Davey B

Bumpy Bubba

2010-10-27T09:18:00.005-05:00

Maybe the hardest race I have ever done, not so much from a fitness standpoint, but from the brutal course conditions. Not having done any interval training since June or so, the start actually felt fast to me which is rare. I've got a pretty good cruising speed right now, but no snap whatsoever and the hilly course was really hard for me. I was pretty happy with the way I raced, even though I had a very dark period about 4 laps in when I got separated from the front group and found myself very uncomfortable, not able to focus on anything other then my mouth. Basically, I felt as though I had eaten a big fistful of dust (literally) and couldn't focus on much else. Luckily, I was able to snag a bottle from the pits and go back to work.

The remainder of the race I found myself gaining on the 2cd group duo of Jay and Jeff, and then losing it when they saw me coming. I steadily put time into Dr. Mark so I knew I was staying consistent. With about 3 to go Jeff got gaped off of Jay and I thought for sure I was going to be able to catch him, but he saw me coming and made a strong effort to latch back onto Jay and make him work for 3rd.

I would guess they were about 30 seconds back from Josh and Dan, I was about the same behind them and Dr. Mark was a little more than that behind me. Watching Dan beat Josh was pretty awesome as he totally deserves it and the last two punchy climbs has his name written all over them. Congrats.

Double header this weekend then off to Moab to ride mountain bikes for a week! I guess I can consider it my belated CX base training.

Here are some great photos from Kim, Fickinger and Eville Mike- Thanks!

Bubba at Buder #'s 1 & 2

2010-10-19T07:46:00.002-05:00

#1- Night

I opted for the SS race because it sounded like fun and I thought I would still be home for my usually 9:30 bedtime. I figured that racing with my teammates would be fun and the SS race would be a slightly lower impact setting for my first go through the barriers of the season. Matt, Christopher and I talked about team tactics which basically involved getting off the front and working together, unfortunately, we didn't discuss what we would need to do if we had to work someone over.

The race started well and Christopher, Matt, Laberta, Dust and I got away. My first trip through the barriers I must have dismounted twenty feet before them and stutter stepped over both of them... time to do some skills practice. Things started happening fast and Dust crashed and Laberta had a mishap and fell off the pace. Matt and I were isolated for a short period of time but Dust showed he had some good legs and caught back up to us. Both Matt and I would put in some digs where we could, but couldn't really shake Dust much.

About halfway through the race I went to the front and told Matt to sit on Dusts wheel as I tried to ride Dust off my wheel where I could and hoped to wear him out a little. I knew that towing Dust to the line was an automatic loss but couldn't seem to figure out a way to let MJ know my intentions. With about 1.5 laps to go Matt rolled his tire and I was left on the front with Dust chilling on my wheel... not as planned. I decided to keep the pace high and attack through the twisty back section as I thought I might be able to gap him enough to make him work for it.

Flying into the home straight we started to hit lapped traffic and things got dicey. I was drilling it down the lat bumpy section of grass before the pavement and didn't think Dust was as close as he was. We hit the pavement, started to kick and ran into a rider crossing the line in the middle lane as we approached in full sprint. I came across the line, bars hooked with Dust, left pedal unclipped and front tire off the ground for the win.

#2- Day

I woke up hungover from watching Shottlers domination of the A race (Martin- I told you so)and enjoying a few to many delicious PBRizzles and Case asked me if I was going to race again. Oddly, I hadn't even thought about it but after we did some work around the house I figured I might as well.

I arrived to find that the track had changed dramatically and there was now a steep as climb... ouch. Warming up I was pretty much convinced I was going to vomit, but luckily didn't.

The race started and after Laberta made a wrong turn, Dust and I quickly found ourselves isolated off the front. It was hot, the hill was hard and I started to question how long I was going to last. I tried playing it smart and riding Dusts wheel, but somehow found myself with a decent gap about 2 laps in. I decided to lay it on the line and make him work for it until I came though the barriers, remounted and had dropped my chain. My twenty second lead turned into a 10 second chase and I tried to remain calm. I caught him pretty fast but it was a good effort and he responded by riding me off his wheel going into the steep hill, crushing the climb and opening up a healthy lead on me.

For the next lap or so I chased and tried to remain smooth which paid off when I caught him and put in a little extra effort on the hill, opening up a slight lead. From there it was a long 4 laps but I was in cruise control and committed to the move. I watched my lead grow considerably and rode a flawless race for SS win # 4 in a row.

I woke up yesterday morning and put gears back on my CX bike and am ready to start training for the 2010 CX season... Once again, my timing is a little off, but it should be fun.

Burnin 2010

2010-10-12T08:24:00.009-05:00

Burnin 2010, is there really much to say? Team Ride DMC wasn't wasting time with snappy inferior slogans or breaking extremities that don't pedal bikes. We at Ride DMC were watching Rocky and Apollo , Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral, the Karate kid and Johnny, Adam Vinatieri in winning the Snow Bowl in 2001 and Chariots of fire... you get the idea, we we're fired up. It wasn't until O-Face recommended watching Prefontaine at LA Times mile in 1973 and ironically, Secretariat at the Belmont Stakes in 1973 that I knew what we had to do; go to the front, stay there and rip peoples legs off. It wasn't as easy as our record shattering time looks on paper.

I was worried about getting in front of the traffic so I ran like an antelope and came through the smoke like Kurudas lights during a epic crescendo.

I was spinning furiously when I got swarmed by 5 fast dudes and ended up n the woods 6th. We pacelined it for awhile until the Alpine Shop rider and myself got slightly gapped off the pace and then we passed Dan who had flatted. In cruise control, I passed the AS rider and started to floss.

Things were going really well for a very short period of time. Through one of the rocky sections before the first big climb my chain slapped off and I slipped it back on, but not before the Alpine Shop rider passed me. I leapfrogged him on the first big climb and didn't think much of my chain popping off, as it had not caused me issues before.

For the next 10 miles just about anytime I was going fast (which was all the time) through the bumpy stuff that was too rocky to pedal though for fear of pulling a Schottler, I would drop my chain, slip it back on, remount and resume high speed riding. This happened no less than 10 times on the first lap alone. I came through with the fastest 1x1 class time of 1:03:xx, but wasted my legs sprinting the last 75 yards as my chain fell off on the last little dip at the top of the climb... I really would have like to have seen a clean lap time.

By the end of Matt James blistering lap two I think that we had commanded close to a 15 minute lead. Christopher struggled to acquire the fire on the next lap but kept us within field goal range and I set off on lap 4.

Russ had worked on my steed and claimed that the spring in the singleator had slipped out of place and bent, but he flipped it around and said I should be good to go.

My second lap was brutal. I don't know if it was the lack of cool down after lap 1, the heat or just a bad lap but I just wanted to quit. I was riding as hard as I could and my back was locking up to the point of severe pain. On a positive note, I only dropped my chain once and rolled through at a decent clip of just over 1:06. I told Russ I had heard some sort of "click" before it dropped but he told me there was nothing more he could do. After the lap I told the team I was only good for one more lap as my back was wrecked. It wasn't a nice conversation, not to mention the fact that Jerk from Team Segal rode by and gave me the double salute and told me to fuck off... Game on... Nico is to blame for the destruction I laid on his team after that.

By lap 4 we were maintaining a 15-20 minute lead and it was time to do work. I set off into some nicer temps. The "click" I had heard before the chain came off on lap two was the steel spring tearing through the aluminum on the inside of the singleator which meant I starting dropping my chain again. Conservatively, I would say I dropped my chain once a mile on my third lap but was feeling much better and highly motivated to make the other SS teams wish they hadn't raced.

Back at the campground after a 1:07 lap of so we were sitting pretty with a 22-23 minute lead. Christopher was a little down on himself so I tried to give him the clutch in the 4th quarter strong defense pep talk and a Red Bull Cola. We had our team analysts, Russ and Drew, working on the probability of 11 laps and the the chances our lead could diminish to the point we would have to race it out. Once again that Jenkem huffy jerk Nico rode by and called me names. Like Rocky telling Mick to cut him in the final scene of Rocky II, I asked Russ to do what he needed to do to keep me from stopping on the last lap and he went to work.

MJ had another super consistent blazing lap as the sun set and set Christopher up to be the hero. After a rough day where he battled sickness and never really got his legs under him, Christopher pulled through in the clutch and protected the lead which set his team up for record smashing destruction. My last lap was great as The Muscle had got my bike dialed, visions of belt buckles were dancing through my head and I was feeling light on the bike. I knew my lap time would be somewhere shy of 1:15 but was ready to double up if the team needed me to, after all, when your on a team you do what you have to do to win. I passed some people at the beach who told me it was around 8:30 so I knew it meant possible pain if I didn't hide out in the woods, but record setting is serious business and I'm a serious guy.

I rolled through at 8:45 and was told that we we're so far in the lead I didn't need to go for a parade lap and the celebration began... Man that fires me up!!!

The competition was very strong and pushed us all day long. I can definitely say that I have never been so wrecked from a race before and attribute it to that. It wasn't until I set off on my last lap that I was confident we we're going to win and am really impressed by all the strong racing. Rumor has it that Grotoff was giving the double salute to a baby fawn on the last lap when he crashed and was passed by Summer of 69... serves those jerks right!

Ride DMC had shattered the record by close to 35 minutes, Zach Brace posted the second fastest 12 hour time ever, Jen Goldstein crushed her previous record, Schottler completely shattered course records that weren't supposed to be broken and had INCREDIBLE lap averages and shiny buckles were strapped to belts. It was good and the carnie folks freaked.

Once again, none of this awesomeness would have happened without the clutchiest of the super clutchy clutchion. Thanks to John Farinella and Dave at PBR for really taking this event to epic proportions... Top notch, KID!

29" S-Works HT

2010-09-01T18:49:00.001-05:00

Oh my gosh, I'm going to have a hard time talking myself out of this one!

This bike is radical... period

Midwest Single Speed Champion

2010-08-24T07:34:00.002-05:00

Wow, what a lame blog I have here. This summer has been insanity with travels, wedding planning, my awesome wedding, my buddy Eddies awesome wedding and planning a trip to Italy in a few weeks.

Bike practice has been sporadic, even non-existent for periods of time, since the Show Me State Games. I was looking for something fun to fuel my motivation when I heard about the Midwest Single Speed Championship race. I prepared for it by putting together a ballzers S-Works 29" single speed thanks to Justin Neely-ballz, aka, Go Slow Gayness (the bike, not Justin). Then I came up with a pretty neat costume which included a custom painted helmet and practiced slapping Mable dog in the face with pork steaks so I could be sure to get a good clean shot in on Giovanni Fondolini when the festivities began. When all that was done I even managed to squeeze in a half an hour training ride on my new single steed which resulted in me getting super aggro as I couldn't keep the chain on for more than 5 minutes at a time. My fellow co-workers get very afraid when I get super aggro so they fed me cookies and took care of it, before I could sell it.

The night before the big race I poured myself a half a glass of Jameson which killed the bottle and went to bed semi-sober for the first night since my wedding bender began when Case and I met 3 years ago. I felt like my preparation was good and didn't lie awake worrying about anything the night before the race. Highly unusual behavior for me.

I showed up and started to talk the SS lingo with some characters and the common theme was "dude, are you really going to run a gear that big." Pre-riding I started to think they were right. I tried to enter the first timers class but was told there was just one class. Pissed off that there weren't 33 categories 3 places deep for the 99 entrants, I lined my ass up and insisted that the Team Seagal crew do the elephant walk with me to my bike during the Le Mans style start. They were more interested in centipedes, which confused me, so I ran.

This is when everything changed for me. I was on a bike and I was racing. I was hearing Trey rip loud and clear and my new bike was flossing like no other. Some dude from KC led the charge and I was riding with the Professor and his pet walrus. I was listening to his lecture closely until he urged me to pass, but I declined as I am the Jedi SS Knight and he is the Obi Wan Wizard. Slowly the Garrett was opening up a gap and when I asked the Wizard and the Walrus of his speed he replied "Very fast, now go" and I took off in pursuit.

It didn't take long before I caught Garrett and insisted on riding his wheel until he had a slight mishap and he too insisted that I pass. I spent the next few minutes looking for my shifters, wondering if the Professor was wrote the book on SS pacing and was going to teach my ass a hard first lesson, looking over my shoulder wondering when the wave of slow starters were going to consume me and thinking about blowing it all out too soon.

But then the music really got loud and I started riding very fast. I opened up a big gap on Garrett by the grassy field and figured I had about a minute or more after the first lap. I was finding my groove on the SS very easily and having a blast doing it. I was flossing and hearing sweet blistering solos that I really haven't heard during a race in a long time. I felt great. I stopped thinking about anything other then making my bike go fast and that I did.

Post race I realized that I rode three laps in almost exactly the same time, 33 minutes and change. I rode pretty much a flawless race at a speed which was fast for me on a geared bike at Lost Valley, something like 13+ mph. I think I like single speeds and twenty niners.

Post race was even more fun and Giovanni got lucky they weren't serving pork steaks. I ended up joining a SS speed team for the Burnin and acting like a real jerk, but I think SS'ers like that shit.

Thanks to team Red Wheel for putting on a kick ass race!

Back on track

2010-07-08T08:13:00.004-05:00

After a couple weeks off the bike and I feel good about riding again. I sold my PowerTap and am going to avoid making any strict training plans. I love the analytical side of cycling, but I'm a little bit obsessive compulsive and it eats me up mentally. I can't afford a coach and think this is best. To be honest, the last time I trained with power was in 2006 and I suffered some serious burn out. This year was a little different, but I was still feeling pretty down and found myself getting too heady with the numbers so screw it.

I spent the last three days on the mountain bike doing epic rides out in St Charles and enjoying the shit out of it even though I could feel my brain melting and my fitness could only get me through 2 hours before the pain curtain dropped. The music was loud.

Loosely, I'm going to ride lots up until September, maybe throw in a race or two for kicks and then see what the mountain bike calender looks like. After that I will probably start riding a little less but much harder to get ready for CX and hope that Shottler flats a lot, because that MO FO is going to be unstoppable. Congrats to him for claiming a step on the podium at Nationals!

Peace!

Lost Valley Luau- minus the roast pig

2010-06-22T08:35:00.002-05:00

After taking a little flak from my elders, T.A and Rico, I'm trying not to complain so much or make up as many excuses. I'll do my best.

I've spent the last two races in a deep funk of suffering and resisting the urge to quit. Atypical for me. I haven't felt very competitive and surely didn't have the legs to be. I'm not implying that on a good day I would have won either of these races, Schottler is on fire, but I really felt like I wasn't able to stay in the mix at the front, where I have grown accustomed to be. I don't take that for granted, I work my ass off, make sacrifices (because I enjoy doing well) and plan out my season so I can go head to head with the fast dudes that always seem to be fast. I'm not as naturally gifted as a lot of the top guys I race with, so every bit of preparation helps.

Truthfully, I started planning for June racing in January and aside from not getting in quite as much base as I normally do, had what was my best block of training ever in April and early May. The timing was perfect as I generally am feeling best 6 weeks after some good training. But then things went horrible wrong. I spent 3 crucial weeks feeling sickness coming on, getting really sick and then getting my legs back under me. It took another week after that just to feel normal again. I stuck with the "less is more" plan and started to feel really good the couple weeks before the race. I skipped the Brown County race because I wasn't feeling great and didn't want the added stress of a travel weekend or the headiness if I got totally smoked. I wasn't doing any of the hard hill workouts or long hard efforts I normally do either, so I had no idea where I was at, but I felt good and was really excited to race.

Both races I found myself feeling great off the starts, which were almost easy, and then running out of gas about an hour in. I really wasn't enjoying it all that much and fighting off the urge to quit because of something Case said to me at one of the first races she saw me race. Not my usual self.

On the other hand I must admit that I find our local racing scene is becoming really fast and fun racing. So many guys really have seemed to reach or be within reach of higher levels of racing that make the racing way more fun. I know what mistakes I made this year and am already thinking about 2011, as I know my focus is about to shift to some fishing back east and then laying down some fat base for CX.

End complaining and excuses. Sorry Tom and Rico.

2010 Missouri State Championships at Castlewood

2010-06-13T06:59:00.002-05:00

Really happy with the way I felt on the bike. Legs were nice and light and I felt like I raced reasonably smart. Had a couple mechanicals that got me dropped from the chase group who happened to be 4 guys in my class. My third lap was pretty tough and I started to feel some really bad effects from the heat when I crested Grotpeter and was committed to pulling the plug but I small ringed Roller Coaster, drank some water and was able to pull it back together. Felt pretty strong on my fourth lap.

I'm happy with the way I felt, especially considering the field and that everyone was riding their A game. Congrats to Schottler on schooling us all and John Rhines for a really well ridden race!

came too soon

2010-06-10T09:27:00.003-05:00

Funny how smarty pants Training Peaks can't tell the difference between tapering or not riding bike for two weeks due to sickness. If I have a good day on Saturday I'm going back to training without power, if not, I'll buy stock in TP.

not exactly as planned.

2010-05-25T18:34:00.003-05:00

Close to three weeks of fatigue, aches, insomnia, nausea, and very little bicycle practice culminated this week in a raging assault on my intestinal tract. It wasn't pretty. Neither is the fact that the timing couldn't be worse in regards to my season long plan for being as fast as possible in June. I like targeting races that have some value to me and sticking to the plan, but when you put all your eggs in one basket and are going full tilt all the time the risk factor for a sidewalk scramble is high. My problem is even when I am resting and recovering I'm still going full tilt. I need to work on that. What are you going to do?

I guess I could toughen up, scramble and look down field. My dad is a BC alum and I remember watching this game from my grandparents house and seeing him going nuts. If you don't know the story, you should watch it. This ones for you, dad.

MWFTS @ Rhett's Run

2010-05-17T07:51:00.005-05:00

Wow, what a way to start the season. Unbelievably epic conditions that separate the hard men from the boys.

For the last month or so I was really looking forward to kicking my season off at Rhett's as it's been a good course for me in the past. I completed what was probably my most productive 4 week block of training ever the week before, took 4 days off the bike completely and then got in a good tempo ride on Friday and some nice hard intervals on Saturday. I wasn't primed and ready but I was rested and figured this course suited me pretty well and thought I'd be able to hang in there.

When the forecast started to get really bad, I started to get really excited. I don't know why, but I love a hard, muddy race. I've been changing my tires up this year and running low resistance high volume tires and was apprehensive to yank off the brand new set of Pythons I had put on my race wheels, but after talking to Dan Miller during the week I was sure it was going to be nasty so I put on the heavy duty Maxxis Medusa mudders. After a couple reports from promoters and racers alike and given the fact that Columbia didn't get any rain on Saturday, I woke up Sunday morning and put a pair of intermediate Hutchinson Toro tires on and thought I was good- 3 tire changes and a half a bottle of Stans Race Day Sealant later.

We arrived in Columbia to find that it was a muddy mess. It was a decent sized field but with Elwell and Schottler there I knew how things were going to unfold. I jumped into the woods first and quickly found myself in a number of high speed slides that somehow didn't end catastrophically until I was trying to ramp up a little speed for the 180 before the climb and found myself in the woods, facing the wrong way down the trail. Elwell passed me, but I was surprised there wasn't anyone else in tow and we took off up the climb until he was slowed up to ask for directions and Schottler and Musselman caught up. Crossing the power line muddy bog mess I quickly realized that I didn't have nearly the power these guys did and my tires were so packed up they were spinning freely.

Back into the single track and it was clear that I wasn't feeling fluid in the mud yet and repeatedly found myself in the woods or in the mud. I was on the limit. I popped out of the single track a little too fast trying to gas it for the rocky climb and hit the big slab of wet rock and hit the deck, hard. It took me a little while to shake it off and to be able to start to move my arm again and Drew and a Hub rider passed. I was pretty shaken up, in a lot of pain and thinking about calling it a day. Then I considered that I was probably going to start to feel a little better as the race went on and there were going to be some people with problems, so I kept going. The highlight of lap one was realizing that they had shortened the course, probably by about two miles, which made me very happy.

There isn't much to say about the rest of the race. I started to feel better and while the Toros were horrible mud tires, they were pretty good when the rain turned the track into something that was slick on top, but had a relatively hard bottom. I also started to run everything that was slow to ride. I ran quite a bit. On the third lap I had worked myself back up to third, passing Drew and the Hub rider and due to Schottlers continued terrible misfortune, and started to catch up to Musselman. Truthfully, I thought he was really fading and I didn't make a large push to catch him thinking that the steady approach would work and not having the wattage to burn, but I was wrong and he opened the gap up considerably when he saw me. My only other real mishap took place when I scraped the elbow that was gushing blood on a tree. That hurt.

My boy Drewballs had a very impressive ride and was putting the screws to me the whole race, nice job buddy. Zach and Z finished the marathon race in 2cd and third to Winkler, who is clearly riding on another level.

Looking forward to a couple more weeks of solid training before a nice block of racing in June, fishing and a Dead show in the end of June back in MA, my buddy Eddies wedding in Keystone in July and the BIG DAY in August! Case and I can't wait!

Case thought my arm was worth taking a picture of. We didn't have any Neosporin so we just smeared it with some cottage cheese.

I can only think of two people that read my blog that are entitled to make jokes about small wheels.

2010-02-05T09:26:00.002-06:00

4" Fully integrated suspension, SRAM XX Group, 22 lbs 8 oz with training wheels, 21 with race setup. Floss on.

Money Shot and Ploch can flame away, anyone else should refrain from flappin them lips!

Sweet Rides for 2010!

2010-01-13T09:09:00.006-06:00

Thanks to continued support and mega hook ups from Specialized, Sram, Zipp, and PowerTap, I'm backing up my King of Bling title in 2010 with some radical rides.

My sweet sponsorship hookup from John Quinn at Specialized this year will be the ultra light S-Works Epic. 26" wheels might not be as good for guys with short man syndrome, but they're good for winning World Championships! With my race wheels and the new Sram XX I'm thinking that a 21 pound bike, 4" travel, complete bike is realistic. Can't explain how stoked I am to have the chance to ride this world class rig which would be financially unattainable without Johns help. Thanks amigo!

