Airplane butt!

Wow that was rough! Flew first class this time and made the trip so much easier. All I wanted to do was sleep but they were too busy filling my wine glass and bringing me food. I think Michelle had the flight attendant trying to get me to pass out so they did not have to deal with me! We had one stop in Amsterdam at 6am in the morning. That is a huge airport! We made our destination this morning and after a taxi ride where the driver finally decided he had no clue where we were supposed to be. Finally he dropped us off on the side of the street and we were on our own. Luckily Michelle made friends with a couple of the locals and we found our first stop!  Here is our view from the patio:

So that is the Mediterranean in the background, so any guesses yet?  Sure wish I had a bike though,  The Pyrennes are just north of us and look like they need some exploring!!  Alright, we are sitting in Barcelona right now and sure could use a coffee. 

Today will be our first exploring day, but in the meantime here is Michelle's tower.  I think she was going to go up there and wait for a prince to rescue her?

 

T-Day

Happy Turkey Day Everyone! Hope there are 5 meals in your plans today!  I love this time of year, cause it is the off season and there is food everywhere.  Oh yeah if that was not a hint enough, I love to eat!  Welcome to the fat season! 

I will not be getting my Turkey dinner today but will instead be enduring a long flight!  We leave today at noon and get to our destination tomorrow at noon!  Oh ADHD, please let me make it through this!  I think Michelle has packed everything to try and keep me entertained, and if that does not work good thing the plane is serving! 

More to come on where we are off to and up to, but in the meantime I hope everyone enjoys their Turkey Burner rides!

Tru -motiv

Motivation!  That is what the boxes should be labeled.  Everytime we get spoiled and receive stuff in the form of support it makes me want to go out and train hard.  I know that my training has nothing to do with the support but it is about us representing and selling product.  So what bettter way to start that process for the 2012 season but to let you look at our new addition!  It came in the form of a couple boxes of brand new carbon pieces and have Truvativ written on them!  Sweet!!

Lets start with the handlebar.  Most of the team opted for a wider bar and what better bar is there but the Truvativ T30 10S flat carbon bar.  It measure in at 700 mm wide and no, most of us will not run it that wide.  The best feature has to be the generoous sweep they give the bar!  In the ever shortening USProXCT races this kind of comfort might not matter, but when you hang onto your bar for 7 hrs in a NUE race this is key!  Check out the curve!

Next is the stem.  Nothing too fancy here, but this is a stem we have used to build all the bikes up with over the past few years.  It has a good stiffness and is very comparable to a vast majority of the more expensive stems out there.  We will be using the Stylo T40 stem and most will be using a 100 mm length. 



Last in the collection is the seatpost and it adds a bit more carbon to the bikes! The graphics change to all the componennts is also very nice and should match our Specialized Epics.  For the Epics, it requres a 30.9 mm diameter post and most of our riders require a 400mm length and a 25mm setback due to some long legs on the team. 

Thank you very much Truvativ for the support of the team! 

So this is about all that has been happening on the bike front.  I have even slacked a lot with riding.  I did try to go out on the road bike Monday, but there was still a lot of orange out in the woods so I decided to give them their hunting space, they do carry guns, and let them have the 2weeks.  Anyway we get the remaining 50 weeks of the year. 

The morning abuse has been going good as well. Gabe has been doing some xFit style training with us which keeps my ADHD in check since we are alwasy doing something, nothing like calling recovery 400 m on a row machine!  Sarah makes fun of me though, cause I have a tendancy to strike up a lot of random converstions with 212 memebers.  This usually lets me know when she is suffering though, cuase she lets me go on chatting if she is tired!

Packing, that is what I have also been working on. I will elaborate more on this hopefully by the end of the week so check back.  Nothing at all to do with bikes, at least that I know of.  I did put some shoes, pedals, helmet, and a kit in there just in case I get the itch!  Till then, enjoy some turkey or the "Fat" Season as I call it.  Happy Thanksgiving! 

