Bikes, Beers and Bacon

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

2009-08-03T20:16:00.003-05:00

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

2009-07-30T19:04:00.002-05:00

Time To Rock out Brother!!!!!

Marysville - I almost rang the bell

2009-06-29T21:04:00.004-05:00

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

2009-06-28T16:30:00.002-05:00

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

Time To Vist PA!

2009-06-24T19:54:00.003-05:00

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

A little Exploration

2009-06-22T17:25:00.011-05:00

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

2009-06-18T19:35:00.002-05:00

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

2009-06-13T16:35:00.008-05:00

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

2009-06-09T19:08:00.005-05:00

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

2009-05-31T19:00:00.006-05:00

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

2009-05-27T18:34:00.009-05:00

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."

2009-05-22T13:59:00.005-05:00

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

2009-05-20T19:56:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-16T15:24:00.034-05:00

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

2009-05-10T14:08:00.010-05:00

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.

Basel

2009-05-05T13:59:00.014-05:00

This Place is about Bikes.....

And some other stuff...

Seriously, everyone seems to ride to work, but Joe and i are the only ones sportin lycra.....

This big green train scares the crap out of me... they run one in each direction with traffic at the same time and I almost blew it out today getting my wheel stuck in the track.....well i learned quick on that one.

So we have been riding to work every day which is fun, but we took a quick spin after work .

we found a short climb with about 1200 feet of elevation gain. it was pretty neat.

You have to buy this insurance sticker from the Govt for like 5 Franks. If they catch you with out it, its a 150 Frank fine.

Luckily there was another US Cyclist working at our customers site and he totatly hooked us up with the sticker...we didn't even ask him.

The plan may be to link up and ride into Germany this weekend with our new friend. Things are getting delayed with the project so if we are here for an addional week, we may take a big trip to check out the Giro D'Italia.

Stay tuned.

Training Camp: Europe

2009-05-02T19:39:00.010-05:00

I have to really turn it up. There is some serious training going on in the The Shammy Camp and I am not going to be able to keep up with the lack of elevation around here.

Bags are packed and Im rolling to Basel Tonight to link up with Roadie Joe for some training in the alps.....ok so we are really going to work but we are bringing our bikes.

I left my bike box at my parents and i didnt have time to pick it up, but I still have this bad boy from my move back East.

Its a Trek Madonne Box that Trek ships the bikes to the dealers with - I got it for free from Chain Reaction Bikes in Redwood City, CA.

They actually charge like 20 bucks for the Box, but they werent sure it would fit my bikes, so they just gave it to me.

Its pretty sweet it comes with built in pads and straps.

I got out for a good 3 hour spin at Wompatuck today. It ended with a flat that i couldnt fix, I didnt have a tire lever, and i can barely get the Pythons on with the lever, so i was hosed and had to ride it back. I think its time to pick up a beefier tire, maybe somthing from maxxis.

Good times.

The Mamasita keeps blowing me away

2009-04-28T17:52:00.009-05:00

I put another 3 hours on the mamasita today. The 32 17 gearing seems to really fit the the local trail and the Cannondale Lefty is working out nice. I had to ditch the lefty in California as the high speed decents were rocking my world. With the rocky rooty terrain out here im going back to minimal travel.

I am enjoyin it so much that im thinking about getting a new wheel set. I have a salsa delgado up front and its pretty heavy with a tube. Im running a stans 355 with a WTB hub in the rear with no chain tensioner - just pure luck.

I am thinking maybe get a stans wheel built with a lefty hub up front and and Stans wheel for the rear with an ENO hub sp that i can actually use somthing other then 32 17.

I am getting really stoked about my trip to Switzerland next week. I have never been to Europe so It should be wicked sick.

I am bringing my Road Bike and as luck would have it Roadie Joe is my partner on this project so he is bringing his bike too. We are thinking about renting a car on the weekend and heading to the alps for some serious climbing if the weather cooperates. If that doesn't happen, we will probably just end up drinking.

Not Taking any Chances

2009-04-27T16:17:00.002-05:00

Training has been good...Can't let a possible Swine flu pandemic slow me down.

I hit the road for about 3 hours today, spent some time exploring the area, found some nice roads. I feel pretty fresh. I think im going to prep for an early ride tomorrow on the single speed. Its funny, they say you need to train on the road, but the dirt is the only place around here i can get my heart rate up and keep it up.

Re-birth of the Mamasita

2009-04-25T15:36:00.004-05:00

Two days ago, I busted out the niner sir nine single speed, I hadn't ridden it in a while and it felt really awakward after spending so much time on the Dos niner and the Mamasita. It was clearly two small for me.

So this morning i got up and rebuilt the Mamasita. It has been out of servie since i used all of the parts for the Dos niner.

I planned on using a funky Chain tensioner, but i noticed that 32 18 might be a perfect fit so i broke some links.The chain ended up being too short by a hair. I went into the tool box and wipped out a 17 tooth cog. Perfect Fit!

I took her out fer a spin today and everything held up pretty good. I originally had a rigid fork on her, but after getting beat up real good i figured it was time to throw on the lefty. The lefty wasnt a good choice for West coast single track, but i think its going to do real well back east with the real technical stuff.

I was planning on a 6 hour ride today but ended up cutting it short to 3 hours. It was a tall gear to push and the rigid fork just beat the crap out of me. I do love how on a rigid single speed navigating thourgh some of some of the Rockiest rootiest, gnarly, wet slimy terrain can be done much more efficiently then on bike with some travel but once things start moving fast thats when i start to miss the technology.

Back on the Road

2009-04-22T17:31:00.002-05:00

No...Not travlin again, but i got on the Road bike late this morning. I headed out to the blue hills reservation to find the hills in the area. I did a little exploring, then chased down another roadie. He was really friendly and ended up showing me around a bit, and we chatted about the local club scene and some of the rides.

In other news I got the single speed put back together...Im thinking about throwing down some long one geared miles on Saturday.

I dont know what it is about the single speed, but it keeps pulling be back for some pain. Im thinking about busting it out again for some enduros this year even though i just built up the plush dos niner.

Back to Leesburg

2009-04-20T18:02:00.003-05:00

So After Zoning out in the Mail Truck for a good 8 hours I made it to Leesburg, VA for the Bakers Dozen. I rolled in to find Matt, Dan Rob, Sarah and dog Dakota suited up for a preride.

Man if it didnt feel awesome to see some familiar faces on knobby tires!

I setup camp and then Brian arrived with Mark B. from South Mountain Cycles. I headed out for a pre-ride with Mark which proved to be a very valuable experience since my rear wheel fell off midway, resulting in the 29er pole vault on to my ass. I think at that point Liz, Josh and Todd Wells Showed up.

After the ride, I picked up my race packet and ran into world famous blogger and Cheif editor/founder of XXC Mag who was setting up with with Bikeman Teammate Brad

We took a quick trip into town for dinner and we recieved a warm welcome at a local establishement that didnt seem to mind that we were in shorts, T-shirt, sweaty and had our race numbers written on the back of our legs despite the dress code sign on the door.

Anyway, I had no particular goals for this race other then seeing some friends and throwing down a lot of miles.....but I think deep down I really wanted to chase after Vegan Rob for as long as i could right from the start.

I started of deep in the pack with Matt, Dan, Brad and Mark close by...the gun went off and there was nasty crash immediately...I was able to avoid it but Matt wasn't so lucky.....I looked back with sympathy, since this wasn't actually war it was okay to leave a man behind. Matt understood.

So I went out and quickly got caught up in the XC BS pace before getting into my own groove, i pulled over and let Brad and a few others go around so i could settle in. About 2 hours in I got lapped By Rob. I thought this was a good opportunity to throw down and see if I could hang, but that only lasted for a quarter of a pedal stroke before he was gone.

The rest of the Race was pretty chill, I caught a lap or two with Matt and Dan, and took a few breaks.

After Seeing Dan and Matt chiling with beers around sunset I started to think about how I wanted to spend the rest of the night. I put on a long sleeve jersey and knee warmers and set my lights up. As i grabed something to eat Mark Rolled in to put on his lights. He asked for a scissor to cut his number plate off. I started to heckle him that this was where Craig Gordon took Chris Eatough during the light exchange, but he was pretty focused on the task at hand.

As i rolled out, I saw Jason and Brad sporting jeans and sweat shirts, sitting in chairs....they were done....Everyone i knew was chilling out. I thought about that for my night lap. I thought about the Sun shower sitting on the roof of the mail truck and that was it.

It was time to put the bike down and chill with some friends. They encouraged me to keep going....but i just saw there lips moving and the beer in there hand....

Good Times!

Leesburg Weather - shapin up!

2009-04-16T07:54:00.002-05:00

This is going to be a good One!

Dialed in for a good time

2009-04-15T18:14:00.004-05:00

Spent the last few days gathering some stuff for the Leesburg Bakers Dozen, 13 hours of Racing in VA!

Im so stoked to be going down, I like to think of this as my homecoming event. I really didn't think I was going to get the opportunity to move back from California so soon - and everything is clickin with the work schedule allowing me to head down.

Everyone is going to Be there! I am not too concerned about how well I will do - but I am really excited about throwing down some laps with some old friends.

I raced Leesburg, two years ago, the inaugural event and it was the first year I took endurance training seriously and the first and few podiums I ever earned.

I am not sure where my fitness is at the moment, its been an awkward winter traveling a lot. I didn't get in a lot of long rides, but i did get in some pretty good climbs in California so the plan is to wing it and see how things go.