I'm seriously contemplating doing a couple spring road races this year so I built up a sweet Tarmac Pro. As always, I couldn't have done that without repeated phone calls to Justin Neely and Matt Weber, who have always been patient with me and given me yesterdays special. I've been thinking more and more about taking my training to the next level so I am going back to training with a PowerTap. I got a very sweet hook up from John Lewis and Ron LeMiuex at Saris/PowerTap. John is one of my best buds from way back in my International Bicycle Center days in Boston and Ron gave it the final approval. I opted to build this puppy up with 2010 Sram Force so that I can potentially afford to have two CX bikes this year. Doug Plumer with Sram and Zipp hooked me up with some killer pricing on the Sram groups and AMAZING pricing on my Zipp 303's and Zipp Team Issue wheels. Again, these are the components that everyone wants that I wouldn't have been able to afford/justify buying without his help.

Thanks to all my sponsors and anyone who spits beer in my face during CX season. The sponsors make it happen and the beer makes motivates me. Here's to 2010! Time to put down the bottle ;)

2009 > 2010

2010-01-12T08:48:00.002-06:00

(That is a Phishy segue (when Phish plays songs that jam continuously into other sign it shows the segue as a > on the set list) sign into 2010, not and indicator that 2009 was better than 2010 is going to be.)

I'm wrapping up my longest time off the bike in quite some time. Aside from a little fun at CX Mas I haven't touched my bike since the State Championship race. Currently, I don't even own a bike! I have a sweet Tarmac Pro on the way and opted to buy a Power Tap SL Pro + to guide me while building my wattage castle in 2010. I also have a new mountain bike of some sort on the way which I'm pretty excited about as well, thanks to John Quinn at Specialized.

I had a pretty good run of mountain bike races but two really stand out for me. The MWFTS State Championship race and the Castlewood Challenge race. My only win of 2010 was at Rhett's Run, a course I have never lost on, and stands out because there was some fierce competition. I can't remember thinking too many races were easy, but that one just felt like a fast training ride where everything was clicking. The race at Castlewood was indicative of how much I have matured as a bike racer. I had a great start and was really optimistic about the race when I flatted on the first lap. With Elwell, Shottler and Ploch leading the charge I knew there was no was to win, probably not even podium but got my shit together and started to chase. I chased down everyone but Shottler and Ploch, earned my payout and stood on the podium. My only regret for my mountain bike season was that I never achieved my full potential. Too content with being fit enough to use decent results and a string of spread out races as an excuse not to really reach any fitness peak.

I took a little too much of a breather in August, just one of the two major mistakes I make going into CX season and then started to prep for the Burnin' 6 hr race, my other big mistake. Burnin was a disaster as I was coming down with the flu and I started my CX season coming off two weeks of sickness. I threw all caution to the wind and focused my sights on States. I had some great races along the way and had some races with problems that left me fighting for top five spots. I pushed myself hard through the weeks and suffered on the weekends. At States I was a little more tired than I would have liked to have been but had a great race and was far more competitive at the front of the race then I had been at my previous two State P.1.2 races. I wound up on the podium below Josh and Shot, which is where I should be and put some pretty serious time into Dr Mark and Jay. If I can race clean and avoid the mechanicals that plagued me this year, I might be able to score that elusive W in CX next year.

My bike should be here by the end of the week and the parties over. I don't like feeling tired everyday anyways, and the vino is getting expensive. I plan on dialing it up for the State race in June, some mountain bike races before the big wedding day in August and some serious CX prep this year. No Burnin, if I start to mention it in August, remind me that I hate myself for doing it. Case and I have tickets to the David Gray show in March and two Trey shows in February, but outside of that, it's business time bitches!

I feel the feeling I forgot

2009-12-07T17:04:00.002-06:00

My 2009 CX season is in the books and I am very pleased to have ended an otherwise rocky season on a high note. I only had a few clean races to shine, thanks to 3 straight races with substantial issues, but the few times I didn't have to claw my way out of some hole, I had strong races and proved to myself that I could hang with the big boys, especially when it counts.

Aside from my 2007 Cat III State Championship win, I have never won a CX race. I finished 3rd overall in the A race that year, but due to the lack of competition I don't really consider the 3's jersey a W. Granted, I started CX in the A's and have managed to score a handful of hard earned second place finishes, even nip at Josh's heels a couple times this fall at Creve Coeuer, but after my third season without the W, my motivation to WIN is even stronger. For some off reason I can't break my will to race some mtb races in Aug (when I should be taking a break before starting to work on my CX base) when I have the good feeling of summer legs. The thought of getting a good jump on CX training spirals further into the tailspin when the endurance man of days of old in me can't say no to racing the Burnin and I'm skipping skills practices in late September to squeeze in 4 hr mtb rides. This past season I added the key component of getting sick enough to not be able to get out of bed for a week and the two weeks it took me to feel normal again after that. I'm done with it. After seeing Josh and Shots wheels dangling in front of me for 50 of the 60 minutes yesterday I know I can do it, I just have to make some sacrifices.

So, after a botched summer rest period, endurance race training in September, followed by sickness in mid October, I reevaluated my goals and devoted my season to training for the "Little Big Show." My confidence was pretty good after my initial success at the Creve Couer double header, but for the next three races after that I found myself chasing from the back with bad legs, tired from the increased training load. I stuck to my guns and continued to drop the hammer all week long and dealt with the consequences on the weekends. My plan was to drop one of my hard workouts the week before Bellefontaine in preparation for States, but after a really hard race at Mount Pleasant the weekend before, I rushed back into business as usual and instead of skipping the said workout, I forced it and went well into the red. At Bellefontaine I had another mishap, watched the lead group ride away and could not muster the strength to latch back on which resulted in another less than satisfying placing for me. Last week, before the little big show, I was worked and instead of blasting some key workouts I found myself resting, trying to breath just a little life back into my legs for the weekend. I knew I might not be as sharp, but over rested is better than over trained so I aired on the side of caution.

On to the race P, 1, 2 Race

I was expecting a bigger turnout with more KC guys, Nate and some usual suspects from the Lou; none of whom materialized. Since I was counting on a bigger list of top five caliber racers, my goal was to try to squeeze into the top five. As we lined up I sized up the small field and set my goal to top three, no easy feat when 4 of the 9 starters had won races (myself not included) and 6 of the riders were the top 6 in the Bubba Cup points race.

Jay took off like a rocket with me in tow and things started to spread out, right quick. Shot caught us at some point and kept on going. I can't really recall the details but Shot was off the front and the Grranimal and I were in pursuit with a strong chase group 30 seconds back. Grrman gaped me at some point and I knew it was his wheel or failure come the pavement so I pushed to latch on. He didn't like this too much so he lit the whole matchbook on fire when he hit the pavement and kicked like there were 200 to go, I maintained my spot on his wheel and he didn't like that too much either.

The next lap was more of the same but somewhere along the way I passed Grrman and watched in horror as the JJ express closed in. By the time I hit the pavement it was clear the firepower of Josh, Dr Mark and Jay were too much to mess with so I latched on the back, got towed across the tarmac and went to work.

It gets a little foggy here as I was pushing myself to new limits previously hindered by tired legs and bad confidence, but somehow Josh and I started riding away from the group, little by little and closing in on Shot. I was amazed to find myself dangling anywhere from a bike length to 10 seconds back for the majority of the race. My gap on Dr Mark was growing steadily as the encouragement form all my friends was so intense I found myself sprinting out of all turns, killing myself to maintain contact with the dream (crushers). I think it was with one lap to go that I was within striking distance of Shottler who was (just behind Josh) as we neared the crucial pavement section. It was a now or never situation but there wasn't anything left for me to give as I sprinted after them on the pavement, only to watch them slide away as the gap opened.

I would guess that I finished about 30 seconds back from Josh and had a pretty good gap over Dr Mark, over a minute. I'm really pleased with the way I raced, even if I know I'm capable of more once I get the timing down. Two years ago I was struggling to stay on the same lap as Josh, last year I found myself chasing pretty far off the pace in the bigger races or slightly better if he was being generous and this year I feel as though I was competing with him in a race he was trying to win.

"And I stared straight into the future
Tell me what do you see?
That this time is gonna be different "

As I sit here pretty beat up and tired after the first Sunday this season I decided to party it up a little bit and while I did miss the post race camaraderie at the pub, recovering and getting back to business is much more rewarding to me than struggling to get through Mondays and being less than good on Tuesdays. Having said that, it's party season for me now and there's so much to celebrate. Mesa made multiple podium appearances yesterday and it is pretty awesome to see that in just three years our CX team has really taken some shape. Matt James had what I consider to be his best result ever with a hard earned 2cd place in the 3's race to a flying Dan Miller. Christopher Connolly won the SS race, Matt Fickinger won the 4's race, Kevin Bonney won the Jr race, Rico George won his masters race (and made it look easy) and our new team member, Chris Roettiger, came in 2cd in the women's open (no more plugs for you until you get my picture on the team website!!!). SOLID RACING!

Thanks to everyone for all the cold PBR handups and rule breaking tea and crumpet parties I was able to have behind Buddys back! Really though, thanks to everyone out there yelling and ringing them bells every race. It makes the pain cave a much brighter place!

The noose is hanging, at least you won't die wondering

2009-11-30T08:04:00.002-06:00

For the last three races in a row I have felt like Tom Brady with a deficit, late in the fourth quarter, looking deep for Randy Moss. I don't like racing like a would be hero and definitely am not strong enough to be one in our blossoming CX scene. Mistakes equal failure. Aside from the three big guns at the front, there has been a fairly constant shuffle in the top five that makes for some fast and furious racing.

I was feeling pretty good on Saturday after leaving out one workout last week to get some rest in leading up to the little big show. I, like everyone else there, had probably enjoyed a little too much holiday cheer over the course of the week, but nevertheless, I was feeling confident and liked the course. The Grranimal and I joked at his drunken cycling escapades earlier in the week, but not so funny was his concerns for his noggin and sore shoulder. Pre-race he took a little dive over the bars and clearly was a little shaken up.

The race got underway and knew I had the good feeling. I was sitting in the wings of the lead group with relative ease and being patient to let things pan out. Since it was a straightforward track, the group was about 8 deep and the gaps didn't open up too fast on the chasers, but with some boggy slow sections, greasy corners and ride ups, hanging on meant riding smooth. I slid out around a corner and slipped to the back of the pack but stayed on and kept my focus.

There were three sections of the course that were fast enough and had enough wind to make being in the group crucial, for me anyways. Going into the second lap people started to get a little bit froggy and the attacks started up. I found myself covering some early attacks and then on the front as we were racing for corners. I slipped back in the group and was happy to let Dr. Mark resume the pace making as I was really marking Nate and Shot. Unfortunately, on the technical backside of the course I slipped on the root and went from front to back of the group and latched back onto Grranimals, wheel coming down the pavement at the 180 by the lake. I saw his foot come un-clipped and then his bike went sideways as I plowed over him and thought I heard the crack of carbon. I was upright but he was clearly dazed and not getting up so I grabbed his bike and offered some kind words of encouragement. Precious seconds, which felt like an eternity, ticked by before he came to and told me not to wait.

Riding in defensive mode again I chased the lead group and watched the gap grow when my wheel would hit the wind. The openess of the course allowed me to keep pretty good track of the gaps which stayed fairly consistent to the chase group, but Shot and Nate were Audi 5000, G. Following a couple laps of rage inspired riding I started to fade and Nagy was creeping up from behind. I caught up to Dan Miller and had him and Nageltronic keeping me in check for the next few laps until I saw the 5 to go card and kicked in the turbo. Wish I could ride like that all race, but somehow my head won't let me.

With two to go I came up on Martin who was going backwards after a really strong start and started to close on Yielding who also had a great start but just got passed by Jay. Jay had been maintaining his gap on me most of the race but it was starting to shrink and I was thinking about points and placing.

With one to go I was closing in on Jeff and maybe 15 seconds back from Jay. I caught Jeff at the barriers and Jay was just ahead, but he had some fight left in him and wasn't about to let me close that down. I rolled across the line in 5th again.

So after a flat at St Vincent, a mechanical at Mt Pleasant and a common courtesy at Bellefontaine I feel like I haven't had a clean race in awhile. In all three races I was clearly stronger than my placings. One of my biggest problems is pushing myself the same way I would if I were clinging to someones wheel at the front of the race. Watching Nate and Josh race their bikes leaves much to be desired on a personal level. I need to be more patient, smoother and save the juice for when you need it. How often do you see those guys attacking before the selection is made? I said it last year, but with each year of racing CX I am driven by the challenge of not succeeding the way I have off road. I have learned quite a bit in my last three seasons of racing CX and know what I need to do it 2010.

Next weekend is going to be some hard racing!

Backwards down the number line.

2009-11-23T07:37:00.002-06:00

The ten days leading up to yesterday was a big block of racing, training in the rain and holding my breath. When I arrived at the Mount un-Pleasant yesterday I knew it wasn't going to be a good day and was less than excited about the course as there was nowhere to hide.

Twenty-eight of us lined up in the A race and Martin took off like a yellow shoed rocket with me on his wheel. I was getting Kentucky waterfalled in the face the whole time but at least he uses Herbal Essences Lavender, my personal favorite. I find it amusing that every up and coming CX racer in St Louis is rocking a mullet of some sort as they are so 2007. I guess it's a right of passage of some sort, but I thought it died with Lars Boom's soul. My plan was to get a good start, fall back in the top five, ride as conservatively as possible, mark some wheels and not try any funny stuff off the front. My plan B went into effect immediately as I dropped my chain on the first 180 and watched every rider in the field pass as I struggled to get it unjammed and back on. By the time I got situated Dan and Money Shot were halfway across the straight before the crazy ass ride/run up. I was looking at maybe a minute or more on the leaders and plan B had just turned into the Josh Johnson Special Ops plan.

The rest of the race pretty much sucked as I had no motivation, no legs and I thought Buddy had said we were going to be doing about 8 laps, but 3 laps in I saw the 8 lap card and really wanted to quit. Slowly I started to pick people off until I heard someone yell that I had worked my way into the top ten. The noise and people at this race were insane. Instead of just having a couple small groups of spectators on key points of the course there were people handing out the duckets, blowing horns and screaming everywhere I needed them. Truly an awesome feeling that no doubt was aided by the crack high of Mad Dog 20/20 style wine. B racers should upgrade to experience that alone; the spectators not the Mad Dog. Pro as fuck. I picked up three dollars along the way and dropped all three of them. I'll stick to pedaling.

With about 4 to go I had passed Martin and Fletcher and set my sights on Jay. I think I caught him with 3 to go and we yo yo-ed a little bit for the that lap. Someone told me I was in 4th, but I was shutting down mentally. With 2 to go I hit a big spike coming off one of the downhills and Jay put a couple seconds on me. That was the nail in the coffin for me. I didn't have any fight left and rode the bell lap out for 5th place.

After the race I was talking to some Jim (TrailMonster) and he asked me what I thought about the race. I didn't have to think about it before I responded that it was the worst race I have ever done. He said thanks with a evil smile. I hope he and everyone else responsible for that race understands that we are no longer friends. Sorry, but I hate you.

Some sweet Segal love!

2009-11-17T18:42:00.002-06:00

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Turning screws early- the feeling was good.

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Scottler with a 30 second gap, maybe 1/2 way into race? Josh over a minute back. Insane effort on his part.

Wish I could Run Like an Antelope.

2009-11-15T17:44:00.002-06:00

Well, that went well for a short while and then really bad for a short while and then kinda enjoyable for a short while. Racing for me is always fun/enjoyable but since I was out of contention I just kinda rode around, got a nice beer hand up, missed another beer hand up and got a good workout.

I had a better than expected start and the legs were cooperating a little more than I thought they would after week of rest, long car rides and beer drinking. I tried to wake up my stiff legs by riding hard for 3 hrs on Friday and then doing a hard interval workout on Saturday. At work on Sat they felt like cement blocks and really tight so I rode some more after work to loosen them up which kinda helped but I was worried I over did it.

I had a good start and was mixing it up at the front for the first half of the race. Schottler had a good lead and I caught and passed Grranimal who was having a malfunction, but seemed to be riding really well/smooth otherwise. I didn't have much snap but things were getting better as I raced more. I watched Josh working his way up at a rapid rate which was pretty incredible.

I was sitting in second when I hit the first mud section and heard my wheel bottom out when I realized it was flat. I ran. It hurt. I went from 2cd to 20th pretty quick and wasn't real happy about it but kept pushing on.

I worked my way back up a bit and caught some people. I think I was riding around just outside of the top ten with about 4 to go when I decided that chasing my teammates down wasn't that much fun but 16 oz PBR's were, so I sat up and went into damage control. I definitely didn't have the legs to work my way back into a money/points spot given the week I had and how much the running wrecked my legs.

Miraculously Josh managed to crush Schottlers dreams with an amazing effort that ended his 45 minute lead at the most dream crushing time; on the last lap, and went on for another W.

I'm not so partial to the super fancy tires I have and think I'll switch back to some Griffos or Fangos for the remainder of the season. It's not about the flat I had but the way they handle. They don't seem to have much bite and really float, ironic given the fact that I love that in a MTB tire but you don't have to carve 180's all day on a MTB. Other than that I'm really pleased at how competitive I have been with relatively little work. I'm really optimistic that after this week of balls kitty training and then another decent week after that I should be as good as I' going to get for the little big show. Time will tell.

The Machine: 2010 S-Works Tricross

2009-11-06T07:58:00.003-06:00

16 lbs. Those are Zipp 303 CX wheels and Dugast Typhoon CDM's (Coupe Du Mondes).

Thanks JQ!!!

Whiteboy wants to dance!

2009-11-02T07:51:00.003-06:00

I haven't slept in two days but am pretty fired up! First off, I want to thank anyone reading this that is out there ringing a bell and calling my name, throwing beer at me or telling me to "go faster you fucking pussy!" To steal a little something from Chariots of Fire, "it puts wind on my heels!"

So Sat night recovery didn't go so hot as road rash and being all jacked up kept me up most of the night. By Sunday morning I was tired but the legs felt good. I overhauled my bike and hoped the course would still be a chocolate mousse mixed with peanut butter and grass mess. Instead I showed up to find a dry pretty fast track with some demanding, very bumpy straights, as well as a bunch of really rutted 180's and a little mud.

I didn't think it was a great course for me but I remained optimistic and took off. I stayed in the top 10 for the first lap and then charged up the left of the muddy section and jumped out in front. I still want to race CX races like I do on the MTB but when people don't get out of sight they chase that much harder. I established a decent gap for a few laps and then started to bog down ad cut my losses and jumped back into a strong lead group with Nate, Josh, Shot, Stothman, and Grman. I was sitting on 4th wheel when Josh and Shot made a little move and couldn't respond until the gap was too big.

Nate, Grman and I rode around for awhile with Josh and shot dangling but Nate was obviously not working with Josh off the front and I had hit a mid race funk. I was repeatedly getting gaped off and struggling to maintain contact. We passed Shot who was walking his bike after the backside barriers which raised the pace just a bit. I think it was on the next lap that Grman had a mishap on the barriers so I sat up and let him tag back on but as soon as he did Nate attacked and I had to respond as Nate and Josh together is game over. Nate was making really good pace and when I would pull the chase of Grman and Jay would close so I tried to bargain with Nate to do the work and promised I wouldn't pull any funny business. Jay ended up working himself back up to us, through us and then out in front of us only to snap his derailleur off. After a really rough season with three good starts that were crushed by race ending mechanicals, I knew that feeling and would have rather gone head to head but Nate and I pushed on.

With about 4 to go I guess I managed to crawl out of the funk and offered to take a pull coming through the start finish and was powering down the back straight when I realized Nate was gone. People started giving me splits of 30 second to Josh who was getting closer and closer. With 2 to go I had him inside 20 seconds and coming through on the last lap people were yelling 12 seconds. I opened it up and go really close on the 180 off the pavement onto the grass after the backside barriers which is apparently when he decided to demoralize me.

Crossing th line in 2cd for the second day in a row with what I consider to be about 85% of what I got as far as fitness goes, makes me pretty damn happy. I have some serious desire to train now and think that I might be able to hit a fitness peak that I left sitting in the tank at the end of last CX season. I'm going to miss racing next weekend as we are heading to Asheville to ride dirt bikes for a week, which should be some more good stimulus and then we'll be coming down the home stretch as people ramp up for States and Nationals.

"Ohhh, what a beautiful buzz, what a beautiful buzz!"

Glimpse of hope.

2009-11-01T08:22:00.002-06:00

Lined up against all the heavy hitters of the St Louis CX scene last night with some new found confidence that I was afraid exceded my current level of fitness. Not sure how the call-ups were ordered but I found myself near the back and fighting working through traffic. Although I haven't done any big CX races I understand that some elbowing, door closing and aggressive riding is required to move up in a big field. I have never felt like that was needed when your lining up with your local crew on any given Sunday but last night I was elbowed, pushed, ridden into stakes and even had the door closed on me when I told someone I was coming on their side. I guess we can do it like that from now on and am pretty sure that the guys that were doing it to me are going to end up off course. I miss playing contact sports anyway.

Ok, enough of my rant that's really directed at a select few. So I end up working myself up to the front with Grrmanimal, Josh, Nate, Mar Mar, Jay, Yielding and a couple others. I was pretty surprised to find myself up there staying in contact and slowly started fading off Mar Mars wheel and then catching back on.

Maybe 3 laps in I caught up to Martin and Yielding who weren't far behind the lead three and gapped them. At that point Grrman dropped his chain or something and left the lead two with me chasing. I buried it and caught them going in through the finishing stretch and knew it was going to be tough to hang when Nate told Josh they had company and Josh attacked. I knew there was no way I was going to handle much of that action but remember telling myself pre-race to go down swinging so I came around Nate and chased Josh down with Nate in tow. Not too long after that I lost my front wheel in the mud, ran it, and jumped back on only to find I had dropped my chain. I was riding for third from then on.

With something like 12 laps to go out in no mans land between the lead two and a strong chase group I started to worry but was able to hammer through the straights and ride the technical muddy sections pretty clean. Maybe 3/4 through the race I spotted Nate running his bike not even half way through the lap which opened up a window of opportunity and created some goals for me; hold off Nate as well as the chase group.

