Chasing the Chamois....A tale of the Wilderness 101

Gong! 0530 on 1 August 2009 the Gong went off! It was time to leave the warmth of the tent, eat, hit the porta potty, chamois up, and get ready for 101 miles of Dirt.


Next to me at the Start fellow Team Bikeman Racers, Brad S, Josh W. and John B.

A few rows Behind me was Former Team Bikeman dot com Racer and creator of XXC mag Jason M.

The Motos that would lead us out moved to the front of the group. As they fired up their bikes and reved the motors getting ready to lead us through town, Brad gave me the nod and the look…..It was on.

You see a few nights earlier, the message came down from Bikeman Headquarters from Big Al…”Pete, I need you to stay back and hang on Jason’s wheel. Don’t Give him the opportunity to bridge the Gap to the boys up front”.

Well, orders are orders, and mid-way through the first climb I saw Jason make his move. I was recovering from pushing a bit too hard but I knew I needed to protect my teammates in the front. I answered his attack and for the next 60 miles Jason did some pulling.


All Joking aside, I was happy to be riding with someone I knew. I let Jason do a lot of the pulling – in fact I Let him do all of the pulling. He was on a mission. Anytime I broke the wind on the flats at his pace, It was just plain uncomfortable.


Questions arose -


Where was this kid going?



Is he Crazy?

What PSI is he running in that Shock?

Did I leave my Iron on?



Look Mom No Hands!!!



I was pretty certain that at this pace, I would not have riding company for very long….that is until we hit the first descent. I was able to open up a bit of a gap as I bombed down the first single track section. I didn’t think it was anything special, but Jason made a comment when he caught me on the next climb about how fast I made my way down.

We made it to the first super funky single track section, the one loaded with amateur photographers – wet bridges, gnarly rocks, and another gap opened up. I hit the next climb I really paced myself on this one as I was glad not to be hanging on to Jason’s rear wheel while I tried to settle into a more normal heart rate zone. As I worked my way around the switch back, there was Jason just below closing the gap….no quicker then I could yell “let’s go Chamois boy” Jason was reeling me back in.

I figured if I am going to finish with Jason, I need to let him go on the climbs, and work my magic on the descents and perhaps at some point things would even out a bit.

I can’t remember how I ended up in front of Jason on the long Single track rocky climb, but there was a lot of walking next to my bike, and a lot of looking back, watching Jason walk next to his bike.

At some point, I decided to take a nature break and Jason , rolled on by. I shook it off got on the bike. Soon enough I caught back up and gravity started to take over.

This my friends, was the beginning of the coolest downhill section of the entire 101 miles. I had only ridden this section of trail once in 2007, but as I was descending, I remembered every detail, every rock, every turn. Riders ahead of my were pulling over to get out of the way, almost as if I were Mosses making my way through the Red Sea. It was beautiful.

Back to reality and onto pavement I made my way to the next aid station. Filled the bottles and hit the next climb…..always looking over my shoulder. I was going slow…pushing was involved, things weren’t look so hot. It was only a matter of time before Jason would show up again. I was feeling pretty worthless at this point.


I finally made it to the last climb, still looking over my shoulder. At this point 75 % of the riders I past on the hairy single track descent caught me, but there was no sign of Jason. Damn, after the first switch back I started to worry a bit. Surely he would of caught me by now. Maybe something bad happened?

Anyway, I got over the climb, descended and made my way through the last super technical single track section; I passed one of the Top Masters riders, who had more legs then me, but not quite the skill set. He caught up later on the flrat rail trail, he through down a wicked attack. I was able to hang on, thinking I would launch my own attack near the finish. We were much further out then I thought, so I started to wear down, but still hung on. We hit the final tunnel…. It was dark, so he played it conservative and dismounted, however I could see the line clearly and I plowed through opening up a big gap. He caught back up and started to hammer. At this point I let the dude take it.




Maybe there were some funky master’s points to be achieved for finishing 129th instead of 130th . I definitely had it in me to punch it at the line, but he pulled my ass for the last 4 miles I think pulling any shenanigans would have been a dirt bag move.

Jason Finally resurfaced at the finish, I was glad to see him, as I really thought something bad might have happened to him.

The night ended with Burgers, Beers, hanging out with some new people and talking smack. The race was tough enough for me to swear of endurance racing forever, but Im already looking at heading down to Shenandoah....so maybe ill see you there!

