Thursday, May 31, 2012
Ohio bound!
Rain in the forecast so I picked up a new bike that is easy to carry just in case the course gets water logged like a couple years ago!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
U.P. Weekend, eh!
What a fun trip to the UP this past weekend! Lots of riding, lots of gabbing, and maybe too much beer?? So we started out by picking Mark up from work and driving straight north for 4 hrs where we met the McFadden's in Houghton Friday night. We hung out there and started with the Tech trails on Saturday morning. After some Bontrager tire issues:
Some skills work:
Funny thing is that I made this one but could not make the rainbow?? Mark tried to get video of my failed attempt, but he did not get the camera out in time to catch me taking a dirt nap:) They couldn't tease me too much though cause I was the only one trying all the attractions!
So after the tech trails, Todd moved onto dad duty and Mark and I decided to ride over to the Churning Rapids Trails. We rode over there for the rest of the afternoon and finished it off with a tostado pizza, beer, and fishbowls at Ambassador. What a great training day!
After Ambassador we continued North to Copper Harbor. After a night of more beer at the Mariner and lots of stupid talk, we woke up the next morning to rain! Yuck! the rain finally let up around 11 and then it was out the door to enjoy all the great trails around Copper Harbor. By the end of the day I think I went up Brockway something like 8 times and probably four or five trips up to the Mountain Lodge to make up some 6000 ft of climbing on the day! My last trip up included a trip down the red trail and my body was so smoked from the tech nature of the trails that I could barely hang on anymore. In the end it was another fun day of riding.
All the riding was topped off with the celebration of the Copper Harbor Trails getting IMBA Ride Center status. Congrats to them, I know all the work that goes into these trails and it shows! If you have not made the trip north you are missing out!
So the party was a lot of fun and yes it included more of the same, beer and stupid talk. Mark and I really started talking stupid about bikes. Thinking this needs to be my next bike???
We returned home on Monday to some bike cleaning and the start of prep for this coming weekend, the Mohican 100. Looks like it going to be cooler than it should be for Ohio this time of year. Either way I am hoping that it goes better than last and Ryan does something with the trail markings!
For the rest of the team, Ryan, Mark, and Scott will be at the Mohican with me and Michelle, Sarah, Lisa, Darrin, Mikey, and Myles will be at Wausau.
Some skills work:
Funny thing is that I made this one but could not make the rainbow?? Mark tried to get video of my failed attempt, but he did not get the camera out in time to catch me taking a dirt nap:) They couldn't tease me too much though cause I was the only one trying all the attractions!
So after the tech trails, Todd moved onto dad duty and Mark and I decided to ride over to the Churning Rapids Trails. We rode over there for the rest of the afternoon and finished it off with a tostado pizza, beer, and fishbowls at Ambassador. What a great training day!
After Ambassador we continued North to Copper Harbor. After a night of more beer at the Mariner and lots of stupid talk, we woke up the next morning to rain! Yuck! the rain finally let up around 11 and then it was out the door to enjoy all the great trails around Copper Harbor. By the end of the day I think I went up Brockway something like 8 times and probably four or five trips up to the Mountain Lodge to make up some 6000 ft of climbing on the day! My last trip up included a trip down the red trail and my body was so smoked from the tech nature of the trails that I could barely hang on anymore. In the end it was another fun day of riding.
All the riding was topped off with the celebration of the Copper Harbor Trails getting IMBA Ride Center status. Congrats to them, I know all the work that goes into these trails and it shows! If you have not made the trip north you are missing out!
 |
| Stacey Kukkonen/Daily Mining Gazette |
We returned home on Monday to some bike cleaning and the start of prep for this coming weekend, the Mohican 100. Looks like it going to be cooler than it should be for Ohio this time of year. Either way I am hoping that it goes better than last and Ryan does something with the trail markings!
For the rest of the team, Ryan, Mark, and Scott will be at the Mohican with me and Michelle, Sarah, Lisa, Darrin, Mikey, and Myles will be at Wausau.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Yowza!
Been here, there, over there. Doing this and that and about everything in between. Been fun though. I think I need to go all the way back to 2 weekends ago at the Rasta Rally! Fun, Fun, Fun! Still sick but could not miss this ride! They take all the good trails at the camp there and make just an outstanding 12 mile loop that you just have to enjoy. This year they made it better for Mark and I by delaying the race start this year and giving us time to get in a full lap of the course before the race! Thanks! I would eventually finish 2nd on the day and could not match Justin. Congrats to him!