At one point my gap on the chase group grew quite a bit but then it shrunk when I slid across the pavement and almost into the lake at full speed. I recovered and it normalized once again with Nate tearing his way back through the field which would have presented a real threat had the race been any longer. In the end I was able to hold them off with help from the top notch Specialized support crew and Cris Ludwig who had a nice new bike ready to go when I really needed it. Can't feel more pro than that. I rolled across the line in second with a big smile.

I have to send out a big thanks to Jeff Winkler for some advice last week when I really needed a kick in the ass. I don't know Jeff personally, but he was quickly able to assess the weaknesses in my training and get me back on track. Thanks Jeff!

Whoa, CX is harder than I remembered!

2009-10-25T17:21:00.002-05:00

Well first CX race of the season is in the books and I'm pleased with the way I raced. I didn't have a clean race by any means and had to dig deep to generate some power that I clearly don't have after my little base training month of September, followed by a week of very little riding before the burning and then a week of no riding and the flu the week after. Last week I did a couple decent workouts and realized it's going to be a few weeks before any snap comes back, but I can wait.

I had a good jump at the start as I wanted to be in the front three so I could ride the run-up but dropped my chain and dropped 10 spots. My plan was to get out in front through the run up and then drop back and see if I could sit in the front group and it feel apart right quick. From there I started to burn a couple matches to move up and was surprised that I was able to pretty easily until the aforementioned matches started to burn out.

I settled into a the third chase group which ended up being myself, Dan Miller and Jeff Yielding. Surprisingly, the gap to the 2cd group wasn't getting bigger and we started to put some serious time into the group behind us. The climbing was really taking it's toll on me but I was recovering ok and motivated to get a good workout out of the race.

I made some mistakes and ended up getting gaped off those two but was pleased that I was able to jump back on. With two to go I got hung up on the run-ride up and got gaped off by about 10 seconds. I thought I was going to ride it in alone but I pushed myself to catch them and commit ed to attacking before the decent as I was able to ride it pretty well and was going into the barriers with more speed than them and coming out faster. Dan and I gaped Jeff and then I attacked Dan just before the last pitch of the climb as he urged me to go get 5th place.

I came through the barriers and had just about closed the gap on the final money spot when he started to kick a little bit. He surprised me and the gap opened to quick for me to close, so I came across the line seeing spots in 6th.

Unfortunately the reality is that 6th is more like 10th as the heavy hitters are out of town but I think I should be able to bounce back after another couple weeks of hard training followed up by the Asheville MTB stage race (aka the Mesa shop trip). Looks like I might have some fitness for the last 4 races. Not exactly what I had planned but sometimes real life gets in the way of bicycle racing.

I need some race wheels. I sound spoiled but racing CX on clinchers is a joke.

Who pulled the plug?

2009-10-12T08:04:00.004-05:00

Well, well, well. Another great Burnin at the Bluff race has come and gone and for the second time I didn't find myself on the top step of the podium. This race has been incredibly good or bad, with no grey area in between.

I started off as the front runner and was in the woods first after RP refused the whole shot I offered and like always, I knew opening up a little lead with the adrenaline running on high and the wolves chasing was a good thing. Soon RP, Gibbs, and Best came around me and later on a Ghisallo rider and Wes. I managed to pick Wes and the Ghisallo rider off at the Enough boat launch and soon caught up with Gibbs. I was keeping my hr in check and only reving it up to well south of my red line on the climbs. Everything was going well and I was coaching myself to push it on the flats and spin up the climbs without every feeling the burn which cumulatively can destroy.

I knew Dr Mark was a solid rider with a lot more road miles in his legs than me and good in the slop. I was pleased when he was out of sight at both the dam and the beach crossing and knew I had a little buffer but still flew through the start finish right on schedule to squeeze out 6 laps. Last year I finished at 6:09 and was focused on trimming that +/- 2 mins a lap over 5 laps by riding more consistently and not coming out of the gates like a rocket. My first lap was 1:10 and right on time. I stopped only to grab the white bottle of drink mix off the top of the cooler, but no need for the black bottle of water as I still had enough left and kicked off down the trail.

Lap 2 was great. My hr dropped into a nice endurance pace and was topping out at 172 on the climbs. My legs were a little bit tight from so much rest and the cold water but slowly they started to open up as I stretched some of the safer sections. I was really focused and even let my mind wander to think about belt buckles and beer which I quickly corrected by reminding myself that I wasn't even half way done. I came through the pits and grabbed the black bottle of water off the top of the cooler and made the mistake of grabbing anoter bottle of water from inside. Really my only mistake of the day turned out to be a big, but I didn't realize it until the first bridge crossing and thought I could get compensate by eating gels. I was wrong.

Sometimes when I get up in the morning and ride on an empty stomach I feel great for awhile and then it starts to gnaw at your gut until you stoke the fire with some coal. Lap 3 was good and I continued to ride the trail without making mistakes and was staying focused. I had the music ready but didn't want to treat myself to it until I really needed it and told myself that lap 4 would be the soonest I could have it. I ate an Accel gel 15 minutes in and had to keep reminding myself to drink the water and wishing I had some tasty mix. Dr. Mark was still nowhere in site and I had reports ranging from "he's way back there" to "2-3 minutes" from passing riders. I really had to pee which was weird for me as I can't remember ever having to in a race of this distance and usually only had to in 12 hr races once or so. After the runnoff i peed and stretched for a minute and came just before I made the right away from the lake on the other side of the beach I spotted Dr Mark coming across the concrete, maybe 2 minutes gap.

The climb to the start finish is a real motivation buster and when I popped out of the woods at 1:14 I was feeling it a little bit, not so much in my legs but more in a whole body type of way. I stopped and grabbed a couple bottles, a couple swigs of Red Bull and Russ and Gohl gave me a 2-3 minute buffer on Dr Mark. I told them I wasn't feeling too hot.

Back on the trail I took a couple big swigs of drink mix and coached myself a little. I was in the lead and on record setting pace. I was really hoping to have some better time splits going into lap 5 so I could tell if I would be chased if I got out for the record setting lap 6 which I was on schedule to do. I was doing fine until I crossed the Ozark Trail foot bridge.

I can't really say what happened. My legs were there but my head wasn't I hit some loose stuff on a corner, lost my front wheel and went down once. In the next mile I found myself richocheting from one side of the trail to the other and my HR went from a steady 165-ish to 120. I got off my bike and started to walk, not sure why, but I did. A couple minutes later Dr Mark passed and I convinced myself to chase. I was ready for some music so I put on the good stuff, saddled off and reminded myself that there was still a lot of racing left. I crested one of the grunters turned right and crashed down towards the lake on both my knees.

I couldn't think straigt and sat there for a little while before I turned off the Garmin and realized that 10 more miles meant potentially hurting myself and the 2.5 miles meant defeat. I headed back the short way. A 12 hr racer stopped and checked in on me and told me he was suffering badly too and I encouraged him telling him he would catch a second wind and to just keep eating and moving. I tried to heed my own advice and saddled up one more time but after another spill I realized I really was having some problems. I started my walk back to the start finish.

Once again the racing was fierce and we have a new 12 hr solo champion, Mitch Johnson, who also has the second fasted time ever recorded at the event. Solid racing Mitch! The DRJ wrecking crew decided to crush dreams on the last lap, for the second year in a row with CP riding as fast in the dark as he does during the day. Devastating to some, incredible to others. The party was a little bigger than normal this year as PBR has made this event into a top notch affair and much thanks goes out to them and Team Segall for sharing there golden unicorn with us. And last but defintely not least, thanks to John Farinella for putting this whole thing together and somehow making it better each year.

Here's for the record setting heat we had at the 2007 Burnin returning in 2010!!!

Record Setter?

2009-10-06T07:46:00.004-05:00

There has been a lot of talk about the Burnin this year. I haven't been down there but course reports say it's a little dry and loose and could use some rain to make it really fast. Looks like we're going to get it.

In 2007 my goal of the season was to do 10 laps at the Burnin. While my dreams were crushed by a flurry of problems on the first lap that with me sitting on peak endurance racing form, drinking beer after my 6 mile hike on the first lap.

This year there are some heavy hitters showing up with good form and that 10 lap carrot has to be on all their minds, it's on mine. Zach is ready and has gotten dramatically stronger since last season, Deee-Wayne isn't going to do a 24 hr race the night before and then drive 10 hours straight to get there for the nine o-clock start. How he crams 48 hours into one day you ask? Caffeine. And then there's the talk of Jeff Winkler . I don't know Jeff personally but Fletcher was saying he was an ex roadie pro who has clearly found some sick form allowing him to be super fast on whatever bike he gets on.

So as I compile my 6 hr Phish master mix for my race I'm getting that itch again. All the talk about nutrition, long rides and 10 laps has got me a little excited. I'm going to be riding a S-Works Epic in 2010 which is the perfect machine to attempt to achieve the one cycling related goal that is the thorn in my side and go after the 10 laps, if one of the other three rock stars don't do it this year.

I rode my bike a little more this September than I did last year, even did a couple rides close to 5 hrs on the road and mtb, so I'm hoping to have a little more fun in the 6 hour race and hopefully not suffer in the same way I did last year. We'll see.

Here we go, yo.

ohh snap...

2009-10-01T21:25:00.003-05:00

i realized today that yesterdays post was after a mountain bike ride and that season is pretty much over. might still have a shot at one more win, maybe not, but moving forward i should be thinking about cx.

cx is going to start off real tough for me as i have been working on my base and not a whole lot of skills. someone may have been out training on there cx bike and thinking about putting the hurt on someone today. that someone is defintely going to be me for the first few races. then it's off to do some more off road riding with the crew in asheville. THEN it's time to see if i can race some cx!

Happy bike practice today

2009-09-30T17:03:00.004-05:00

Hopefully my new A4 1.8 Turbo Quattro Avant is here in time to floss to the Burnin! Goodbye to that box on wheels Element!

Ahh what a great day on the mountain bike. Definitely the first breakthrough workout I have had in quite some time. The second night of Phish from Red Rocks this summer is supercalifragilistic and had me singing through the trees.

Rode from Lost Valley bottoms to Klondike up Hogsback and then into Strip Mine, Dojo and Donkey Kong and then back down Hogsback. From there I skeedattled down to Matson and rode a lap in each direction when the goods starting bumping through the headphones and the legs started to kick up the climbs. A couple bottles from the car at LV and then two counter clockwise laps at the Valley where pushing it hard up the three climbs each lap was easy. I had to force myself to stop abiding by my "leave some in the tank" rule when I know the legs are good but I'm not racing. About 50 miles in 3:30 mintues, thought it was going to be a 4 hr ride...

I realized today that my eye of the tiger is a little bit scary; more like spotting a mountain lion at the last minute before it goes for you jugular then the furry black kitties I love so much. I also realized that when I'm feeling really good on the bike, like today, I don't even realize that I'm in pain, rather I think about wanting to hurt other people. Probably you if your reading this? Don't worry, I'm not planning on punching you in the face on the line, but I want to do everything in my power to make you wish you hadn't raced that day. I doubt DeeeWayne has these thoughts.

Thanks for listening!!! I wish I had more raw meat and eggs in the fridge right now!

Evidence for Chris and heavy legs

2009-09-16T08:16:00.010-05:00

Here are some fish pics from Colorado. All taken from the Lake Fork of the Gunnison except for the Cutthroat which I caught on the East River. Can't say I caught any big fish but as the week went on I started to really up my fish per hour and by my last day on the lower Taylor was waxing them pretty good.

Last year I pretty much took September off the bike and reverted back into some base training in October and raced the Burnin 6 hr on fumes from August. Except for a handful of mountain bike rides I didn't ride much this August but have ramped it up considerably since getting back from Colorado. The legs are starting to feel it and this weekend is going to be a shocker! I did put some fat tires on my cx bike and went out to practice a couple remounts yesterday which ended up with me cracking my seat rails and a little gravel rash. I think I'll go ride for 3 hrs today and then hit up the cx practice at Queeny. The legs are going to be working overtime as they are not responding too well to mega miles and running. Ohh well, what doesn't kill you...

Beers and Cowbells

2009-09-09T16:43:00.003-05:00

Wow. It's that time again. I basically spent most of August celebrating one thing or another. We drank about 6 bottles of Champagne, to celebrate our engagement, me turning tres-tres and just because it tastes so good. Life is good. I didn't spend all that much time on my bicycle but did managed to ride some sweet trail out in Crested Butte. I also managed to trick quite a few wild trout on the ol' Winston IM6 which was nice. Case quickly learned why my folks both were joking with her about how much I like to fish when we would find a nice spot on the river and she wouldn't see me for 5 hours. I went most of the days without eating a thing while I was on the river as I was so focused.

The last couple weeks I've been focusing on getting in some high volume riding and my kickass S-Works Tricross still has a 53 and 23's on it, if that tells you anything. I ran around the block last night and today I got in a pretty serious LT interval workout, so I got that going for me. Hopefully I can get another 300 or so mile week in and then I'll start doing some skills practice.

Anyhoo. I'll leave on a Todd Wells-like note.

Where's Matt Keeven?

Special-ized Delivery

2009-08-05T14:57:00.005-05:00

Buddy is real excited about it.

THANKS QUINN!!!

Ain't goin' out like dat.

2009-08-04T08:43:00.009-05:00

Unless I have a really hard time getting a Specialized factory team thermal skin suit for racing cross, the race at Castlewood was my last race in a Mesa kit for a while and I was really hoping to have a good race. For me that means winning. I wanted to win bad and had been feeling sexy all over after a couple weeks of good training up until the point that the bees sabotaged the exclamation point on my little block of training by keeping me from racing at the Show Me State Games. The sexy came back quick though after a hard day at the Wood in place of the race that Sunday, and I was feeling pretty confident.

I knew that CP was flying, Schottler was chomping at the bit for his first W this season and Castlewood has the potential allure to drag any number of arm-shavers off their high horses to come play with us "local" guys. Altough there we're no armshavers present except for the honorary team arm-shaver non arm-shaving member, John Rhines, I did notice one of the fastest "local" guys around, Aaron Elwell, warming up and knew what was about to happen.

I made it happen right off the start and jumped the hole shot only for Scott Ogilvie to be nice enough to come around me and drag me up the first section of the climb on his wheel. We reached the top and I thanked him for the lift and we we're off. I had Elwell on my wheel with CP and Schottler in tow and knew the first climb was about putting on some hurt but pacing enough to save it for the steep pitch at the top. I was calm, collected, the legs were turning themselves over knew what was about to go down. I gambled a little bit at the top thinking that Elwell might not know the trail that well and turned the screws just a little bit a few times in the twisty single track, but quickly realized that he wasn't going anywhere and settled into a comfortable pace.

I like to be a front runner so crossing Ries Rd I knew I had the sketchy technical descent dialed and could throw down some heat going up the steep on the other side and still recover from it if it didn't work on the descent so I railed the first left hander high and attacked the tech with speed. Second turn over the roots and the air came out of my tire all at once. The rim had folded over and I was thinking there was no was the bead was even going to hold. No more front running. I stood there for a minute, completely devastated as I watched every expert rider pass before I decided to see what I had. I was sure the tire was going to blow off the rim but starting riding the kind of pace I normally reserve for the last lap and taking all kinds of chances.

I came through after the first lap with Christopher Connolly and was 4:30 behind the leaders (don't know how I got the time I did, but definitely isn't right as I came through with Christopher). I started to pick some people off and was riding on the rivet for the whole second lap and pretty pissed off. I really wanted a O.K. Corral showdown between us four big guns but it wasn't meant to be and started to have some fun seeing how quick I could open up gaps as I caught people. I knew I was going OK as the gaps were opening quick.

By the third lap I started to find a little rhythm and stopped grunting and snorting so much. I don't remember much of that lap but clearly remember hearing some of the kick ass Trey licks from Red Rocks in my head, which I haven't heard for a very long time during races, and riding really well and very fast.

While Schottler is going to have his day I knew he was no match for Chris on his home course and Aaron has been riding so well I didn't think I had a shot at him so my goal was to shoot for third. I started to catch riders who are usually 7-10 minutes off the pace towards the end of my third lap and realized that I was never going close anywhere close to that amount on the leaders on one lap. Coming through the start-finish area, I saw Elwell on the side of the trail carrying his cooler and looking pretty banged up. Again, it wasn't the kind of race I was hoping for, but it did motivate me just a little bit more knowing that I was just a couple spots away from the podium.

I turned the corner up the first section of Grotpeter and saw Wes at the water bar. I closed some of the gap really fast but he must have seen me because it opened right back up. I stood up and started to kick, bit my lip and closed my eyes.

(thanks to Ryan H for the sweet photo!)

I made the left hander up the steep and saw Wes right in front of me and he looked like he was struggling, but figured he was going to give it to me as soon as I got close. I came up on him, attacked and never looked back. I didn't see anyone in front of me as I descended Ranger Cut-off or when I was climbing Love and was losing hope when I crossed Ries Rd and Metz told me Scott was just ahead of me. I flossed the tech and kept it in the big ring poised for an attack and sure enough, I saw him about half way up when I was at the base. It was all about catching him off guard on the tough part of the climb and going deep to keep him off my wheel on the descent. Once again, I was able to open the gap fast and it was smooth sailing with a really strong wind in my sails into the finish.

I impressed myself and although I was really bummed that the epic showdown of some strong riders at the pinnacle of their summer fitness didn't manifest itself, it was still a good race and the strongest rider won. Chris has now gone up on me, 3-2, on the season and while my abbreviated mtb season is over, I'm thinking that Greensfelder might be the real end. I might have to find a race somewhere after I get back from a week of off road riding in Crested Butte as I should be pretty sharp.

Phish opened up the second leg of their summer tour with a vengeance for 4 nights at Red Rocks. I get to see them in Chicago next week and can't wait. Check out some of this fire... Life is as good as it gets right now.

Colorado Trail Race

2009-07-31T08:56:00.002-05:00

Just about the same time I line up at Castlewood this weekend my buddy, Chris Nuemann, will be setting off on a 500 mile self supported race in Colorado. Pretty freakin intense especially considering the fact that they have been getting some nasty storms out there lately. You can track his progress by the "Spot link" and see what he's about on his blog.

Honestly, I don't even know Chris really well aside for talking to him a long time at last years Burnin, being friends with a lot of his friends and shooting him emails about our common interests like dogs with bad raps, fishing and riding. I feel like I know him more than that would suggest, maybe just from reading his blog or maybe just because I can relate to someone who seems very genuine, either way, I consider him a friend and want to wish him luck. Take care Chris, and I hope you have some good legs.

I am Specialized.

2009-07-27T07:47:00.003-05:00

Last week I got a call from my good friend, John Quinn (one of the Chief Rockers over at Specialized) who said that he wanted to go big on the sponsorship for me for CX season as well as my 2010 mountain bike season. Hell Yess. I would also like to thank my good friend, Justin Neely, for putting in a good word for me. I have had some pretty nice hook ups but none that even come close to this one. For me, this is as real deal as it gets. No one has ever given me free bikes and equipment before and this will allow me to go do some bigger races in 2010. I can't wait to go on some team rides with Sousi, Wells and the Dart either... ahem.

The timing is really good too, because I have been looking forward to CX season this year and trying to choose my battles on the mountain bike, but the 4 races I have done haven't exactly been the best follow up to my 7 big wins in 2008. I'm not complaining about my results, just missing the racing. I am looking forward to Castlewood and maybe one or two more races in September, but am really focused on getting ready for CX. Riding for a new team is just the added stimulation I need to motivate me a little more, not that it's usually a problem for me.

I put in a really solid couple weeks of training following the Castlewood race and started to feel really sharp. Last Wednesday I was out putting in some miles on the mountain bike and was linking Klondike and Lost Valley via the Katy trail when a yellow jacket flew into my helmet. I took my helmet off while I was riding along and knocked it out of my helmet, onto my upper quad, where it stung the shit out of me. It didn't bother me too much at the time but by the next morning it was a total mess. My leg had swelled to twice it's normal size and there was a plum colored circle around the bite about the size of a grapefruit. I guess I have become really allergic to bees. For the next couple days it continued to spread and on Saturday I had a bulge down below my knee. I tried to go do some openers for the Show Me State Games but my heart rate wouldn't go up and my quad felt like I was slapping a brick wall with a flank steak on the end of a stick. As I am undefeated in Columbia I thought it might be nice to give one of the locals a chance to win this year so I opted to stay home. Nice job Josh, consider that repayment for your gift to me last season.

Well that's about all. Another week of racing, another Phish show and then Case and I are off to Crested Butte for Vacation. August should be a solid month for training as I don't plan on racing and can transition into CX mode.

Can't wait to hear them bells again.

BIG newS on the way

2009-07-24T09:25:00.003-05:00

The wattage cottage needs some work.

2009-07-14T17:51:00.008-05:00

I'm at the midway point of my season here and the State Championship race on Saturday has me questioning what direction I should head in. The main goal of my training this season was to have good form for the D.IN.O AMBC race on July 5th. Other then a few bumps in the road I was feeling really good going into.

I woke up to pouring rain Saturday at Lake Sara and as the day progressed I started to ask myself if I really wanted to pass up the good time with Casey and her family that was going down, go do openers in the pouring rain only to have to clean my bike again, wake up at 5 am to drive 3.5 hrs to IN (4.5 with the time change) and all the while wonder if I was going to miss out only to wake up and hear that the race was cancelled. Ironically, the conditions were shaping up to be just about perfect for me, the course was my kind of course and I knew I was faster than last year when I won the Expert overall. I also knew that Andy Messer was faster and wanted to go to battle with him again, as he is a great competitor and we're tied at 1-1, but for some reason this year my desire to train is as strong as it ever has been but I don't feel the need to prove as much to myself. Plus, I'm saving all the fire I can for CX as I do have some things to prove. Even after all that, the decision was quite simple and Casey and I made some drinks, she piloted us out in the boat and she taught me to water ski. After watching her make shredding on one ski look so easy I decided that was what I should do. After 5 attempts and massive amounts of water blasted through my face into my brain she pleasantly recommended (with a little smirk) that I should try two skis and after my second attempt I was flossing.