Wilderness 101

Time To Rock out Brother!!!!!

Marysville - I almost rang the bell

Things started going bad during my 9 hour solo effort at Marysville at the 5 hour mark. by hour 6 I started questioning my existence and I swore I would never do an endurance race again.

I was trying to go back to an all liquid nutrion plan, and it wasn't working...but i didn't quite realize it until it was too late.

After things went bad I rolled into the pit and sat down in the chair. I didn't think I was going to get back up. I grabbed a sandwich from my cooler and a coke feeling sory for myself. I saw a former teamate that i dropped hours ago roll by and It just pissed me off that I was going to quit so I got back on the bike feeling like ass. I dumped the bottles on my bike and filled them with water and shoved some pumpernickel pretzels in my pocket.

I rolled out and by the end of the lap, i was coming back to life. I was able to get back into position catching the folks that rolled by me during my break down.

The course was wicked cool, lots of steep ups and downs, and logs everywhere.

I was able to maintain a top ten finish out of 30 somthing.

Really though, the best part was camping and throwing down some beers with everyone.

Trans-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic

Oh Man MTB Stage Epic Coming to state college next year! Who's in?

Time To Vist PA!

If this mofo keeps running ill be their by Friday night!

A little Exploration

I made a little trip to Mom and Dad's farm in NY this weekend for Fathers day. I have only been there a few times since they setup camp so I packed the bikes for some potential Exploration.

I rolled in Saturday morning and saw dad cruising on his latest acquisition, a 1952 Farmall Tractor.



This thing is pretty cool - It runs awesome. I got to take it for a quick spin.


I spent some time on Sunday exploring on the Mountain Bike, my Dad's cousin has a big piece of land across the street. If you look at the picture below, he owns a big chunk of that hill across the street from dad's house. He had a road put in from where his current house is that goes to the top of the hill where he will build another house.





The road doesn't really have any switch backs and it goes straight up. I road up it on Sunday, and I almost didn't make it. I actually had to put my foot down.


The View from the Top was nice, if you look above my bike you can see the dot that is actually my parents house.



There are bunch of double track trails cut up top, but It was really water logged from the rain, and there was a lot of dead fall, so riding was dificult, but there were some kick ass climbs.



After screwing around on the MTB for a few hours, I switched over to the road bike. I need a bit more time to explore as, a lot of the roads I mapped out on google were actually private dirt roads, but I think I will be able to piece some nice stuff together.

Beating The Weather....Its just a few Flakes

This is amazing, I totally imagined moving back east to suffer through a Hot Humid Nasty Summer, but except for one hot weekend in may, its been bouncing from the 50's through the 70's up here in New England and Very wet. I really like the temps, but the Precipitation is a bit challenging.

I am taking advantage of the flexible work schedule. This weekend was a bit crappy so I knocked out some work ahead of time Sunday, The Radar was looking good for Monday so I jumped back on the bike after forwarding some of the stuff I worked on and answering a few emails.

I watched the Radar on Tuesday and hit the trail when the hourly forcast allowed sometimes taking a few drops of rain.

Wednesday was nice all around.

Today called for significant rain right around our group ride time this evening, so I opted to throw down a big effort in the AM - and meet with some customers in the PM.

Looks like Friday will be solid rain - but 13 hours of singletrack in sofar this week so it might be time to chill

Heading to Ma and Pas in New York, might be able to get in Some Climbing on the Road Sunday in the Catskills...

Next week...maybe Marysville 9 hour Race

11 hours of single track Screw it....im gonna put on a pot of sauce

I put in some quality time on the bike this week - 11 hours of Single Track by COB Thursday. I took the day of Friday.

Today I was thinking of hitting up a 75 mile road ride with the local club, which would have been pure abuse. They were Rolling at 6 AM which means i needed to be up at 4:30 to do my coffee breakfast, clear the system ritual...i couldn't get up that early so I decided to roll with some Mountain Bikers at Wompatuck.

I totally missed the start time, so i went out on my own, flatted instantly, the nozel for my can of Big AIr was jacked....so it was back to the house and on the road bike for a solo effort.

I felt pretty whooped, I guess i needed more recovery time....if I went out on that group ride it could of went really bad!