Random Ramblings

A whole lot of transition time has been happening.  Transitioning into more blacktop at 212 with a parking lot expansion.  Getting the blog updated with new sponsors, thanks Mark and the sponsors.  It is great to see the response and support of the team.  We are trying to create a group of great riders that actually like to ride and race their bikes for fun and are easily approachable at the events.  This also makes it easy on each rider as well cause the events are so much fun just hanging out, the race seems like a bonus!

So new on the sponsor front is SRAM, Truvativ, Rudy Project, and Keen.  This is already on top of the awesome support we have been receiving! Thanks to all the sponsors.   

More on this in the future.  I will work at getting a review of the product as we receive it.

So more on the transition time.  I have started working in the gym with Sarah and Mark.  Our Nemesis in the morning is one of our personal trainers at 212, Gabe!  He puts us through the ringer and is going to either kill one of us or make us faster? I will probably be the first to go, my ADD will kick in and I will drop one of those med balls on my head!  Other than that, the bike has not collected dust, here are some random shots from the last week or so in no order:

Occupy Iceman

No I will not get into opinion here, but if you ask I will tell.  Either way I plan to be the 99% this weekend that puts a wrap on the season and drinks too much beer at the after parties throughout Traverse City.  Hope to see you there.

I am also going as a spectator.  Seems weird to go to a race with no bike, but if you need a super water wench let me know.  If you are too far back in the pack you might get a brown bottle though!  Just saying by then I might not know any better, but then again you might not care either cause I do drink good beer. No PBR hand up from me. 

So from the team we have Scott, Michelle, Myles, and Mikee racing.  I can't wait to heckle Mikee and get him back for his torment at Kewauskum a few years back!  Gonna be a fun one. 

Other than that, my riding has slowed some due to playing in the dirt at 212.  We have been busy expanding our parking lot before winter.  Just wish the city would cooperate a bit more.  I have a meeting about that next week when I get home. 

Back on the bike front, Ryan, Michelle, Mark, Scott, Sarah, and I are registered for Cohutta.  We also booked our sweet lodging again!  I am already excited for next year!  That is until it starts snowing here!  Blah! 

Going back

Just a couple weeks though, since I have been slacking on the blog front.  Either way, it is that time of year to blow off a lot of things cycling related.  Which I have not been doing real well on the riding side.  With the weather trying to stay half way descent I still can not hang up my bike for the 2011 season.

Zoom Zoom!

Riding with a good friend of mine! Love it when the sun is out!

Bummer, the end of this trail!  Off to the next one!

Hmmm, decision??

 Our pre WORS banquet ride, has become the tradition. Of course there is a stop fro coffee. 

Even got the girls to go!

Why even mark this, isn't this a form of natural selection if you are this dumb?

 That's tongue in the ear hot!

I always wanted to try ordering from this menu, should I have the dragon or the tiger? 

 

 Ahh, this was fun, Tower Road up near Tigerton.

ADHD Bike!

I do not race much cross, but my favorite bike has to be my cross bike.  I call it my ADHD bike cause I can go anywhere with it! Trails, road, rail trail, Green Circle, and can't believe this is getting close but even in the snow with studded tires!  That last one is right up there with racing in a circle in the park!  Blah!  Anyway the last week I have been pounding out the junk miles with no purpose whatsoever but to enjoy the ride!  What a good time.  Last Friday I randomly went out and ended up with almost 4 hrs. Then on Sunday Michelle and I ended up riding around Castle Rock Lake after clubing it in the Dells on Saturday night, that's another story!  Either way the ride was fun even with the lack of sleep and the wind.  Then again last night I went out for a couple hours on the rail trail.  The rail trail is always nice cause it protects you form the wind, which we have not been lacking lately!  A couple shots:

Besides the riding the team has been working hard on getting things set for the 2012 season.  The sponsor thing has been going good for us this year and we are excited to add a couple new ones for 2012.  We have a new bar, stem, and seatpost sponsor.  We have used their products for years and they have an extensive product line to make sure every rider is comfortable on their bike, so while buillding or upgrading your bike for the 2012 season be sure to check truvativ out:

I have also been working hard at getting my schedule in place for next year.  At least as hard as I can be without a published NUE schedule.  I have been looking at maybe doing a European race too.  I have always wanted too, but just has not worked out yet.  The closest I have been to one is when I did Master Worlds for a couple years, unfortunately the 2 years I went they were held in the exotic locale of Canada.  I did manage a 5th one year!