July 5th was pretty much a perfect day and I didn't regret my decision one bit. After 6 hours or so of fishing I finally managed to trick a 12" bass and the beers tasted so much better after a couple hour ride in the cornfields, on the dock, as the sun finally came out.

I was pretty confident going into the USAC State Championship race the next Saturday but was definitely aware that CP was going to have a serious spark after two weeks of dirt crits, which he did. Looking back at some lap times, I didn't have a bad race, but Chris was just really good at the mega power output on the flats and his 29" wheels and suspension were clearly a better choice for this course.

I had a good start, was going well and leading Chris and Bob as the three of us distanced ourselves from the small field. We came around a blind corner and came up on the guy and son (who I had told while pre-riding to be careful as a race was coming in their direction) and I had nothing to do but hit the brakes or hit them. CP saw it coming but Bob didn't and crashed into Chris. We slowed up and turned around to make sure Bob was up and Chris gave me the go ahead to resume my punishment.

Chris started opening up a gap on the first descent but I was overly confident that I had the juice and would bring him back in. On the second lap he was about 30 seconds ahead of me on the second climb and I thought it was about time to reel him in and start racing so I punched the big ring up the second part of the climb and kept him in sight. Once again, he gaped me on the descent. I came through the tunnel and when I went over the concrete my chain fell off and slipped between the chain pin and crank arm. This has been a persistent problem for me running a 42/29 and a regular 44/32/22 triple mountain derailleur. I can't wait until the Sram XX double front comes out. I lost a considerable amount of time that first time but only a little more the next two times it happened. I would guess I lost about two minutes to mechanical that day, which totally sucked, but wasn't the difference between winning and losing as Chris was the clear champ that day. Oh well, winning the MWFTS State Championship in a mega stacked field was pretty nice, not to hide or downplay the fact that I really wanted the USAC Jersey and Chris clearly earned it.

I have to commend James Nelson for putting on a great race and the incredible work he did (or was able to have done) to get the course ready even if I was really disappointed with the turnout and thought it was a really weak excuse (the turnout and timing, not James effort) for a State Championship race. While the allure of a State Championship Jersey will always motivate me to be there, the turnout for Sundays OMBA Carumba race was much better and it would have been nice to go head to head with the a field like that, but once again, Case and I were just having a little too much fun and driving 7 hours to race with wasted legs wasn't sounding so good.

So, after about 4 weeks of peak intensity workouts and race week hours (without enough racing stimulus) I'm not feeling as motivated as usual and the legs aren't recovering as fast as they should be. Although I want to be competitive at Rock Bridge and Castlewood, I'm not sure what I have left in the tank but am going to try to take it easy for a couple days, see if the legs come around, put in a big weak before Rock Bridge and see if I can jam at Castlewood. August is pretty much a transition month for me and I plan on putting in some big fun time on the mountain bike without too much high intensity. Spanish Lake is a CX course and CX season is still a little ways off so I think I'll be skipping that one. Back to working on the wattage cottage.

Here are some frickin' sweet photos from my friend Chris Bunn.

Puppies

2009-07-03T08:33:00.003-05:00

When my dad was a kid he was into breeding and showing dogs. While he was getting his MBA from Babson College (first in his class, what can I say, I'm proud of him) he owned a dog grooming shop to pay his way through school and bred and showed Irish Setters and Sheepdogs. As a kid, we never had dogs but as a my dad nears retirement my mom and him started to breed and own National Caliber field trial English Pointers. His website is pretty cool, you should check it out.

About 5 months ago Casey and I adopted Mabel, a 2 year old Rottweiler. It's my first dog and we are learning a lot. Rottweilers are very smart, loyal, yet very stubborn animals and it's not just a dog you can let have it's way or it will dominate. Mabels been coming around lately and responding very well to the little training we have been doing. Ironically, this mountain bike racer from Ohio breeds Rottweilers that look very similar to Mabel. I think I want a puppy.

Good Week

2009-07-01T17:18:00.003-05:00

I finally recovered from the nasty heat, speed and course brutality of the St Joe race and got in a solid workout on Saturday morning. Everything was ticking and the motivation was solid.

Saturday night Case and I had a couple friends over for a cookout, but somehow hanging outside in 106* heat isn't much fun and the gallons of fresh squeezed lime Margaritas and top secret Sangria mix didn't go down as well indoors. So, we did it again on Sunday night and did it right. Monday pretty much sucked but it was a rest day and hungover rest days are good recovery. Right?

Tuesday morning I rode some laps of the DRJ race at Castlewood and openend up the legs a little. I felt great and everything seems to be coming together for the next couple weeks of racing.

The coolest thing about yesterday happened when my buddy Rick George came to deliver my custom painted CX frame which is totally balls McGeee! This may just be the whitest bike I have owned and is looking sharp. I'm only about 3/4 the way through building it and had to prep my MTB for this weekend so pictures are going to have to wait. Coming from a gets rid of bikes like half empty bottles on the last lap of a crit, I'm really frickin' excited about this one as it is totally my style. It's the new white heat.

Off to Caseys folks lake house on Lake Sara, IL for fireworks Friday night, a little fishing on Saturday, some family time and then it's off to the AMBC race on Sunday morning. I'm going to steer clear of the sauce on Saturday so hopefully I sober up in time for the race as there is going to be a stacked field.

Hiccups

2009-06-24T16:52:00.003-05:00

May was the one of the most productive blocks of training I have ever had. The legs I had at Rhett's run were unreal, especially considering that I had taken a full week of rest and barely been riding. Things started to unfold a little bit and now the legs are not so hot and I'm taking some chances with my big workouts and kicking my own ass for botching two weeks of traing because my parents were in town one week and Phish the next.

The heat and effort on Sunday really took it's toll on me and I was feeling like shit out at Lost Valley today. I aborted my LT workout and was about to call it a day. Then I ran into Jen who had just ridden with EP and was telling me how happy he was at his win last weekend. I'm happy for him too but it motivated me to go a little deeper. Needless to say, I pushed my sorry ass up the hill a couple more times, and pushed through a little pain I usually don't feel while doing intervals. Like I said, I'm going to take some chances.

My goal for the D.IN.O AMBC race isn't to win, just to beat my time from last year. I know I'm faster, I'm just not sure if I can stop the downward spiral in time, get in a few quality workouts and get rested up in time. My legs haven't felt great since the Rhetts race due to too much drinking, not enough sleeping and botched workouts so now I have to overthink everything and teter on the edge of overdoing it and tuning up as much as I can in as little time as possible.

One more big workout on Saturday and then I'm really going to lay off the jets and hope I can show up nice and rested. Hope so.

Face Melting Week

2009-06-22T07:29:00.002-05:00

Hot damn, what a week. The Phish show at the Fox was exactly what I thought it would be and the boys from VT didn't disappoint me one bit. Casey and I had a total blast and seeing Phish at a venue like the Fox was pretty much a dream come true. Nowadays you can download the live show within an hour after the concert which is great, but when you are talking about a band that plays a different set list every night, improvs their asses off and on top of that, hasn't played in 5 years there is going to be some sloppiness. I get really sick of hearing the critics, who are listening to Phish's greatest shows from their computers all day long, and then critiquing each and every note Trey flubs the morning after. For me, a Phish show is the SHOW not just the music and this was a great one. Musically, definitely not even close to the best I have seen, but the energy in that place was unreal and the boys were clearly having fun. While the show lacked a little continuity, there were some serious moments.

Casey and I had a little too much fun at the show and by Friday were still not feeling totally recovered from it and I was starting to get really stressed about traveling 6 hrs on Sat night to get down to the AMBC race in Little Rock. I felt 100% better when I called the hotel and cancelled the reservation and started to get excited about St Joe and the possibility that when in Pirtle County, there may be Team Armshavers present. I called Cam in KC and offered him a place to stay but he was still washed out after his teams stellar perform ace at Big Bear and the Pirtle boys were recovering from too much fun in the sun of Meheecoh so I figured it was just going to be another "local" race.

We got down to the race nice and early and just sat in the AC and listened to some music and relaxed a bit before the race. Secretly I was really hoping to pull off two wins in a row but really was concerned about how sucky I was feeling all week so my anxiety was way up. I was getting ready to go pre-ride when I saw the White Toothed Wonder boy roll up in the silver Element and turned to Case to tell her how fast this race just got.

I have two goals I'm working on right now. One is to place top five in five AMBC races and upgrade to PRO and the other is to beat Eric Pirtle. I was a little pissed at myself for not going to Arkansas because I wasn't pursuing one of my goals so needless to say I was jazzed to have a shot at another one as I set out to pre-ride.

I rode in for 4 miles and realized one thing was clearly evident; this course was designed for a kid who grew up riding hair scrambles in Missouri and then learned to mountain bike on those same trails. I was trying not to let it get too me too much when I ran into EP riding a full sus bike and telling me how awesome the course was.

EP slipped a pedal and I robbed him of the HOLESHOT! I was feeling fluid and fast and my Adam Craig-esque straight arm technique was powering me through the rough stuff just fine. I knew EP was going to come around me but I wanted to hold him off as long as possible. Me, EP and Schottler quickly opened up a gap on the rest of the group when I started to bog down and EP jumped me. Surprisingly, I was able to stay within 10 seconds of him for quite some time until we hit a couple of the bigger downhills and he was out of sight. I felt cooked and was thinking that there was no way I was going to make it through two hours of this while Schottler sat on my wheel. When we crested the big climb in the middle of the course and hit the flow section I started to feel more in my element again and started to turn the screws a little and hoped to gap Jon. I punched it up a climb and then was drilling it through one of the fast sections when I came up on a marathon rider and lost the gap I had gained. Towards the end of lap one I had more of a gap on him and quickly opened it up when we hit the pavement and later learned that he had flatted.

I grabbed two bottles and set out on lap two 1:06 behind EP and was really motivated to chase. I knew that I was on the defensive and would have to take some chances which was a bad idea as the heat was really getting to me. Not too far into the lap I hit something that wasn't moving, flipped over the bars, Charley horsed my leg and bent my bar end down so much I couldn't use it which really sucked as there was quite a bit of power climbing. I recovered from that slowly and was doing ok until one of the big g-outs which had two different lines. I chose the wrong one and ended up in the woods next to my bike with my chain stuck between the crank chain pin and crank arm. Again, I recovered and started to remind myself that the heat could cause cramps, the brutal course could cause flats and a two hour race is a long one.

Going into lap 3 I was told the gap had opened to three minutes and I was feeling beat up and beat. I pushed on but was really struggling to stay on the trail. I thought I was going backwards, but looking at my lap times am surprised to see that my 2cd and 3rd laps were pretty close. I crashed a couple more times, just dumb stuff like sliding out around turns, and was a little worried that I had stopped sweating but didn't feel too bad and knew that once I crested the big climb I just had to ride it in. I came up on a rider laying on the ground at mile 7.5 and stopped to ask if he needed help and he told me to send someone back for him so I pushed on.

Just under 6.5 minutes behind EP the dream crusher. One weekend two goals crushed. My boy Zach called me up to talk about the race later in the day though and after talking to him and Casey about it I started feeling a little better given some of the circumstances and am still pleased with my result. That was not the place for me to plan on going toe to toe with the guy that taught me to race and apparently Bob Marley was right, "All them drugs gonna make you slow." Ok, so not really, but all them beers and second hand ganj don't help much.

A couple days of recovery and then I plan on squeezing in a couple solid workouts before backing it off and going into what I hope to be my best fitness of the season in Indiana, followed by the USAC MO State Champs and maybe even double up and go race Sac River the next day for some points which shouldn't be too big a deal if I'm rested up from a short hour race week. That's been the plan, hopefully I got the heat when I need to bring it!

Nice job EP, you made us all look silly.

Hell Yess!

2009-06-09T08:45:00.004-05:00

Maybe the hardest tickets to get for a Phish show, ever. I bought the tickets to the best Phish show has ever played (Big Cypress NYE show 12/30 - 12/31 1999) for face value the day before we drove from Boston to Florida. Listening to them play right now is really great, not the best, or even close to it, but they seem to really be enjoying it and are playing well. I am guessing they are going to bring some serious heat to the Fox next Tuesday. Phish has been such a part of my life, from my first show in 1995 to the "last show ever" at Coventry VT and I have shared so many of the memories with very good friends that I am really excited to share it with Casey next Tuesday. She has no idea what kind of a flailing hippie I am as the last few spontaneous dance parties (The James Gang NYE dance party and just the two of us on Valentines day) have been to pop music, not face melting jam sessions from the boys from VT. One week to go!

Now on to things that suck. On the first lap on Sunday something stung me in the ankle, not a bee sting, some type of ground wasp or something like that. It frickin' hurts like a mo'fo and has some sort of "core" to it where my flesh appears to have rotted. Not cool.

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

2009-06-08T08:00:00.003-05:00

Wow. I can't remember feeling so good about so many things all at once. Yesterday was the icing on the cake. I had so many excuses lined up going into the race I was destined for failure; I hadn't raced enough, Casey and I had partied way to much the week before, I hadn't been sleeping well, my buddy Eddie came in town from CO on Sat and we were up late drinking beer the night before the race, you name it, I had an excuse. What I was ignoring was that every time I have got on my bike in the last six weeks it's been for a reason and the days I wasn't shredding repeats up the back of Lone Wolf or doing 20 min LT intervals over on the flats I was resting and trying to recover as best as possible.

You know it's going to be a fast race lining up next to Cam, Chris and Schottler (who I will now refer to as the mayor of Rhetts after watching him floss the first section with Jedi skills) and being chased by some seriously fast old dudes like Matthews, Froese, TK and even Mr. CX, Josh Johnson. I was telling Casey the whole ride there that I was a little worried about disappointing myself and was just hoping to round out the top five.

The only problem I have been having since switching to Eggbeater 2Ti's compared to the heavyweight Times ATACs has been clipping in from a start. I slipped a bit when they said go and lost a step but still managed to get in behind Schottler who took the hole shot. I almost went around him on the grassy turn but didn't want to start things off by hitting the deck and settled in on his wheel which proved to be a good move for two reasons; I let him show me some sick lines and it turned out that as a front runner he burnt himself out a little too fast. Cam wasn't far behind me at the top of the first climb and we had a decent gap on everyone else.

By the second climb off of the gravel Schottler, Cam and I were all together and Schottler started to bog down so Cam jumped him and gapped me a little before I had room to pass. I was crushing the climbs while seated in the 42 and thought it was only going to be a matter of time before the legs said no and Cam was out of sight, but somehow I worked my way back up to his wheel and was noticing he was standing up on the climbs looking for power and I was able to sit on his wheel as we went through the start finish and jump him for the start of lap 2.

Then things started to tick. I was really feeling good on the climbs and riding really efficiently on everything else. The S-Works hardtail was cutting through the turns and accelerating out of them like a F1 car. Things were good. Occasionally I would see a glimpse of Cam and Chris coming up behind me but figured that by the second lap I had 30 seconds or more and wasn't slowing down. I clearedmy first two laps in somewhere around 43 minutes and on the longer course in wet conditions, knew I was going good. I grabbed another bottle, downed a gel and continued to crush it.

My third lap felt like it was my fastest but it's tough to say. I don't know when I have ever been able to push such a big gear up the climbs and while seated. I started to hit some traffic on the 3rd lap which really sucked. I was trying to be polite by saying "race leader coming through, I'd appreciate it if you would let me pass" but was finding that many of the riders, who were way out of contention in their classes, would just keep going until they made a mistake forcing me off my bike to get around them. It would be great if promoters would remind lap riders to yield to race leaders.

My fourth lap was more of the same. My legs were still feeling really fresh on the climbs and I was riding well. At one point I hit a tree with my bar end so hard it twisted my bars a little and when I went to get in the shower last night found a big red mark on my shoulder while I was flexing in the mirror, but aside from that I rode a pretty much flawless race. I started to look at my watch and realize it was coming down to the wire and one side of me wanted to squeeze 5 laps out again, the other was praying I could throw my hand up and have a beer. No such luck. I rolled through at 1:28:59 and they told me to keep racing. I hate this format and not having any idea how far behind Cam and Chris were, found myself looking over my shoulder a lot. On most courses this format basically lends itself to an hour and a half of racing and the rest is uncertainty. I'm not a fan at all.

My last lap I found that I had to shift down to the 29 on the 2cd climb and the legs were getting a little heavy but I still had some kick. It really sucks to have no idea if you are being chased or just out there on a parade lap, but I tried to stay focused on finishing strong as most every other Cat I race I will do will be 1:45 plus.

I came across the line and threw my arms up and damn it felt good! Being the only racer to squeeze out 5 laps two years in a row is very satisfying to me. Always a solid time hanging out with so many friends after the race and Seagal had the PBRs flowing graciously as per the usual. So good.

My stomach was a little jacked up due my low tolerance of race dayfoods and Maybs was with us so Casey and I decided to head straight home and feast on some ribs Eddie had got us from his hometown, 17th Street BBQ in O'Fallon IL that were sick! We sat outside and ate and started putting away some serious cocktails which was the perfect way to end a perfect day. By 10pm we we're good and crunk again and bumping some Marvin Gaye. What a beautiful night.

Next weekend my folks are coming to visit and then next Tues is it... Phish at the FOX. They have been playing with some face melting fire and should be good and tuned up to rip it at the sickest venue they have played at in over 15 years. All aboard, fasten your hemp belts, the trains leaving for space monkey mountain.

"Crazy like a rocket when you're coming through my radio"

Nerves

2009-06-05T16:58:00.003-05:00

I'm all fired up to race. The "rain or shine" event listing for this weekend is all good. By this time last year I had raced 9 times, won a couple races and was getting ready to feel what it was like to be really fast, for me. This season has been a little bit different. My priorities have shifted a little this year and while I am really motivated, I'm not traveling a whole lot as I am trying to race less and train more. We'll see how that goes when I'm redlined in the first minute on Sunday.

I've been taking a "real" rest week and have only been riding about an hour or so a day real easy. Had I not spent two nights this week getting all crunk and shit with Casey, I would probably be feeling all frisky but after a Cardinals game last night and some malt liquor Casey got us, I'm a little hung over. The legs are good though and for the first time in awhile I noticed they weren't heavy when I walk up stairs. I'm going to drill it for 10 mins or so tomorrow to open things up a little bit and hopefully won't be too flat on Sunday.

Rhett's has always been good to me. I won my first State Championship (sport) there in 2003, won a marathon race there in 2007 and won the expert race there last year. I guess I have won every time I have raced there but think that might come to an end this weekend as there should be a healthy lineup of fast dudes who have some serious racing miles in their legs toeing the line.

I've been seeing Aaron Elwells name popping up with some pretty damn respectable results this season with the big boys and found that he has a blog. You should check it out. This dude is fast and if him and Cam show up this weekend it's going to be super fast for sure.

Two weekends after Rhetts I think I am going to skip St Joe and head down to Arkansas for the AMBC race and hope I'm ready for the D.IN.O AMBC race on July 4th weekend. I just don't want to be slower than last year.

Time for some action.

Need for Speed

2009-06-01T08:02:00.002-05:00

About 6 weeks ago I realized that things weren't coming together the way I wanted them to be and I wasn't recovering well so I set myself up with a 10 week training plan leading up to some big races in July. Last season I had "The Master Plan" which took me all the way from Dec up until Nationals and learned quite a bit more about how to make myself faster and the timing of my peak form.

This winter/ early spring I was finding that the rides weren't easy or hard enough, the rest wasn't at the appropriate times and I kept convincing myself that my base was big enough from previous years so that I could cheat a little to get fast sooner. I started to find that my legs felt like bricks all the time and I couldn't predict when I would feel fast or good.

I looked forward to May as there was no racing on the horizon and I could just put it down and train balls kitty, which I did. After four weeks of two hard workouts a week and one breakthrough workout a week I started to feel some snap when doing my intervals and my legs were recovering from the efforts much better. I watched the average speeds of my endurance rides go up dramatically and I was highly motivated for the next workout. Aside from coming up a little short on hrs the week of memorial day due to the atrocious conditions, I didn't miss any workouts and am sitting here feeling pretty good about taking a rest week and going into some racing next weekend.

The only variable I'm concerned about is the lack of spring racing and hope that after a couple races in June I am ready to go in July. Since I didn't race or need to recover from racing I was able to train more consistently and much harder, but it's not the same as racing and I'm the couple race like efforts I was putting in on the mtb are close enough to the sick intensity of racing. We can only see at this point.

As much as I wanted to fuel my ego and didn't like that thought of downgrading from semi-pro to Cat 1, I opted to do so to give myself my next goal; upgrading to PRO by gaining the points rather than taking the free pass USA Cycling offered me. It's not really a big deal either way, but as my friend Dan Grausam explained it to me " How many people can say they lined up next to the best in the country, even if they do get smoked?" So, my goal for next season is to gain the points needed for my upgrade and line up next to the best, maybe at Nationals. If not, I'll might be toeing the line at Nationals next year looking for the Cat 1 jersey.

"I hope you brought your wood screws"

Back on Track

2009-05-18T07:55:00.003-05:00

It's weird to not be racing a couple times a month. The whole Castlewood Race fiasco pissed me off quite a bit for a variety of reasons, none that I blame my friend Bob Arnold for, but it's water under the bridge at this point.

After a sporadic 5 weeks of training in April and early May I set myself up with a 8 week training plan leading up to the DINO AMBC race in July and hopefully some good legs a little before and after that. I'm not used to training to race so hopefully I can get fit enough without racing much and spark things with a couple races in June? We'll see. All I know is that when I have a plan I am far more motivated and recovery comes much faster. I'm actually enjoying not having to be concerned with letting up a little on the training to race, or taking the added recovery time to deal with the stesses of racing.

If all goes well hopefully we'll get some good miles in next weekend down at Council for the James/Breslin gang annual Memorial Day blowout. Casey and I have been dialing in our game of flippy cups so we should be ready to dominate. If the trails are as bad as they sound, hopefully the final climb up into the campgound is open so I can torture myself with some hungover hill repeats. Sounds like we might bring road bikes though.

