2011 Hogsback CX Course

The race course has been laid out via GPS, Changed significantly from the original course mapped back in August to shorten up the lap. Kids will not do the new section and will go straight to the run up.

Register early!!!! This is going to be a great weekend. Click HERE to get to the site and look for the entry form or link on the to the Bikereg site on the right side of the page.

Thanks to the following sponsors for coming through.

Tomahawk Mainstree Inc.
Tomahawk Chamber of Commerce
Tomahawk Internet Cafe
Tomahawk Surplus Store
Redeye Brewing Company - Wausau
Van's What's Brewin
Sammy's Subs
Sprocketz Bike Shop - Weston
Infinit Nutrition
Planet Bike
Clif Bar
and more to come....

Chequamegon

I look forward to this race each and every year.  Full of tradition staying with the Performa and BikeHub/Specialized teams and lining up for 40 miles with close to 2000 other riders.

I pull in to our beautiful home for the weekend at around 2 and by 3:30 we split up and some go pre-ride the course and register while others hung back by the cabin.  Nate Jasperson decides to go for a ride and after thinking about my week leading up to the race I decided to join him for a ride around the lake.  We certainly were outsiders to the road riding scene of Hayward Wisconsin where we encountered one of these road rider creatures.  This character clearly looked at us in disgust as we waived in passing leading to his ultimate snubbing of us and our kind gesture besides who rides mountain bikes on the road in Hayward Wisconsin on the week of the 40?  It was a nice ride over the river and through the woods back to our cabin for the weekend.

Upon our arrival to the cabin we descended into Telemark to pick up our bags and number plates, plus check out the merch out on display.  These guys have the registration dialed and all were excited and happy to help which at times may not always seem to be the case at other events, so things were going pretty well up to this point.

We get back to enjoy some dinner that Nate and Kim made.  Frankly, this may need to be the go forward prerace food as I felt awesome the next day despite a couple of Leinies Oktoberfest that were consumed with dinner.  Prepped our stuff for race day and off to bed.

We had an early wake up to go stage our bikes.  The plan was to get there and get in line to stage our bikes as close to the front as possible.  Normally I like to stay to either side and not the middle but found I would in past races get lost out the back cause the faster wheels to follow were going through the center as a large group.  So I staged about 5 rows back behind the preferred start punks (aka lucky bastards) took a look at where we were at in hopes to remember that same spot at 9:45 after 1900 more people put their bikes in behind you....ha...the likeliest of scenarios.

So we pull up to our normal parking area for the race the same spot that Brett has parked for the last 8 years only to find a wedding was going down that day (what a bad choice on day since if you are local you know it's cheqfat weekend.)  so we parked in front of the building anyway and did the stretch, snack, stretch, warmup, use the portajohn, stretch, use the porta john routine.  Then and only then we could go to staging.

The start of the race went off without the cannon as it didn't fire when it was supposed to but no worries as there wasn't much of an issue due to the general population and preferred start mixer that always happens when the gun goes off and we always catch the back group of the preferred starters.  As always there were a few hard brakes but seemed less than in years past.  I stuck onto Brett's wheel as long as I could until just before Rosie's field and the trail closed up, I went to the left, he was somewhere in the center I think, but in reality he was already gone so I was now on my own to chase.  At this point I sat in comfortably in the top 100 or so and I think I knew this cause I was recognizing many people in this group like Joel Hynes, Randy, Tim Ek and many others so I was pretty happy.  I would hold this and pass on the climbs for about the first five miles.

