podium instead of 20 seconds... It doesn't really feel any better. Looks like I was around 35th or so in the overall, not too shabby. Hard to tell what really happened, but it's kind of odd to DQ the guy when he won by over ten minutes for getting extra water bottles.

Ready to Roll

2008-04-17T12:12:00.005-04:00

The past week has been sort of a scramble of riding when I can and making sure everything is dialed in for the Cohutta. I had to work at the RZO on saturday and couldn't get away, so I was only able to squeeze in a short ride. It was a good workout though, as the wind in south knoxville was ridiculous. Sunday's ride started as the Tom Floyd road ride, but the combination of 45 degree weather, wind, and rain had everybody questioning the route. After some indecision upon reaching Walland, Jay Nevans and I headed on out to Weirs Valley and came back down Metcalfe. We got back to Tom's house after about 95 miles. It was a good ride in spite of the rain and cold, as I got to ride some roads I don't normally hit. I like how I can now complain about the "miserable cold" of 45 degrees when I would have killed for 45 degrees a month or so ago...

I'm most of the way through getting my Cohutta gear ready. I tend to travel pretty light, so this is probably most everything except for some extra civilian clothes. I'm excited to be riding the Rig for the first time in a longer event. I finally got my gearing switched over to the 20, but not without a bit of a struggle. Due to some shoddy manufacturing (I mean, WTF, WTB), I had to file the edges of the teeth for the chain to clear smoothly. I usually try to refrain from applying my ghetto engineering skills to my bikes, but sometimes there isn't a choice. But after a shakedown ride at the ridge last night, everything seems to running smoothly. I think the 20 will be a good choice. We'll see after 100 miles anyways. Tires have been swapped to the Dry-X, which will be rolling nice and fast on the fireroads. The 100 mile format is new to me, and is going to be interesting. The distance is just another day at the office, but the drop format is going to require some planning. I'm used to having total control over what I drink/eat every hour, and with the lap races mechanicals are not as much of a worry. So I'll be carrying a little more than I usually do, and hoping I space my drops correctly to have enough to drink.

Apparently, I am a sucker for free stuff. I was going through my box o gels and things, and found 16 packets of the trial size endurolytes... Kind of ridiculous...

Off, On, and Off Again

2008-04-09T23:21:00.000-04:00

Last week saw my riding time greatly diminished, as I had to take 5 exams for school within three days. Good times, right? The timing actually ended up being good though, as it rained nearly every day last week. I was finally able to get out on the road on Saturday. Even better, I managed to pick a good window and dodged all the rain. Being back on the road was a strange feeling, as the dry weather the previous weeks had me trading the skinnies for the fatties at every opportunity. I had planned to do the Tsali SERC race, but the week of rain made for an easy decision to avoid it.

Sunday made for an even better day on the road, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 70s. I love this time of year. It's that turning point where I don't have to complain about how my body decides my appendages don't need blood anymore or have to worry about my shins turning red because I convince myself I'm too cool for full leg warmers. And it's not yet so oppressively hot that you're soaking wet 10 minutes into a ride or unzipping everything and still melting on all the climbs. Pretty soon I won't even have to think about what to wear. I'll have to figure some other way to waste the 20 minutes I spend before every cool weather ride agonizing over what to wear. For some reason, what I think I should be wearing changes completely with every 5 degrees or so of temperature change. But, thoughts of spring aside, the road ride was quite nice, with a scenic trip out through south Knoxville to Walland, and then a nice climb up Happy Valley and Flats Road, and then back down the parkway. Whoever named Flats Road def has a since of humor, as the grades hit 20% in places.

I wonder which knee got to meet my stem...

A few days of dry weather saw me back on the mountain bike on Tuesday at IC King. The trails were in great condition, all things considered. The ride went well until I broke my chain on the Rig and my right knee got to meet my stem/bars at high speed. Luckily I didn't have too long of a hobble out of the woods. After some serious icing and a good night of sleep, the knee was much better, so hopefully that will all be back to 100% before the Cohutta. Tonight's quick ride on the boulevard wasn't too painful spinning, but I could definitely feel it if I tried to put any real power into the pedals. Looks like I'll be taking it pretty easy for a few days.