My blog is boring when I am not racing. I have some sweet pics of Maybel and bath time, but I'll save some face and show you the PBR sponsored Rottie...

Heavy Legs

2009-04-27T09:11:00.002-05:00

Went out and rode the S-Works rocket ship at Castlewood Sunday morning. So nice to be out there and see so many folks and be on the MTB for the first time since the Rim Wrecker. Casey and Maybs came along and did some hiking and playing in the creek while I was riding. Kinda bums me out when people don't yield the right of way though (to the person climbing). I passed a couple groups going both up and down and was forced to have to stop for them. Other then that it was a great morning.

I'm about a month behind my training compared to where I was last year at this time but not really sweating it. I've been getting in some solid training but a little too much boozing and some major added stress at work has left me spending more time than I would like to trying to recover. If I can get some rest this week I think I'll be running at about 80% for the Wood race. Even though I don't have any major goals as I am finishing up a big block of LT training and hill training I think I should be able to start to add some sick ass intensity soon and am looking at some races in June and July to be going full tilt boogie; maybe the DINO AMBC race as I am familiar with the course and should be nice and dialed by then.

Saw Ray Lamontagne last week who was really good. I guess just about anything is good with a quart of vodka in you, but really, he's got some talent. We're going to Flight of the Conchords with the James Gang this week, have the grand opening of the Big Red S concept store this weekend, the race on Sunday, the Killers show next Monday and I'm going to my first Cards game next Wed. It will be a miracle if I can maintain some sobriety though the race, but if I do it will be great to let loose next week. Deadly Nedly isn't coming to the grand opening, which is a real bummer for me as I thought having him show up to Castlewood on Sunday would be the epitome of radical.

I made some pizza dough this morning, so I got that going for me. Two days in the fridge and it should be tasty!

What's going on?

2009-04-14T10:27:00.004-05:00

Training has been at a little bit of a standstill a little more than usual. Seems like the rain and tired legs have been making it easy to get a good rest in before I start doing some serious training. I managed to squeeze in a really good ride in Jeff Co last week that reminded be of the old days of 12 hour training. It was nice to ride a few hills too. Other then that I've been getting a hour in the park here or there and doing lots of walking with the Maybel dog.

Casey and I booked our vacation in the end of August in Crested Butte. I found these cabins up on a secluded creek outside of town and we both are really stoked. We booked it for 7 nights and are pretty stoked to do some riding, fly fishing, quite a bit of day drinking and kickin' it in the woods. We're going over my birthday and hopefully my boys Eddie and Nick come down from Breckenridge and Boulder to party it up.

My buddy and teammate, Jerry Fondren, yanked two of my wisdom teeth out of my face yesterday. I have severe anxiety related to any type of medical procedures and I was freaking out. He is a master though and today I'm feeling less pain than before he took them out... of course, the Vicodin might be helping. Having an excuse to eat chocolate milkshakes all day is pretty nice too. I tried the reduced fat/ soy milk ones last night but think I'm going to head back for the real McCoy for tonight.

That's pretty much it. If I had the sweet photos of us washing the dog in the tub or dressing her in my PBR hoodie I'd post them to spice things up a little, but I don't so deal with the boredom.

MWFTS # 2- Rim Wrecker @ Council Bluffs

2009-03-31T08:25:00.005-05:00

I race mountain bikes. I train all winter and get fired up to race in the spring. For me, mud is as much a part of mountain biking as dry, fast conditions and if a promoter is going to have a race, I'm going to be there.

I opted to save the $50 I would have blown on booze going to dance party USA Saturday night with the possibility of having to buy a new chain and limited myself to 3 beers. Racing my bike is so much more rewarding to me these days then getting wasted and spending the next three days feeling guilty and wishing I hadn't. I was in bed dreaming of rooster tails by 11 pm and Casey and I woke up to find a nice blanket of snow on the ground. As we loaded up the Maybs in the Ele I assured her that "down there" they had only got 1" of precip and it wasn't going to be that bad. I was wrong.

We drove through the beautiful winter wonderland and pulled in to see a fairly hopping scene of peeps, everyone in great spirits and in some way psyched about the awesomeness of the scenery. Everyone that was there is tops in my books. I wasn't the least bit surprised to see almost the whole Segall crew, some DRJ A-Teamers, 29'er Crew, some Mashers and even Scotty D who drove all the way from Springfield. My buddy Dave brought plenty of free PBR and Adrienne and Russ showed up to witness the epic event.

After talk of tires, a healthy dose of chamois cream and the PRO smell of some med embrocation I was ready to go. The new course was sure to be quite a bit harder, especially considering that the first descent was going to be super sketch. I had some Maxxis Medusas on that were hooking up like C-Money in a gay bar and was going for the hole shot. CP had already told me his SS was only good for 18 mph and when Gibbs told us we had a mile of flat pavement before the single track I knew what I had to do.

I was off. I was riding clean and quickly established a big lead. I would guess I had almost a minute but then I started to catch glimpses of someone closing in. I was going real well, riding clean and after all that rest last week my motivation was really strong. I was able to push and wasn't looking about my heart rate of thinking about holding back as I had to in the endurance race the weekend before, in retrospect, maybe I should have a little bit as they were almost the same length.

Chris caught me by surprise about 2/3 the way through the first lap and I willed myself to stay with him and we chatted about how our bikes were working. He kept asking me if mine was shifting ok, which it was. Other then some yo-yoing as he stomped me on the climbs, we were riding well and came through together after the first lap.

I jumped him a little at the start of the second lap and knew I had to hit the hilly section of the course with a good lead to hold him off and got down on some Rooster Booster. I think CP must have sensed this though, and somehow caught me at the beach and laid some hurt on me on the gravel. He dangled me at about 15 seconds for awhile and then was gone from sight.

Heading up to the base of the big climb in the middle of the course I came up on D-Wayne who told me Chris wasn't far and let me pass. As I started up the climb I saw CP walking his bike about 20 seconds ahead and tried to ride up as far as I could before I started to run. It was like some kind of slow motion bad dream for both of us. He would look back and try to run a couple steps only to have his legs seize up or slip and i was doing the same. It was the race. I was trying to stumble up this hill but at about 2:00 of a 2:26 minute race the legs gave out. I crested the hill and he was out of sight.

Once again I was forced into my head and the thoughts were good. Anything can happen and every pedal stroke I could churn in the 42 would bring me closer to him. I was struggling but amazed that my motivation was so strong this early in the season. I even convinced myself that if I could see him when we hit the pavement I would be able to wax him with gears but he knew that too and put it down well before then. He opened up close to a two minute gap in the last 4 miles of the course.
"Jah, he had zose wittle wheels and I just crushed heem like a girly man"

That was that. I was pretty stoked though, can't complain about the way I'm riding right now and it's coming to me pretty easy, maybe easier then it ever has. The motivation is there even though I don't have any big goals for this season. I'm feeling fast and I haven't even tuned any of the speed in my training yet. I'm optimistic about another great year.

Post race was rad as usual. Eddie handed me the PBR 2x4 before I was even off my bike and when I set it down he popped out of nowhere with a Coffee Stout. Everyone was in good spirits and laughing about using trees to slow down or wishing they had brought their underwater bicycle. Unfortunately, I didn't have many of my teammates to share it with as there must have been a skirt and pumps sale at Macys, however, with all the solid folks around me Casey and Mabel were pretty happy on the ride home.

2009 pictured above, 2008 below.

MWFTS # 1- Mesa Cycles Lost Valley Luau, Marathon Class

2009-03-23T17:51:00.004-05:00

First off, what a sick race! Andy and Matt really put on a top notch event and it looks like some good things are to come with stiff competition all around.

I opted to do the marathon race to get the extra miles, not to mention that most of my training rides have been 3-4 hr mtb rides and I haven't even touched my top end training yet. I knew I was a little bit cooked going into this one, and after a long day of standing on my feet moving everything off the sales floor at Mesa for the remodel, my legs weren't exactly snappy during my openers Saturday after work. Nevertheless, I had tricked myself into being over confident about my current fitness level, something I always seem to do before the first race of the year, and was really excited to get it on.

We had a big class of 30 marathon riders but I had my eyes on D-Wayne, Stothman, Zach, Brown and Big Mitch. The start was as expected and I played my cards perfectly to find myself on the tail end of a small lead group with Jay pulling, D-Wayne next in me relaxing in 3rd. D-Wayne jumped right when I was thinking of going for the clear line down the sketch section so I caught a lift on his wheel and came around his smiling face. My rear ZTR Race wheel was flexing so much it felt like the skewer was loose which was a stark contrast to the stiff Roval wheels I have been training on and was throwing me off a bit.

The two of us hit the steep pitch and 3/4 the way up I was redlined. D-wayne was standing up dancing on the big meat and my legs were so jammed up with acid there was nothing I could do but watch him open up a gap. The gap grew fast. Somehow I was able to recover a little as I pushed uphill at close to 20mph when I was met by Brad Brown with Mitch Johnson giving a hell of a chase and eventually closing it down and joining us. This was as fast as any expert start. We hit the singletrack and I was able to open it up a little bit and settle into a decent pace. I came through after the first lap two minutes down from D-Wayne and wasn't expecting him to slow down.

Mitch caught up to me again on the new section and just as we were popping out onto the old trail my tire blew off the rim with some noise. Mitch came by me, followed shortly after by Brown. I was able to assess the damage and get going but lost about three minutes and had my work cut out for me. Then the funk set it. I was having a hard time staying focused and wanting to quit. I was watching my heart rate drop and not feeling like I could push. I wanted to quit.

Going into the 4th lap I caught up with Brown and passed him before hitting the pits and hearing that Mitch was only 40 seconds ahead, which was great news. I started climbing and saw Mitch struggling up the double track a ways and went to work. I latched onto his wheel and was able to recover a bit when I noticed Brown was clawing his way up to us. Man, there were some monster efforts by these two riders. I thanked Mitch for the tow and put in a decisive move to get away and stay away.

The next couple laps were smooth sailing, other then the bunches of traffic, and I realized that I was going to be coming in awfully close to the sub 3 hour mark and given the facts that it was raining, my legs were shot, I was sitting comfortably in 3rd and nowhere near first I let up and coasted in at a safe 3:01. I was ready for a PBR with Casey and the Maybs.

I was pleased with my effort and think that after a little rest I should be even better at Council, especially since it's a much more technical course and a little less pure fitness, which I ain't got yet. I was especially pleased that the promoters chose a 100% payout and 2/30 earned me a buck-twenty, boys gotta eat!

Racing?!?

2009-03-20T09:05:00.003-05:00

It's time, I guess. I'm trying to dig myself out of a little hole I dug with a handful of 4+ hour mtb rides and 3 hour tempo rides on the CX bike and hope I have a little sumptin for Sunday. I figure I should for the Rim Wrecker.

I did a fair amount of riding on the Katy Wednesday and due to my mad skills with the phone camera I think I am the first one to add some climbs to it.

Lost Valley is very fast right now, hold on!

Getting faster? I think.

2009-03-16T21:47:00.002-05:00

More riding and good training in the past couple weeks. Had a great dirt bike ride at Lost Valley on Sunday and even after a hard workout on Friday the legs were going good.

I started out by riding from LV down to Matson and doing a loop there. GORC has done an amazing job at keeping that place dialed. The ground was a little soft down in the valley, not muddy just soft, so I headed back down the Katy to meet up with Zach. We rode a lap before we met up with Ace and Gary Pirtle who were riding free ride bikes. After a little World Cup riding with those jokers there 1.5 hour limit was up and Zach and I headed out to do another loop.

At the end of the next lap my ride time was at 3:30 and I wanted to see if I had anything left in the tank. We hadn't been riding easy for the first three and a half hours so I sucked down some gel and set out at close to race pace. I had been feeling really fast on the new steed and a 30:28 counter clockwise lap reaffirmed that. It might be my fastest non-race lap there ever. My avg heart rate was right at 174 and I averaged 14.9 mph! I was surprised to say the least. I'll keep doing what I'm doing though, I don't want to be fast for another couple months.

I was feeling pretty happy about myself so I went out with Casey and the James gang to do some bowling and get our drink on. Since we are only drinking weekends now and going cold turkey during the week we make it count. I wasn't real happy to find out that Irish car bombs only came with half a glass of Guinness but it did the trick.

I have also completely given up caffeine at this point. I'm on the high road. Decaf with no sugar sucks so bad it's easy to quit once you get over the headache stage.

Good story. Happy Irish day.

More off road riding

2009-03-05T18:17:00.003-06:00

Council Bluff wasn't nearly as good yesterday, neither were the legs, or the Mexican food afterwards.

The "thaw" turned the section from the footbridge to the first double track climb into a mixture of soft ground with a couple muddy spots. I rode two laps, including some recon up into the campground and down the final climb for the Burnin,' which I have never gone down before and the a little out and back to get my ride up to 3 hrs. The legs just weren't feeling great and I'm due for a little rest period after 3 weeks averaging 15 hours a week.

I was trying to be polite and "go with the flow" so we went with the Jenkem huffing crew to Dos Primos which was not as bad as I remembered, but not even in the same game as Los Portales. They do serve a cheese dip that they add the leftovers from a good batch of Jenkem to, so I can see why some people like it so much. Mainly, people that like the taste of shit.

Aside from that I can say that the pup is coming way out of her shell and becoming really assertive, friendly and pretty damn funny. Last Saturday when Casey brought her into the shop she sat in the corner and shyed away from anyone that approached her. Today she was large and in charge, running around off the leash, going up to everyone and playing with Johns dog, Trixie. It was pretty awesome.

Some totally awesome things...

2009-03-03T16:09:00.002-06:00

Last week some great things happened. On Friday, as you can see, Casey and I adopted a dog. Mabel is a 2 year old Rottweiler with big teeth, a pink collar, and a pretty face. She is a very sweet dog and we are both really stoked. She was abused, we think at a puppy farm, but is coming around really fast. It's kinda weird that we adopted a dog together, as we don't live together, but we live about 1/4 mile away and wouldn't have done it alone. Can't wait to take her to Council Bluff and teach her to "ride" with me.

Thursday night we went to Columbia to see Ryan Adams. I had a couple of his albums but never got that into him. Casey plays him a lot so I was totally down to go see him. After a morning ride, the doggie door install, some errands and some cookies we split a Charleville Hoptimistic (my new favorite beer from St Gen) and got on the road. We didn't get far before we hit some major accident on 70 and sat. A little behind schedule, we rolled into Columbia and checked into our sweet free room at the wrong Marriott and decided we better get our drink on and check into the right one after the show. As fate would have it, the Missouri Theatre was right next to Shakespeares Pizza so we ordered up a onion, mushroom and sausage pizza, a couple big ol' beers and I got a salad. A couple more beers/drinks later we head over to the show only to realize it was a cash only bar and there was no ATM. Suckfest. We pooled our cash and split a $6, 12 oz Bud Light. Man, that hit the spot!

Little did we know that he was so rock star that we could have stayed and waxed another couple beers at the Pizza joint, but it was cool and we both convinced each other that we would be happy we hadn't in the morning. So two things happened next. I saw what may have been the most sober show of my life, and I sat down for the whole show. People don't dance, or stand for him. Weird. I was shaking in my seat the whole time. His vocal range was close to Roy Orbisons and the band just rocked. I don't know if it was the sobriety or the theatre, but the sound quality was amazing. I don't remember being impressed by any band other then Phish like this in a very long time. On the ride to the Hotey we picked up some malt liquor because sobriety is for suckers. I woke up parched and with a headache, but was really looking forward to picking up Mabel that night so it didn't suck too bad.

Last Wed I rode my mountain bike for the first time since the Burnin' 6 hour race. I also rode in a short sleeved jersey and shorts and got a little sun. I also rode three laps at my favorite trail in Missouri. I also was there with Drewballs, Matt "I love things that suck" Grotoff, and Mr Naked himself, Tom Albert. Apparently, Tom was thought he heard us coming down the road and decided to get naked and run around the parking lot only to have a close call with a fisherman. I think he eased his mind by explaining that "we roll like this all the time in St Louis." So, the other awesomeness that was going down was the new bike. It's fast and super rad. No way I'm going to get beat by any go slow gayness.

Post ride we passed the shithole, also known as Dos Primos, in Potosi and educated Grotoff on the finer things in life on the short drive to Los Portales in Hillsboro. The $2 imported happy hour beer specials and delicious food started flowing and we realized that Team Seagal is so fucked up from huffing Jenkem all the time they like the taste of shit, including Dos Primos.

I am going back to Council, Los Portales on the huberis express in the morning and need to get my bike dialed. I chose not to even re-read this post for errors, so deal with it.

The Boringness- General Training.

2009-02-24T16:16:00.003-06:00

Truthfully, I like base training. I like riding as much as I can, recovering and doing it again the next day. I like eating 5000 calories a day and not sweating it. I like listening to almost two whole Phish shows on a ride. I like the fatigue that my legs feel, but I like the thought of letting them rest a little, adding a little intensity, getting that snap back and racing even more. The one thing I that I haven't been liking too much lately is the bitter cold and wind. I pretty much put a completely flat 2000 miles of non-stop pedaling in over in IL before I start doing some hills and getting on the mountain bike again. Lately it's been 4 hour out and backs and the wind has been so bad I'll cruise at 26 mph most of the way up and struggle to churn it over at 15 mph on the way back. It hurts my knees, calves and lower back, but I push on, thinking it will make me stronger.

Tomorrow I'm going to dip my feet into phase 2 and have some fun, open up the legs a little and ride my new mtb for the first time off road. A little Rim Wrecker recon in 60 degree weather should do the trick. I'm shooting for 3 laps at close to 4 hours, but have a feeling Mexican and margaritas will win over after 2. A little Council Bluff man trip with Albert, Drewballs and Trey Grothoff will be the kick off to my mid week mini vacation. Thursday Casey and I are going to see Ryan Adams in Columbia and party it up a little bit. She scored a sweet free night at the Marriott in Columbia which beats the hell out of the whorehouse we stayed in for the 2006 Missouri State Championship Road Race. Might be a little tougher to score some crack rock at the Marriott though.

I guess it's about time to start riding some hills, too.

Hillbilly Racing Starts Soon

2009-02-17T17:25:00.002-06:00

I have a lot to talk about, but not much to talk about here. Life is grand.

As far as the stuff I talk about here goes, I've been putting in the miles and feeling strong. I'm thinking about winning again, the eye of the tiger, baby ninja kitties and going fast; which are good thoughts for me.

I think I should be a collegiate athlete starting next fall for the Lindenwood Cycling Team. I have goals of doing well at the MTB Collegiate Nationals and completing the education I had to put on the back burner when I moved to the STL in 2001. The big picture is a really good one.

Hillbilly racing (AUS for mountain bike racing) starts up in a few short weeks, but I've got my eyes on the prize and am going to select a few choice races in the summer to light it up, but mostly focus on destruction in the fall. The racing I do for the next couple months will be to check the form and for kicks... hopefully there will still be some ass kicking as part of the kicks, but I'm not going to sweat it one way or the other.

I've got tickets to see Ryan Adams, The Killers, Ray Lamontagne, Phish and the Flight of the Conchords. I feel good about all that noise too.

I'm ready to "paint my masterpiece", so to speak, and working hard to get it done is giving me great pleasure right now.

The pieces are all fitting in nicely.

That ones for you, Matt.

PLEASE HELP ME WITH PHISH TICKETS TO THE FOX!!!

2009-01-30T13:05:00.002-06:00

Someone out there must have a ticket hookup and be willing to help me out! I need two tickets to the Phish show at the FOX in June. I'd be willing to pay $100 each, which is far less than what you could make on Ebay, but hopefully you have a soul.

email me at easttide at gmail dot com if you can

Thanks,
Dave

2009 S-Works

2009-01-27T13:49:00.002-06:00

2009 Support and Sponsorship

2009-01-13T09:01:00.005-06:00

Just heard, white is faster!

Things are good. The form is coming together better than it has at this time of the year in the past, my weight is 5 lbs less than it normally is this time of year and my disposition as of late has spurred some unreal motivation. I'm still working on the master plan. I'm taking my time this year and plan on having a much more streamlined mountain bike calendar with much less travel. I've got my eye on the one day State Championship in June at Rhetts Run and see if I can carry it through to the DINO AMBC race in early July. I won the sport class race at Rhetts my first year of racing, a marathon race there in 2007 and the expert race there last season, so I guess the course suits me. We will see. More on that shebang later.

I managed to get some serious help from my friend Justin Neely at Specialized for this season; I might not have had a mountain bike at all if it weren't for him! Not to mention a 19 lb S-Works hardtail! Damn! I'm really excited about this bike. It will fit me much better than the Alma carbon hardtail I built up last fall and with the better fit will be much more seatpost showing and a way more compliant ride. It just looks fast. Hopefully I don't let it down.

Maxxis sent me a reply to my sponorship request yesterday as well and I'm really stoked to have some support from them. I go through tires like water bottles on the last lap of a crit and don't think there are better performing tires then the Crossmark eXCeptions or the Medusas for riding in the mud. Hopefully I get a nice flat brimmed cap and some sweet Geoff Kabush type of add with the Element in Mountain Bike Action!!!

As always, I'll be rocking the Mesa kit. Maybe not so much sponsorship as it is job security :)

Here we go!

Man, I really admire this guy.

2008-12-20T18:33:00.002-06:00

Here's a little tasteful smack talking Sven did on his blog. This guy loves to race his bike and I admire his sportsmanship, as does the rest of Belgium.

"I have read on ceefax today: "Let those Belgians plough through all the mud." Lars Boom's words, and also: "I want to be world champion". Well, dear Lars, I want so too.

In Hoogerheide, he is the main race favourite to succeed himself as world champion. He will also be the least tired racer of all. I can respect his way of racing. Everybody has to make up for their own what they favour most and it is indeed easier to take the title like that. BUT I WILL NOT GIVE IN, NOT YET. If he wants that title, he will have to fight for it until the last meter, also because I feel so well in a position of the underdog.

Should I not win the world title, it is perfectly understandable, everybody will agree to that. However, should I win the worlds, every cyclocross lover should feel comfortable about it, I will be battling it out everywhere for the entire year, from the first to the last race, ploughing through all the mud, as he puts it. Simply because I like doing so. Cyclocross is my life, whether I'm racing in Neerpelt or in Hoogerheide.