About five miles in I get a funny wobble in my rear wheel just before a climb which led to a wheel buzzing.  I stopped immediately on the side of the trail to assess the damage thinking I blew another hub, but was surprised to see that my quick release had come undone and flipped open.  So as 150 or more people flew by in the few minutes I calmly flipped the bike over and make sure that I kept the wheel aligned correctly and that it was tight.  Somewhere during this process I didn't realize that my seat bag became opened and lost all of the contents so I hoped to not get a flat or break a chain.  After that fiasco I chased up the hill to begin recovering the spots I had lost.  I had a difficult time finding a good group to ride with.  Each group I caught I would get to the front thinking I could pull and then cycle through, but each time I did so I looked back to see no one was there.  This would happen well past OO.  I would again face a tense moment when two riders came together in the middle of the trail which pushed a rider into me.  Luckily we both saved it and marched on up the hills, but from there I lost Ek who had caught me seconds before the crash took place.  This really made me mad cause if I wanted to make a move to push for a good placing he would be the one I would need to stick with no matter what.

From there I would continue to fly up the climbs push hard on the fire roads and ride strong up fire tower hill.  At this point each year I feel a cramp coming on at the top, but also each year I get motivated to push the limits and make my move once I hit the birkie trail.  From the time the guy announcing placing on the course (I wonder how he is keeping track of 300+ by the time he got to me) I went from 300 after losing so much time 5 miles in to 340 and then come through to telemark on Jshoe's wheel finishing in 276th out of 1919 finishers.  I do know I can ride a better race than that, but I did set a new PR for me at 2h37min and really I can live with that.

Tradition doesn't end with the race, however, we migrated back to the cabin to discuss things like salads, goats, and the methods behind the superman costume and after some stories were shared we then visited the original (OG) Famous Daves.  It was a great race weekend and it really reminds me why I got into this whole racing thing to begin with so thanks to Nate and Kim for setting up the cabin and dinner and to everyone out there that shared the great time.  

Hogsback CX Race is on!

Come get some on 11/12/2011 at Bradley Park in Tomahawk, WI.  Cyclocross racing starts at 10am with the kids race with the experts and pros at 1pm.  Flannels, costumes, and moustaches are highly encouraged...it is afterall taking place in the northwoods and besides who says you can only wear costumes on Halloween!

Kids Race is $10
"B" and "C" races are $25
"A" race is $30

There may be a hill climb challenge as well after it's all said in done depends on how many takers/racers there are.

Website:
http://www.hogsbackcx.blogspot.com/

http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=14300

So I Wanna Try Something Different

Okay so earlier this year (February) I purchased a Kona Cross bike due to the fact that the ride would be best suited for a bike like that on roads in my area.  Some of you may not like this and I get it, but I am going to do some Cyclocross races this fall/winter.  It's been something I've been thinking about for a while now and with the re-kindled relationship I have with running on grass and dirt, I think this will be right up my alley.

Had my first practice on Wednesday with Ben Koenig, Casey Hildebrandt, Matt Block and Justin Braathen.  The touture on the hot laps was the most fun in a long time.

I will of course still race my mountain bike, but I need to mix it up.

July Is Here and I Think My Legs Are To

July started off with a bang (no pun intended of course) I was really looking forward to the Thunderdown 10 Hour Solo and rightfully so considering this was a home race for me.  This course is hard enough to eliminate any advantage you think you have as the Underdown and Bill himself has mysterious ways of inflicting pain upon those who dare to take his or her opponents to war at his homestead.  I made the threat of ripping apart the course and Mr. Underdown didn't take too kindly to my first shot fired at his direction.  He made me pay unleashing insects, taking the chain off my crank, turning open trails into a virtual oven, and this would leave me and my battered soul for dead, but I wouldn't let it end that way and despite my stomach distress and other pain that I care not to mention, I felt the reward of sticking it out and Bill gave me that last push of energy to finish a final strong 3/4 of lap 3 to finish the race in 3rd place.  No growler would be in the cards for me this year but the taste of redeye's finest brew was well worth the punishment that the Underdown had bestowed upon me. 