By the way, the Belgium leading us out there ended up kicking our ass!  Really bad!

So for a schedule this is what I am looking at with some of the dates still questionable.

Date	Event	Option
4/7/2011		UCI Marathon -France
4/14/2011
4/21/2012
4/28/2012	NUE #1 Cohutta 100????
5/6/2012	WORS #1 Iola
5/12/2012
5/20/2012	WORS#2 Crystal Lake	NUE #2 Syllamos Revenge?????
5/26/2012
6/3/2012	NUE #3 Mohican 100	WORS #3 Big Ring Classic
6/9/2012
6/16/2012	NUE #4 LumberJack 100
6/24/2012	WORS #5 Eau Claire
6/30/2012
7/7/2012		Siditrol Dolomiti Superbike UCI- Marathon
7/14/2012	WORS #6 WORS Cup
7/21/2012	NUE #6 High Cascades 100
7/29/2012	WORS #7 Alterra	NUE Wilderness 101????
8/4/2012		NUE Pierres Hole 100 ??????
8/11/2012	Ore to Shore
8/19/2012	NUE Fools Gold 100	WORS #8 Kewauskum
8/26/2012	WORS #9 Green Bay
9/1/2012	NUE Shenandoah
9/9/2012	WORS #10 Grand Geneva
9/15/2012	Marathon Nationals	Chequamegon Fat Tire
9/22/2012
9/30/2012	WORS #11 Bear Paw
10/6/2012
10/14/2012	WORS #12 Sheboygan
10/20/2012

Amateur hour

So yesterday I took the day off work, loaded up the dirty from Sheboygan Specialized Epic up and headed out the door.  The first stop was at Scott's house since he had the day off as well and we went north.  North up to 9 mile that is.  Just as we were rolling into the parking lot there was our tour guide for the day, Ben Koenig.  We rolled down the window and yelled at him to get off the road as we blew past him.  Taking the show off the road was definitely the plan for the day, even though mother nature decided to make it rain on our parade!  That lady is not nice!  Either way we headed out on the trails and the day was set in on the 2nd corner when Ben decided to show us how slippery the new fallen wet leaves were and fell over!  Oops.  We slipped and slid the entire day!  Guess we can chalk it up as a skills day, or the way we were looking, lack of skills!  I then added to our amateur ways by not changing my tire that I flatted 4 times on Sunday and decided to make it 5!  I decided to put a tube in it and the tube was bad!  I think that thing has been on the bike almost all year!  I ended up riding the flat in and luckily had another tube in the truck! After fixing it we headed back out and had this great idea to ride up Ho Chi Min, or however you want to spell it.  That did not work at all.  There was not enough traction to get up it so we bailed on that idea in dreams of coming back to it and riding down it!  Sounds like a good idea!  If it is too slippery to go up, then change your route and come down it?  Hmmm? Who made that decision!  By the time the day was done we hit every trail out there and have some more bruises to show for our adventure! 

So after riding all day what better way to spend a wasted day then going to a bike shop!  We stopped at Rib Mountain Cyclery for a while, had coffee, looked at bikes, and talked a lot!  A lot!  All that talking made us thirsty, hungry, and then really thirsty so we made our way to Red Eye Brewery for pizza and beer! Mmmmm. 

We then finished off our day visiting with Brenda and making sure she was doing well.  She was up and about with the use of her walker and was actually out in the barn.  Think she just wanted to be around the bikes. Either way she is healing well and seemed in really good spirits.  We wished her a speedy recovery and cannot wait to see our cheerleader back on the trails and at the races!! 

After a day like that, I learned one thing!  I need to take more days off!!!   