Missouri State CX Championship- The little big show.

2008-12-08T14:53:00.011-06:00

Wow. I can't believe it's over. What an amazing season. My emotions today are mixed; I'm really happy with the closure of my 2008 dream season and very excited to get a month of rest and start planning for 2009, but on the same token my fitness is at an all time high and with good legs so it's tough to pull the plug. The thought of buying a $150 license for one race, lining up in the back of my first PRO CX field and inevitably getting lapped is enough to say "enough's, enough. Let your mullet down and party!"

A couple months ago I realized that my segue from MTB racing into CX season was far less then ideal. Between abbreviated training for the Burnin' 6 hour race, broken seat posts, broken saddles, the flu and the mega stress of finding a new place to live and moving in, I was having a hard time finding some confidence. Initially, my goals were to finish high in the overall points and win a "b squad" race. Although I didn't accomplish either of these I really can't complain. Once I focused my training solely on a good showing at Hermann, things started to happen. Slowly the speed and snap started to come back and the lap cards started turning over a little faster.

I had my shot at the my goal of a BIG W at Queeny but Dr. Mark was riding really well and I was taking chances early instead of riding smart, which ended up in massive muddy failures. Even though I finished second, I know I was riding strong and dropping guys I had been struggling to stay with a couple weeks before. I was as ready as I could be for the Little Big Show.

The Little Big Show.

First off, I want to congratulate my good friend and teammate, Matt James, on his season. Matt was hit by a car in September and lost some serious motivation but impressed me to no end with the way he focused and finished up his season strong. Not to mention winning his first State Championship and coming in second in the overall. Nice job buddy!

My goal was for a third place finish behind Nate and Josh. I didn't expect to see some heavy hitters from KC's names in the results from the day before but was confident and feeling pretty sexy, so I didn't sweat it too much. There were less than 20 of us on the line since the Cat III's were racing separately, so it was sure to be a fast, close race. I got a good jump and scored another hole shot but didn't keep pushing it as much as I usually do and settled onto the third wheel going through the field after the pavement behind Josh and Schmelz.

I crashed on the nasty off camber hill turn, went down locked in the pedals, banged my knee up pretty good, but still ma gaged to maintain my position. I was third up the stairs and feeling pretty good. I don't remember what lap Josh passed me on but when he slid by I was still feeling pretty good sitting in 4th place. Aside from some cramping issues on the stairs, which was causing me to have to run them one at a time, I was going pretty good and had a 20-30 second gap on the two KCCX chasers. I was using every inch of the course to my advantage and while railing the turns was ending up hitting the stakes quite a bit.

With 3 laps to go I blew it. I hit the top of the stairs, jumped on and pedaled on air. Instead of getting off to put my chain back on I tried to shift it back on and it jammed. I jumped off, struggled with it and watched as Mills and Winkler rode by. I got my new Michael Jackson limited edition white gloves all greasy too, which really sucked. I can't say I remember much about the next couple laps but Mills and I started going at each other which was pretty good racing. Somewhere along the way we dropped Winkler and then Mills opened up a little gap on me on the last lap.

Coming into the sandpits on the last lap I just buried it and was able to close it down. I came up behind him going into the sand pits and passed him on foot while he was struggling to ride it out. I had a nice clean remount and put my wheel into the wind with him chasing. For some reason I started cat and mousing instead of going balls kitty. Looking back, I should have just floored it balls kitty.

It wasn't long before he was back on my wheel and I started to think too much. I opted to open the door a little bit for him around the second to last 180 degree turn thinking that I could catch a tow to the last corner and juice him... In hindsight I don't know what I was thinking. I had been gaping him on most of the technical turns and gave up my strength to go head to head with him. I went wide, opened the door, looked over my shoulder, heard a couple down clicks and watched him gas it. I got my ass served up like a Dunkin' Donuts drive through after church on a Sunday morning at my own game. I throttled it to get back onto his wheel for the finishing straight, but wasn't able to come around him. Some sick racing. More pedaling and less thinking next time.

A fifth place finish isn't so bad. I had a good race and can't get too upset about things outside of my control. It was some sick racing. The bells on the stairs was plain sickness. I can't say that I ever raised my eyes to look, but it sounded like the stairs were lined on both sides with people ringing bells and yelling. Truly awesome.

I can look back after my second season of CX racing and feel really satisfied with how much I learned from this season and how well I am getting at getting my body into peak form. I am pleased. On another note, I can't say enough about how awesome I feel about the whole STL CX scene in general and am so happy to have shared it with so many great folks. I love this shit. Thanks to all my friends, teammates and competitors that made it such a memorable season.

Time to go to KC and party! Next year I'll be ready to race.

Bubba #8 @ Queeny Park

2008-12-01T21:44:00.004-06:00

Here's me getting way to sideways near the tree. Close call.

This was it. Good conditions, Josh and Nate being out of town, some new found confidence and good legs. I was pretty excited about this race and was feeling ready. I went from the gun and took the hole shot to open up a big lead on the field after 1 lap. I settled into a pace and had avoided the first lap mayhem when Dr Mark and CO started to catch me. I wasn't trying to kill it and was going to see if some tactical racing would work. I crashed once, recovered well and managed to maintain the lead but when I hit a downhill 180* turn a little to hot I crashed much harder and watched about 7 guys roll by as I got my shit back together. My plan went from being offensive to defensive.

I impressed myself by closing in on splinter groups in the next couple laps and managed to ride a little smarter and put in some small attacks to keep them from sticking to my wheel. It didn't take long before I was up into the #2 spot chasing Dr Mark.

He was maintaining a 30 second gap or so and at one point I had it down to about 15 seconds, but he was able to power away from me on the backside power climb and that is the way it stayed. While I never was able to reel him in much closer then 30 seconds or so, I was able to put some major time into the chase groups for most of the race until my boy Chris Ploch started to come from behind in the last couple laps. Luckily I was able to maintain the gap on him and rolled in with a solid second place finish.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my result and especially happy that I didn't panic after hitting the deck a couple times and losing my good starting position. My form is pretty good right now and I have to admit that with the amount of setbacks I have had since I started training for this CX season in late September I am pleased with my progress. If I could score a top 3 at States next weekend I'd be able to rest easy this winter.

The St Louis CX scene is so awesome right now and I can only imagine it is going to get better. The course design, party like atmosphere, great competition and unbelievable support at every race is so freakin' awesome! I am so stoked to share every weekend with everyone who participates in the races, in one form or another. I also can't begin to express how great I feel about hanging out with all my teammates and friends at the pub after the races reliving the days events. Simply Awesome.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this with me.

Bubba #7 @ Creve Coeur

2008-11-28T18:01:00.003-06:00

Aside from not sleeping after the race the night before, I did about every PRO thing I could think of to recover. Post race ride, mega recovery drinks and pasta dinner, nice hot bath, good spin in the morning, some stretching and more fueling. I got a good warm up in and was looking shiny and enjoying the balmy 50 degree weather.

Ankney went hard at the start and we got a little wiggle room but I wasn't able to hold on for long. Nate came by at the end of the first lap and never looked back. I was got caught by Dr Mark, Richard Richard and Scotty O and was a little worried that I was going to keep going backwards but the legs came around. A little ways in Dr mark was up in front and I was chasing Richard and Scott. I caught them and put a pretty good gap on them when I rolled right through. Then I managed to get up to Dr Mark, attacked him got away slowly.

I don't really remember specifics but somehow I found myself riding 3/4 with Josh. He was feeling it from the day before and nice enough to ride with me. I know we weren't going slow because we were putting a mega gap on the chase groups and closing in on Ankney a little bit. With about 3 laps to go Josh dropped it down a couple gears coming around the second 180 as you entered the field and put the screws to me a little bit. I was able to hang on and for some reason he decided to play nice from then on. Towards the end of that lap I lost my front wheel coming around one of the bumpy turns and was pretty pissed at myself for blowing it. Josh must have been enjoying the company because he waited for me to hustle back up to his wheel but I knew that it was a gesture that I couldn't repay by seeing what I had on the last lap which was a little dissapointing for me.

THE GIFT.

On the last lap he kept telling me to attack him and go for it but i just couldn't do it since he waited when I crashed. As we were nearing the finishing straight he said something about taking it again "because the people everyone will go crazy." He tricked me when we hit the pavement and kicked it for a couple pedal strokes and then just sat up and let me ride though. Thanks man. Whether it was for 3 rd or 4 th place it was nice to have a good race.

I got in a couple of full rest days and then went out for a SOLID ride yesterday. I'm thinking that the timing might be right. The form is good and I'm as light as I've been all year. I feel like I have a little snap again. Hopefully I'm right.

Bubba # 6- Bubba in the Dark

2008-11-28T17:51:00.002-06:00

It's been a tough week transitioning into my new place. Here's basicaly what happened.

It was really cold. Some really fast guys showed up. I wasn't having the best day. I got shelled from the front group right away, to the next group, then the next and then dangling off the back sitting in the 10th place spot. It was one of those races that felt really long. I looked at the lap cards at what felt like the 55 minute point only to see 6 laps to go. It sucked and I was suffering. With about 4 to go I noticed Nageltronic and his teammate closing in on me. The got pretty close with two to go and I was happy to open it up a little bit on the last lap.

10th place but they scored someone who was lapped wrong and I missed my goal of finishing in the money.

Bubba CX # 5 at Suson Park

2008-11-18T08:55:00.007-06:00

Part One:

Total suckfest. My foot slipped off the pedal at the start and I found myself pulling a Josh Johnson from the back row. That shit sucks when you don't have power like AmerenUE. Somehow I worked my way up to the front group and lucky enough to witness RP working up the crowd. It was all downhill for awhile and I was finding myself slipping backwards for the first 3/4 of the race. Things weren't good. I imagine I was probably as far back as 15th or so at some point. For some reason I kept going, even though the stress and lack of sleep from last week had me in the gutter and all I wanted to do was quit.

Part Two:

I was tired of being ridiculed on the line for having a cage and bottle so I went without one for this race and all I was thinking about was a nice cool sip of water. I actually rode up next to Chris Ploch and begged him for a sip and he was nice enough to give me one which didn't help for long. Good thing I hadn't asked a roadie, thanks Chris. With about 4 laps to go I found myself passing a few people and closing down some gaps. This song started going through my head and I was finding a little bit of a groove. I just started listening to these guys and can't say I know any of the words but the tune was ringing in my head.

Part Three:

I couldn't take the uncomfortable feeling of my mouth being totally dry anymore. With 3 to go I came by The Team Seagal Crew who was bringing the party as usual and grabbed a beer. The beer and the response was a straight frickin' nitrous boost and I decided it was time to start racing. Josh, Nate and Flying RP were the front group, Nageltronic 5000 was dangling behind them in solo land and the race within the race was a group containing Richard Richard, Fletcher, Jay, CP and another guy I didn't know. I closed in on Richard and rode with him for a half a lap and then moved on up, aided by another beer. I came up on Mike Weiss and asked him how many laps were left and he replied "two to go, go catch those guys!" I laughed and told him there was no way.

On the last lap they were about 30 seconds up on me. At this point it was Jay, Chris and Fletcher. I started to ride on the rivet and took some chances. It was coming on from somewhere, I think it was from PBR land. Going into the back straight of the course they were about 1/2 way through the field when I entered it. I sprinted.

I caught them about 40 meters before the drop in to the technical section, and fueled by adrenaline and crunk as fuck off two swigs of PBR's I thought I should just keep going and pulled a sketchy move by diving in front of them, pretty much through the trees. I guess I was going ok because I totally expected them to start attacking the shit out of me once we hit the exit straight leading up to the run-up. But no one did. Jay got in front of me right before the run up (THE MOVE) and Fletcher started rubbing bumpers as we were going over it. I jumped onto the pavement and started to kick up onto Jays wheel. I was coming around his rear wheel when we hit the top which was just a little too close to make it and hit the brakes... A 6th place finish that felt like a hard earned second place.

Team Seagal, thanks again for the support. It turned my week around.

Whatever

2008-11-11T08:40:00.002-06:00

Another DNF at the Bubba Race at Creve Coeur Park; trying to keep it positive. Super cool course and some real CX weather, minus a little bit of rain. I was feeling pretty good after being sick and getting some miles in my legs after 5 days off the bike completely and really excited about racing. A guy I really look up to send me a email in the middle of the week that boosted my confidence and made me feel good all over, like a sex machine.

Me and some teammates had an embrocation and Vicks vapor rub rub down session in the car before the race, nothing like some team building excercise. Feeling pro as hell I lined up on the front row and came around Dr. Mark to score the coveted hole shot. My legs were there but I backed off a little this week and settled into the back of the lead group... Things were looking great for the first 16 minutes of the race until I literally did a flyover the flyover and only had one foot square on the pedals and had to sit down... Tore the saddle off the rails and upon further inspection when I got home came to find out I tore the bolts right out of the seatpost clamp as well...

Aside from getting the hole shot, the other really good thing that happened was Eddie having a ice cold PBR in my hand seconds after my race ended. I don't know how I am fortunate enough to have such good friends that come through with frosties so fast in times of need. Both Eddie and Metz have been there for me when CX has snapped more than my wrists.

The post race atmosphere was great even though I felt like I was having flashbacks every time someone would crack open a icy cold PBR around the fire; the clean, crisp sound reminding me of seatpost and saddle destruction. At least i can say there is always next week still, though I am running out of weeks at this point so hopefully I can start finishing some races.

One extra day to train this week isn't so bad either... Today is going to be a cold one in the rain.

It was damn windy today.

2008-11-05T21:21:00.003-06:00

Had some time to think when churning it over on the RFT. Rode some of the gravel roads up on Chateau Island, up to the Colombia Bottoms Conservation area and around some of the farming roads up there. Good stuff. The wind was brutal though.

I realized that almost half of CX season has already passed and it's bumming me out now that I have lost so much ground. Next season I'm not going to start flat footed and plan on ending the mountain bike season a bit earlier. I knew what I should have been doing this year but convinced myself to half ass it so I could have my cake and eat it too. I can't. Some people might be able to do 20 two hour mountain bike races and go right into CX season, but I can't.

One of my goals for this season was to see how competitive I could be in the points if I was consistent and did all the races. I changed my goals up a bit today. A DNF, missing a weekend due to the flu and the potential of another DNF again this weekend pretty much ruined any chance of accomplishing that goal so I set another one today. Basically, I just to see how well I can get dialed in for the little big show; the State Championships. I know it would take a miracle to win, but I want to see how far up there I can get. We'll see. I like having something to work towards and the timing is right to heat that steel up, pound it into shape, sharpen it up, polish it and bring the blade down on some fools heads.

I didn't feel bad on the bike today. My HR still won't go up at all, but I'm surprised I was able to push like I did for 3.5 hours. I was really excited to start doing some hard training this week, but it's going to have to be put off a bit longer. Start turning some screws. The first couple workouts are never fun but once I start doing them I start feeling fast, which is good. Watching Rocky this week is making me want to train hard and get fast again. While I and II are the most motivational, Rocky IV is on tomorrow night and has some great training scenes in it. We watched most of III tonight, which has some pretty funny parts, but doesn't exactly help you "acquire the fire" as my buddy Dan G would say...

Maybe a Chariots of Fire movie night is in order?

Not Awesome.

2008-10-31T11:52:00.003-05:00

I've got the flu. I doubt I'll be racing. At least I have some good photos...

Bubba CX # 2 @ Spanish Lake

2008-10-27T21:52:00.003-05:00

I'm pretty excited about this CX season. After a long pretty hard week of training I felt like I had a decent race and was in the mix a little bit which I really needed to boost my confidence. Getting the first decent result at the beginning of each season is always a little bit stressful until it happens. Dust and CO set up a pretty rad, really fun course which, like last week, was geared towards big power.

I lined up on the narrow patch of grass on the right and Jay asked me if I was going for the hole shot. I said hell yes and he lined up on my wheel. Even though my fitness and some super strong dudes are keeping me from being able to maintain it this early, I like to get out in front and fall back. The race isn't long enough for me to come on late like the rest of the 2 hr races I train for. Jay and I got a little wiggle room right off the back until we were greeted by quick fire tag team and block tactics of Dust and Nageltronic 5000 the power machine. We were (or at least I felt like we were) putting the screws to each other for awhile which made me feel like I was racing, which was good.

Slowly I found myself unable to keep the power up and started to waterfall. Josh came up behind me and offered me some words of encouragement. I think he said "get the F out of my way beootch before I run yo' ass over," and I watched him smoke show me Fletcher, Nageltronic, and everyone else in sight and solo it with ease.Dust and I gave each other a few goes and then I managed to get away from him before Dr Mark came up on us and I figured it was time to fly... I got away from Dust but Dr Marks patience paid off and he caught me and dropped my ass. I wasn't looking back too much and wasn't looking at lap cards, I was just pushing.

With two to go I saw Nagy behind me??? and had no idea what happened and then I recalled the R-Sys wheel that came rolling at me out of the wheel pit and it all started to make sense. I put my head down and made my goal not to get caught. I didn't and ended up in 4th which was a nice surprise.

Some of the boys headed over to McGurks for some post race pub action and Drewby seemed to be quite a hit with the college girls that were working. Our waitress brought the hostess, her roommate, to our table to introduce her to us. It made me feel old when they mentioned they were roommates and I asked them if they lived in Soulard (because Jen and I do) and they replied that they lived on SLU campus. Old and a little creepy.

"You really like that water, like a dolphin!"

The White Heat

2008-10-24T09:20:00.002-05:00

Pretty happy with how it came out. It looks pretty good with the training wheels on there and I think I might murder out my Cosmic Carbone SL's which should look pretty cool too. Just in time for the weekend. Too bad I'm not going to have any legs.

Top End Theory

2008-10-21T17:29:00.002-05:00

Doing some intervals this morning and listening to A Tribe Called Quests "Low End Theory" made me realize some things about the current state of my fitness. It was straight up hard. My top end is gone, which is probably a good thing becuase I can reach for a second peak, but the bad thing is I will have to train through a couple more races which is tough on me mentally; I really like to win or podium at least and after a spectacular dirt bike season have gotten a little too used to it. Time to take some licks. One of my goals for this CX season is to win a "B" squad race... Basically, a race when Josh and Nate are out of town. Last year I finished 3rd behind them twice so I think my goal is an attainable one.

So back to the high end theory... For me it's 6 weeks. If I have a decent base and start to add a little intensity sparingly I reap the benefits of what I was doing 6 weeks ago... 6 weeks ago I was drinking G&T's and not riding, so it's no wonder the usually really satisfying 8 minute high LT intervals sucked this morning. It's also a bummer not to have a CX bike when I 'm doing my CX training. I've really got my fingers crossed that it shows up tomorrow and I can get a couple rides in on it before this weekend. I was pretty played in September, so I don't regret not being more prepared. I want to stick with the program which this season has been to go with the flow and ride on how the legs are feeling. They are telling me to put it down for another week and then take it easy for a week before I start really dialing back on the long rides and hitting the high intensity markers hard... real hard.

If the bike comes in tommorrow I'll be spending the better part of the day getting it dialed in and skipping the LSD ride I had planned. If not I'll be in the cold rain on the mountain bike which doesn't sound too good right now but I have to get the foundation down and rain isn't really a good excuse not to, unless the zipper on your skirt is just too tough to find.

If I planned this right my CX season should be like my MTB season; slow start, steady build and then good legs for the last half of it. If I'm wrong it might just be the first half of it.

Bubba CX #1- Jefferson Barracks

2008-10-20T21:02:00.001-05:00

Not a whole lot to say. Really excited about racing but far from ready. I was just going on how I felt for most of September; I was feeling tired after a long dirt bike racing season and not super motivated, so it just came and went. I decided not to skip steps and started back with a little base training and ease into CX season in the first couple races and then ramp up the intensity. Lining up today I was still a little fatigued from the 6 hr race and a long ride in the rain on Wednesday but overall was feeling ok, maybe 80%.

I had a good start and was going well until the young Williams lad passed me where there really was no need and then lost his front wheel around the next turn. I ran over his back, crashed myself and watched as 10 riders slipped by. Sucktown. I can't say I ever really recovered from that as I burned a bunch of matches riding in anger.

I worked my way up a couple spots and found myself in no mans land riding by myself and looking over my shoulder too much. The intensity was taking it's toll and I was suffering. I was riding well on the super fun course and making up time on the technical fast sections but losing it quickly on the power sections. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there...
I came through the start finish with 7 to go and hit a bump before the first turn and felt my seat sink back. I was confused and jumped off thinking I could pound the seat back into place and gave it a good karate chop, not noticing the crack concealed by the electrical tape that marked my seat height. I jumped back on and it reclined on me again, this time it cracked loud enough for me to see the damage. Not a clean break, but pretty close. Game over. Sven Nys doesn't ride carbon seatposts for CX for a reason, only Russ does.

It was great to be out there and see people all fired up about CX again. My friend Jason Warner showed up and took all these sweet pics, thanks Jason! The post race pub action was a pretty good time as well, maybe need to cut back on the "recovery drinks" though. I had a good time giving our waiter a hard time about not bringing me a liter of gin and tonic, "I said I wanted a big one, dammit!"

Hopefully the white heat will be ready in time for next weekend...

NO BUBBA POINTS

SVEN!

2008-10-19T22:25:00.003-05:00

Bad crash on Saturday...

World Cup win on Sunday. Bad ass mo'fo!

Good at what we set our minds to...

2008-10-18T08:19:00.006-05:00

Whether it's trophy fish, bucks or taking on the fastest dudes around and winning in style it's good to have some variety... and even better when you experience the success that drives you to reach new limits.

I have decided to put down the $1000 fly fishing outfits, get some chicken livers and check out the fishing opportunities right in my back yard, the mighty Miss. There are some big ol' catfish in there, up to 75 lbs, and hopefully the learning curve isn't too steep. I'll be using the same rods and reels I use to fish saltwater; 10 ft 1 piece carbon rods, 50 lb braided line, and heavy duty conventional reels with 300 yards of line. I hope to have some good stories... Think Riverfront Trail late at night. More later.

