Time to Work

Well today is my first day at work at the new job and I gotta tell ya that I am very much enjoying it. Great trainers, staff, and what a facility. I am currently in training right now, but pending any weather disasters I may go out to Nine Mile to ride some more of the course for the marathon race on Sunday.

I pre rode the course on Monday and wasn't too impressed cause i'm not one to hammer I'm more of a consistant rider over many hours at a time, but I will do what I can and hopefully get to be in a good group off the front. Anyway, I rode the proposed first lap and as I mentioned didn't like it, but I can't see 700 people on the course with 60% singletrack anyways, so I decided to ride some of the old race course and the #1 singletrack section which was super rocky and technical, but a lot of fun.

Can't wait to get out to Washburn Lake this week to ride hopefully the weather cooperates.

Later

12 Hours of Gears

Jim and I did the WEMS opener 12 Hour duo in New Fane. We got there a little late so there wasn't too much time to warm up in the morning chilled air, SS Earl and Team Pegasus were in attendance (along with some PBR). The race started @ 8 am so we didn't have to worry about doing a night lap, but I hit the course in the lemans start and got caught up in someones mess as I was trying to board my Rockhopper. This course was so wide open so I decided to run my Hutchinson 1.85's at around 45 psi since the single track was in short supply and soft. My lap times throughout were extremely consistent and was really happy about how I was feeling even towards the end of the race. To sum it up we ended up doing roughly 150 miles 31 laps (I did 16) climbed around 14,000 feet. We ended up finishing 2nd to team pegasus. I would have liked to have given them more of a fight but after it's all said in done they were more than happy to give us a couple of PBR's for our efforts.

I can't believe how well the Rockhopper performed today, I had nothing but back issues while using the Sugar in a comp race, but riding the Rockhopper over a 12 hour period only gave me the soreness you would expect from a race like this. I am impressed with this hardtail as at treadfest it performed like a champ in the mud and survived gears in extrordinary fashion.

Monday I plan on heading to Wausau to ride the marathon series course in which it sounds like Scott will be there so hopefully I can grab some kind of knowledge as to how this course is going to roll.

Hope everybody has a great Memorial Day and see everyone at Nine Mile this weekend.

Man Down

Going out for my usual ride south to Chilton with a little sprinkle of rain prompted me to turn on the lights. Now normally I wouldn't even bring the light with me, but since I started my 48 mile ride at 6 pm I decided to bring it and use it. Good thing I did cause I damn near got ran over by a lady in a Honda CRV.

Here's how it went down.
I was heading north at a pretty good clip. This lady pulls out along side of me to the point of almost being directly to my left I thought whew that was close and just as I thought that she got ahead of me and turned right in front of me without a blinker into the driveway where I nailed her front fender and I hit it so fricken hard it looks like someone took a baseball bat to it. I had busted up the front wheel, carbon fork, handlebars, and my chain ended up where my rear brake is. As far as I go, I'm here, I'm scratched up probably bruised a little, but had I been going a little faster I would have gotten smashed with serious injuries. Now what...I guess it's quality time on the mountainbike until this gets straightened out cause I am not rich by any means I can't just go and buy a new bike to ride tommorow. Like a great company is named, Cars-R-Coffins.

May the Specialized rest in peace!

Lack of Tread Fest WORS #2

Treadfest:

Got out for the pre-ride on Saturday with Jim and Brett and was pretty pumped about the layout with the amount of climbing, singletrack, and the rockgarden not to mention it flowed really well for being as loose as it was.

Sunday was a different story. Warmup and everything went well, but I showed up late to the line putting me in the back due to the lack of a call up. The exact second they let our group gooooooooo, the skies opened up and didn't hold back for quite some time, and I'm glad I made the decision to ditch the sugar and get the hardtail back together what timing that was for it made the difference between staying in the race and quiting or so it seemed as I saw many quite a few full suspension rigs on the side of the trails as I slid on by. The first time through the rockgarden someone brake checked me and that in turn made me use my brakes when I normally wouldn't, but the following laps were close to unrideable with no room for a mistake in that section. Laps 2 and most of 3 were very sloppy and at times you could not even run up the slop, but by the time I started lap 4 it started to tack up and I put down the hammer as best I could, but it was way too late as I found Landon was way off the front in what would be his best wors finish of the season. Jesse and Marko (thanks again for the bottles now all I need is a kit) definitely came to race today posting 2nd and 3rd overall on their ss 29er. Scott Cole posted an excellent 13th overall in the elite class despite a stage diving incident that took place after I hit the road. Mountaingoat took advantage of being on the rigid SS and rode to a good finish and after talking to Sarah afterwards she apparently ripped it up as well...litterally...As far as I'm concerned I grabbed 6th in age and 45th overall in comp so it's an improvement, but I've got a ways to go I've got nothing but time on my side and an Intense Spider 29er waiting to be tested on the WORS dirt circus I am very confident that I will continue to improve at a steady rate.

After a departure of my buddy Brett heading out to Colorado, the 24-9 team is disbanded. I am now going 24 solo on the Spider 29er with the Rockhopper waiting in the wings if I need a spare bike...you never know with these things.