Anyway, I got the Dos Niner Dialed in this week, I mounted up some Hutchinson Pythons on a brand new set of Bontrager Race light wheels, and put on a full Triple Crank and a front derailleur.

I took the new Rig down to Wompatuck to burn the wheels in a little bit. I wanted to make sure the tires aren't going to blow off the Rim. I have never used a bontrager tubeless set up before.

This should be good, its going to be an awesome start to the Season!

My new office - Womatuck

2009-04-09T17:57:00.003-05:00

The forecast was awesome today, so after making some breakfast, I threw the blackberry in my pocket and headed to the trail. It was time to make for some lost time for working and traveling to much. Im not going to tell you how long I was on the bike today, becuase iI know the Head writers at The Soiled Chamois, AcuraMatt inc and RSDMag.com are watching my every move and it would give them an unfair advantage down in Leesburg next weekend. However it was a long ride. I was able to stay on top of the work emails.

Things were actually going pretty good until my boss sent me a heads up that he was calling me and things started to begin to look like i needed my laptop...a small emergency was breaking out so I ended up cutting the ride short by an our - it was a bit of a relief, cause i was starting to get tired.

Anyway, it was a good day - and i got a lot of hours in this week before the weekend so I can chase my niece and nephew around while the look for colored eggs..

Later

Putting on the Big Ring

2009-04-08T20:35:00.004-05:00

I haven't ridden with a front derailleur in about 2 years. In fact i haven't felt the need for a big ring in a long time but with the Leesburg bakers dozen coming up, i know im going to need it so on it goes.....

I swiped my old XT Crank off of my wife's bike but i didn't realize her XTR derailleur was not going to fit my seat tube....

none of the local shops had the derailleur i needed, so onto Bikeman.com I go.....

well I send the order in and tnen like 2 hours later i realize i need a whole lot more stuff...so i send out another order.....BTW, I was on the phone with bikeman.com HQ in the morning to get my team clothing shipped...so i basically put in three orders in a day...yeah im slow.

Anyway here is the new Steed....it has been treating me well. My ass is welcoming the one inch of travel after spending many miles on a hardtail.

Working from home and riding seem to be going together very well. I think i am going to get a lot of miles in during the next few weeks!

Time to Rock

2009-04-06T21:01:00.003-05:00

So I just landed on the East Coast.

I moved into the new crib, Sat around in a lawn chair for a few days awaiting my house hold goods and bikes. I Spent a few days unpacking and getting rid of mountains of packing material.

Once that was done, it was time to get the bike rolling – I have a brand new Dos Niner that hasn’t been ridden due to my crazy work schedule – well pedro is working from home now so there is no excuse.

The local roads

I always preferred riding single track to the road – until I moved to California where it was a toss up since the roads were awesome. I haven’t found the roads very exciting yet out here so we will be staying on the trail until further notice.

The Trail

So I found the local trail and it Rocks! Wompatuck state park is infested with rocks that remind me of Rattling Creek and some good climbs that bring I put about 6 hours on this trail in two days and my body is pretty beat. It felt so natural cranking through the Rocky rooty terrain while my heart was racing – like I never left the East Coast.

There is another trail head even closer then wompatuck that I need to check out – Blue hills. From what I heard its not as technical as wompatuck but, it may have some more elevation gain.

Leesburg Bakers Dozen

I am totatlly psyched to be heading down to Leesburg, VA in less then two weeks for 13 hours of racing. I was hoping to take advantage of the California winter and train my ass off, roll into town and kick some ass. Unfortunately I have spent to entire winter back on the Road with work and unable to train. The main reason Im stoked to head down there is some many friends will be there so even if I just throw down some laps it will be worth the trip.

In the mean time, im doing the 3 week thirteen hour race training program which has me putting in a lot of hours this week. Im hoping I have a lot of base built up from the last 2 years of endurance racing and ill pop into some sort of fighting shape. The work from home schedule is really helping out. I was able to squeeze two hours of riding in early this morning prior to rain rolling in.

Later –
P

Whats in store for 2009?

2009-01-11T21:09:00.004-05:00

Well Been looking at the schedule to see whats in store for 2009.

Wilderness 101 (end of July) - This is going to be a priority, its a great race and Its a great opportunity to see some familiar faces.

Platikill 6 hour - My parents have a house near buy, so it will be great to coordinate a Visit with some racing

666 Mountain Bike race - This is a new 6 hour race in Pittsfield, VT - I spent a lot of time in Pittsield during past winters and know a few folks, so it will be great to get up there in the summer for some riding.

Hampshire 100k (August(

Land Mine Classic Marathon

Bradbury 12 hour (September)

Vermont 50 (September)

Maybe a 24 hour Solo?

Anyway, you may have noticed that this is an east coast schedule....well Pete's headed east!

This is what it's all about

2008-12-28T11:57:00.002-05:00

What I miss most about the East Coast is riding with folks who won't let the cold and snow get in the way of getting out for a spin.

Its awesome that the Trails are not sterilized, someone tried to make a wuss way around this log, but then someone fixed it!

Anyway, I linked up with Acura Matt and Solt for a quick loop in Bethlehem. The snow was a little slippery which made single speeding a bit difficult, but I got some good cardio in when it flattened out and it was a lot of fun trying to hold a line through the crust on the downhills!

Back To the East...

2008-12-23T20:18:00.006-05:00

What is it with Long Islanders? I guess it starts with some lights, maybe the plastic frosty and a Santa, Then before you know it 30 percent of you pay is going to the Long Island Power authority so your house can be seen from space.

Any way, Its cold here. I am not very familiar with the good single track on long island and how it rides after snow so I checked out Pops indoor recumbent excercise bike. I got a pretty good work out and threw in some core work pushups, and miscelaneous abdominal exercises. I used to do a shit load of ab exercises in the military, i think its time to bring it back, especially during the crap weather.

Back from the East

2008-12-13T23:57:00.003-05:00

3 Weeks and 10 pounds later, I am finally back in California

I brought my bike with me, but I didnt ride it. We drank a lot, worked then drank some more, saw the family. I got rained out of the post Thanksgiving MTN bike Ride at Sals, and never got around to riding again. The Single Speed is in NY, so maybe there will be some riding with My PA peeps when i head back for Christmas.

After 3 weeks off the bike i put in a pretty good effort to get back into the game this week with 5 days of riding this week and lots of climbing. Lost about five pounds this week.

United can Blow me.

2008-11-19T23:29:00.002-05:00

Yeah, so I knew i had to fork up 175 Bones to bring my bike aboard, but you know i thought it was worth it since ill be back and forth to the east coast till new years, so was planning on leaving my bike at mom and pa's, but on top of the fee they charged me 25 bucks to check this as my second bag....talk about misleading. My first bag they charged me an additional 125 bucks for being overweight.....which i could of stuffed the extra 15 pounds in the bike box, but not in front of the agent...anyway the airlines suck....

Its cold here, i need to man up cause i love this stuff.

East Coast Bound

2008-11-18T22:49:00.003-05:00

Buisness trip-

The Niner Sir nine is boxed up- along with every piece of cyoing clothing I own. Yeah Im soft. Its just over two years since I have ridden in the east coast fall/winter season. Time to get hard, never mind that sounds bad.

Actually I just forgot what the weather is exactly like in the woods at this time so Ill figure out what works. Most of my time will be spent in boston, so I am planning on hitting up some of the local trails there. Some of the exploration will be at night, so i better find some locals on the internets to show my ass around.

Im defintaely going to spend a day or to with my PA peeps at sals, so you all better be ready.

Some New Wheels

2008-11-11T23:25:00.002-05:00

Big Al from bikeman came through with a hookup on some bontager race light 29er wheels for a great price, they look pretty sweet interesting how bontrager uses there there rim strip for tubless, its this big plastic ring. neat.

I think this is where I get ready for next year.......

2008-11-09T21:47:00.004-05:00

Well, im starting to come off of 6 weeks of inactivity....mostly due to work travel, partly due to laziness and the opportunity to sit on my ass and drink beer.

We hit MT Hamilton today, its a 20 mile climb with about 4,000 feet of elevation gain. It was the typical brutal battle to the top between my riding buddies Joe and Ryan. Its not a very steep grade, but it takes almost two hours to get to the top, so we were pretty smoked when we got to the summit. It was a beautifull day, and Im glad to be back on the bike. The transition phase has begun.

Im starting dream about next years bikes. First on the list is to replace the Klein Frame, for something that fits me a little better, my buddy Dan hooked me up with this ride for a great price when I was in PA. I had a little incident where the derailleur broke and bent the hanger real good. The shop did a mediocre job straightening it out so I need a new frame.

It looks like the Salsa Podio is going to do the job.

The paint job is just sick!

Next up, we may be replacing the Mamasita for somthing with a little bit of cush. I really love the mamasita, but after getting my nuts slapped around for 10 hours in the Sierras this summer i have been dreaming of the Dos Niner -

Stage 3 of the Tour of California is Ripping through my Hoood!

Francois has reported that the Tour of California is coming up my favorite Road Climb in the Bay!. I spent a lot of time on Tunitas Creek Rd. the last two summers climbing up from the coast. Im trying to convince a few of my buds to pre-ride the entire stage - we shall see.

Time to Get the Niner Rolling again

2008-09-09T21:04:00.005-05:00

The Sir nine hasnt been ridden since i built up the mamasita. I finally got her built back up and i miss riding the steel frame.