The Food Channel was on when I got home --- Rachel Ray was whippin up some meatballs....i looked real cool in my lycra watchin Rachel Ray when the wife Walked in on me....seriously chicks dig that stuff.

After takin the wife out for lunch....I was on mission to make some sauce....

\

If there is one thing I learned - browning the meatballs is an art.




The Freinds of Wompatuck Published the Race Map for this Years Landmine Mountain Bike Race. Its a 25 mile loop - with an Enduro option for 50 Miles!



Its going to be a sick race, and knowing the trail is going to be a huge advantage, so the plan is to try and hit at least one lap of the race course each week, if not set a side a day where I can do the 50. Things are pretty chill - Tommorow is going to be another Rest Day, but on the bike with the wife at the Blue Hills -

Later

Pete is a fan of Teflon Tape

I was getting this wicked sick (yeah i know) creak coming from the lefty and the project 321 adapter that makes it fit so nice on the mamasita. It was really buming me out. it has a big psychological effect on my riding, everytime it creaks, i think about it blowing to pieces.

I thought i would try to grease the heck out of it today. I broke it down than applied a real thick coat of grease on the spacers when I thought about the Teflon tape solution for my EBB creak on the Sir nine. So i wiped down the the spacer removed the grease and wrapped it tight with some Plumbers PTFE Tape.



So no more creak!


I removed the nine speed chain and put a new/used BMX chain that i had lying around - It fit so snug, its about a milimeter tighter then the 9 speed chain, making it the perfect fit without a chain tensioner.




I tried throwing down a four hour ride to day, but it turned into a one hour ride as the rain started to become overwhelming. Im glad i got out for a bit anyway.

Iron Hill Enduro, Newark, DE

I have some business in PA tomorrow, awesome opportunity to the hit the Iron Hill Enduro. Well the forecast was for Sun all Day today but Iron Hill managed to get the only bit of rain on the east coast for 2 hours before the race which turned the course to peanut butter.



I was riding very poorly for the first two laps until things spread out a bit. It was very slipery and the Maxxis Crossmarxs werent hanging on very well on the off camber descents and turns.

Acura matt missed the start by three minutes and manged to catch me. We hit the next climb and he was gone. I had no desire to step it up at that point.

Things started to dry out a bit and I got my mojo back and was able to catch matt. we road together for a few laps...this was fun, we each took turns in the front and it was nice to bust some balls while riding. 3 hours in and the Sport Crowd was on the coarse. We passed when needed.



We got to a real technical climb that most people were not cleaning. I rolled through it and i think Matt got hung up and stuck behind some of the sport riders so i decided it was time to end our social event and I attacked. In an effort to not get stuck behind some of the Fat kids on the decent i kept putting the hammer down to get around the Sport riders, but the downhill never came, but there where more Fat Kids, so i Kept pedaling hard.

I was a bit torched, but the downhill finally came and i had to recover - i was really flying - i hit another climb, then another descent.....then it all ended very abruptly with a 15 MPH direct hit on a tree. I was surprised that the impact did not hurt, but both of my legs locked up completely. I had never experienced that before, there was nothing i could do. i couldn't move either leg.

I managed to get back on the bike, but i was pretty much done - Matt finally rolled up on me and I decided that I wasn't going out for the next lap. I lost my timing chip and they did not give us number plates so there were no results for me but I didnt really care nor did I want to sit down with the promoter and piece things together, but i think I finished an unofficial 10th, but would have easily finished with Matt around 7th or 8th had I not pulled my shenanigans. It was still fun, and good training.


The day ended with a Pig iron Porter out of the Cask at the Iron Hill Brewery.

TIme for Some Scrapple! PA Bound

I am off to PA for some work - this works out well, im going to be able to Race the 4 hour Enduro at Iron Hill with Acura Matt.

I don't know what it is but, I always feel good inside when the bike is in the Car with me......



In the mean time I picked up a small compressor to aid in mounting my tires, this was long overdue and a good investment.





After Destroying my Rohloff Chain Guide, I discovered that the bash guard Deraileur combo works way better for the 1 x 9 setup.





Met some cool people on Thursday from the NEMBA Site and i was pleasantly surprised when they kicked my ass on the trail for two hours and introduced me to many miles of awesome technical single track that I have yet to ride.

