Keeping It Simple

No More Gears Until April! I am approaching 30 days of single speeding and it has been a truely enlightening expereince. I have been riding some pretty rocky trails in the Lehigh Valley and Jim Thorpe, PA area on a rigid fork. Running Tubless tires at a low pressure has made for a sick combination. With all of the leaves and Fallen branches the Single speed has proven to climb like a Mountain Goat on the fall trails, while erasing any feellings of racer burn out from the 06 Season.

Will I ever run Gears again??

Letting it rip on the Downhills......

I had an interesting Race today. No, it wasn't a fierce battle for first place, at this moement I am not sure where I placed. I ended up chasing a younger guy today, The class was 19-34 years old, (usually I race 30-34) he started to loose me on the climbs, but he just didn'thave confidence on the downhills where i would catch him. It was a three lap race, after the first lap I decided that i would let him pull away on the climbs and catch him on all of the downhills. I would save my strength for the 2nd half of the final lap. The plan was working pretty well and I was able to keep him in check until we hit the first major downhill on the second lap. The lead racer from 34-44 yr olds caught up to me, unfortunately he was not a very good downhiller. He passed me and as we hit the down hill he was going much slower then I was capable of, which was inhibiting me from catching the guy in front of me. Just when it could not get any worse he lost it and crashed, i was able to stop in time but it led to a dismount and a loss in time. The guy in front of me was no longer in check, but I did not quit the chase. Generally speaking, when out of sight you are out of mind, it usually works to the leaders advantage, but today it was going to work for myself. I raced through the remainder of the 2nd lap, hitting the down hills very hard.

I began the Third Lap, and as we hit the first long climb I saw the guy in front of me cresting the peak. I locked out my front and rear shock, stood up and began to mash down on the pedals. If I wasn't going to catch him, I was at least going to turn the screws and make this guy hurt trying to shake me. We hit the next down hill, where I didn't quite catch him, but he was within reach. We started to hammer it out again. The trail opened up to a field that began to slope downward to a more technical dowhill... I put it in the big Ring and passed him. I started to put a gap on this guy when I discovered an arrow that was knocked down, i ended up missing a turn at the bottom of the hill. I lost my advantage, as he did not miss the turn and pulled ahead on the climb.

We started into the last climb of the race, which led to the last long semi-technical decent of the race. I locked out again stood up out of the saddle mashing down on the pedals. I could see him, and was slowly closing the gap. We both knew that if I peaked that hill before him, he was done.
It didn't happen, he got to the top about 15 seconds before me. As i peaked the hill I could see him slowly picking his way down the best line of the trail....I through it in the big ring and started bombing, I knew if i was going to beat this guy, I would have to pass him on the gnarly line. Of course i caught him on the most difficult part of the trail, I yelled "RIDER on Your Left" and slammed through a rock pile as though it did not exist.......now it was game on. No brakes and pedaling as fast as i could, it wasn't long before I was out of sight and rolling across the finish line.

No podium finish, but sometimes you don't need one to have a great race!

Wait its not over yet........

3 Short Track races, 6 Cross Country Races, 2 Six hour races, and 100 miler. I just raced in the last race of the Mid-atlantic superseries at Bear Creek followed up with a short track race yesterday. Just as I was about to completely switch gears to chill riding up pops another race on the radar screen. The Panorama Paranormal in VA. A 6 hour race starting at 4PM riding in to the darkness........looks like its time to put in another rode century this weekend.

The Blue Ribbon is an International Sign of Quality

Just wanted to take note.....