I decided to put the Reba on the Mamasita since it has more travel, and the lefty is now on the Niner. I think it fits the one speed better.

Tahoe Sierra 100

2008-09-07T16:36:00.013-05:00

Scenic Views, Lots of climbing, lots of fire roads....and lots of climbing.

Well, consitent with the 24 hours of Cool, Jimmy put on a really nice event with a very cool vibe.

After the typical pre-hunred miler rituals (Coffee, cereal, race to the bathroom, etc) I rolled to the start to see a lot of familar faces from the East Coast Hundred milers. Harlan and TomiMcmillar from PA, Tinker, and those famous guys from Trek.

The First 4o Miles were pretty fun. Nice Fire Road climbs in the shade followed by some really fun and fast fire road descents. It was very challenging as it was really dusty, making it very hard to see.

I caught up with Tomi for a quick photo op at nice scenic spot- this would be the last time I would see him as he was turning the cranks very well.

So it was pretty much a lot of fire roads. I caught up with tinker somwhere around mile 40 or so - He was planning to bail and told me to get him some help.

Around mile 50 I found a guy on the road unconscious. This was pretty scary. This guy caught me on the climb and we were racing pretty fast on the technical decents, really hauling ass. He got away from me on the next climb, then I started descending, doing about 30 MPH on the fire road. I came around the corner and saw the dude laying in the road. Eyes open, face banged up, but nobody home. Fortunately he was breathing. A few others gathered arouund and he began to come to. He was still out of it, he didnt remeber his name and mumbled something about a Mercedes. We were far from any check point, so I started to get worried, but luckily the search and rescue motos happened to be headed our way. By the time the motos got to us the guy was already standing, so we handed him off and got back to the race......at a munch slower pace thinking about what we just saw.

We all knew mile 69 was going to be bad from the elevation profile...and it was. I actually had to do a bit of walking near the top of the climb

Anyway, i rolled in around 10:20 something, the Garmin had 11,000 feet of elevation gain. Time to jump in the lake. Drink beer and eat hot dogs.

5 Hours of Single Track, Fire road and pavement......on the road bike

2008-08-30T20:43:00.004-05:00

We did things a little different today when my friend Ryan sent out the email....He wanted to explore some of the dirt roads in the South bay, and we found them. I wasnt expecting to hit single track though, that was kind of fun.

We cleaned a lot of technical sections with the road bike slicks and got some cheers from the dudes on the mtn bikes. This was a good warmup for the Tahoe Sierra 100 next weekend. Ill post some more pics later

Grass Roots Racing - The Lake Sonoma Special

2008-07-26T19:16:00.007-05:00

Well I actually got back in the saddle for a race last weekend at Lake Sonoma - Because of the heat, the race would start at 530 PM - this is my kind of race!

One big 14 Mile Loop and I don't have to get up at the but crack of dawn to get to the venue on time.

It was the Typcial chill Lake Sonoma Crew. If you zoom in you can see the guy with the Fish on his head.

I was sporting the Mamasita Single speed Setup and my heat went off with the Pro's and Experts in a field of about 15 in the massive group pictured below.

The race started out with a climb up that road pictured above followed by a hairy decent through some loose fire road then overgrown single track, then up some long wicked fire road that went forever. I have to admit i am a bit out of race shape so at this point i was turning purple and had to lay off the gas.

I guess i was sitting in last place at this point when the Sport Crew caught up with me, but at this point we entered some wicked technical single track downhill switch back and 3 guys in front of me went over the bars, so i got back ahead of them and dropped them. Then I got a flat and couldn't fix it. That was pretty much it.

I made my way to the road and road the flat in. I rolled across the finish line about 5 minutes before the race leader so people thought i was winning and started to clap and stuff.

Anyway beers and burgers soon followed all included in the 20 dollar race fee. Please check out the race next month, http://www.bikemonkey.net, Carlos puts on a kick ass event!

Oh almost forgot, my buddy roadie joe took second in sport and won this fresh melon.

Not a lot of riding going on.....

2008-06-21T21:13:00.005-05:00

I hear ya dan..

yeah my project at work has been pretty crazy...so riding has been pretty much limited to the fun social rides when i can get out and the Rides with E....which are great, shes starting to get better.

The Cascade Cream Puff 100 is next weekend, im registered and paid (a very steep fee i might add) but not sure if im going to be able to get up there. Its an 8 hour drive and i will need to take monday off to get back. Its going to be a real expensive drive with gas prices....fuck you only live once right?

At least the sales guys keep sending us beer

Well; I rode today

2008-06-01T21:16:00.003-05:00

Left the house at 830 on the bike, climbed 2 to 3 K to get to the trail head, bombed some sweet single track for about 30 minutes then linked up with the mtbr norcal crew for some sweet Techy climbing.

Some awesome trail riding today- until i realized i lost the key to my apartment,so i had to bail, ride to my office call the landord wait for him to come.....its a good thing the fridge at work was loaded with beer. I ended up back at the house by 7 PM.

Its all good.

The World would have to wait for the Great Taste of Bud light and .......Clamato?

2008-05-26T20:04:00.002-05:00

Wait no more folks, its here. Bud light and Clamato - in a can. Not really sure where this came from nor why you need it.

Racer 5 IPA

2008-05-11T20:43:00.003-05:00

I think this is one of the best IPA's i have ever had. Brewed in Cloverdale, CA. It has a little bit of citrus twang too it I think, but its definately not one of those girly beers. Im going to drink about 6 so that i can forget that i wasn't tearing it up at French creek this weekend.

Holding on for dear life.....

2008-05-08T12:29:00.003-05:00

So the wed road ride is the super fast race ride...with over a 100 people its pretty scary. To give you an idea, we showed up to corner of pagemill rd where we pick up the ride and waiting at the corner is Dylan Casey retired USPS rider Chatting away with some other dude in a slipstream chiptole kit. The ride made its way over to us an they took off to the front. The pace picked up and It really hurt.

I started out in the middle of the pack, were doing about 20 uphill and 35 on the flats, I looked around and Roadie Joe and my friend Ryan were nowhere to be seen. I didnt change positon at all and i suddenly went from middle to end of the back. We lost over half of the group. I was pretty stoked to get back to work and give them some shit for getting dropped, but damn that was fast.

A little Mount Hamilton Action.....

2008-05-06T22:52:00.001-05:00

Well, 2 weeks ago I asked roadie joe if he would be up for a century this weekend and he surprised me. I Look forward Riding long with joe, cause its usually the only time that I can put the hurt on him. Well Joe came up with a nasty route, up and over Mount hamilton and into livermore.

The ride starts out with a 4,000 foot 20 mile climb up Mount Hamilton. We were joined by another friend Thorestein who has never completed a century before. Thorestien is a natural athlete who rides about half as much as Joe and I but can crush us on some of the shorter climbs.

The climb up hamilton started off at a pretty chill pace. On any given climb one of us usually attacks, but since we had a long day ahead of us everyone was showing some humility.....well up until i turned my IPOD on.....about an hour and a half into the climb no one was talking, I decided to turn the tunes on and well it was game on. I pulled away putting a hughe gap on roadie joe and T. I thought i was going to break free when about a mile from the Top I saw Joe, realing me in. He rolled up next to me and rolled on past.

at this piont we were getting really close to the observatory, you can see it getting closer and closer, and somtimes further away, making it difficult to judge the distance to the top.

Joe put a 100 yards on me and i couldn't tell if we were on the last switch back or not....I idnt thing I was going to be able to real him back in, but I gambled that we were on the last switch back and stood up and hammered...i was able to roll past joe about 100 feet from the top....phew..that was a smoker..

We headed down the back side of hamilton, it was awesome. we were out in the middele of nowhere

Coolest 24 (8 Hour Version)

2008-05-04T13:21:00.008-05:00

Well we rolled into Cool, CA for the 8 hour race. It was hot, and exposed mostly double track with some single track and lots of dust. We started off behind the 24 hour folks and it was almost a total black out with the dust that was kicking around. I tried to chill for the first two laps since there were so many people to pass, i decided that it would be a waste of energy to Pass and then just get bogged down again. The dust was so bad that by the third lap i thought somehting in my rear wheel was dragging, but it seemed to work itself out.

This is my favorite photo, not because i look all bad ass and stuff but, if you look closely you can see my buddy roadie joe in the background.....way behind :)

Anyway, I finished in 11th place out of almost 50 I think, which i was pretty happy with since i wasnt super motivated to race on this course since it was really hot and pretty exposed (roadie type singltrack), so I kept a pretty conservative pace throughout the race but, it did start to hurt a bit

Jimmy did a great Job putting on the race, the vibe was absolutely amazing and so positive, with all of the money going to Cancer Research.

The mamasita held up well. The lefty generated lots of interest and the Salsa Delgado ghetto tubless converstion held up

If your board......

2008-05-03T00:10:00.003-05:00

Well if your board tommorow, you can see how Im doing by clickicin onRace updates, Karl from Ride424.com will be givin updates on the coolest 24 hour race but i dont know if he will be tracking the 8 hour guys like myself.

Caffeine....its not spicy enough.

