Smokin Spoke

What a race! First of all, I have to say this was a great course and we only got to experience a small portion of it now all of you should come up in the spring and do the Rasta Rally. Thanks to the volunteers for a great event and venue. No complaints from this guy.

Not sure what the lap length was, nor do I want to know. I was much more concerned with conserving energy in the early going to make sure I did more passing than being passed in the closing laps and it paid off handsomely. I did place midpack overall, but that may have had something to do with the fact that I started in the rear and stayed there for a little while, but I had plenty of time in the upcoming 3+ hours to make up ground besides, I'm not the type of guy you're going to see wearing the sprinters jersey in the tour I'm more like a landis...wait no drugs....rasmussen....nope again drugs....just more likely to wear the king of the mountains jersey lets put it that way. I'll just call that my curse I'll live and die by it till I grow into a real cyclists body.

No real bottlenecks to report except for the plywood bridge on the first lap where someone brake checked me forcing me off the side before I even got on, but no worries got back on and didn't lose a single spot just kept hammering. I felt awesome on the climbs and even better on the flats, but my second lap was slower, not sure why, but could have been lapped traffic already, pulling on the roads for too long or simply backing off. The third lap greeted me with Don himself making a lap....seemed liked he was having fun out there, and another guy I think Loy was his name from Rhinelander latched onto my wheel and we rode together for the rest of the race.

Only a couple of mishaps. One was clipping a tree with my Ergon grip didn't cause a crash or damage but I was rockin it motocross style for 3.5 laps. Another was clipping a rock with my eggbeater pedal. Again, no damage but signs of cramping accelerated by my leg shooting violently behind me in which I felt it in my hamstring for about 30 seconds until I spun it out. Finally, there was the bridge incident but no damage and no spots lost. The Turner Nitrous once again rose to the occasion saving me from back pains on the rugged singletrack at camp tesomas.

I am very happy about my best result of the year (1st place in 25-29 age group with 2nd place being almost a full 7 minutes back) and a sign that things have gotten back to normal since the weird happenings of the summer. Confidence is high heading into on of my best courses of the series at Kewaskum in which I will work on getting that overall time gap down to a respectable level and make a push for the age group series overall. Congrats to Jesse and Marko once again for taking 1st and 3rd overall. You guys are tearing it up. And Scott, way to bounce back from that crash and bring home the hardware.

It's almost September and it's time to start thinking about next year. I need to answer some questions. Am I going to race, look for sponsorship opportunities, look for a reputable shop, furnish my new basement bar with Twin Six gear and fattire beer signage, how about national races, play some Madden, clean up the Sammy's Subs NFL Prediction Pool, race snocross. The answer is YES!!!! okay not the last one I will not do that again but will ride snowmobiles, XC Ski, bike to work, and snowboard all winter long.....that's right I said winter.

See you at Kewaskum!

Hodag Cometh

This weekend is the final marathon series race of the year. I don't have a chance of scoring in the marathon series since I didn't race in the first two, but I do plan on shaking up the overall and placing well since I've been feeling much better about how things have been going with training as of late and racing well in the conditions at the wors cup.

I am excited to have all of my WORS peeps come up in my stomping grounds and hope they all enjoy this challenging course. There is so much to offer in regards to overall trail layout that I am hoping to see a regular WORS race in the works for next year and utilize the great trail system that everybody worked so hard on over the years. Big thanks to the crew at Bikes-N-Boards in Rhinelander, R.A.S.T.A, and of course Wayne Fish and Chris Schotz for their hard work on other area trails i.e. Underdown.

I plan on riding out there tonight if it's not too sloppy I want to give my new Jagwire Ripcord Cables and new XT dual control shifters. I also picked up a Schwalbe Nobby Nic, but not sure if I need anything that aggressive this weekend.

Moving into the new house in Wausau on Labor Day weekend. Don't worry I still plan on doing the Stumpfarm 12 that saturday. Now the project begins in the new bar in the basement including anything I can find to furnish it with Twinsix gear....pictures soon.

See you saturday on the pre-ride.