Whats that noise?

That was my tire!  I could not get it to hold air yesterday for some reason.  It was good for the first 2 laps, but the 3rd and 4th required a couple stops then it was fine on the 5th?  It sucked cause I worked my way up to Kevin and Brian and the 3 of us were riding in 6th, 7th, and 8th I believe and having lots of fun.  Either way the course was a blast once again and the dual suspension of the Specialized Epic smoothed the roots out! My butt thanks you! Also on a plus note leaking air is better than leaking blood, so it could of been worse.  I think at my lowest placing I was riding around 25th at the start of the 5th lap and my legs felt better as the laps ticked away. Which is a good sign that the transformation is happening to the word of endurance.  Or I am just getting that old man power to settle in.  Speaking of old man, today is my 37th birthday!  I really hope Kim is right when she said that 37 will be the fastest year you will have on a bike.  It is the magic number that everything comes together!  I like that! 

Next up for me is the fat season!  I get to eat, ride when I want, and maybe show up at a couple cross races if I am bored?  Probably not though!  Not a big fan of riding in circles in a park.  I do really hope that this weather trend sticks around, straight through the winter would be OK with me!  I know it won't happen, but we can dream!

On another front. Ordered up some of these for next year! Yup for everyone on the team, minus Myles who will be on the Stumpjumper. 

If you get bike envy from this then get a hold of one of us on the team, cause we are all selling our bikes from this year. 

One Lump or two

So this past weekend Michelle felt like riding her bike and talked me into travelling to Levis with her to race the final WEMS race.  We ended up deciding on the 50 mile race since the last time I did the 100 there I got so bored doing laps that I pulled the plug and went home!  With the rain finally ending and the forecast calling for sun and upper 50's I said I was in. 

My parents were also in town so it gave them a chance to see me race, not that watching bike racing is exciting by any means! 

So I toed the line, or the spot that we all decided was good enough for the LeMans start and the gun went off.  It was nice that no one wanted to run to their bikes so it was a nice moderate jog and we were off.  I took the hole shot into the first singletrack section and just got into a good rhythm.  That is until I missed the first bridge completely and was half way out in the swamp!  Oops!  Luckily I was close enough to put my foot down on the bridge and pull the bike back on. From here on it was pretty smooth sailing for lap one. 

Then on lap 2, you think I would learn, but I missed the bridge again!  Oh yeah and again on the 3rd lap as well.  At least I was consistent!  So the rest of the race went well except for deciding to throw myself on the ground, hitting a tree, then another, then on the ground again, but at least I made the bridge on the 4th lap!!  Either way I added to the bruise count after the mud race at Bear Paw and shook the bike out after it got new brake pads, front chainring, chain, derailleur pulleys, and completely overhauled!  I ended up coming across the line and was ready to be done.  That course beats you up and it is hard to keep from making mistakes as you get tired.  Luckily for me I ended up riding with one of the Rib Mountain Cycle Riders who was competing in the 3 hr race!  He made that last lap enjoyable and gave me someone to talk to for a bit! Thanks! 

So once done it was time to move onto the barley-hop recovery drink why waiting for awards.  We then finished the evening off with a stop in Marshfield for more recovery drink at the Blue Heron Brew Pub and to start replenishing the 4200 calorie deficit from the race!

No there is just one more race that I currently have planned for the year and it is the last WORS race in Sheboygan.  I can tell that it has been a long season of learning cause there are a lot of aches and pains from the 100 milers.  On a plus note though the mind is still into loving the ride!  Usually this time of year I am ready to hang up my bike and walk away for a bit but I am already thinking about the NUE series next year and how to improve.  Also looking at maybe trying to make a stop on the UCI Marathon series somewhere in Europe.  Right now there is one in the Dolomites of Italy that has my interest?  Hmmm?  Guess I will need to wait and see how the season plan comes together! In the meantime, see everyone at Sheboygan! 