Shenandoah Mountain 100

The Weather was perfect, Ernesto blew by VA ahead of schedule and by the time we arrived in Stokesville, It was sunny and the trails were pretty dry. The evening before the race we all gathered for a Spaghetti Dinner and had the Opportunity to meet the pro riders that were about to Kick our ass. Among the pros were Jeremiah Bishop, Chris Eatough and Susan Haywood from the Trek/Volkswagon Factory Team and Harlan Price from independent Fabrications. It was pretty cool when the Sun started to come up on Sunday Morning to be able to line up with the Pros, although this would probably be the last time I would see them until I crossed the Finish line. 630 AM came around and we were off. We took off on the paved contry roads like a roadie peleton for about one mile, as the road twisted and turned you could see the pros stretching it out and hauling ass.We rolled into the first fire road climb, about a thousand feet of elevation gain followed by some sweet down hill single track. We then hit the road for a few miles, prior to hitting pretty big hike a bike single track section. It was pretty steep, full of lots broken slate loose rock, and the entire field was pushing up the trail, so there was really no choice but to push.We slogged our way up to the top and were rewarded again with some Fast Rocky twisting Single track that seemed to continue forever. The next climb was long twisting fire road switch back with approximately 2000 Feet of elevation gain. I started in the middle ring and put the hammer down, it was also a nice opportunity to chat it up with some of the other riders. Again as we reached the Top we were rewarded with a long single track down hill that hugged the side of the mountain to the bottom. At the bottom of the single track we hit Aid station number 3, about 45 Miles into the course. These aid stations are unbelievable, the volunteers were working like a NASCAR pit crew, I rolled in, they stripped me of my, bike, threw it on a bike stand and started lubing the chain, while someone else filled my water bottles with HEED and another volunteer filled my flasks with hammergel. I shoved some Pringles in my mouth and I was off.I hit the road for a few miles when I pulled up next to some crazy guy on a fixed gear, turns out to be tomi mcmillar. After we got our introductions out of the way I suggested that we work together on the road for a while. As we hit the downhill, we had to go our own ways as the fixed gear just cant keep up with a geared bike. We then hit the single track again, we crossed a knee deep river or creek and hit the hike a bike section with a few ledges, for the next hour we pushed and attempted to ride the gnarly loose slate and rocks of the climb. After about 30 minutes of pushing and trying to ride, Tomi Mcmillar caught up and threw the hammer down on his fixie, I was very impressed. Again we were reward at the top after about 1000 feet of climbing with some sweet single track. We bombed down this rocky, rooty, fast, windy, off camber, single track at ludicrous speed. Somewhere in the middle of all of the twisting and turning I was unable to compensate on one of the turns and my hip caught a birch tree. The tree threw me off of the bike and down the slope into the rough. Ass, elbows and water bottles were all over the place. It stung pretty bad, and I thought that this might be the end of the race. I stood up gathered my stuff. I leaned on my bike, I felt a little nauseous . I was really pissed. I was having a great ride and I did not want this to be the end. About 10 Riders passed me and asked if I was OK. I remounted the bike and began to continue bombing down the trail. The initial sting wore away and I was going to be Okay.At the bottom of the single track was aid station number 4, the 57 Mile Mark. Again, on my arrival the volunteers rolled into pit crew mode, they snatched my bike, threw it on a stand, grabbed my water bottles and shoved a banana in my mouth. It was as if they were paid members of my staff….these guys were great! We then hit the fire road for about 18 miles, after a bit of some flat gravel road riding we began our 2500 ft acent up Shenandoah Mtn. This was the most difficult climb of the day, feeling a bit fatigued, for the first time, I had to throw it into the granny gear and slowly climb this beast. After about 30 minutes of climbing I hit Aid station number 5. Now let me tell you about Aid Sation number 5………They had Pizza……just unbelivalbe…Nothing says luvin like Papa Johns at mile 75. A little more climbing after aid station 5 and we began to bomb down some sick single track , roots, Rocks ledges, tight and twisty…it then turned to fire road at which point we hit mach one racing down the mountain. I could not believe you could get this much down hill on the east coast!At the bottom of MTN we hit Aid station number 6, the last aid station. We hit a small road climb and a fast road decent and then the final fire road climb. It was about thousand feet, but I threw it in the middle ring and put the hammer down,Granny gearing the last climb was a good idea, I was able to catch some riders that past me on the climb up Shenandoah MTN since I still had some rounds in the revolver. Somewhere in the Middle of the climb, Tomi Resurfaced, mashing his fixie into submission and passed me like a freight train. Once again another rewarding single track down hill ensued and we rolled into the finish. Just a hair over 11 hours. 150th out of 400.....movin on up.

That which does not kill me, only postpones the inevitable

5 Days until the Shenandoah Mountain 100 in VA.
It may be over by Sunday or Ernesto May Give us the Big FU!!!! Bring It Ernesto I'm putting on some fat tires!!!!

Iron Hill, Deleware=Fast and Furios!

Saturday evening I had no intention of Racing, I kicked back and drank multiple beers and ate some barbecue with my Fiance. I awoke on Sunday at 7:00 AM, headed down stairs threw on the coffee pot feeling sorta groggy. I sat back looked at my dirty unmaintained Cannondale Scalpel and said lets do it. Fortunately it was an early afternoon race so I had plenty of time to load up. I Threw the bike on the car and headed down to Delaware.

We did 4 Laps on this very fast course. I was able to eyeball the leaders rear tire for a better portion of the first lap, but eventually I decided to settle in to my own pace and maintained my position for the next 3 Laps. . A special thanks to Mike Faust for taking awesome picks of the race as usual, Including the picture of me above.

I think this goes under bacon....or beer

6 Hours at Susquehana State Park August 6th, 2006
August 6th, 2006, I feel will be a personal milestone for my endurance racing endeavors. I finished 9th out of 23 males in the open class. Generally speaking, most of my enduros I have competed in, my main goal was to just survive and not come in last. My nutrition strategey is starting to get dialed in. I used only HEED, Hammergel and Endurolytes. I started off slow and very quickly the leader led 15 riders out of my sight. I decieded to stick to my guns and not push it, I had 6 hours to reel in anyone that was not deserving of finishing ahead of me.

The Venue

Susquehana Stae Park in Harve De Grace Maryland is awesome, the trail flowed very nicely with a few technical climbs, a few logs and a few bomber downhills. The Perfect coures for a six hour race.