This Weekend is the 12 hours of gears pending weather. I plan on also packing up some of the necesseties and moving up north to Tomahawk for a month until the residence in Wausau becomes open. Very excited to get back up north again to enjoy riding the trails within short driving distance especially Washburn Lake Trail.

Okay gotta do some packing

later

Race in the Middle of Nowhere

Saturday and Sunday was the Maplelag UCI Spring Opener up in Callaway Minnesota. There wasn't a big crowd for the weekend, but plenty of good weather and great racing greated those who attended. Some of the Midwest's top riders like Hall, Schouten, Kelli Emmit and Sarah Kylander-Johnson as well as Erik Tonkin and Megan Monroe showing up from out west made the pro venue. Kelli and Jeff took top spot and Tonkin bounced back from 6th to 3rd after a flat in the lakeside drops at the start of the 2nd lap.

There was definitely a good reason why there were two laps and total distance around 11 miles. To me, this is the toughest course I've ever put the knobbies on. In the first lap I managed to drop my chain into my cassette twice and crashed on a very steep decent trying to make the sharp left at the bottom. I did ride a strong and clean 2nd lap and managed to reel all but a couple back in, but I am happy to score the age win and top 10 overall.

Wisconsin had a good showing with Schouten 2nd in pro, Jesrin 2nd in semi-pro, and Sarah concurring the very difficult course. I don't think we'll see anything like this in WORS anytime soon.

This weekend is Treadfast in Lake Geneva and the Rockhopper is making it's comeback!!!!

Maplelag or Bust

Here's what it took to rid me of the illness in less than 48 hours

25 vitamin c drops
25 zinc/echineachea drops
300 oz of water
1/2 gallon of orange juice w/ vitamin D
6 shots of Nyquil
oh and 6 benadryl

Now if I could only stop being dizzy!

Onward to Maplelag

Excuses....Excuses

Well now everything is starting to fall into place. What I thought I was mainly allergies from tree pollen and such turned out to be a full blown head cold. This would explain the lack of sleep and cramping during the race as well as the zombie like feeling I had the entire race. This couldn't have come at a worse time, but this weekend is Maplelag and I've been looking forward to this since I received the brochure in the mail some three weeks ago. So I didn't ride on Monday and judging by the feeling I have now, I wont be riding tonight as well just so I don't prolong it so.....I've got about 5:40 pm right now so I am going to the store, stocking up on drugs (not of the BASSO kind) and go to bed. I am going to try and get out tommorow and Thursday.

Iola Recap

During the preride I was feeling pretty good, I was strong on the climbs fast in the track and solid on the decents. Overall feeling pretty loose, but if anybody knows racing there is such a thing as too loose. I wasn't nervous before the start nor was I pumped up ready to go which would be why my start was less than ideal.

I got around pretty good for the first 2 laps riding pretty fast and maintaining a rhythm, but then after the climb out of the bowl on the third lap, the cramps started. I didn't know what condition I was in cause it only affected me when I sat up straight. Too sweet of a drink maybe? Well I managed to finish, but not as strong as I would have liked. Again, I was super strong on the climbs and the real technical stuff (for once), but the killer instinct just wasn't there I didn't attack at all and I found that was odd, but 12th in age and around mid pack overall is okay, but the gap to the leaders really needs to go down and it will, just gotta have the right mindset, but that's just one of few things and good thing it's a long season.

That's about all i've got for now, I am definitely looking forward to Maplelag.

Rasta Rally Race Recap

I've been so busy with planning the move to Wausau that I never did get out a race recap of the Rasta Rally.

So you've seen the results (8th age 11th overall), but this is how it went down

We didn't get to the venue with a whole lot of time to get ready so the start was kinda shotty without a decent warm up and stretching, but hung in there mid pack for the long gravel leadout. I kept a few guys in my view since I struggling to warm up, but once I did I got three more people and started using the big ring and that felt much better copared to the granny gear riding I did on the first set of climbs in the single track. The course was about 15 miles long and most of it was decent singletrack that really didn't let up on ya. Throw in a couple of switchback climbs log bridge and some plywood bridging that at the end if you're not careful you'll shoot of the end and you have a fun and technical course. I held on that's really all I can say about, but now I know I need to get a good sweat going before I get to the line If I want to go fast from the get go. See you in 2 days at Iola.

On the Move

Well the time has finally come. I've been not so patiently waiting to move to Wausau for more reasons than I have time to list, but I have accepted a job offer and will be relocating in June. The one thing to me that stands out is the fact that I can Snowboard, XC Ski (day or night), and Mountain bike at one of the best trails in the Midwest, and not to mention great opportunities for long road rides.

This weekend is the Iola Bump & Jump the kickoff to the WORS Series. This is one of my favorite courses especially since last year since they've added a monster climb and to prepare for it 10 hill climbs at High Cliff. I swear everyone and their brother was out on such a nice day at least crossing paths with around 30 area cyclists and that's just at High Cliff State Park. I did pretty damn good last year placing 4th, but this year I'll be riding comp so the competition will definitely be there.

I have some photos I need to upload so keep on the lookout for those otherwise, see you at Iola.