2008 Burnin at the Bluff- 6 HR Solo WIN!

2008-10-14T08:37:00.013-05:00

Whoa. I am seldom at a loss of words but this weekend has me reeling. I guess the super PRO thing to do is give some mad props to the people at Mesa Cycles (not me) who do all the hard work to make this the top notch event that it is. I was looking back at photos from 2005 yesterday and there were about 25 bikes lined up for the Le Mans start. This year there were close to 100. There were names like Ploch, Kakouris, Chambers, Schmatz, Goscinski, and Froese that anyone who has ever pinned on a number in the Mid West knows and names like Brace and Aldredge that people know now. Pabst Blue Ribbon came on board this year as a major sponsor with the help of Dave Aholt and made things feel that much more legit. Not to mention the most coveted prize I have ever raced for; the 2008 Burnin 12 Hour Belt Buckle courtesy of Mesa Cycles and Jim(mer) Butler.

Before I start talking about myself, I want to tell you about the most amazing race I have witnessed between two very good friends of mine; D-Wanye Goscinski and my teammate Zach "The Deer Hunter" Brace. D-Wayne was the clear favorite and going into the race with goals of getting in a record setting 10 laps. Zach told me that while he had plans for winning this race someday, his goal for 2008 was just to get in 9 laps. So far only myself, Chris Ploch and D-Wayne had done so.

By the time I finished racing and started supporting Zach the race was a little more than 1/2 over and he was trailing by about 30 minutes. I have to admit that I wasn't too optimistic, but we knew what D-Waynes weaknesses were and kept Zach moving through the pits and as comfortable as possible. I eyed the king size Carmello bar in his cooler and for the first time ever didn't poach someones candy as it could be such a sweet reward. Who knows what was going on in Zachs head but somehow his lap times started to get faster as I watched. Another transition of Red Bull, Coke, Bananas and getting his lights on and things started to get interesting.

After the first night lap Zach was 11 minutes behind and we had confirmation that D-Wayne was sitting down for a little while, but not sure if he got out on the trail before Zach. We bit our nails for the next hour and a half and cheers erupted through the crowd when Zach came out of the woods in the lead. He said he came up behind D-Wayne who was unable to respond to his turn of speed. He didn't know it, but he had a 5 minute lead going into the last lap. I advised him to ride steady for the first half of the lap and turn it on when the trail let up a little at the halfway point... He seemed to be pretty stoked as we strapped on a fresh battery and chased him down the road. All we could do was wait.

When Grahm Aldredge finished his lap and told me he passed Zach, with D-Wayne still behind him, fixing a flat my heart sank. A 5 minute lead could easily be blown by something like a flat and it was going to come down to seconds. I rallied everyone to line up around the finish line and personally couldn't handle the suspense...

...Then Zach popped out of the single track and the crowd erupted! Nice job buddy! What an amazing way to finish a race. I can't tell you how impressed I am. Watch out folks.

My 6 Hour Solo experience.

I was not confident. I wasn't feeling well. I was stressed about the event as I am too competitive to "just show up and race." By the time I went to bed on Thursday I had decided I wasn't going to race. When I woke up on Friday I gave myself a pep talk about "taking my licks and seeing what could happen." I really have to thank everyone who had more confidence in me than myself for telling me I could do it and C-money for getting me fired up to race on Friday at work.

My plan was to go out pretty hard for a couple laps and see if I could open up enough of a lead to waterfall a little bit. Keeven has dominated events of this length this season, like Syllamos Revenge, Ouachita Challenge SS and the Rapture 6 hour so I wanted to go on the offensive and see what I was made of.

That's me on the left, Keeven in the middle and Richard Richard on the right... We look pretty good.

Apparently, my running in preparation for CX is working. I actually felt fast during the run and am pleased that they caught me in full stride in this photo. Where is everyone?

I looked over my shoulder just before the single track and saw quite a bit of daylight except for one lone rider who jumped me just before the woods, which was fine by me. It was about 3 miles in before Wes and Cameron came around me and I rode with them for a bit and then settled into my own sub-LT pace...

I was feeling great until Keeven came up on me just before the final climb and took the lead halfway up. I had been going pretty good and wasn't expecting to see him so soon and this was a huge mental blow to me, especially since my legs were feeling rubbery and like they were on the way out. We crossed the line together and set out on #2.

We rode together until the first big climb and then he put mega time into me mashing those gears on his SS. Two seconds to one at least. By the time I crested the next climb with the long straight downhill to the footbridge, he was out of sight, maybe a minutes distance. I was really suffering, started to get down and was having a hard time convincing myself to keep going until I caught a glimpse of him crossing the dam. I managed to bridge up to him not to long after that at the beach and we rode out the rest of the lap together and he was in the lead after 2. I convinced myself that as long as he was in sight I would continue to chase and just waiting to crack.

On the 3rd lap he let me take the lead through the first section and I knew that I needed to limit my losses and get the the first big climb before him. I wasn't putting the hammer down, but I was amazing myself at how smooth I was riding after not having ridden the MTB in quite some time. I didn't really have too much of a game plan but I was just trying to keep my heart rate around 165 and keep it down below my upper LT (175'ish) on the hills. Occasionally I had to remind myself that it was a long race and shift from the big meat down to the middle ring even though I was turning it over pretty easily... But not for long.

The fourth lap was pure pain. I don't know if it was the food poisoning, a stomach bug or my body just not being used to my endurance race mix but things started to go pretty poorly on the fourth lap. I watched my heart rate plummet 10 beats as I began to power down and started to do some more self motivating. I knew I had a decent gap on Mr. Keeven at this point but was expecting him to pass me at any moment. I told myself that if he did I would throw in the towel, but if I was in the lead I was going to suffer my ass off for one of those buckles. I was having a hard time staying focused because my stomach was hurting so badly when I came up on D-Waynes buddy and passed him. He caught up, we talked for a little while and then I told him to go ahead because I was hurting. A little water and a couple miles later I was back on track and passed him again and came through on my slowest lap of the day 1:17:50 something...

When I came through for lap 5 I was told that I had close to an hour lead and just needed to ride it out. I was ecstatic. I dumped a bucket of ice over my head, grabbed my IPod and started to sing. I'm sure some people were hearing me on the trail as I rode it in... I was pretty happy to say the least. Considering that I was able to convince myself to keep racing all day, setting some mini goals along the way and achieve something I had no confidence I could do, I feel like I learned something about myself and reached some new limits well beyond those of my fitness. That's especially sweet after some serious regrets after last years Burnin.

It's also safe to say that this is going to be a 6 lap race from now on. Had I been a little more prepared shaving the 9 minutes off two pretty slow 1:17 laps would be pretty easy to slide in under 6 hours for another one. Here is my Garmin thingamajig for the race...

Now it's really time to start thinking about some CX!!!

The Truth Hurts

2008-10-08T09:42:00.002-05:00

But trying to race for 6 hours is going to hurt more, especially when my buddy, Matt Keeven, is going to be punching tickets aboard the pain train. I have never walked into a race less prepared then this one and am kinda intrigued to see how it goes. I have a feeling it's only going to "go" for about 2.5 laps, but we'll see I guess... I have been unintentionally tapering for it a little as you can see...

9/1-9/7 = 6.5 hrs (week of Greensfelder)
9/8-9/14 = 3.05 hrs
9/15-9/21 = 6.7 hrs (week of Hermann)
9/22-9/28 = 3.83 hrs
9/29-10/5 = 3.68 hrs

From Jan- Sept I averaged around 12 hours a week so this was clearly plenty of rest to get me ready for CX racing. I have actually started to feel a little sluggish and started sleeping way more. Time to ramp it up a little bit and what better way then a 6 hour mountain bike race. Keep in mind that my front tire is still flat from the Greensfelder race. I should probably get my bikes ready today and go shred the 1/2 mile of single track in the FoPo a couple times to get the feel of riding off road again.

Being back in Beantown was great. I ate some form of seafood everyday and was putting back a 1/2 dozen oysters before most meals. I miss fresh seafood and Jen and I don't buy it here because it sucks. I managed to get a little riding in, but it ended up being a lot more running. East Coast single track is not so conducive to riding CX bikes on. I had to run the 3 miles home from the trail twice due to multiple flats. I did get some decent dismount and re-mount practice though and am feeling a little more efficient.

The fishing pretty much sucked. A big storm moved in right when I got home and shut things down. I was fishing from 9 pm to 9 am and it just wasn't happening. I was catching fish sporadically but wasn't finding any pods of bigger feeding fish so it was by no means consistent. I caught a pretty nice fish which was just shy of 40" and a little less than 20 lbs and had my buddy Jon there to snap a pic... The rest of the week was more of the same as I managed to have some fun catching 20-30" fish and a couple bigger fish in between. The last morning I went down with my dad and hooked up with a nice 35" fish on a top water plug on the first cast which I filleted up (about 10 lbs of fillets) and froze to bring back to Jen. We had some the other night and it was pretty tasty.

It was awesome to hang out with my family so much. My mom had a big fandamily get together for me and it was pretty intense with all my nieces and nephews running around like crazy. My brother and I went out to eat at some nice restaurants and I got to hang out with my godson Charley quite a bit. He is turning into a little person instead of just a smiling baby. He's quite a character. I saw a couple of my buddies but kept things pretty much on the DL and managed to get some much needed rest.

I picked up some more nasty food poisoning from a yogurt parfait at Starbucks just outside of Indianapolis on the ride back. It's ironic that the same thing happened before my vacation in July and this time at the end of my vacation. Weird.

I hate to admit it, but of all the music I put on my Ipod for the trip I ended up listening to some Phish shows I haven't heard in a long time. I probably listened to Phish 34/38 hours I spent in the car. I love the sound of a soundboard recording of a good show on a decent car system with the windows down... It just works.

Time to go find my mountain bikes and ride for a couple hours... I hope I still have some maltodextrin powder somewhere?

Back at the real Villa on the Hilla...

2008-09-25T09:02:00.003-05:00

Left St Louis at 7pm on Tues and made the 19.5 hour drive in almost exactly 24 hours... I always forget freakin huge upstate NY is... You get through Ohio and then PA pretty quick, hit NY and think you're home free... but you still have almost 500 miles before you hit western MA!!! It's pretty up there though. Mom and Pops had some food ready for me and then it was business time. 12 hours of uniterrupted sleep. I feel good now.

Tonight there is 90% chance of rain, which is good for fishing. Low pressure and darker than normal conditions usually get the fish eating. I'm going to cook my folks some dinner and then head down to the cape for the night. It's been too long, and in 2006 the fishing was sub-par when I made the trip so I am going to make up for it.

There is a CX race nearby on Sunday but my mom is having a cook out for me, so that's not going to happen. There is a CX practice next Wed which I am going to do though. I'm also going to heed the Master of Disaster, Josh J's advice and do some real CX workouts. Hopefully him and Nate will be chasing UCI points instead of the first Bubba race, but the rest of you + One Lappers better watch the funk out!

This is my bro and the Boss Hog.

Hermann CX- Plus One Lap

2008-09-21T19:58:00.003-05:00

I can't explain how awesome this event was. Jeff Yielding went over the top to make this a super rad atmosphere for the racers and spectators alike. I am so glad I did this race as it has stoked the fire of CX desire in my belly.

It was pretty awesome to line up with the fastest CX racers in the Midwest. By far the fastest CX race I have ever done and probably the most painful, I'm lucky it wasn't light out or there would have been some quality photos like the ones from my personal sufferfest at Faust Park last year. The call up was great and I was looking good in the new black Mesa CX team long sleeve skinsuit. Had it been a fashion show I would have been one step ahead, which is ironic, because the steps are just what killed me.

I didn't think I would have as hard a time as I did with the running sections but this course is over the top on the running tip and I wasn't prepared. Not that the outcome would have been too much different, but the suffering could have been quite a bit less had I added this race to my calendar back in July. Every time I would get off my bike my lower back would seize and my legs would give out for a step... It was hard not to quit but there were so many people out there on all sections of the course encouraging me and it made me to proud to quit. Unofficially I think I finished 20th out of about 50, but they only scored the top 12 riders as everyone else got lapped. I held Josh off until either 3 or 4 laps to go but he was charging through the lapped riders and crushing dreams and I was on the list. I can learn a lot from that guy and he's been nice enough to help me out. When he passed me I let up a little bit, green and not really knowing if I was supposed to stop or if they would tell me to stop... Nageltronic 5000 came up and we chatted and decided to ride it out for a couple more laps which was a blast. He got me on the stairs in the end and I found myself looking for that cold PBR which my boy Robert Metz delivered.

I was so motivated by people calling my name and cheering me on it was unreal. I was truly in pain and it wasn't the kind from going hard in a blazing fast race, but there was no way I was going to stop because I felt better every time someone yelled "go Breslin" or blasted me in the face with PBR. I don't know if everybody was getting the support I was, but if you were I'm sure you can relate to me saying that it made me feel like a total rock star, even as I was having my ass handed to me. The ass kicking has given me some serious motivation to take CX a little more seriously, maybe even run a little and jump on and off the bike a couple times.

Congratulations to my teammate and good friend Matt James for a solid 3rd place finish in the B race behind a total sand bagger and a very strong Mike Best. Obviously a huge pat on the back to my friends Josh and Nate for another stellar finish and keeping the STL on top over KC... I think were going to add another notch to the tally at the Burnin too... but I am sure that Elwell and Chambers aren't coming for the free PBR so it might not be too easy for my buddies on DRJ.

If anyone is interested I will be posting some salt water striped bass fishing reports and photos from back in Boston for the next couple weeks. I've decided to bring the CX bike instead of my mountain bike if that tells you anything. What would Sven do?

Why I support the DQ

2008-09-19T17:31:00.001-05:00

BASKIN ROBBINS

Baskin Robbins is really unhealthy!

where's my CX bike?

2008-09-17T20:56:00.002-05:00

Damn, where is it?

I decided to go to Hermann today after trading a couple e-mails with Jeff Yielding... I am implementing a new racing rule for myself; if someone invites you to a invitation only race, you go. Jeff asked me in July but I thought I was already going to be back in Boston and politely declined. Luckily, he knows I ride the short bus and is still giving me a call up and preferred start. Thanks again Jeff! Call ups are about as PRO as you can get and being called up as the third highest ranked expert at Nationals still makes the hair on my arms stand up.

So today I hustled to get more fishing gear dialed in, get the new MESA skinsuits out to the A team and then I settled into gluing tires and getting the bike ready. I'm planning on jumping off and on once or twice tomorrow and Friday. My shoulder is going to be all jacked up come Sunday morning.

Lucky for me, the course flooded last week and is pretty wet. Nice thing about CX is I get to play in the mud and the GORC guys with the pillow covers over there heads will stop burning crosses and shit on my lawn. CX is a hard mans sport and the show must go on. What would Sven do?

The CX bike is looking good now.

Rhythm of Life

2008-09-13T07:11:00.003-05:00

7 beats per second. Can you feel it?

I got on my bike yesterday for the first time in 4 days. Taking periodic breaks during the season has kept me fresh. My master plan only lead up to a little after Nationals and then I decided to take a mental break and just ride. Looking back, instead of taking a break I was riding strings of long mid-high paced mountain bike rides and the legs were starting to feel it. On top of that, the Hendricks Gin has really been flowing and the anxiety of my trip has made sleep rare. Bad combo.

Yesterday I got on my bike and cranked up some tunes on the RFT... Man it was good. The desire is back, fueled by dismounts, high intensity and thoughts of Sven Nys. With new found motivation comes the need to listen to some new good music to make my brain work a little bit harder, get those goosebumps every now and then.

Anyone that has a band that you don't think I might know about that brings some heat (happy-feel good heat, Wes!) leave me a message here. I'm on a mission. If you like Jazz funk you should check out this 70's band called Passport. The album is "Looking Thru." Rad.

Help a brother out!

Hindsight is 20/20

2008-09-10T08:02:00.004-05:00

My confidence was pretty low as I am getting tired and my fitness is crying for a pre CX siesta, but I push it on, trying to achieve another goal and win the Midwest Fat Tire Series overall. Going into the Greensfelder race I figured that between Eric, Ryan, Rhines, Worstershire (the weaksauce variety), Ploch, Matthews, TK, Wes and my boy Drew catting up from sport, I was going to get totally waxed and a lack of sleep had left the eye of the tiger half closed.

Race day came and you never know who's out there warming up on the course. I figure if I flat it's a short walk and knowing that it was going to be a sport length expert race, at about 1.5 hours, there is no way I would rebound from a flat. I brought a CO2 and could only hope the Stans Race Day sealant would work.

As it turns out, the field isn't as tough as I thought it was going to be while tossing in turning in bed the night before. After lap one I see EP on the side of the trail and was sitting in second. Not to steal anyones thunder here, but looking at the results and considering how the Crankfest race went, I'm pretty sure that the 3-4 minutes it would have taken me to stick a tube in there would have been short enough to keep me in 3rd... Damn.

I was more pissed then I let on after the race but at this point I can look back with fond memories and be happy that:

1) It didn't happen when I attacked Cameron Chambers, Shadd Smith, Aaron Elwell, Mark Studnicki and Chris Ploch to take my first really big XC win at the Heartland Trumans Big Love race.

2) My confidence wasn't crushed by such a defeat when I passed my boy Andy Messer at the DINO AMBC race on the second to last lap. after battling with Brad Nelson for most of the race, to go on to win my first AMBC race and take the expert overall in a huge 70 person field.

3) If I had flatted on the last lap at Nationals, after fighting my way back up to a podium spot from 10 place I would have been truly devastated. With all my eggs in one basket for that race and then to get food poisoning 5 days before it, only to will myself up to a podium spot, was a very personally gratifying moment for me. The result wasn't my best, but to overcome what I did to get that result and to have Jen and my whole family there to see it is something I will never forget.

There, that makes me feel better already. 7 wins! And as I was telling my boy Drew, "i would have (had a decent finish), but i quit. the gin and tonics still tasted swell though, so i knew i quit while i was ahead." March is a long way away, don't stop till you get enough!!!

Bad Hangovers in New England today

2008-09-08T08:54:00.001-05:00

Missouri NORBA @ Greensfelder

2008-09-07T18:37:00.006-05:00

If you think that only racing 1/2 of the race would mean a short report, you're wrong as usual. Maybe 1/2 as long.

I was worried about this race. I've been feeling the legs going stale after a long season and didn't want to get smoked by Team Armshaver. My next goal is to beat EP straight up. The more times I race him, the better my chances, but showing up at teh end of a long season when he is nice and rested isn't my idea of fun. I kept having to convince myself to race and almost pulled the plug after all that rain on Thursday, but when I heard Bobs report I figured I'd suck it up, take my licks and see where the form was at.

The race started as races do when EP is in attendance. Really f'ing fast. So fast that sometimes it actually takes some serious recovery just to get the legs to turn over because they are so loaded up...

That's how things started as EP and RP set off with me in tow and a group of 20 other riders chasing us down. RP pulled some kung fu over the bars shit and I was forced to ride off into the woods and watch EP open it up. For some reason it through me way off my game and RP took off without me and bridged up to his bro with gazelle like quickness. I was hitting trees with the back of my shoulders and de-railing it into the woods around the turns. Bob wasn't too far behind me before the climbing section, but when I looked over my shoulder at the top of the gravel road he was a good distance back.

The Thompson Twins opened up a 30 second or so gap on me halfway through the second lap and I was starting to think negative thoughts. I wanted to quit. But I convinced myself that finishing 3rd to two of the fastest dudes in the Midwest was worth fighting it out for and put my head down.

Chris came started to close on me but I was able to maintain a gap on the downhill and then open it up more on the climb. When I came through the start finish to see EP on the side yelling at me, I hate to admit that it was some serious motivation and the shit started to click. I was in 2cd behind RP and the legs were coming around. I focused and started to talk to myself as I sliced and diced the descent like a late night night Japanese knife infomercial. I was coming around and wasn't looking over my shoulder. Somehow I tricked myself into believing that I could catch RP and focused on plating the meal with hot sauce instead of letting the shit simmer on the back burner and get soft. Put the hot shit in my mouth and feel the fire! Chris was out of sight on the 180* sections where I did I have a chance to look.

I was feeling it and riding well. Right before the climb I jumped the log and remember two wheel sliding through the turn at 45* and the tire catching at the last possible second and popping out of the turn with speed, I must have leaned too far and caught one of the many sharp rocks. Exactly 3.5 laps into a 7 lap race, with the legs coming around, the scent of the rabbit pushing me on, and a decent gap on 3rd my race was over... a 1 cm gash in the sidewall.

I would never have caught Ryan, who was on fire, but was pretty confident that I would have been able to ride it out for a super respectable finish in a stacked field. It sucked. I knew it was going to be a short race and didn't bring a tube because 5 minutes in a tight race means suffering for no $$$ and it's too late in the season for me to suffer. I've suffered enough.

One more race before a pre-CX break, some serious fishing, CX training and my MTB season finale at Land Between the Lakes in the end of October and the fat lady is warming up backstage. I'm already thinking about focusing my efforts on making all the DINO series races instead of doing a couple big long weekend events all over the place.

Thanks to Bob and DRJ for putting on a great race and Jeremie for the rad photos. I love racing my bike. This season has made me really happy and am glad to have shared so many stories about pain trains, that one left hander that you could totally rail and kitties with all of you. Really. I love racing my bike.

32 today, I love cake!

2008-08-28T08:44:00.004-05:00

I told Jen the only thing I wanted was a homemade chocolate cake with white frosting. I woke up with a hangover from a nice night out at Niche and the glare of candles burning in my face... Happy Birthday to me.

Things have been great. I have been building a new surf rod, a new rod rack for my car and getting all my leaders and plugs ready for a trip back to do some Striper fishing during the fall run. That's Buddy who is helping me out.

I also that POS Carbon 29'er that I had... man that thing was slow. I have a 26" Alma Carbon coming today and am hoping to get it built up in time for some serious racing down at Council Bluff this weekend.