2008-04-30T21:11:00.003-05:00

Check it out, My Lefty came in!!! woot, so we mounted her up with the Project321 adapator and my buddy Thorstein cut the Steerer tube down to size on the Lathe in our machine shop. The lefty came with two Salsa Delgado wheels, I decided to put on the Hutchinson Pythons (i am stoked to find these in 29er sizse) and Convert them to Tubeless utilizing the Ghetto Stans tubless mehtod, it worked out very well, but they are a bit heavier then then Stans wheelset I was running previously, but they were destined to get mounted back on my single speed. I think a new wheelset will be a project down the road. I have heard a lot of horror stories with converting these wheels but i have had a lot of experience with the Ghetto method so we will see. If this works out well i may even try experimenting with valve stems and the stans yellow rim tape.

Going to break it in this weekend at the8 Hours of Cool

Sea Otter

2008-04-19T23:08:00.005-05:00

You probably think there will be some awesome race story.

But I just went for the energy drinks.

There was also this really awesome band crankin out the rocky theme....

Ohh and the bamboo bike was really cool and stuff.

I was like....mr local today.

2008-04-13T22:04:00.002-05:00

Yeah so i roll up to the local trail parking lot (Skeggs) and the lot is full with tents from Rocky Mountain, Specialized and Cannondale as well as Mikes Bikes from Palo Alto, turns out there is some demo day going on. Joe and I were on a mission to ride so we blew off the the demos and set off on a tempo for the next 2 and a half hours that was just below race pace.

Towards the end of the ride i see this kid in distress, hes on a brand new specialized bling bling XTR you name it demo bike but manged to break the chain, its a good thing I ran into him cause it would of been a long ride out. He was amazed that i had him up and running in 30 seconds. I had a power link in my saddle bag and it turns out when i looked at the chain that he must of broke the his power link because i didn't need a chain tool to remove an old link. Before he could even comprehend that his bike was fixed, joe and I were on our way.

We got a good 20 miles of single track in before we headed back to the car, where E was waiting in the toaster for our ride. She's getting better every week and we rolled out for another two hours of riding.

As we were about to head back to the lot, I saw the Cannondale crew looking at the Map trying to figure out where to ride, I tried to explain where to go to get to the good stuff, but after a few looks of huh...I told E to hang out while i gave these guys a quick guide to the beginning of the trail with some follow on directions.

When we got there, they were totally stoked and really excited that some stranger gave them a quick tour. I felt pretty good about it, Its hot and cold out here on the trails with the locals and i felt like a mountain embassador. When I left I thought, i should have thrown the car Keys to E and given these guys the grand tour.... oh well, Ill remember to do that next time.

Boggs 3

2008-04-06T11:16:00.005-05:00

Saturday the folks at Bike Monkey Put on the third annual 8 hour race at the Boggs Demonstration Forest. About 400 people showed up in teams and Solo categories. The Course was a really sweet 9.2 Mile loop with about 1200 feet of climbing per lap. A mix of soft pine needle buff single track and rocky technical stuff with plenty of tight twisty descents.

Carlos Perez, is the man running the show and he he outdid himself just as he has at all of the lake sonoma races. Lots of really cool people, great food and beer afterwards and an awesome system for posting real time results in between laps.

E did a great job leting me know where I was at in between laps, I finished 5th in expert, with 8 Laps.

It was a rough race day, i had some knee trouble and after lap 6 I had to stand on all of the climbs, which wasn't a big deal since I am used to doing these races on my single speed. I finished lap 8 with 52 minutes remaining. The rules stated that you had to finsh the lap at this time, not just go out. My knee was toast and my previous lap was about an hour long so I figured it would be good to call it a day and save the knee.

I lost my Garmin Edge 305 during the race, it flew off my bars. I knew where it happend but I wasn't turning back. Bike people are so cool and it turns out it ended up back in Carlo s's hands.

This was also my first race drinking Gu20 instead of HEED, i was digging it, or at least i wasn't completely sick after getting bounced around all day.

I got lots of complements on the Mamasita, everyone dug the Paint job, one woman was sitting on the side of the trail during my last lap and Yelled "Is that a 29er?" she was pumped....Salsa has that effect on woman.

Another weekend Braving the elements.....

2008-03-22T23:53:00.009-05:00

It all started out with the wii bowling tornament at work, three big sreen tv's and 3 wiis setup for happy hour (they let us drink at work) and some sun outside for those not into bowling....

So, i have one of those toaster cars, the dancin rick is always talking about.....i just wanted to post this pick cause, I like to keep my bike with me at all times and even when i dont get to ride it, I like to look back at it and smile.

Saturday at got with roadie joe for a few hours of climbing, followed by a trip to the beach with E. We brought some chairs, wine and cheese and stuff....it was packed.

I rode to the trail on the mamasita today, that took about an hour and E met me with the toaster and her bike...shes making some progress, starting to let it go on the down hills and getting a little more consistent on the climbs....its time to get her some shoes...

The recipe for easter dinner called for either 2 teaspoons of Chicken Broth or Bourbon.......hmmmm i figured no sence in buying a can of Chicken broth and then throwing it away.

Green Beer

2008-03-19T00:06:00.003-05:00

Yeah, I couldnt get into dumping food coloring into my beer. But it was going on, needless to say Yesterday was not a training day - We had some wicked Corned beef and lots of booze.

Day 2 on the Mamasita

2008-03-16T19:55:00.003-05:00

The bike really felt dialed in today, I returned to Skeggs today with a few friends from work. The frame seems to fit me a bit better then the Niner, which was a medium, vs the large Mamasita, after about 2 hours of riding we headed back to the Parking lot and I picked up E.

We did a nice slow ride at her pace on the same loop we did last week. She did really well today, and showed a lot of improvement over last week. Im glad to get her into the woods, because I think Riding is an awesome way to get out and see nature, when she gets a little stronger it will be an awesome suplement to my longer training rides.

Popped the Jalapeno today

2008-03-15T20:05:00.003-05:00

I snuck out for a quick ride- which ended up being a 3.5 hour ride. No lefty yet, but it rides real nice. Im not used to riding with gears. Im running a 1 x 9 setup, and didnt clean as much of the steep techy climbs that I usually do on the single speed. The gears were jumpin around, i guess due to some cable strech but I got her tuned up nicely now so tommorow should be a good ride with roadie joe followed by a slow loop with E.

Im diggin the SRAM XO shifters, I like the nice crisp click they make.

Back to the Beer

2008-03-11T00:07:00.002-05:00

I got a surprise from Boris today at work - he was born in the Ukraine and we are always talking about weapons technology and stuff at work, since he was in the the Soviet army and I was in the US army. Anyway, im drinking it now and it feels like someone punched me in the face. Boris made it a point to get the Number 4. As i continue to type i must say it is growing on me, I might have to pick up a 6er.

Tragedy in the Bay Area

2008-03-11T00:02:00.002-05:00

This totally sucks - my condolences to the families and friends, sorry for the buzkill bacon fans.

Sheriff's deputy hits cyclists, killing 2

Courtsey of he San Fran Chronicle

(03-09) 20:42 PDT Cupertino -- A rookie Santa Clara County deputy sheriff patrolling a winding Cupertino road Sunday morning veered into the opposite lane of traffic and struck three bicyclists, killing two, including a rising star in the Bay Area cycling community, authorities said.

Authorities did not release the names of the riders who were killed, but friends identified them as Kristy Gough, 30, of San Leandro and Matt Peterson, 29, of San Francisco. The third cyclist, whose name was not released, was listed in critical condition Sunday night at Stanford University Medical Center.

Gough was a professional triathlete who recently took up road racing and who friends said won every race she entered this year. She and Peterson, also an amateur road racing cyclist, both won their divisions in a March 1 road racing event in downtown Merced.

Gough, Peterson and the third cyclist were on a training ride on Stevens Canyon Road and had broken away from a group of eight others when they were struck by the on-duty deputy at about 10:25 a.m., friends of the riders said.

The unidentified deputy was driving northbound when his white cruiser accidentally crossed over the double yellow line between Montebello and Ricardo roads and hit the cyclists, said Sgt. Don Morrissey, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.

The deputy, who has worked for the department for about 18 months, immediately began to offer assistance to the bicyclists and called for medical aid, Morrissey said.

"The deputy is very distraught over this right now," Morrissey said. "It's devastating for everybody involved." Morrissey did not know whether Stevens Canyon Road is a route the deputy normally patrols.

As is customary when a local law enforcement officer is involved in a fatal crash, the deputy was placed on paid administrative leave and the California Highway Patrol is conducting the investigation.

Peterson, a member of the Roaring Mouse Cycles racing team, was pronounced dead at the scene. Gough died several hours later at Stanford University Medical Center, where the third rider, a 20-year-old, was admitted with major injuries, according to CHP Officer Todd Thibodeau.

Roaring Mouse Cycles on Irving Street in San Francisco, a bicycle shop that sponsored the team to which Peterson belonged, posted word of his death on its Web site. His death was confirmed by David Parrish, president of the Roaring Mouse racing team.

Two of Gough's friends, Dave Mayer and Anthony Borba, rode with her on the Third Pillar Amateur Road Racing team but were not present on Sunday's ride. They spoke with her family and said that she died as a result of head injuries and internal bleeding and that she also suffered a severed leg.

Mayer, 30, of Portola Valley, and Borba, 32, of Campbell, stood outside the hospital Sunday afternoon and recalled a talented athlete who excelled at cycling, even though road racing was a relatively new sport for her.

"She's the strongest rider I ever rode with," Borba said. "The next level for her would have been the Olympic trials, and she had no ego about it."

The group of riders hit by the deputy on Sunday were on a stretch of road frequently used by cyclists, but also heavily traveled by gravel trucks en route to a nearby quarry. In 1996, a 46-year-old Cupertino man was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer rig while riding a bicycle near the scene of Sunday's accident.