In team 29er news, the new jerseys have arrived. Pretty darn sexy if you ask me. (Not that you did, but I'm pretty sure you would have...95...)

Eat a Sandwich

2008-04-06T11:04:00.002-04:00

12 hour races are usually a great place for randomness. Back in the summer of 2006, I headed over to Charlotte, NC for the Cowbell Challenge 12 hour race. This was my third solo 12 hour, so I was just beginning to get the hang of racing for extended periods of time. I suppose I can tend to look a bit skinny at times, but I assure myself it’s barely noticeable. The 12 hour was going without too much excitement, it was just super hot, and the exposed clay climbs were excruciating under the burning sun. About 8 hours in, I passed another rider, and he immediately exclaimed, “Man, you’re skinny.” I thought it was kind of weird, but I gave him the “Thanks, I guess.” So there was a bit of pause, and then he says, “You’re really skinny… Are you hungry? You should eat a sandwich. I’ve got a sandwich my wife made me in my pocket. I’ll give it to you if you’ll eat it.” I declined, but found the randomness of the entire exchange pretty funny.

Do these pictures really make you want to feed me?

So I’m sure the question you’re now asking yourself is, “If I bring Dave a sandwich, will he eat it?” There’s only one way to find out… oh, and hold the onions.

Chickasawed

2008-04-01T06:52:00.002-04:00

With Columbia being a little under 3.5 hours away from Knoxville, and the singlespeed race starting at 10:30 central time, we figured leaving at 7:00 eastern time would give us more than enough time to get to the race. After Jeremy called me at 6:50 to let me know he had just woken up, we finally got rolling around 7:30. The drive over was pretty uneventful, until our directions ended in the middle of the highway around 10:00 CT. We called some fellow knoxvillians to see what their directions said, and ended up backtracking almost 30 miles to get to the park. We turned into the park around 10:28.

Seeing the time crunch coming, I had changed clothes in the car and got my gear together as best I could. On arrival, I jumped out of the car, got the bike off the rack, and headed to the start/finish, hoping my tires had air in them. As I climbed up to the registration, I could see the singlespeed field coming down the road to drop down into the field. Great, first race of the year, and I get to play catch up. I went on up to the registration, and managed to get my number and timing chip with only minimal difficulty. By the time I got the number plate and chip on and got to the start line, the 19-29 Sport and the 30-39 Sport had both gone off. I figured the 5 minutes I gave up would be tough to pull back, but I took off to get as much time back as I could. After a few minutes I had managed to catch up to the back of the 30-39 and started passing through the traffic. The course was really sloppy at this point, and I was coated with mud within half a lap or so. I was really happy to finally catch a few singlespeeders about 2/3 of the way through the first lap. I kept a steady pace for the rest of the race, and was consistently picking more people off. Since I was doing the expert race afterwards, I was trying to find out what place I was in so I could decide whether to sprint the lap to gain time or to just pace it to save for the next race. I passed one guy, and he thought he was around 7th. Sweet, moving up. A minute later I passed another guy, and he thought he was in 13th. Not so sweet… As I was nearing the finish, I saw another singlespeeder up ahead. I gunned it on the uphill finish and closed the gap, but got beat by about a second. Unbelievably, I actually ended up finishing the SS in 5th, so I was pretty happy about that, all things considered.