"I was totally stoked to meet a group of riders who could turn the screws on me."

8 hours in the Saddle Before Work

Man - I was a bit concerned about the flat lands and motivation to train. Friday i went out with a few of the local road clubs for a century that happens every year on the Friday before memorial day.

The first 50 miles seemed pretty chill and uneventful. We stopped for lunch at a deli, refilled our bottles.

The way back was a very solid pace, consistently above 20 MPH. Some dudes were taking some pretty wicked pulls. I ran out of water and we weren't stopping so at mile 100 I was in survival mode but still took a few pulls....the group winded down to about 20 then to about 4 riders. Even at 4 they were consistently attacking to the very end.

I was Impressed. I was in Pain. I was totally stoked to meet a group of riders who could turn the screws on me.

Refilled some bottles after 100 miles, rolled into the finish....then took the lonely ride home

130 miles

Met a lot cool people.


I took saturday off, went for a short MTB ride on Sunday and worked some bugs out of the Dos niner that have been pissing me off

Monday, I took my wife out for a ride at the blue hills, it was here first ride of the year and she did real well.


I was able to get into the Vermont 50 today. Woot!

Pete

The Crit

There is a local Criterium Training series here in my town, I gave it a whirl tonight, my first road race. 25 laps in Wompatunck, No cars and about 30 Starters. It was Open to Cat 3,4 and 5.


I had never done this before, the fast crowd went off the front super hard, and i thought the right thing to do would be to get on the train.

That was a bad decision. I blew up pretty quick and got dropped, the chase group came rolling by, I hesitated a bit and didnt have the juice to latch on so i got blown off that back pretty quick. I tried to close the gap but it wasnt happening so i slowed up and waited for them to come around again. Its a training race so no big deal.

After that it was really wierd, very easy to hang on most of the time, with a bunch of attacks that led me hanging on for dear life....then i am up front pulling....somtimes coasting.

Well, i figure it out next week.

Passawang

Saturday, joe and I took off from Bazel to endure a 5 hour adventure. We negoitated our way out of town - I had two bottles of water, no food, 100 Swiss Franks and no clue what was ahead of us.....i was a bit concerned about the no food part.





We got a Swiss Map from a customer that rides, it was very easy to navigate, almost every intersection has signs pointing to the next town.




We Hit a grocery story in a small town before we mad our way to the countryside. After 20 minutes of fumbling, and getting someone to understand the word powerbar I found a Tube of this stuff called IsoStar - very similar to Nuun, but it comes in a very big tube.....that and a bunch of granola bars and we were on our way.









As we made our way out of town we found a nice 1000 foot climb that led us to the country side.











We were riding kind of slow coming out of this one town as we were figuring things out and this dude and a girl roll up and pass us. The dude was pulling a trailer with a 50 to 100 pound weight in it. This may not seem signifcant now, but he was killing it on the big climb!



very slowly it started to up


and up





Then it got a bit crazy and steep I stoped briefly to take a picture of where we came from.....out of view is the steep road below. I didnt realize, i was nowhere near the top.




We finally got to the top, over 3000 feet. It was a bitch clibming with the 21 tooth rear cog.






Some really cool bike paths that cut right through the middle of farms.




Water Refill - You can drink out of any fountain in Switzerland which ended up being very convenient.









Thought this was an interesting place to put a rock poster.





The Granola bars werent treating us to well so we had to cut the ride short and refuel. Seriously we should of went for a different fuel source.

Week 2: Basel

We had a pretty successful week of testing in Basel. Roadie Joe and I met up with another Colleague from the U.S. on Friday for dinner followed by Rocking it out to some Awesome 80's tunes in a very crowded bar.

Not much happened on Saturday, but today we got up early to do a 3 hour ride. I cued up a route from the internet but we really didnt know what it was going to be like. As we made our way outside of Basel, we met a local rider who showed us the way to the biggest climb in the area.



I haven't really hit any big climbs since I left California so this was indeed a treat- but it was even better to be able to battle it out with Joe on the climb just like old times, sprinting 6 kilometers to the top passing many riders on the way.













After the ride the sales manager for Europe picked us up and brought us to his house in France for Lunch......and some beverages.


It was good to find an exceptional beer in a can!





After a very big lunch, we took a walk down the Rine river. Here are some Pill Boxes built do defend against the Germans during WWII.