Borba said his racing team regularly uses the road for training rides because it is considered safe.

"It has a large bicycle lane that is safe," he said. "That's why we ride that route every weekend."

Chris Wendt, 53, who lives near the scene of the crash, called the incident a tragedy.

"I don't want to say it was inevitable," he said. "But you do get a lot of (vehicles) and bikes up here. What was surprising is that it was a sheriff's deputy."

Anyone with information about the incident should call the CHP at (408) 467-5354, ext. 337.

E-mail the writers at metro@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

2008-03-09T23:19:00.002-05:00

SO i got out this weekend with no real training plan, I have just been trying to make sure i get on big ride in a week. I was ready to throw it down on the road bike saturday, but decided to jump on the one speed and ride to the trail.

There is about 2000 feet of elevation gain from my house to the trail head, I ended up getting caught up in a big roadie ride, about 30 of them all kitted out, they rolled on by me on the flat road to the base of the climb with the typical Bay area roadietude of disgust that i was riding a MTN bike on the road. Well the road started to go up. it was time to kill the roadietude. I started picken off a few folks, they were acutally moving slow by roadie standards, but i was in Zone 5 trying to keep up on 2.3 knobies. A few folks were impressed and actually got some conversation going on the climb. One dude was really interested in my Niner and we talked about it for a while. about 3.4 of the way up though I popped and had to hang back, a few dudes caught up with me, but i was able to real the tail end back in with mad sprint to the top.

I was pretty smoked by the time I got to the trail, which has some bitchen climbs. so some folks chatted it up and road home.

LIve to train another day

After some familiy time at home depot, I was going to try and sneak out for a good 4 to 5 hours on the road bike, but I thought it would be good to get E out to the trail. I want her to really enjoy the California weather as much as I do. Its tough for me to find the time to ride with her since I am a racer dude and shes a totally newbie. But this is an investemnt. So i loaded up the Car with the Mountain bikes got everything packed and ready to go, then jumped on the road bike, I told E to give me a 20 minute head start and i headed to Skeggs. It worked out really well. This was the first time i brought her here, and I was surprsied how well she handeld some of the steep decents, and she was really deteremined to keep spinning on the climbs. It was slow, but it was fun and good to spend some time together in the woods. We got back to the car and I was off on the road bike. I still manged to get about 5 hours of saddle time so its all good.

Headset Press

2008-03-08T18:38:00.002-05:00

Nut bolt and some washers, seemed to work allright, but you do have to tap the headset in a little nice and easy first to get it in the steerer tube, so that the tube can act as a guide. I might rig something up out of an old steerer to act as a guide next time.

Ohhh Mamasita!

2008-03-08T00:38:00.002-05:00

The Mamasita arrived today, Special thanks to Salsa for supporting the Bikeman.com Team.

I was really suprrised at how sick the frame was when i pulled it out of the box. They did an amazing job integrating the carbon seat stays with the scandium frame, click on the pic below.

Cant wait to build her up

Roadie joe goes down.

2008-03-06T22:34:00.003-05:00

I wish I could say it wasn't ugly, but it was. We did our typical mid week off road ride which involved a good two thosand foot decent back to the cars. We were ripping through some sweet single track at a good 20 miles per hour at times. Id like to tell you that roadie joe was doing somthing totally sick.

Well we dumped out onto a very quite flat dead end street that brings us back to where we park. It was a narrow road, a resident was driving towards us so i sugested that joe get behind me since i have a much brighter light. Well i guess the lights of the car out shined joes light and blinded him and before you know it I hear a pretty loud crash and a really expensive carbon taurine scraping across the pavement.

Its a good thing joe was wearing his helmet, take a good look and click on the pick. We were going very slow and he hit his head pretty hard.

Forutnatley joes ok but pretty banged up, so be careful folks and wear your helmet!

Later

Im hoping to see some big names at the wilderness 101 this year

2008-03-03T23:56:00.010-05:00

Acura Matt's thorwing down the miles in PA this year, and looks to be getting his feet wet in some local enduros - I can't wait to see his new ride in Coburn, i hear he got a good deal on the spoiler. (apparently this is why they call him acura matt)

Dan Claims hes been chasing Matt all over the Lehigh valley so I suspect we may see him too, although he has some sort of crazy idea that if you ride 100 miles on a mtn bike you can't race cross in like October

Mike Doesn't know it yet but I have a feeling hes going to show up since the W101 is Camper friendly

Jason Claims he's coming, but may end up simulating the entire ride in his "Stankment"

I heard he has a setup down there where he can battle it out with Rob

Brian has declared that he is in too, but has made some coments about the price of the race, not sure if he was serious, but i figure ill have to initiate taking up a collections since this is surely an event that no PA rider should miss.... maybe we can all buy him a mile...

The end of the creak...

2008-02-28T22:50:00.003-05:00

Well on my road bike anyway..had this creak for like the past 10 months I thought I checked everything,....I was about to write this really boring post about all the things i tried, but ill spare you the details, I needed to put some grease on the peddles. The end.

Roadie joe, has agreed to Pit for me

for my First Race of the Season. Im pretty pumped to get some support from someone whos into racing, I love E and all but shes not really into the bike scene so its quite a chore for her to sit and watch me do laps for eight hours, but when i Told her about joe pitting for me she got jealous, so who knows what well do...maybe I can get joe to bring his new girlfriend.

Had a good ride today at lunch 65 degrees, and a good threshold climb up Old La Honda.

Quick plug for Levi

2008-02-19T00:11:00.001-05:00

Let Levi Ride grabbed this off of Dan's blog, check it out!

Dead Presidents Ride

2008-02-18T21:59:00.006-05:00

All me today. E had to work. I was a little slow moving this morning from partying at the Tour of California Prologue so I jumped on the single speed after sitting around and drinking coffee, eating and stuff.

I climbed Kings Mountain Road, which is a little over 3 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain. I did the single track version of this climb with Joe last week with 32/17 gearing, which really sucked on the 29er, so today I lightened up to 32/18 which is still a bit stiff for the big wheels considering the climbing around here. I dropped a few roadies on the climb which is always fun and when i got to the top I decided to Head to Purusima Creek Open space preserve. I had never been there before. The trails are nice but most of the MTN bikers enjoy Skeggs-El Corte de Madera Preserve down the road, which has some sweet single track.

Well I Jumped into Purusima and decended imediatelly for a long time planning to link up to Skeggs.....This descending was disappointing as I knew i would have to climb. So I hit the bottom took a turn and started climbing....and climbing a good 30 minutes of climbing, (no need to hit the weight room)I got back up to Tunitas creek road, and hits some really beautifull pavement for a few miles, some back roads the led over to skeggs. At this point I was at about 2K in elevations with lots of trees, a very pretty part of the bay.

I was hoping to link over to skeggs but the first few trail heads had signs posted "no bikes due to wet conditions" so i kept decending on pavement, getting a bit concerned as i have no idea where this road goes.

I finally hit a trail head that i could ride....and well now I was in for another hour of climbing on some double track and i really had no idea where it was headed. It was good to be alone for a few hours, I finally hits some signs that directed me to some roads near Trail heads i was familiar with. After about 3 hours of riding, i hit the trails I knew, then stopped for some lunch.

I actually packed lunch today, Its somthing im going to start doing on the big days, you might as well enjoy the woods. Ill save the days of sucking down hitech shitty tasting stuff for race day.

I took some crappy cell phone pics of my lucn spot.

Any way got a good 5 hours of riding and 6K of climbing in for the day...good times.

Tour of CA Prologue

2008-02-17T22:00:00.012-05:00

So E and I peddled on down to a party today on the strip that the Tour Prologue was ripin through....heres some views from the party.

Some views from the street

We ran out of poles to lock our bikes to outside of the bar, so we had to go up!

It was a good time

So there I was minding my own buisness.......

2008-02-16T17:14:00.003-05:00

Doin a little mellow road ride....when A group rolls up behind me spinning not much faster. Half were from standford and half were from sportin Rock Racing kits so I mingle for a little bit with the group before I blow out. I guess they were spining so slow for the Prolouge of the Tour of California tommorow. I didn't realize the Rock dudes were riding in it since im not that keen on road racing (I had to look it up when i got home).

Any way it was a chill solo ride, everyone was out today, I saw the BMC TeamTeam spining in Palo Alto with the Team Car Following, as well as the Astana Team and a few others.

Tomorrow should be pretty cool, Im going to a party on the street that the Time trial is ripping through, should be good times.

I scored a travel case for my bike, The performance bike buy my crib is going out of business, so i got puppy for 150 bucks.

Farewell Ride

2008-02-15T20:57:00.001-05:00

We had a little fairwell morning ride today for a good friend who's leaving our company, followed by an awesome breakfast!

The Great Space Coaster

2008-02-14T23:54:00.004-05:00

This is incredible The Great Space Coaster I totatlly forgot about this show, it aired in the 80's and was a fav of mine when I was a kid, but I have not met anyone else who remebmers this show.
The coaster
we rode hard off road yesterday.

Joe's New/old Bike

2008-02-12T22:05:00.005-05:00

It was a pretty exciting day in the office today. Joe's Cannondale Taurine arrived!. Ive been trying to get joe to buy a MTN bike now for a while. I knew he was eyeballlin the Cannondale Taurine and the Caffeine for a while..taurine being way out of his price range but he Got a really good hook up from Vegan Rob of the Valley Mountain Bikers Valley Mountain Bikers. It was really nice of him to ship all the way out to cali for Joe who he never met for a really nice price. Thanks Rob.
'

The Entire day consisted of everyone in the office stopping buy to take a look so that was fun...tommorow is the maiden voyage....thats joe below holdin his new steed

I am on my way.....