Spare Time

Big D always makes fun of me cause I cannot sit still and am always working on something!  I think he gets a kick out of it and sometimes just calls to see what random thing I am working on.  The last couple months my random project was an outside kitchen on my patio.  I finished it up yesterday so now it will probably snow next week!  Mother Nature is not kind!  Either way the final result just in time for the get fat season:

The end is here

Of my season that is!!  It feels really good to pull the plug and put it into neautral for a bit!  Especially with the struggles as of late.  Tons of things not working out as planned and some health things that have been plagueing me.  either way I really enjoy racing/riding my bike and would miss my bike family if I didn't go!  Especially the team, half the fun of racing is hanging out and making fun of each other every week!! 

So let me go back some, but now that I drug my feet on blogging you get the abreviated version.  Nationals were fun and I had a great start.  Settled in with Dave Wiens and was riding in the top 15.  Body issues decided to come up and got me off my bike for just a bit, back on after losing spots and chased for the next 20 miles.  Had a group of 5 or 6 not 45 seconds up, but could not close the gap, rolled in for 25th.  Not what I had in mind, but I know I had better fitness and still had a blast!  Bend rocks! Yes I did look at some houses out there!  Sorry Tyler!

Chequamegon! The team rocked it!  Mike in 5th was a great result for the weekend and there is a great shot of him leading things out!  Ryan and Scott also had great races with the talent in the field.  On the girls side of things Di came in 4th, Sarah 6th, and Lisa 9th!  Nice work!  It also sounds like I missed some fun post race antics!  Bummer!

Now onto Bear Paw.  I took the whole week off after Nationals and have been pretty chilled.  I was debating on racing or not and with the rain, that sealed it for me, I was a definite in!  Love racing in the mud! I got a pretty good start and was comfortable heading up the first hill! Surprised after the only thing I rode all week was the couch!  It was also awesome to see Scott make the lead group and not sure what happened behind us, but everyone was gone??  Either way, I kept things smooth and just had some fun.  I lost my brakes right away the first lap and the only way I was slowing down was by putting my feet out or crashing!  First lap it was mainly crashing and I have the bruises to prove it today!  So I lost the group pretty much right away but rode with Scott after I picked myself off the ground a couple times.  Then on the start of the 3rd lap Timster told me Big D and Ben were only 30 seconds up so up the climb I put the hammer down. I caught them as Big D was having a pity party on the big rock we had to go around.  I told him to grab his tissue box, dry his eyes, and lets ride some bikes :)  Too much fun.  As soon as I got to them the fun started.  We kept gabbing and having fun!  Then as we came out of the last singletrack section they said they were calling the race one lap short!  Oops, I was giving Ben 15 seconds or so in case he bobbled in the singletrack and he was happy to have that!! I yelled at him to get back here, but he was not listening to me.  Why not??  I caught up to him in one of the right hand corners and actually had the inside line, but also had tons of speed and a big risk of taking us both out if I tried it so I put my foot down to slow and that was enough for him to get the final gap!   I ended up 7th on the day.  Big D rolled in 8th and Scott gets the ride of the day and finished 10th.  Ryan slip and slid the Renegades for a finish!  Lisa had a good day and came in 3rd.  Michelle crashed again on here same leg with the PCL tear and Sarah stopped to help.  She is doing OK today so hopefully just a scare.  Myles ended up flatting out.

Next up, after completely rebuilding bikes is Sheboygan.  Then some beer drinking to usher out the 2011 Season! 

Entropy balance

This is for the geek in all of us.  Back in my Chem Eng studies we learned that energy is never created nor destroyed.  So then the overall entropy of the universe never changes and ΔS_universe = ΔS_surroundings + ΔS _system So what am I getting at, who knows?  I am just thinking that I have done everything in my power to make my ΔS _system work as it is supposed to on Saturday and give me the output required to perform at my ability.  I have done nothing but focus on this race for the last 2 weeks. the bike is dialed,  I think my legs have come back around, and despite a little bit of allergies from the forrest fire smoke out here I am ready to rip!!  So my goal is to try and get in the top 10.  Not sure if that is possible, but I will fail trying.  The field continues to grow and the depth of talent gets deeper each day!  My excitement level grows each day as well and I cannot wait to rip the trails here in Bend one more time!  Right now I am thinking that the T.I.T.S(Time In The Saddle) will be around 3:30. Seems short to me for a  marathon race!!  I would prefer to see the time be more in the 5 to 6 hr range, but I guess no one ever asked me:( 