Wait.....there's more....Thunderdown was July 2nd I would again be called upon to toe the line on Independence Day for a 5K run beatdown as part of Tomahawk's annual Pow-Wow Days celebration and I wasn't sure what to expect here since I haven't devoted any time to running since just before the WEMS opener at the Stump Farm so no running since mid April...I was to die out there for sure with the heat index close to 100 again, but I abandoned all fear cause in the end it was only going to be a run of less than a half hour or so "I can ride a bike for over 24 hours I should be able to survive a 5K with no problem"  Is what I said to myself as I was heading to the start line ready to take off with over 350 starters.  I along with an old teammate of mine from back on the Tomahawk Cross Country Team used old tactics to quickly make our way to the chase group of around 20 people where he clearly had the legs that day and I was happy to maintain visual contact for the duration and finished with a time of 21:32 and 26th overall out of 340 finishers.  I would then circle back and jog backwards on the course to locate my two cousins and uncle who were running the 10K in which I would run with each one to the finish line until all have crossed.  I would need a couple of days to recover after that sequence of training.

Not less than a week later I would start to get a feel for this whole bikepacking thing.  I loaded up my Kona Jake and Ergon BD1 pack and headed for Minocqua and more specifically The Minocqua Brewing Company.  I thoroughly enjoyed riding the hiawatha-bearskin trails for the 80 mile out and back journey loaded up with around 20lbs of random gear.

This week and going foward my heart will race and I will dream in anticipation for the biggest journey into the darkness of the pain cave I will face this season.   It's about two weeks away and I am slowly transitioning over to full on Wausau24 mode. I am already thinking about how to break my laps down to get the number of laps I need or feel will need to be competitive.  I spend time telling myself that I am in a place where I can be a legitimate threat for the podium barring the unknown.  I constantly think through my nutrition and where I went wrong last year and how to improve upon it based on weather, terrain, competition and other variables.  There are so many things to consider when going into a 24 hour solo race besides just riding your bike till your racing heart pumps battery acid, for example: Battery life and charging, Pace, Setting up for the run, when to pick up lights and eat, how many calories are going in, weather, pit area location, support, battery charging (yes, I mentioned this twice), list goes on....  So as of today 7/15/2011 I grow more and more excited to roll out onto the course for the first of many laps and will continue to dream/daydream of descending down trail #1 and crossing over redbud road again after the midnight hour to be greeted by the superfans and music so loud it gives you goose bumps each and every time you pass by.

This is no time for excuses or to forget the lessons that the ghost of Bill Underdown has taught me.  I will be victorious in some sense of the word, victory and accomplishment is based upon the goals you set for yourself along with your faith in yourself and knowing that there are much larger forces watching over you and at times protecting you from yourself, I will live and die by that very sword on race day.  Oh and a little extra motivation never hurts either and how just a single comment can give you that extra push with about 2 weeks to go.  I am ready for 25 hours of pain probably more so than years past.  As Tim Wilcox would say.....GET SOME!!

What are you doing this weekend?

Day 1 of Skyrider Build - Tear Down

If only it were always that easy.....

First step was to disassemble it down to the frame and try not to ingest heaping servings of rust. The crank, wheels, and frame had large amounts of surface rust on it. Oh how there is a silver lining....I found a solution in the form of aluminum foil and coke which allowed me to remove the rust from chrome, the crank looks like the new and the sidewalls of the wheels look nicely polishedl but in need of a good truing. The best part is all but the seatpost collar was attached bike should only need a chain, tires and tubes, and some additional hardware like a saddle to make it right. Paint will need to be done to prevent tetanus shots from being a requirement upon riding this.

 (Can you tell which side got the coke/foil treatment?)

 (Before)

(After)

Lessons learned so far: rusted screws threaded onto rusted bolts call for a dremmel tool.  You will give yourself a headache if you think wd-40 and a socket/wrench is going to loosen it for you.

In case you were wondering what happend with my chicago schwinn varsity.  There is some welding and cutting going on right now....I did not appreciate the kickstand being part of the frame.  I also just recently accquired a Schwinn Continental (so i've been told) for $5 Can't wait to pick that up also I have a unidentified tandem from either the late 50's or early 60's.

That is all for now.