2008-02-11T23:31:00.000-05:00

I put in a solid 8 hours this weekend, 6 of which involved some serious climbing on Saturday and 2 of which were supposed to be an easy spin 30 minute recovery ride but ended up being a furious sprint around the valley fending of the locals who insisted on attacking and chasing me down if I rolled pass.

Today was going to be an easy roll to work and roll home day, but well joe brought his bike to work and the heat wave is still raging full on so we did the lunch loop, it wasn't hard or anything but I should have been spinin slow.

Fast forward to the ride home and well, easy spinin turned into sprinting from every trafic light trying to beat every car that didnt give me enough room or cut me off to the freeway. What can i say. I like riding my bike. I finally got some easy spining the last 2 miles. The sun was going down, my ipod was cranking some new tunes, warm air was blowing around me. I had my light set in my pack and contemplated throwing it on to keep riding.

I guess my December burnout is cured.

Summer time and the livin's easy

2008-02-09T20:32:00.000-05:00

Mid 60's today, no new Snow at Kirkwood so it was time for my favorite enduro Training loop. I met up with Joe and we did the "Big Coast loop" today

It has 2 really big climbs and 2 Medium sized climbs. The two climbs seperate the coast from the valley and you generally gain about 2000 feet on each climb.

Roadie Joe who has a Cat 2 status, can drop me at will on any one of these climbs on any given Sunday...if you take them one of time. after about 50 miles we made our typical rest stop where joe has been using his secret weapon, Filling his water bottles up with coke, prior to the last big climb, Tunitas Creek Road. Now joe took me on this puppy the last time we did this loop in October so anything goes. It generally takes 30 to 40 minutes to climb TC. So we leave the general store, and Im not really in the mood for causin trouble or attacking so we put down a pretty comfortable pace when I notice Joe Start to fall of Pace. I said "drink some more coke joe" and he replied "Its only February".

I smelled the weakness and began my attack.

It wasnt long before joe was out of sight, but i had to keep up the attack, I was committed and this climb was killing me. I finally got to the top and, took note of the time. (its key when you are going to bust balls to keep track of how far ahead you were)..one minute, two, three, four, Five...two chicks rolled on up, six...damn i got worried, i had to ride on down with the rescue wagon.

I put down a nine minute gap....yeah, joes going to hear about this all week at work. So ofcourse i rode back down the valley, let joe in to my crib to get some stuff and rolled out on my own for some more pain...It was indeed a good day.

Cream Puff Baby!

2008-02-08T22:55:00.000-05:00

Yeah I got my email from Scott, I got into the race. Im pretty stoked. I hope I will be able to make it.

I had this dream Last week that Spiderman was chasing me, and i think it might be related to the local Webcore Club. They are everywhere and have a number of pro level dudes racing. I got mowed down on a monday morning climbing Kings. They were haulin.

Anyway today on the lunch ride we put the hammer down, and ripped by this webcore dude. You know just because you rip by someone doesn't mean your a better rider. Maybe they were just chillin, recovering or smelling the flowers. I always say hello, but it seems that no one says hello back. I think its because of the burrito rack on the back of my bike. I think people are disgusted when they get dropped by the dude with big clunky bike. After we passed the dude we really put the pedal to the metal and he followed. I dropped my budy and he claims the dude kept coming after me. Its pretty common around these parts, and i must admit its fun. Your doing your own thing, someone passes you and its on.

Crank

2008-02-07T22:58:00.000-05:00

Been looking for a crank for the mamasita. Planing on running it as a one buy nine. I have a an old truvatve single speed crank lying around but i figured i already have some sickter components going on this puppy so i may as well continue the trend. I like the Turvative Noir crank, 800 Grams with the bottom bracket.

Lunch Ride

I did a lunch ride today, and it was pretty sweet, 60 degrees. Im starting get back into fighting shape. It was pretty wild, I rolled out just below threshold and the legs were feeling good, hit the big 3 mile climb and get it pegged in zone 5 hitting 6 a few times. First time i did that this year. Felt good.

Matt Chaney
Check out Matt Chaney's blog http://justtryharder.blog.com/ If you east coasters haven't heard the name, he won the 2007 SS 24 Solo Worlds. Matt Reminds me a lot of Vegan Rob, probably the fastest guy you know, but also the nicest guy you know.

Upgrade

I manned up. I applied for my NORBA uprade to expert and it was approved, i kinda like that. I really only had one season racing sport, Last year was kind of a mix and match with the move and all. But I remember racing sport 2 years ago fininshing mid pack every race thinking I would never be capable of racing expert despite my craving for endurance racing.

I won't mention any names but my first year racing (2006) the guy that won all of the XC races in my sport category would put 12 to 15 minutes on me every race. This was one of the reasons i thought I would never be able to upgrade. After moving to california, I came back to PA for a week to take care of business and was fortunate to be able to race the Rattling Creek 50. I brought the rigid one speed. I remember somewhere around mile 30 seeing the dude on some fire road, i think he was chasing me down, we rolled into the single track and I dropped him. I never saw him again till after the race. That was like the best feeling, and i did it on my single speed.

Project 321

2008-02-05T21:08:00.000-05:00

The little piece thats going to tie my Cannondale Lefty to the mamasita arrived today. What a simple idea. Its basically an aluminum steerer with a spacer on the bottom and a spacer on top that slides off the tube so you can fit it through a 1 1/8 tube. Not too heavy either, im looking forward to see how it compares to the tube on the lefty when it arrives.

I sent a check in to the Cascade Cream Puff 100 dudes on Saturday. I don't why I waited so long, but they made it seem like if you didnt overnight your entry form the day registration opened, you might not get in. So I assumed I wasn't in since I was lazy, but I see no signs that Registration is closed out. Also its an expensive race, not sure why but its about twice as expensive as any hundred miler i have ever done. Im sure its worth it, I have never ridden in the Cascades and I think it will surely be an epic event.

Oh, got an email from USA Cycling, i can save 10% on wind tunnel testing if I renew my license. What a deal! I think I paid 60 bucks for my license last year and race one USAC event.

I think im going to pass....but i might Race Sea Otter..which by the way if i do I really should write a letter to the local USAC dude to get an Upgrade to expert since I really never raced any USAC Events to earn the upgrade. Ive been told there will be a lot of sandbaggers ot Sea otter, lots of roadies racing sport, and believe me its a roadie course. Some dudes I ride and work with want me to race sport so we can place some money on whos going to win..... I don't know, it would be fun to race my friends but It makes me feel like a dirt bag.

Fifty Fifty

2008-02-04T23:35:00.000-05:00

A little skiing, a little riding

Got up early on Saturday and beat the rain thats been plaguing the bay area. Did my first ride of the year at threshold, really attacking the 2000 foot climb. Theres always a few riders on this climb at any given time during the weekend, so its always some sort of race

Any way we got in the car, it started pouring rain as we headed to tahoe. Met some friends for dinner and woke up too some snow.....

I was up before the sun, but we didn't get out of the lot till close to nine since there were some dudes that got stuck in the drive way. We got to heavenly only to discover that they would not be open till noon,since tney had to do a lot of Avy control from the 3 feet of snow that fell over night. We decided to wait it out as everyone else stayed home and as luck would have it we were on the lift by 10 and had some sweet untracked Pow for the next few hours

The Burrito Rack

2008-02-01T23:50:00.000-05:00

With all of the snow in the sierras and the wet weather in the bay, you have to get out while you can. 15 feet of snow this month at Kirkwood, so you cant pass that up.

The lunch ride has been key, riding at night in the rain really sucks so I have been lucky enough to get out during lunch. Today it was actually a hammer fest with the boys at work. Full of sprints and racing to the top of each hill. followed by a stop at the burrito joint.

Going to sneak out tommorow for another quicky then its time to head up to kirkwood for some more Pow!

Slides, Tahoe Sierra 100, Matty mo and the Mamasita

2008-01-28T21:23:00.000-05:00

Spent the weekend at kirkwood, in a nut shell it was pretty awesome. Lots of Snow in the Sentinel Bowl and Palisades on Saturday. you really had to Hike to get to the Good stuff, but if you were willing, there were new tracks to be laid down every run.

Saturday night it started puking the winds were blowing hard so we figured it wouldnt be worth heading to kirkwood, but it seemed so beautifull in south lake that when I cleaned the car off we changed are minds and headed down. We a had few runs off of lift 6 which result in some sick deep turns in the sentinel bowl, but shortly after it was put on wind hold. Probably a good thing cause dudes skined up to the palisade bowl and triggered and avalanche. One dude went for a ride and just got banged up real good. We heard the Avy Sirens go off, that was kind of wierd, never heard those before.

We got in the car at around 2 PM to leave, they just opened up 88 East bound from Avy control, so we headed East. We were anticipating going West on 88 up to 89. Its a good thing cause about an hour later, two cars got caught in an avalanche on carson pass, which was in the east bound direction. Everyone was OK, but that would have ruined the trip.

Monday 3 other skiers kicked off a slide in the same place, I think this area was opend by patrol at this point. Only one guy got caught in the slide, and he made it out OK with a punctured lung.

Any way on a lighter note, Matt is getting his blog on at www.mattmorr.blogspot.com so look him up.