This is where ΔS_surroundings comes into play!! Bend rocks.  I understand why they have so many high level athletes coming out of here.  The vibe of the city makes you want to be outside and be active!  The trails are also some of the best I have ever ridden and they make me not want to stop riding!  So even though I am missing Chequamegon this weekend and the companionship of my teammates, my surroundings are good. 

As for my teammates, I hope they all have a great ride at Chequamegon and make it to Rosie's Field in one piece!  That leadout for me will not be missed!! 

My inner child!

Or in my case my inner adult!  My inner child is always visible and shared with others around me, it is the adult aspect of me that does not come out very often!  Luckily for me, Michelle puts up with it!  Once again my inner child took over decision making and I am out in Bend riding bikes while she is at home getting ready for her brother's wedding and a slew of other grown up things.  Not sure if it counts that I am here for the Marathon National Championships??  In my childish mind, all signs point to it being OK?  I am so glad that she supports me in this "so called" dream of wanting to ride bikes fast! 

So now the next timing issue with this trip.  This Friday will be our 11 year anniversary as well? Luckily again she knows I will make it up to her and fully supports my inner, or have we decided now that it is my outer childs urge to travel around and ride bicycles?   Either way I am here to do the best I can and I feel as if the legs are coming around.  They should! I having no responsibility besides riding and recovery! 

So a little about the trip!  It started out in Portland with Bossman and I doing some urban assault on the city! 

It is not too bad of a gig cause there is gelato and espresso on every corner in Portland!  While out I also made a new friend!

With all this work, the hunger settled in and it was time for some snacking!

Mmmm, I'll take one of everything!! 

So after terrorizing Portland, I headed my way to bend for some sweet singletrack riding!  The first couple days I tore around on the Nationals Course.  It seems OK, not what I would say is the best course, but I have seen worse, Idaho anyone!!   Here is a nice look of the course profile!  Cant go wrong with 25 miles up and 25 miles down!

I then watched some of the Cascades 24 hr race and watched as people became delusional!! Man, I will never do another one of those races unless it is just to have fun and if I oversleep my turn, oh well! 

Today was the first set back to the trip.  I woke with a thick smoke haze from all the fires happening around here!  It is so dry that I am afraid to nick a pedal on a rock thinking that it might spark and burn the whole place down!!  Luckily though the winds picked up and the smoke was gone by mid morning.  Today I did an out and back loop.  It was a nice ride with 20 miles of climbing and 20 miles of descending!  You starting to get the idea!  You can take shuttles if you want to start at the top, but I actually like the climb!!  Lots more time to look around!  At least when you are not bleeding out your eyes at race pace!  Today was pretty chill up the Mrazek trail with some nice views of Mt Bachelor once you get to the top! 

Now I am back at the condo in recovery mode!  It is easy to relax when this is the view you get every night from your patio!

Say ya to Da UP eh!

So this past weekend was one of my favorite races ever!  The Copper Harbor Fat Tire Fest!  The race is on some real mountain bike trails that keeps you challenged and smiling ear to ear the whole day and this year did not dissapoint. 

First up after the 5 hr trip north was a spin with Sarah, Tim, and Michelle while we waited for everyone else to arrive!  We decided to head out of town and just keep going off the end of 41 to Horseshoe Bay.  This was Tim's first real venture offroad and we all laughed as he came down the path that leads down to the water.  The whole time, oh my, Oh no, oh I will walk that... as the rest of us laughed!  Tim is alwasy good for some entertainment! 

