Follow the team....

Cohutta Results

Hopefully some pics to follow.

Also follow TJ as he conquers the Tour of the Gila. His day to day results can be found here:

Gila Results

With his own account of the race here:

TJ Online

Good luck!

The "Phlat" Man

This weekend was a whirlwind. What day is it again.... After a short single day at home the partial team consisting of LeHoover and myself headed out for the roadtrip to the land of banjos!

We started out Thursday morning and made our way down to my parents place at the southern tip of Illinois. We slept there for a night and finished the trip on Friday. We ended up getting into Ocoee, TN about 5 PM on Friday, registered, pre-rode part of the course, then used on-star to find Mama's "fine" Italian Restaurant for a nice pre race gut bomb! This place was so classy they pulled out the finest styrofoam to serve everything in, nothing says 5-star like olive oil on a styrofoam plate for dip'n!! Sweet!

After fueling up we prepped the specialized race rigs before heading to bed. The race started at 7am so an early wake up was in order to get there in time since the nearest hotel was 45 minutes away. Our wake up call came at 4:30 and the only selection for breakfast was the local Waffle House! More great dining!! It was an interesting time people watching since LeHoover and I were just getting out of bed and I think everyone else there was still trying to figure out were they were going to be sleeping?? After some waffles we made the trip to the start line!

The race itself was awesome! The first 20 miles was full on with my HR never settling below 170. After the dust settled I made the elite selection in the front group consisting of Bishop, Schalk, Eatough, Simonson, Beck, Koerber, and myself. It was game off for a bit while everyone looked around to see who the new guy was! It was kind of interesting to do introduction on the bike as Eatough came up to me and introduced himself to me. The heat was turned on again after the 2nd feed zone when Schalk attacked as most everyone else stopped to grab feeds. By this time I had settled in with Simonson and Chris Beck riding in 3rd, 4th, and 5th before stopping at the 3rd aid station. After my rookie "long" stop I ended up riding with Koerber for awhile. Just after the 4th stop is when my race fell apart. Not one flat, not two, but three flat tires. The first two were fine, but the thrid one had me walking for 2 miles before getting to the last aid station at the 90 mile mark. I fixed the tire for the last time and made it to the finish for 13th out of 119 entries about 40 minutes down on the leader.

For the second race of the day, the BIG frog 65, LeHoover was able to walk away with the victory! Awesome job by him even after a missed turn! I believe he ended up out on course for 4 hours and 40 minutes while I spent 7 hrs and 9 minutes of my day on my bike!!

All in all I was happy with my results, while Bender gave the team another victory for the 2009 season.

Next up, TJ has the Cat 2 Tour of Gila while the rest of the team will be waiting for the Iola WORS race. Iola will also be the first time the entire team will be in one spot! Watch out for this guy, I heard he has been riding a lot after spending some time in Hawaii, this is the only spy photo I could find!!

Where in Tennessee???

Well the partial team is off again. Feels like we just got home, oh wait we did, just one day ago! This time LeHoover and I are off to the Cahutta 1oo in Tennessee. This race is in a town called Ducktown?? I looked it up today on the map, there happens to be two of them in Tennessee? The one that we are headed to is about an hour east of Chattanooga in the middle of no where. The race looks to be cool. I am down for the single 100 mile loop that goes through the "back"woods of Tennesee and Georgia while LeHoover will tackle the 65 miler. Should be some good times. I have not done a 100 mile MTB race since the Leadville 100 back in 2005! That one at one point had me sit down on the side of the trail begging for mercy and swearing that I would never race again!! Not to mention my time in the medics tent receiving oxygen at the end!! I am hoping for a more enjoyable experience this time around since the elevation gets no where near the 10,000 ft mark!!!

I have the Sworks all dialed in for battle with a crossmark up front, a furious fred in the back and a 12-27 road cassette. Puts the bike at just a shade under 20 pounds. That will not matter much since we are doing this with no support and with the expected 80 degree temps I will be carrying an extra 5 pounds of water!! Either way good times by all.......

The "blackened" otter

Well another Sea Otter in the books. This year was incredibly different than those in the past with the temps soaring past the 90 degree mark!! For this reason they shortened the race to 30 miles versus the typical 38 mile slug fest that we are all used to.

Also the field was different. Over 150 riders took the start on Sunday with Christoph Sauser lining up with us in the World Champ colors! Also in attendance was the South African National Champ Burry Stander, and the other fast guys that typically show to race the ProXCT! With all this horsepower it was sure to be a fast race so I made up my mind that I was going to race out of my norm and race Mike P style, go till you blow then try to maintain! This seemed to work out well as I followed Ryan Trebon around the field on the right and found myself riding only 15 spots or so behind the leader! I maintained the pace as long as I could and then started to falter due to the heat and lack of water. Luckily we had some awesome support out there with Jake Richards giving bottle feeds out on the track even after racing earlier in the day himself. Michelle also made the trek to the backside of the course to make sure we were staying hydrated!

After all the dust settled, the Adveture 212/Specialized team came out looking good, especially since Le Hoover and I finally got some sun on the pasty legs. Also cause the results were there, 22nd for TJ, 31st for me, and 33rd for Le Hoover! Sweet! Everyone was excited with the way their Specialized bikes performed even though Le Hoover and TJ spent the entire weekend drooling over the new carbon 29er!!

Next on the agenda is a flight home, one day at home, then Le Hoover and I are headed off to the Cahutta 100 for a nice Bonk race!

Next up

The next thing on the agenda for the team is Sea Otter. All of us are very motivated aided by the change in weather here in Wisconsin. Most of the snow is gone and the legs have even seen a little sun, although it is only from the knees down. Either way a good trend.

The squad for Sea Otter will be TJ, Le Hoover, and myself with some great support from Michelle and maybe a sighting by the man behind my training, Adnan. The forecast is looking good out there and is lacking the typical rain shower/gale force winds that are typical! Sweet! Maybe after three trips out there I will finally get to check out the venue??

As for Easter, it was spent building another Sworks Epic! This time around it was Mikey's. It was really comical to watch as I built and he stood back drooling and impatiently waiting to ride it! Could of swore it was Xmas, not easter. We then finished off easter with a couple hour road ride, cycling.tv coverage of Paris-Rubaix, and a couple Peruvian Mornings from Central Waters!

Time Bonus.........

Yes, I think there should be a time bonus added to any ride done in crappy weather. Similar to the days of playing Pacman and you received a free guy after 10,000 points! Todays ride was one of those rides where I feel the time bonus is justified! Snow, wind, wet/icy roads! Not to mention my gear selections were dropping like flies with the icing up of the bike. By the time I was done I had only the big ring and 4 gears in the back. This made every hill a muscle tension interval! There is also the added thrill of the ride that as you pick up speed going down hills, ice chunks would start flying off the bike! On a plus note I will be faster at Sea Otter, my glasses were frozen to my eyebrows so when I pulled my glasses off I think I removed them.......