Also, got my confirmation Email from Jimmyboy at the Tahoe sierra 100. They are really going out of there way to accomadate out of state racers, so come out and race!
Oh and pulled the triger on my New Salsa Mamasita Frame, thanks to Salsa for supporting the bikman team, can't wait to start building her up.

Sharing the pain......

2008-01-21T20:31:00.000-05:00

So it may not have been as Cold in the bay area as say in PA today, but i think I paid my dues today. Forcast called for rain all day, but I noticed a break in the weather from 10AM to 2PM, so I jumped on the road bike. I rolled out in a long sleeve jersey and knee warmers. I was very comfortable until I reached the top of the second climb. I should point out as I was climbing Old Lahonda, which generally takes me 20 Minutes, I rolled by two dudes all bundled up wearing Balaclavas and jackets. I laughed as I rolled by.

I got to the top and Made a left turn into the clouds. This was a big commitment, as it is directed me into what looked like rain. It also added on another hour and a half of riding more then the easy right turn I could of made. Well things didnt seem to bad, and i thought I was all core and stuff until it start drizilling and then that turned into a downpour....I felt really cool until that turned into sideways snow which I have never seen in the Bay Area. Followed by a 30 Minute decent on page mill, it got really cold......

Bop bop bop boo bah.......

2008-01-19T11:53:00.001-05:00

Thats my lame attempt at expressing the Price is right theme. I hope I don't start attracting a whole lot of prices is right fans to the blog now because its not really the direction I wanted to take this thing.

Anyway sold the Scalpel frame on Ebay today. A five year old frame sold for 400 bucks, to someone in South Africa. I know a few friends were interested in buying this frame from me, but I needed the money for my next project and I could not see selling my old crap for that much money to someone I like.

So the 2008 Race bike project is underway. This year I am going to mix it up a bit and ride gears on some of the longer race. A hard tail 29ern seems to be where its at. Since I am riding with the bikeman.com team this year it looks like Ill be going with the Mamasita!

So i bought this frame and fork from one of the Beaners, its a custom painted Caffeine 29er and a Lefty Carbon SL. I just bought it for the fork, the frame is an XL and will be way to big for me so this puppy is going to get thrown up on Ebay. Its shame, it such a hot paint job. I wonder if Salsa would ever consider doing something like that for the bikeman team.

You may be wondering how I am going to use the lefty on the Mamasita, since the steer is only 1 1/8". Project 321 makes a nice steerer that you replace on the lefty so it fits.

Getting ready to brave the elements, it's going to be 59 today, I may need arm warmers.

Tomicog

2008-01-14T22:19:00.001-05:00

My Tomicog has Arrived! You might be asking yourself right now, WTF Is a Tomicog and who the F is tomi. I met Tomi a few years ago at the Shenandoah 100, I rolled a long side of him on a stretch of pavement where we introduced ourselves and recognized our names from MTBR and TGR. I was on my plush superlight and fast Cannondale Scalpel and Tomi was truckin away on a fixed gear mountain bike! Well naturally we drafted off of each other for a little bit. blah blah blah 2 years later and a few stupid hundred mile races on a fixed gear Mountain bike and tomi is now crankin out Steel Fixed gear Cogs that are pre-drilled to match the disk brake holes on your disc hub...so this allows you to make a flip flop hub.

Im impressed with the job he did, and the 18Tomi engraving is all snazzy and stuff. It came shipped complete on the side of a six pack box of Hazed and Infused from the Boulder beer Company...I guess tomi had to drink a few six packs before he got his order out.

Oh so tomi is using the funds from this project to fund his National Ultra Endurance Series effort this year, so you can buy a cog at http://tomicog.blogspot.com/

The end of the creak - Carver EBB

2008-01-13T21:15:00.000-05:00

So a while back I ordered the Carver EBB from bikeman.com, it got lost in the mail, they sent me another one and i slapped it on today. A lot of folks do not like the EBB due to the creaking. I tried Wrapping the EBB that came with the niner EBB with loads of Teflon tape. That worked for a while but eventually it wore through from adjusting the EBB when I would switch cogs.

I like the design of the Carver EBB. By turning the Set screw on the EBB it will expand inside the EBB Shell. As you can see in the Picture the shell is encased in nylon. This eliminates metal on metal movement responsible for creaking.

I am a bit concerned about the stress it may put on the frame. The EBB expands in an oval shape and you can see that the ebb changes shape a little bit. Anyway the first test ride was creakless so we shall see how it holds up.

A little climbin

2008-01-12T21:51:00.001-05:00

Roadie Joe and I did a little climbin today up Mt Hamilton, about 20 miles to the top for a little more then 4,000 feet of elevation gain.....it was chilly comin down. Not very steep, but after a while it started to burn

Train as you Fight

2008-01-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

I have been wanting to do this for quite some time. About 2 months ago I ordered some parts from bikeman.com and UPS lost the shipment, Bikeman was kind enough to give me a credit and I finally got the parts. I used the Spot Brand Spacer kit with a Surly 15 tooth Cog and a KMC BMX Chain. Not sure how many teeth are on the big ring, but its big enough to make any road climb around here agony. It feels good to give life back to my old ride.

It was Deep at Kirkwood

2008-01-07T22:20:00.001-05:00

So We headed up to Kirkwood this weekend, it was raining pretty hard the whole way up.

And then, bang it switched to Snow.

We got to kirkwood around 2PM on saturday, crossing carson pass was pretty sketch, we had to stop a few times due to white out. Limited terrain was open due to Avalanche control but it the snow was still coming down hard.

We got up early on Sunday anticipating that kirkwood would open up some more terrain, we ended up waiting at the Avy control gate before carson pass for about three hours due to an avalanche that they needed to clean up.

Caltrans was pretty cool, they ended up shuttling cars through the pass, fortunately we got there early and made the first shuttle.

The Pic above and below was taken right before the deepest turns I have ever made. We dropped in off of the Chutes from Lift 11 and traversed hard on the skiers left to the trees, we were the first ones over there. Below is a pic of Chris who I met on the lift. Thats him droping his pole straight down and hitting nothing. We then proceeded to rip through the trees while getting armpit deep the entire way down.

Heres E, Lookin all cool and stuff.....

Me Trying to look cool

Monday, they opend up the back side, and it was like Sunday all over again, but not as deep.

Well I made it into the SSWC 08

2008-01-06T01:42:00.000-05:00

Yup I made the cut, not sure why, but Im in. Should be a good time.

The First Ride of 2008 - Oat Hill Mine, Calistoga

2008-01-01T22:28:00.001-05:00

I wanted to throw down a New Years Century today with a few of my Roadie friends, but after being Trapped indoors for a week in Canada, I really needed to hit the dirt. I met up with the MTBR Folks, Velocipus was kind enough to post the ride, and i was anxious to check out more trails in the wine country, hoping they would be as enjoyable as Skyline park (the SSWC 08 Venue)....Needless to say i was not disappointed!

The trail was extremely Rocky and very nice pitch, the 29 er single speed was lovin it! Anyway, a few pics below.

SSWC 08 Registration

2007-12-27T18:09:00.000-05:00

If you interested in coming out to Napa for the worlds, registration will open on January 1st at Midnight!

Hello Everyone:
Registration for the Single Speed World Championships 2008 in Napa,
CA, USA, will open on January 1, 2008, at 12:00 a.m. pacific standard
time (AKA: California time). We will post an on-line form for people
to fill out and email to us soon. Again, registration does not open
until January 1, 2008 at 12:00 a.m. Any emailed registration forms
prior to that date and time will be deleted. We will leave
registration open until it fills up, maximum riders will be 350.
Everyone will be emailed letting them know if they are in or out. If
you are in, there will be instructions on payment via PayPal.
Registration is $35 U.S. dollars. If you don't make it in, we still
encourage you to come out and play that weekend anyway. There will be
lots of rides going on all over the Bay Area. More details about the
race weekend will be posted soon. Good Luck! Please forward to
friends that might be interested and please post on blogs and
websites, if applicable. We really want to inform as many as possible
so that everyone has a fighting chance to get into the race. Thanks.
Curtis, Ken, Jeff, Andrew, Dennis & Mitzi

www.sswc08.com
email: info@sswc08.com

Theirs Gold in them hills: SSWC08 Recon

2007-12-16T18:53:00.001-05:00

I headed up to Napa today to check out the trails and meet some more MTBR folks. I got there really late so I ended up riding alone and giving myself the tour. Every turn I made was good one. Very technical rocky switchbacks that were reminiscent of my recent days on the East Coast, greeted me over and over again. I was delighted. It kind of reminded me of Lehigh, but a little steeper.

Its going to be a tough one though, the route I took was pretty steep, 32-20 on my 29er was pretty challenging. With racers coming out of the gate at full speed, i think theres going to be a lot of pushing.

2007-12-02T22:40:00.000-05:00

Seasonal Brew by New Belgium, Funky smell, but kind of cool. Anyway......

Resolution

2007-11-26T00:02:00.000-05:00

I hit the trail with some of the folks from mtbr today, they were cool. We rode, I crashed then we rode some more. it was kind of weird, my front tire started sliding on this downhill, I thought i might be able to recover but it kept going. Then I hit the ground and started sliding on my right but cheek. I wondered how long the sliding would last. I think I heard riders ahead of me asking me if I was all right before i stoped sliding. This pic is nothing compared to my but cheek, but i dont want to post that here.