The plan was then to go down to the car to grab a gel and switch bottles out. Going with the theme of the day, I looked over after the finish to see the expert field already lining up to start. I ran over to the registration to swap my number and chip out, and got the number plate on the bike. With the mud, I figured I would let my superfly stay shiny, and that I would just race the Rig again. Forgetting the bottles, I pedaled up to the queue, and heard the announcer call out “1 minute.” As the race started with about a ¼ mile of fireroad, and then a ¼ mile of asphalt, I was starting to question my singlespeed decision. When the horn went off, the field jumped, and I was immediately spit out the back spinning like a madman watching the field fade away. I had to bust out laughing halfway down the fireroad, as I don’t think I have ever been dropped so hard before on any ride. Since I was DFL, I just went with the endurance pace at this point to get some miles in and finish the race. The course kept getting better lap after lap, and by the 2nd lap of the expert, it was tacky enough that you really didn’t get dirty. My gearing was pretty good for most of the course, as there was only one longer climb that I had to walk on the 4th and 5th laps. I managed to pick 4 or 5 people off during the race, and finished up 12th out of 17. I was happy with the workout on the day, covering a muddy 45 miles in a little less than 4.5 hours. The double race was def a good experience. I’d like to try it again, but I don’t know of any other races that really stagger the SS and expert races enough to make it work.

Jeremy ended up having a worse day than I. He got up to the registration a few minutes after I did, and the USCF woman wouldn’t let him get his number plate without seeing his license. By the time he got down to the car and then made it back, he had lost a good 15 minutes or so on the group. So when he got done with the SS, the experts were way gone already. He roughed it out though and finished the three expert laps anyways. I think he even timed it well enough to come across the line in 7th place in the First Timers race. After some bathing in the creek to clean up, we finally headed back to Knoxville, and I finally got home at 11:00 pm. I’m not sure how I was convinced we would be back by 7:00 or 8:00, but I was way off. The day definitely didn’t go as planned, but what else can you do but laugh it off? At least it was a good workout.

A Long Day

2008-03-31T12:31:00.004-04:00

The chickasaw race ended up being a bit more of an adventure than I expected:

Door to Door time: 16.5 Hours
Time on the SS: 4.5 hours
5th* place SS, 12th place Expert

I'll get the full story up either tonight or tomorrow.

There was a bit of mud...

Tha 865

2008-03-24T22:03:00.000-04:00

To get the full effect, you're gonna need to turn up those speakers and click here. (Don't blame me, you clicked it)

Where you from?

In order to have a unified voice on cycling matters in the community, the various Knoxville cycling clubs have banded together under the "865" banner. Its not a bad idea in itself, but it always cracks me up because it reminds me of the awful rap song you are probably listening to right now. If you've ever been here, you would know that Knoxville's street cred ranks somewhere between Nantucket and Boca Raton. So hearing this song trying to rep the 865 like it's compton, you can't help but laugh. Although, I have to say he could be on to something, more and more it is "the city where the gangstas talk with the nine". Just not so much the gold teeth and impalas...yet. Gotta leave something to aspire to.

Because in Knoxville,

you can't bring it if you don't bling it.

Maybe...

Shiny

2008-03-20T21:50:00.000-04:00

The superfly is all built up and ready to roll... I can't wait for Saturday to come around so I can get out and get her muddy. I've got to run back to Morristown on Sunday, so that will give me a chance to hit up Panther Creek and take some pictures to update the Disc Burner site, which has been sort of neglected.

My money is in for Dirt Sweat and Gears and SingleSpeed USA. DSG was probably my favorite 12 hour I did last year, it just has such a great overall vibe to it. Great organization, breakfast, a tough course, the best competition, dinner, beer, and the almighty schwag raffle/toss-up. Watching people risk breaking their face trying to catch a chain or a box of CO2s that have been flung 20 ft in the air was quite entertaining. Maybe they'll throw cassettes and chainrings this year. If you do only one 12 hour this year, this is the one to do.

As for SSUSA, I really have no clue what it will be. According to the site, I'll be riding my bike for "more than 1 hour but less than 46000." Beyond that, I've heard rumors of whiskey, beer, and a "mule named Merle" being involved. Eh, what the hell else am I going to do the day before the 12 hour? At least my entertainment is nearly guaranteed. I can't wait to see what random SS prize they come up with. Can they match the world championship golden speedo from the SS cyclocross worlds?