From here it was clean the bikes pack, grab RK and Scott and head off to Ar-Kansas for the Syllamos Revenge. Still hacking up a lung, but at least starting to turn the corner. We arrived down in the dirty south just in time to ride the Green Loop and start the Nasty Catch Scratch weekend of overgrown trails. Ouch!
Here is a nice shot of some of the singletrack. This trail system has IMBA Epic status and it is sad after talking to the race director he was mentioning that in a couple years the trails might not even be there anymore do to the lack of community support and riders. That sucks!
With the early arrival it felt as if we ended up with all this extra time. Ryan wanted us to take him into town so that he could show off his down south attire, but Scott and I were not up to beating all the ladies off him so we hung out at the cabin most of the day.
Thats hot! Michelle said that if he wore them again she would kick him off the team!! To try and get that image out of your head here is a shot from the trails:
So for the race. I went into this one not knowing what to expect after being sick for so long so at the start I just rode my pace up the first climb and entered the first section of singletrack sitting about 8th wheel or so. I immediately let a gap open between me and the front group so that I could have a clean line going into all the sections. I rode alright up to the first aid station, but was no match for the leaders. With the technical nature of the trail though I found myself sitting 4th at aid station 1 with Drew, Christian, and Brandon off the front. I was happy with that and just kept my pace. Then just before aid 2 I saw Christian off the side of the trail with some pretty good scraps and a pretty good gouge in his knee. I stopped to help and he told me to keep going. I kept going then stopped at aid 2 to try and get someone to go back and help him. The staff at aid 2 just stood there and looked at me!! I finally got someone to go back for him, but in all the confusion, I rolled out of that aid stop without my bottles! Not good, and I did not realize the mistake till almost 10 min later. That just meant I had to make it the next 1.5hrs in 85 degree weather with no water! I made it, but I was way behind on hydration now. I stopped at aid 3 and put down an extra bottle before heading out on the red loop. I came into aid 4 feeling fine and did the same, an extra bottle and I even stopped and ate some food as well. I continued to the 2nd time around the yellow loop and this is when everything went wrong. I was so overheated and dehydrated I had to take my helmet and gloves off, jersey completely unzipped and I just walked. I had the chills, vomiting, and was completely bonked. I just tried to walk and keep forward motion! I finally cooled down some and got back on the bike and spun back to aid 5, but not before a couple riders got by me. Luckily for me Kevin was at aid 5. Unfortunate for him though, cause he broke his bike earlier in the day and had to DNF. At aid station 5 he pretty much put me back together with lots of ice, water, Gatorade, and electrolytes. Not sure how but after a few minutes he had me back on my bike for one more death march around the red loop!! Thanks Kevin! In the end I finished 4th in the open field. Then not far behind me was RK taking the sprint over Ernesto and the last podium spot in 5th!
So if you have not seen some of the press, I think this is the best race recap. Press can also be found here and here.
After the race it was a 14 hr death drive home that we started at 4am due to none of us sleeping cause of the fire scratches we received from the trails, so that is what Syallamos Revenge is all about!
Now back home it was back to cleaning bikes and training again. It is nice to be back to a training schedule and not feeling just awful! Yesterday I had a great ride that included a covered bridge:
and a total of 5 hrs and 100 miles for my commute to work!
From here it was clean the bikes pack, grab RK and Scott and head off to Ar-Kansas for the Syllamos Revenge. Still hacking up a lung, but at least starting to turn the corner. We arrived down in the dirty south just in time to ride the Green Loop and start the Nasty Catch Scratch weekend of overgrown trails. Ouch!
Here is a nice shot of some of the singletrack. This trail system has IMBA Epic status and it is sad after talking to the race director he was mentioning that in a couple years the trails might not even be there anymore do to the lack of community support and riders. That sucks!
With the early arrival it felt as if we ended up with all this extra time. Ryan wanted us to take him into town so that he could show off his down south attire, but Scott and I were not up to beating all the ladies off him so we hung out at the cabin most of the day.