On Saturday it was Super D.  I woke up not real motivated so I did not bother changing the Renegades and rocked them, or should I say slid them all the way down the hill.  It worked out OK and I had a blast on the new flow trail!  Tons of fun rocketing down this new trail full of berms, bridges, and just fun full out speed down the trail!  In the end I ended up 4th and TSP got his revenge by 8 seconds this year!  He is now 7 seconds in the good on me after I beat him by only 1 sec last year!

Michelle, Di, and Lisa(Not Krayer) rocked the Super D as well.  Sarah, Scott, and Mark bailed on Super D to get a loop of the course in.  Di ended up taking hte win and Michelle was 3rd.  Here is Michelle coming in hot for Super D!!  Sweet! 

After riding Super D, TSP and I decided to do a lap of the course! What a blast.  I really liked the changes to the course this year cause it used all the fun stuff!!  At the end of the day we had 3.5 hrs in, sounds like a good race warm up to me!! 

Then Sunday was the XC race. We woke up to rain coming in sideways off from the cold, Lake Superior waters!  Motivation crushed!  Made me think of the end of summer!  Blah!  So race morning I knew I was going to have fun for the day with Brian Matter and Tyler coming up to ride with me.  We made the deal to chill and just ride!  That is the whole point of this race, to make it not seem like a race.  Brian and I hit the bottom of the climb and were sitting in about 30th.  We looked up the road and Ben Koenig was already about 30 seconds up.  We looked at each other and basically said, whatever not too motivated to chase.  We set a nice pace up Brockway and still entered into the flow trail 2nd and 3rd wheel.  By the time we hit the bottom Ben had almost a minute on a chase group of myself, Brian, Tyler, TSP, Tom Carpenter, and the young stud Peter Karinen.  We then started up Garden Brook and by the time we rounded around near the tennis courts we had brought the gap down to about 30 seconds and had Brian, Tyler, TSP, and myself left in the group and already traded 2 cookie recipes!!  Yeah,we were talking A LOT!!  Then when we rounded the bottom of the descent off from Say Hello and started the climb back to the golf course, there was Ben standing off from a bridge in the middle of a bunnch of ferns. We stopped to make sure he was OK and that is when he told us he broke his handle bars!  Bummer, cause he missed the descent down the red trail!!

After we found out he was OK we countinued to climb back to the top of the red climb.  At the top of the red climb Tyler continued on, while Brian and I stopped to work on tire pressure issues, low for me, high for him.  That is when TSP went by asking what we were up to?? "Holding hands" was the response Brian gave him!  TSP's response was, remember you paid money to race your bikes!  Oh yeah, forgot! 

We adjusted pressure and we were off in search of Tyler.  We caught him toward the bottom of the Red trail and came around for lap 2, a group of 4.  After a quick hand up from Timster, we were off.  At the start of the 2nd lap, it was a good thing I knew what was happening, cause the lap person tried to send us the wrong way! 

The 2nd lap went off without a hitch and everyone was happy to just let me set the pace as we chatted and had fun on the trails.  We did loose TSP on the 2nd climb upto the golf course due to him breaking his "Wreck" Top Fuel on the rear chainstay. 

We all made it down the Red Trail the 2nd time together and for some reason Brian let a gap open exiting the Ma Maki trail onto Manganese Road.  I turned around and smiled, then punched it.  I failed to realize that I had a 39 on the front and Brian a 42, cause he came up on me as I was all spun out!  Luckily he let up just enough to let me get on his wheel, but we went fast enough to not allow Tyler back on, sorry Tyler!  I followed Brian's wheel around the pond and knew the finish well.  I jumped as we rounded the building and was dissapointed that Brian didn't sprint me for the win!  He said he was looking for a banner, but I feel like he let me have it.  Guess we will never know!   Either way we had so much fun up there and I had fun riding and trading stories with Brian, Tyler, and TSP. 

Here are some more pics of the weekend!

After the race, it was travel home, clean bikes, pack, and more travel!  I am now sitting in Portland and will be traveling to Bend later today after some urban assault with Bossman this aftternoon. So stay tuned, more adventueres to come!!