November 21st -Bring a Roadie Mountain Biking Day

2007-11-21T23:52:00.000-05:00

Today I got Roadie Joe on the Trail. Joe's the fastest Roadie I know, we do quite a bit of road riding together in the summer, he's a good training partner.

Anyway we hooked him up with a bike tonight-yeah why not drag the roadie into the woods in the dark. The trail is a 2000 foot climb followed by a 2000 foot decent and it parallels one of our favorite Road climbs, one in which joe can completely hose me on. Well joe road well. I road a brisk pace, uncomfortable but I let off the gas when it hurt and I was still able to gap him a few times, but he more or less kept up. I was more impressed with the downhills. I wasn't trying to ditch joe but I was moving at a good pace and he kept up with me most of the way, except for a few techy sections, but i think joe will be back on the dirt!

E's First Day out

2007-11-18T22:51:00.000-05:00

Pimp'n

2007-11-17T21:53:00.001-05:00

I built a new ride For E. She doen't have a bike at the moment and never had anything high end, and I had lot of bike parts lying around from my Scalpel. I don't think I am going to go back to 26" Wheels so I acquired a medium F800 frame that would fit her nicely. It came out real nice, im impressed. I had the Carbon Lefty Re-built at the LBS, its got XTR Derailers and shifters, XT Crank, and Crossmax SL wheels thomson elite seatpost. Easton EA 70 Carbon Seatpost Maxxis Ignitor Tires, Avid Juicy 5 brakes..its going to be good. I am such a bike junky, i had great time putting together.

Earth Quake

2007-10-31T00:01:00.000-05:00

So i get done riding my bike tonight, infact it was an awesome ride, my first Night MTB ride in California, and we were riding somewhere where we probably shouldn't have been, Ok, we definitely shouldn't have been, anyway i get home to find out we rode during a 5.6 earthquake....i had no clue.

Critical Mass

2007-10-27T12:55:00.000-05:00

Well, this was an interesting event, maybe 5,000 bikers showed up to just ride. It was pretty amazing to see the city streets completely shut down due to the mob of bikes, and to think this happens every month. Some of the cars cheered, others were enraged that we were disrupting there comute, Some cars tried to break through and soon found themselves trapped inbetween bikes. I rolled up on a familiy from out of town, there SUV was trapped in the swarm. A woman was standing on the back seat hanging out of the window completely loosing it, freaking out. She kept yelling, "We don't know where to go" Then they ran over someones bike, that didn't work out to well. Cops were cool, they seemed to make there pressence known, but stood back and let the bikers do there thing.

I rode the fixie and as I was grinding away on one of the climbs with my buds, we noticed the CEO of our company just rolled up right next to us...that was pretty cool!

Thats all i have to say about that.

Skeggs....

2007-10-21T18:01:00.000-05:00

So it turns out I have trails right out my front door.....so I jumped on my Singlespeed today....oh wait, you have to do some climbing to get there...

So you have a whole lot of this......

a few nice views....

Than some more of this and so on, in fact this part of the road winds up at pretty steep grade for 4 miles before it hits the intersection of skyline, which you then continue to climb up. I dropped three roadies on tricked out bikes on the way up.

Anyway way 10 miles and 2500 feet of climbing later you get to the good stuff!

Whiskeytown 9 to 5.....Now Testify!!!!

2007-10-12T22:39:00.001-05:00

So last week I headed up North for the Whiskeytown 9 to 5 8 h r race. Nothing but good times. I opted to Single speed it- not sure why, after doing the Wilderness 101 on the single speed I thought I was going to be done with single speed enduro’s. I guess I wanted to race against the guys from Lake Sonoma, where I ve been racing ss.

I met some cool people as soon as I rolled into the venue, people were all about saying hello- I was greeted by Mat, who I met at lake Sonoma the week before, I met Ron and Jen from TGR and a whole bunch of single speeders.

9 AM rolled around and we hit it. The race goes right into the single track, and it goes up, and more up. I tried hanging with the big dogs in the front but the single speed made me blow up pretty quick so I decided to put things into check and get into my grove.

I let one single speeder pass me on this climb and he got away from me for a bit. He was attacking pretty hard on all of the climbs, but I was realing him in on every descent, and that was how I would play it for the rest of the day, using my east coast skills . By the middle of the second lap, I was rubbing his tire on all of the technical trails. Right before we entered the most technical part of the course (which I thought was pretty technical for a race even by PA standards) I attacked hard on the climb and let it rip on the down hills. That was the last time I would see a single speeder for hours.

Every lap ended with some of the sweetest single track in California. I really looked forward to it every time, but it was followed by the beginning of the next lap and the toughest climb, which soon became the walk of shame.

Lap 7, on the fire road climb I saw a single speeder grinding away midway on the climb....he didnt look like he was enjoying it....it was Fritz. I was pretty pumped to catch him as he beat me in the last 2 Lake Sonoma races..I caught up to him and it turned out he was having some ankle problems and was going to call it a day....i was bummed, i wanted a fair fight to the end...oh well, maybe next time.

3:40 PM rolled around and I found myself pushing my bike up a really steep hike a bike section, following this dude on gears and a beginner young woman who we were passing……it was right before the end of the lap and I yelled out “once around? “ to the guy infront of me…..”hell no” he yelled back, the girl replied “ but its 20 to 4!”, “Yes, Yes it is I replied”.

You see the thing is this isn’t like your standard enduro, if you don’t finish your lap before 5 PM it doesn’t count- and nothing would suck more then a lap not counting, but i contemplated for a bit....not going out would be straight up chicken shit.....quiting.

I rolled through the pits at 3:50, this would give me an 1 hr and 10 minutes to throw down another lap. I already had one lap that was an 1hr 7 mins and I was tired.. so there was some doubt tha I would finish I hit the climb hard, and it bit back pretty hard so I changed strategies pretty quick and got of the bike to conserve energy.

I rolled up to the top of the climb to begin the lonely lap….cue the bad religion on the iPOD, “The paper said that he hit the ground running, Oh yeah, you know Im not broken, a little cracked, but Im not broken”

focus set in and I hit the longest down hill of the course at mach one, scaring myself on all of the turns….almost blowing it on a few turns, but holding tight, up and down I hit the last length single track climb, exposed backing in the sun and pushing, behind was roger, the SS leader about to lap me, I tried to hang on but I was spent. Back into the fun whippy single track. I was pushing so hard on the short steep climbs, that my arms and toroso were cramping. I had to man up and shake it off to focus on the downhills. The end was near, I bombed down a fire road and hit the last hike abike section, followed by the last techy single track section. I rolled into the trail and over a rock pile, my legs and arms went to crap and I lost it. I was about to tip over and fall into a ravine. I had to take an evasive action so I turned the wheel down the ravine to ride it for a few feet. This gave me some time to bail over the bars and land some what on my feet…..any way I cursed a bit picked up my bike and rolled in to the finsh…..thats about it……oh and I came in 4th place in the Single speed class, top ten overall….the SS class pretty much hosed everyone…..good times…ill be back.

Movin' on up.....

2007-08-25T20:14:00.001-05:00

No, no, no....i know what your thinkin....so I raced today in Northern California, up in the wine country on my single speed. Well they don't have a sport single speed category so I had to race with the big dogs. I thought about racing my single speed in the regular sport category with the geared guys but I started thinking, in the enduros I can keep up with the best of them, and well I have actually spanked, on occasion, much faster Elite and Expert riders....So lets do it right???

Well I got hosed, the course was beautiful, with a lot of climbing. After getting bit in the ass at a race earlier this year by gearing too low, i decided to gear on the hight side. This proved to be a bit of a mistake. There was some serious climbing. After the First lap I contemplated quiting it hurt so bad. After a crash I lost one of my water bottles, and thought i was going to eventually run out.

I never rode the course and was racing with the fast dudes on a rigid so i decided to enter the single track last, which i have never done before. Turned out I could really rip on the down hills, I was able to pull out of last place and pass a few single speeders and one guy on gears. This was good enough for me. I was able to pull off at the start/finish area and refill a bottle, which was crucial.

Afterwards it was beer and burgers on the race promoter. Pretty freakin cool. A cooler full of beers and a 1/6 Keg of something that i was really into..Turns out the beer in the Keg was brewed in someones garage. I couldn't believe a home brew would taste that good. Good times, i am glad I got out of bed today.

So I came in like 8th out of 10 Single speeders and in the overall Expert Category i was mid pack (this included all of the Experts, Pro and SSers) I can live with that, next time we are going to be a bit more aggressive.

Old La Honda Beer Experiment

2007-08-10T21:26:00.000-05:00

The Friday morning work ride kicked off in full force today. Last night I had a theory that if I took Fast Joe out for some beers it would slow him down on the 4 mile climb. I figured my liver was more mature and I would ride much stronger with a hangover then he would since I have raced under such conditions much more often. Well since Joe was driving I drank twice as much as him and that probably didn't help.

We kicked the 3.4 mile climb off at pretty good pace, I felt good and was waiting for joe to fall apart. We dropped the rest of the group and Joe wasn't budging. I finally fell to piece's blew up and Joe pulled away. Ryan ended up realin me in in the end. It was good time. Its great to be able to ride with people from work. We had a pretty good turn out today, 7 Strong to include my boss, which was surprising since everyone was being lame yesterday and said they were not coming.

The intern man'd up and showed up in sneakers and flats. I gotta give em props, cause the roadie geeks can be intimidating with all of there flamboyant matching lycra. He hung pretty strong with the flats and down tube shifters.