Thats hot! Michelle said that if he wore them again she would kick him off the team!! To try and get that image out of your head here is a shot from the trails:
So for the race. I went into this one not knowing what to expect after being sick for so long so at the start I just rode my pace up the first climb and entered the first section of singletrack sitting about 8th wheel or so. I immediately let a gap open between me and the front group so that I could have a clean line going into all the sections. I rode alright up to the first aid station, but was no match for the leaders. With the technical nature of the trail though I found myself sitting 4th at aid station 1 with Drew, Christian, and Brandon off the front. I was happy with that and just kept my pace. Then just before aid 2 I saw Christian off the side of the trail with some pretty good scraps and a pretty good gouge in his knee. I stopped to help and he told me to keep going. I kept going then stopped at aid 2 to try and get someone to go back and help him. The staff at aid 2 just stood there and looked at me!! I finally got someone to go back for him, but in all the confusion, I rolled out of that aid stop without my bottles! Not good, and I did not realize the mistake till almost 10 min later. That just meant I had to make it the next 1.5hrs in 85 degree weather with no water! I made it, but I was way behind on hydration now. I stopped at aid 3 and put down an extra bottle before heading out on the red loop. I came into aid 4 feeling fine and did the same, an extra bottle and I even stopped and ate some food as well. I continued to the 2nd time around the yellow loop and this is when everything went wrong. I was so overheated and dehydrated I had to take my helmet and gloves off, jersey completely unzipped and I just walked. I had the chills, vomiting, and was completely bonked. I just tried to walk and keep forward motion! I finally cooled down some and got back on the bike and spun back to aid 5, but not before a couple riders got by me. Luckily for me Kevin was at aid 5. Unfortunate for him though, cause he broke his bike earlier in the day and had to DNF. At aid station 5 he pretty much put me back together with lots of ice, water, Gatorade, and electrolytes. Not sure how but after a few minutes he had me back on my bike for one more death march around the red loop!! Thanks Kevin! In the end I finished 4th in the open field. Then not far behind me was RK taking the sprint over Ernesto and the last podium spot in 5th!
So if you have not seen some of the press, I think this is the best race recap. Press can also be found here and here.
After the race it was a 14 hr death drive home that we started at 4am due to none of us sleeping cause of the fire scratches we received from the trails, so that is what Syallamos Revenge is all about!
Now back home it was back to cleaning bikes and training again. It is nice to be back to a training schedule and not feeling just awful! Yesterday I had a great ride that included a covered bridge:
and a total of 5 hrs and 100 miles for my commute to work!
Next up, a trip north to ride all the trails in the Keweenaw for the weekend! Cant wait!
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Down with the sickness.....
Deep down I knew I should not of raced this weekend, but I did not listen to that inner voice and decided to get even sicker than I already was! It was hard to say no to a race that is so close though! Also it is the only WORS race I have on the calendar till late June now and it is always nice to see some of the people we race with! So to say the least my race did not go well and I made it worse by throwing my bike on the ground and breaking the rear deraileur so that it would not stay in a gear and did not allow me to put much force to the pedals! Oh well I guess. Either way I think the big news is the girls. They showed up ready to go and had some good results, finishing in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Nice work to them! Must be their mechanics taking good care of their bikes? Here is the race report on cyclingnews for those who have not seen it.
Besides the race, I think the best part of the weekend was spent in Amherst doing some Redneck weeding with firecrackers. Yeah Ryan and Lisa brought bottle rockets up and it entertained us for most of Saturday afternoon! Luckily we ended up getting out of it with all our fingers and did not catch anything on fire! Flipp'n sweet!
We then pre rode and had like 25 people over for dinner which made for even more fun!! Starting to think that the race is the least exciting part of the weekend when you have a team like ours!
Besides the race, I think the best part of the weekend was spent in Amherst doing some Redneck weeding with firecrackers. Yeah Ryan and Lisa brought bottle rockets up and it entertained us for most of Saturday afternoon! Luckily we ended up getting out of it with all our fingers and did not catch anything on fire! Flipp'n sweet!
We then pre rode and had like 25 people over for dinner which made for even more fun!! Starting to think that the race is the least exciting part of the weekend when you have a team like ours!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Elvis, was that you?
So if you have not heard this past weekend at Cohutta was a bit of a roller coaster. I got a great start and actually took the hole shot into the first section of singletrack. I set my pace early and tried to keep things controlled a bit even though Bishop was not happy with it. I finally let him around me and the games started. We hit the first section pretty hard then after we went down this road section, someone went to the front and set a pretty fast pace along the river. It was like everyone wanted to win in the singletrack? Everyone seemed nervous so I just backed off Christian a little and left enough gap to react if someone did end up going down. Luckily that never happened! So with everyone so amped up I tried to play it calm and it almost did not work out. I laid back about 6th or 7th wheel with Christian just in front of me. I ended up getting too relaxed and the next time I looked up a group of 4 were off the front! Oops. From then on the chase started. Luckily I had some good help with Christian for a while, then Alexander for Costa Rica, and Christopher Michaels. We ended up making it back on the lead group just before aide station 2 when Kevin Carter came up to us and finished the chase off! Thanks! We rolled pretty chilled for a while and I think that was the slowest I ever went up the long climb to aid 3. Then through aid 3 Simonson attacked like normal since he receives feeds out there. We all let him hang out there for awhile thinking it was too long for someone to go solo for that long and questioning what he was up to. Justin Lindine and I would go to the front on the downhills to pull a few second back and then Christian would go to the front on the climbs. After about 15 to 20 minutes of that we brought Mike back into the group. Then at about 47 miles in, I got a glimpse of Elvis. We were descending and at the bottom was a left hand corner. I grabbed the brakes, and the entire front rotor flew apart. Talk about panic!! Luckily I yanked on the rear brake and slid it to a stop! The skid though would of won any skid mark competition out there! I took inventory and I made it out alive to fight another day! At first I was disappointed cause we had a group of 7 that was away and not going to be caught and my legs were starting to feel good. But in the end I thought about it and I was just happy that the front end did not lock up with a stray rotor piece.