WORS "Muddy" Cup

The WORS Cup has come and gone. Special thanks to Rox and Don for their support during the race and the hand up it was greatly appreciated.

The elites were welcomed to okay course conditions which continued 4 of the 5 laps and then things turned sloppy t-brown looked like he snapped a chain and matter had a flat. Jesse and Marko took 1st and 2nd, way to go!

The comp race was shortened to three laps and with good reason. The ruts were deep and completely wore my front disc brake pads down to nothing. The Nitrous did perform well, but did collect mud disabling my rear wheel from spinning, but this may have been the case for the better part of the field enduring the conditions. As I was coming through on lap 3 I merged with the start of the Sport race. I lost so much time and did a lot of unessesary walking, but I was still feeling quite strong picking off sport riders left and right and was also feeling strong on the climbs allowing me to catch a few more comp riders before the finish including the final climb. I crossed the finish just over 2 hours in 4th place 25-29 and 27th overall. Landon has also continued to retain the Cliff Bar Comp Leaders Jersey with his 2nd place performance. I am glad I finished

Short track and Super-D were both cancelled after the riders meeting Sunday morning which may have been for the better considering Saturday nights activities included some heavy carbo loading in the name of New Glarus and thanks to Justin at Gen-X for some shots of Jameson. It was a good time hanging out with both the Gen-X and Polska crew. It was a great time with some pretty good music. Despite the conditions I would consider the event a success Thanks to Don (Mr. WORS himself) and their volunteers for braving the elements so that we could destroy our rigs on a great course.

Now the rebuild and re-cabling begins for what the weather channel is predicting a nice weekend for once in Rhinelander for the final marathon series race. See ya then.

WORS Cup

This weekend will be my first race since 24/9. I think I am fully recovered and was able to put in some hard efforts within the last couple of weeks while battling the tendonitis, but it did get better day to day and am able to put down some force which will be much needed in a short track event. I do plan on doing the stage race this weekend but I will be attending solo with Brett living in Colorado now and Jim not doing nearly the amount of races as he did last year (I'm thinking early retirement). I am going to be in need of a hand up in the comp cross country race on Saturday let me know if you can help. Thanks and see everyone then.

It never ends

I've been skipping out on the racing scene in hopes that the tendonitis in my right knee subsides so I've been doing the ibuprofen thing to keep the swelling down, stretching more often before and after the ride as well as wearing an icepack on my knee till I go to sleep. The pain doesn't bother me I've been used to it from years past it's the fact that it doesn't allow me put down as much force as I would normally on the flats, but climbing is okay. Since regaining my focus on training I haven't missed a ride at all this week and things are seeming quite normal aerobically, but now it's time to work on my anerobic power, but only time and my knee will be the telling story of whether or not I am successful.

After taking a look at Scoletrain's pictures, I am REALLY looking forward to the WORS Cup and competing in all of the events minus the gravity stuff. I am going to really test the limits of the Nitrous. I am looking forward to a lot of climbing I am talking at least the amount of climbing that Devils Head had to offer, but not sure how much we would be climbing per lap compared to that of my previous favorite course at Devils Head. No rain would also be nice but I would love for it to be in the 80's or even do I dare say it....90's. I am all in for a sufferfest just no bike damage.

Anyway, I will be making the WORS Cup and the rest of the WORS season. I will also be doing Chequamegon, Stump Farm 12, 12 Hours of Thunderdown, I may even give cyclocross a shot this year if the wife allows me to build another bike. I've got bonus money coming from work and it's time to spend it. Definitely will get some of this and a new crank for the nitrous. May also do some XTR upgrading as well.

What's new

Well I have made an executive decision to not race this weekend or possibly not even next weekend. I am going to start over on my training get some quality rides in on my roadie cause like I said my training has been horrible over the last month and I need to gain some consistency again and put down so hard efforts. I am not a big fan of the Alterra course nor have I ever been so missing this one is not that much of a dissapointment I may do the levis trow 100, but I am not exactly sure about that either. I need to re-group and get some hard efforts in before the wors cup. So that's my course of action for now. I have some news about next year, but I need to take care of some scheduling details before I reveal them.