So my next thought was, what next? I was 10 miles from aid 3 and 4 miles to aid 4 so I started towards aid 4. Well it was ALL downhill to aid 4 and it is very unnerving to be accelerating with the brakes on so I started to drag my feet. I finally came around a corner and found the Michigan group standing there cheering everyone on. I stopped and talked with them for a bit. Asked if they had a spare rotor, they said no. Bummer! Then I asked for the next best thing, you have a beer? That was a yes! So I set there and had a beer while waiting for Ryan and Scott to come through. After they came through I made my way down to aid 4 to help with their support when they came back through and to work on how to get out of the woods!
At aid 4 they told me that a ride would not be coming through till after the sweep vehicle, in about 6 hrs!!!! Really! Since I smoked my rear pads trying to get down the hill I now have no brakes and need to somehow get back to aid 6 where I knew Chuck was there giving us support. I did have an extra set of brake pads with me so I changed them out. I supported Ryan then when Scott came up I have never seen him in such a bad spot! I made him take as much as I could stuff in his pockets and then I threw everything else in my pockets to get him back up the hill that we just came down. The whole time back towards aid 6 I talked Scott's ear off and tried to get him to focus on anything but riding his bike. I was getting no where! All my questions and continual yapping went on without even an attempt to acknowledge. Then out of the blue, Scott's alive!! An event on the trail made him come to life, thanks to the person who offered the encouragement he needed!! I will not go into what that was here, but it was pretty funny!
So we finished our way back to Aid 6 where I finally pulled the plug on my day and got a ride back to the start with Chuck! Once back there I learned that Sarah finished 2nd and Michelle 5th in the 65 mile race! Nice way to start the season!!
So now onto the evening! We decided to through Mark under the train, not sure what for, but it sounded like a good idea at the time!
Some more randomness, not just for bike anymore(you might have to zoom this one in?):
So next up is some training race for me in Iola! Should be fun to see everyone again though and sounds like we might be racing in the rain? See you there!
So my next thought was, what next? I was 10 miles from aid 3 and 4 miles to aid 4 so I started towards aid 4. Well it was ALL downhill to aid 4 and it is very unnerving to be accelerating with the brakes on so I started to drag my feet. I finally came around a corner and found the Michigan group standing there cheering everyone on. I stopped and talked with them for a bit. Asked if they had a spare rotor, they said no. Bummer! Then I asked for the next best thing, you have a beer? That was a yes! So I set there and had a beer while waiting for Ryan and Scott to come through. After they came through I made my way down to aid 4 to help with their support when they came back through and to work on how to get out of the woods!
At aid 4 they told me that a ride would not be coming through till after the sweep vehicle, in about 6 hrs!!!! Really! Since I smoked my rear pads trying to get down the hill I now have no brakes and need to somehow get back to aid 6 where I knew Chuck was there giving us support. I did have an extra set of brake pads with me so I changed them out. I supported Ryan then when Scott came up I have never seen him in such a bad spot! I made him take as much as I could stuff in his pockets and then I threw everything else in my pockets to get him back up the hill that we just came down. The whole time back towards aid 6 I talked Scott's ear off and tried to get him to focus on anything but riding his bike. I was getting no where! All my questions and continual yapping went on without even an attempt to acknowledge. Then out of the blue, Scott's alive!! An event on the trail made him come to life, thanks to the person who offered the encouragement he needed!! I will not go into what that was here, but it was pretty funny!
So we finished our way back to Aid 6 where I finally pulled the plug on my day and got a ride back to the start with Chuck! Once back there I learned that Sarah finished 2nd and Michelle 5th in the 65 mile race! Nice way to start the season!!
So now onto the evening! We decided to through Mark under the train, not sure what for, but it sounded like a good idea at the time!
Some more randomness, not just for bike anymore(you might have to zoom this one in?):
So next up is some training race for me in Iola! Should be fun to see everyone again though and sounds like we might be racing in the rain? See you there!
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