The Kentucky Blue Grass that Keeven hooked us up with seems really happy. It has grown 2" in about a week but the ground is still to soft to walk on because Jen loves to water it. The guy is coming to build a fence this weekend and I'm considering building a brick oven to take my pizza to new levels, which would be something like level 12-13 on a scale of 10. I have mastered making pizza and if I had an oven that could throw down to 800 degrees I'd be content. Ralph, if you ever want to open a real deal pizza place (which doesn't exist in St Louis as of now), I'm your man.

Over and out...

Missouri NORBA @ Cape Girardeau- Another First

2008-08-19T08:16:00.006-05:00

Where this form is coming from, I don't know. I'm a little afraid that one of these times the bottom is going to drop out, but none of the warning signs of there and I am having more fun than ever racing my bike. I won my first Missouri NORBA series Elite race on Sunday and I am more than pleased to have accomplished another one of my seasons goals.

I was a little apprehensive about the course for the Cyclewerx Crankfest race and in my head envisioned riding around in a field which really didn't sound like that much fun. When Scott, Nate and I headed out for our pre-ride I realized how completely wrong I was; the course was tight, fast, and a 11 on the rad dial.

TK and I talked to Travis a little bit about the course and he told us that he owned it like Donald Trump and held every course record. He's a confident little fella. I got my front row call up and lined up for the uphill start next to TK... There were some comments from the peanut gallery about how sexy I was looking in my skinsuit and Atomic Orange Limited Edition Radars, but I was feeling pro as hell and ready to ascend space monkey mountain. Thanks to Pfood for the proof of my looking good...

Go time... Chris first, TK next and I went around them both on the left and got the hole shot. I was railing the shit out of the dirt track and the three of us broke away with John Rhines and Travis in pursuit who caught up to us pretty quick... Some more railing and then a missed turn on my part and a skip of the needle during the face melting solo shot me back two spots. Travis ended up catching us and then dropping all three of us in the maze section... I was a little worried but it amazes me how my focus and confidence changes between a day with good legs and a day where I am just trying to hold on. Last weekend I wasn't feeling very good and it seemed as though all I could do was focus on the negatives. Sunday the legs were great and I wasn't looking over my shoulder of thinking about losing spots at all... Forward motion.

Travis was gone on lap two and Chris, John and I were riding at the same place. The skip in the record sent me into the dirt twice on the second lap, but I managed to catch up to them both times until Chris got away and John and I started to slowly work on each other taking turns in the lead. I was really feeling good going up the starting climb and was feeling my 7 minute LT intervals at Lost Valley paying off like never before.

Lap 3 was more of the same and I jumped John on the starting climb and held the lead until I went down again in exact same spot as lap 2 and he passed me. Not too long after that he got tangled up in a tree top at the top of the first climb into the MAZE and I think that was the last time he was in the lead? It was time for some Rooster Booster...

I don't remember anything about lap 4 and John was riding strong and nipping at my heels so I maintained my focus and kept going. I was riding really well and was able to recover from the short steep stuff with ease and started to get a handle on the flow of the maze section and what was around the totally blind corners, some of which were 90* and some of which were uphill 180's... Awesome.

Then it happened. I started to see Chris and Travis and Drewby told me I was about 15 seconds behind and Travis had cracked and given Chris the lead. Cracking is something I had never counted on the two of them doing and realized my persistence and consistency was paying off. I was pretty stoked but held my cards close and didn't put down any more heat then I had to.

At the base of the starting climb on lap 5 I saw Travis up ahead and Chris not to far in front of him as I entered the field. I set the gearshift to the high gear of my soul and went to work. Business time bitches! I caught Travis and knew if I could get around Chris before the singletrack I would be looking even sexier. I passed him just at the crest of the climb, shifted to the big ring and was amazed that he didn't respond as I took off into the woods for my second fastest (not a record setting, just a race winning attack of a lap... It was good.

I had some major daylight by the last lap and knew that I just had to play it smart... I was really digging (like the 9 yards of dirt I shoveled in Jens and my new back yard on Friday, but with far fewer blisters) the trail and truly couldn't believe that I was on my was to win my first Missouri NORBA Championship Series Race, with big names in attendance, in a solid fashion. I was stoked. Oddly enough as I stood up on the last little climb I felt the crabs in my legs; the onset of cramps that I haven't felt since the State Road Race in 2005 and realized the last that I have barely been drinking during the last two races... It's not CX racing yet. Focus on that grasshopper. I came across the line and got the hands up. I can't tell you how good it felt. It's good to win at home. I was surprised to see John Rhines come in next and grossed out as he coughed up a bloody lung... Then the reporters swarmed me... 20 minutes of my life wasted on the worst interview ever!

What a sick weekend for the Mesa Off Road Team! Keeven tore up the 6 hour race at the rapture with Zach in tow who took 3rd overall!! Big props to them! I got over the $300 first place prize for the 12 hour solo race there this year when all I got last year was a stinking backpack last year when John Dodd handed me $150 smakerooos... and I only had to race for 1:40 minutes for it!! Ha Haaaa! What a great event, thanks to the Cyclewerx crew!

Nate had the most scrumptious looking old news July Blizzard of the month, while I opted to be more progressive and got the current Blizzard, Oreo Cookie, which was delicious but not minty green freshness. Jen and I took my prize money right to Lemongrass and then I doubled up on the DQ and split her Girl Scout thin mint blizzard and washed it down with a G&T while we admired our dirt... Keevens the grass master is bringing the green tomorrow though!

Kentucky Points Series Race at Waverly

2008-08-11T09:06:00.003-05:00

Wow. I don't think I have ever ridden trails as buff as Waverly. This place is 100% dirt singletrack bliss.

MJ and myself drove down after work on Saturday and stayed with my boy Rusty in Louisville. Rusty stayed up for us and had two beds all setup so all we had to do was crash. It was pretty awesome. The next morning he had coffee all ready to go and we hung out and chatted it up with Ben Richardson who is one of Kentuckys fastest riders. Then it was time to get down to business. It was business time.

We got over to the venue and quickly realized that it was some sick trail and damn hilly. I don't really know when I lost track of time but I heard someone say it was 10:30 and the race started at 11. I slithered into my skinny suit and got in a quick warm up. The legs weren't there, they were heavy and not turning over well so I tried to open them up a little bit and rode the first section of the course up until a monster of a climb that I knew was going to hurt.

I headed over to the start finish after a short warm up and stood around for way too long stretching. It wasn't too hot out and I think I cooled down a bit too much but wanted to make sure I got a spot on the front row because it was a crazy start that snaked around and then went over this weird dirt mound with only one line through the middle of it.

I got into the woods in 5th or 6th and quickly moved up to 4th and watched as Ben Richardson and Anthony opened up a gap on us. There wasn't any place for me to get in front of the Barbasol rider in front of me so I remained patient and was having some problems with the dust. When we hit the big climb I got dropped by him and his teammate who was pushing a huge gear on a single speed. My legs were shot and I didn't have any power, too much last week for sure. At the top of the climbing section of the course I had passed one guy and was closing in on the SS rider when I hit a tree pretty hard with my shoulder and a gap opened up and he was out of sight.

My second lap sucked. I was having a really hard time breathing and was choking on dust that I couldn't get out of my throat. I was really bummed since my goal was to have stayed with the front two riders for a couple laps. I didn't have any rabbit to chase and started to worry about the guys from behind me, but started to get some of the lines figured out a little and was riding ok. As I came through at the start of the third lap I caught a glimpse of two guys entering the start finish area as I was leaving it and decided I better pick it up and downed some Rooster Booster.

Halfway through the 3rd lap I caught sight of the singlespeed rider and was able to count him at about 30 seconds in front of me. When we hit the flow section of the course I opened up what I had on the big ring and chased like a mo'fo. I didn't see him as I came through the start finish but when I hit the base of the climbing section I heard the Super Fan screaming up ahead and knew I was getting close. I looked up as I neared the top to see him walking his bike and knew it was over; he had been crushing me on the climbs and I knew I had the course pretty dialed at this point... it was business time for real. I was flossing the trail like Oral B so I worked my way up to him and then attacked him before the fire road descent and opened up a gap that would continue to grow for the rest of the lap.

I put about a minute into him in the last 3 miles to take the expert overall win. It was a really hard day for me and the legs were not quite there so I was pretty happy with the effort but a little disappointed to learn that I was 5 minutes off of Anthony and 4 minutes behind Ben. MJ ended up taking 3rd in the 19-29 age group, CC won the 19-29 sport and the Schwick took 2cd in the same class. Not too bad when 4/4 from the team podium.

I am sitting here tonight with a G&T pretty sore and banged up. I can't thank Rusty enough for taking care of us. Any of you guys want to come race in the Lou just let me know. It was a tough race and I'm feeling it. I have to tell you, with cool courses, a great atmosphere and some good peeps the Kentucky Points Series is going to be on my calendar more next season. I bet this thing grows into a DINO caliber series. Awesome.

+2 points for a super clean Taco Hell on the ride home, +2 points for a DQ that actually flips the Blizzard to show how they are tricky, but -2 points for a lack of minty fresh in the Girl Scout Cookie Blizzard. Since it was the Blizzard of the month in July, it's a little washed up now.

Kentucky Racer Rampage and the Nats form...

2008-07-29T08:05:00.008-05:00

I must say that this season has been a blast so far. I've had some serious results, been enjoying the hell out of riding my bike and feel like I'm getting kinda fast. It seems like a distant memory but I remember telling MJ on our Jan 1 ride at Castlewood in 14 degree temps that I was concerned with the transition from 12 hour racing to XC racing. With the exception of having one bad race in WI, which really wasn't that bad but came at a time when I was really hungry for a confidence builder, I have achieved all of my goals up to this point. Right now I'm taking a little break and reading calendars to figure out what I am going to shoot for next and reluctant to pull the plug when I seem to keep getting stronger, but pulling the plug too late would be the end of a good season. A serious national ranking has to make you feel like you are doing something right...

I had some bad luck and got food poisoning the week before Nationals, so I couldn't really tell if I was peaking the way I had planned. After two really big wins for me, Trumans Big Love at Landahl and the DINO AMBC Race at Muscatatuck, I wasn't sure if the legs came around too soon. I stuck to the plan and started to taper two weeks before Nationals and focus on keeping my weight down. Everything was going great until the Monday before the race when I woke up and started to get violently ill. I dropped from 154 to 150 in a two days and had a complete loss of appetite for the rest of the week. By Thursday morning I realized that there was no way I was going to even finish if I couldn't hammer home some calories. Usually I am going deep with the whole carbo load thing going into a big event, as my friend Tosh once told me "carbo loading is like peaking, you can only really do it a couple times a season." In a nutshell, I had a great race in VT but wasn't running at 100%. My master plan was to come back from Nats and still have race form for the Midwest Fat Tire event.

I was really excited to go race at Rock Bridge and was hoping that I could collect some points and feel out the form, but 6" of rain forced me to take drastic measures.
Keeven was the only one I could convince to wake up first thing on Sunday and head down Kentucky with me. I told him to get to my house at 4:30 a.m and saw the lights from the war wagon in the driveway at 4:29. My boy and I are much alike. We were headed down to Lake Barkley Kentucky for the Racer Rampage. Pirtle and MJ told me it was a totally rad, pretty technical course with super duper balls climbing. It was.

We lined up with about 6 other experts which was kinda a bummer. There was another race in Louisville and a DINO race and I chose the one with the best course thinking that people would show up, but they all showed up at the other races. A couple Wood and Wave guys were there, including Steve Wilson who has beat me in the past, so I punched it hard to get the hole shot. I was surprised to see that gap I opened up by the time I hit the trail and even more surprised to see that Keeven (racing 2 laps as a SS but with the experts as his competitors must have heard he was coming and stayed in bed) was making chase with a 36x20!!! I hit the hills and kept thinking that he was going to ride up next to me but was really focused and the pedals were turning themselves over. We had only pre-rode the first hill and I had no idea what the rest of the 8 mile loop was like.

I found myself killing the big ring in the saddle, flying through trail I had never seen and crushing the power climbs out of the saddle shifting down as I crested them. I don't know if I have ever ridden this well before. The occasional glance over my shoulder revealed that I was out of sight. It's one thing to push yourself to new limits with people nipping at your heels or when chasing the white toothed pocket rocket, but I didn't have any motivation like that, just the legs I had been trying to build all season.

The last section of trail before dumping you back out in the starting field was a hard pack dirt downhill with bermed corners and some structure to keep you on your toes. At one point I considered that I had no idea what was around the next turn and what might happen if I made a minor mistake, but the tire pressure was right and I had this stuff on speed dial. "I got her faaahking numbah, how you like them apples!" I came through the field, picked up a bottle, went around it and was back in the single-track with no one in sight. I had a big lead.

The first half of the lap was the challenging part, with some mega hills, but I found myself going up them with ease. I can't say what would have happened on the 3rd lap, but coming from a guy who usually is picking people off at 1:45 in the longer races, I don't think I would have slowed down. I had really good legs, it was coming so freakin' easy and the focus was intense. I wasn't thinking about anything other than pushing my bike to go as fast as I ever have. In retrospect, what I had been planning all season was coming together in such a fashion that I never would have imagined.

I cleared the first half of the course and was pretty stoked and let my mind wander to the sick descent that was to come as I weaved along the top of the ridge. I remember leaning into a turn and kicking the pedals to power out of it when I heard the hiss. I figured the top secret Stan's Race Day Sealant would work it's magic but it wasn't to be, so I stopped. There was a pretty 13 mm slit in the sidewall and the Stans was trying really hard so I gave it some Big Air and turned it on it's side... No luck. I kept expecting someone to come up on me as I changed the tube but they didn't. My luck with tubes remained unchanged as the air rushed out of the cracked rubber where the valve meets the tube. I have carried this tube in my pocket for every training ride and race this season and it was cracked. Game over. Keeven passed next, on his way to dominating the rest of the experts and then a Wood and Wave rider a couple minutes later.

I had a really nice walk down to the car. It was a nice day and the park was really beautiful. Somewhere along the way I realized how awesome this year has been and then it occurred to me that I blew a lead and any chances of paying for the 8 hour drive and wasn't even sweating it. Weird. Having built some confidence, I find that my anxiety is way lower and I am racing better.

The promoter told me I beat Pirtles course record, but he was wrong and I was off by 15 seconds or so, either way, that's a huge confidence builder for me as well. I knew I was feeling good but without some numbers that doesn't mean anything when the field is small. Keeven destroyed the other experts by minutes after his two laps, and I'm sure he could have done another one.

I have to say that my fitness definitely peaked and I am feeling good about things. I am really pleased that I have figured out a little more about myself and am looking at the rest of the season and setting some new goals.

You all have two days to get to DQ to try the most kickass blizzard of the month, The Thin Mint, which totally erased all thoughts of not winning.

4th Place at Nationals!

2008-07-19T16:05:00.004-05:00

Not too shabby. I got a call up for being the 3rd highest National ranked rider in attendance which made me feel super pro.

It was an incredibly hard race. I was in the front 3 for the first lap but my second lap found me back close to 10 spots... I was in a serious funk. I drank TWO Cheerpacks towards the end of the lap and started to focus. I battled back and started to lay down some serious emotion driven heat and pick people off. The 5th place guy and myself were killing each other, passing other riders in the super technical, greasy downhill and I opened up a little gap on the very last section and held him off.

Congrats to Andy Messer from IN on a great 2cd place finish! Also, congrats to Doug Long for bringing a National Champ Jersey back to Missouri!

Full report soon, I'm going to drink some margaritas!

Adam Craig can floss like you have never seen before. You really have no idea how fast that guy goes, it was truly amazing to watch. # 2 for him!

Mt Snow

2008-07-17T14:50:00.002-05:00

Feeling better today. Roy Orbison was bringing the heat on the scenic route 2 from Boston to Vermont. I knew I was feeling better when I started to get goosebumps singing along to my boy Roy and wanting to rip peoples legs off. Weird combo. But like ninja kitties kicking me in the teeth it was getting me all fired up.

Tom Albert and I rode a couple laps and I must say this place is a real mountain bike course, not watered down in any way. Up for 1.5 miles and then down some super tech... no rest areas any where, seriously. I'm a little concerned about the climbing which is a little over the top. It's got some serious loose steep ups; picture the climbs up to the picnic table at Chubb but make it 4X's longer and then stack them one after another with just a brief cross section of super technical, rocky singletrack linking them together. By my second lap I felt like I was floating through the technical stuff really well on the OIZ. The legs seemed to be feeling good and today I felt pretty normal and got some calories down without too much effort.

I ran into JHK, Treefarm and the LaLonde brothers and chatted about pro stuff. JHK had a photo shoot going on so he narrowly avoided getting dropped by some of St Louis's finest. Treefarm was asking me what kind of gearing he should be running for CX this year and the LaLonde brothers were telling me they were thinking about getting geared OIZs after reading about how great a bike it is on my blog. On a more serious, note it is going to be awesome to see how they stack up to the big boys here. Should be sick to see and I'm glad I'm here for there first big trip to the pro ranks out of Wisco. JHK seemed to give Tom and I a dirty look as we pre-rode the course in the right direction and interrupted his photo shoot that was going the wrong way. He was pretty tan, hopefully he put as much time in prepping for Nats as getting ready for the photo shoot!

After we rode Tom and I went over to the Luna/Orbea van and I was welcomed with open arms. I guess having multiple $5K Orbeas is a free pass onto the bus? It was really weird but before Chloe went on to win the U23 Jersey her and Georgia Gould offered to rub our legs down on the team van, which was really nice of them to say the least. It was a happy ending to the day.

Jen and I are going to hook up with Tom and Sandy over at Stratton Mountain for some dinner to avoid the crowds and then I'm going to get a couple fast laps in tomorrow a.m before watching my buddy Grahm (a Mesa Junior Expert rider from KC) tear it up!

More tomorrow

not awesome

2008-07-16T15:08:00.002-05:00

thanks to everyone who has called me to wish me well, i really appreciate it. i am sitting here at my folks house outiside of beantown and feeling about 80%. the big problem is i don't have any appetite whatsoever and i'm struggling to eat, never mind think about carbo loading.

for those of you that don't know, which is most of you, i picked up some kind of food poisoning on sat night at sage. jen, the two folks we went out to eat with and a bunch of other folks called the restaurant to say they had the same thing going on. i woke up monday morning and puked for awhile and then spent the rest of the day with bowel problems. yesterday i was feeling better, but could barely eat, and we're talking mama b's home cooking here. it sucks.

i did a little trail riding yesterday and then again today on the horse trails around my folks house. the trails are a lot shorter than they were when my brother and i were flossing them on bmx bikes back in the day. i found some cool 4 wheeler trails that were pretty rough, but mt snow isn't going to be paved either. i felt ok, but even after trying to do some intensity this morning my heartrate wouldn't go up so i left it in the tank airing on the side being over rested.

i am heading up to Mt Snow with Jen tomorrow and am concentrating on good thoughts and just going on with things as normal. i'm stoked to be able to get some laps in tomorrow and then again of friday and it makes me worry less about not feeling great on the bike today. ironically, this incident is taking my mind of pre-race anxiety, so i've got that going for me.

i've been doing everything i can in preparation for this race since December, and i have to say it sucks to have something like this come up, but like Phil Collins I'm going against all odds. we'll not really related in any way, but it's a kickass song.

Here we go.

2008-07-13T19:33:00.002-05:00

The anxiety has definitely set in, some of that is good, some bad, but for me it's just the way it is. I'm pretty optimistic. I kind of glossed over the fact that I won a big race last weekend, straight up, expert overall. I have never won an AMBC race, never mind a DINO series one. Somewhere in the shuffle I guess I was thinking of the next big thing without taking the time to enjoy accomplishing big goals along the way. My confidence improved when I heard myself tell someone that I had won the equivalent of an NRC event of mountain biking and I have taken a couple days to enjoy it.

Jen and I went out to Sage in Benton Park last night with our friends Pete and Donna Rothschild. It was a younger hipster type of joint, and REALLY freakin loud, but the food was spot on. I had a espresso rubbed New York Strip steak that was perfect. Everything else was A+ and we had a great time. Good to get the mind off of things.

I was on the way to the dirt crits telling my mom about winning last weekend and making plans for Vermont. I didn't think twice when I told her I got out of work early to go do a training race. I didn't think otherwise until I heard TK grunting to get the hole shot only to see Rico open it up and Chris Ploch run over a strip of course markers to get on his wheel. I went into the woods about 5th and realized that I had someone two guys in front of me, who was strong, but clearly couldn't ride a mtb as he brake checked on every turn and forced us to sprint out of them. I was poised to jump him and the 360* rider in front of me as we went through the creek, but the 360* rider pulled a bonehead move and tried to pass Alferman through the narrow climb out of the creek and blew out his tire forcing the rest of us to stop. I chased kitty balls for exactly 18 minutes and was within 50 meters of TK and Rico at one point but a couple attacks later and I realized that these guys were here to race, not train. I had gone pretty deep and have to openly admit that if I had been in the front group I would have suffered through it to have a decent finish, but I was not psyched about what had happened and there was no need to slay myself the week before my A priority event for a 5th place finish. I freely admit that it was a beat city move.

Today I went out to the Wood and did some hill repeats. After the first one the legs were really coming around as I pushed the 38 tooth ring up Lone Wolf backwards a couple times. Intensity in ten cities and lots of rest is the name of the game this week. I had a great day talking with Keeven and his buddy Chris about tri gear and ran into TK and the Ghisallo picnic as well as my buddy Ryan Wolk.

Today in my training diary I put a 10 for overall.

Listen to some Public Enemy and eat your blueberries!

Tonight I am resisting the DQ Blizzard of the month, thin mint cookie, and it sucks.

DINO AMBC @ Muscatauck, IN.

2008-07-08T08:36:00.004-05:00

E.P. can dominate at will.

Zach, Drew, EP and myself headed to the DINO AMBC race this weekend at Muscatatuck State Park in Indiana. The weather the week prior was iffy and when we rolled into the park and saw that dense fog and wet pavement we could tell it was going to be slick. There was a pretty decent turnout and quite a few very heavy hitters that EP was kind enough to point out. After ironing out some tire pressure and rubbing rotor issues and a little bit of a pre-ride we were ready to go.

I got the Elite upgrade for this race due to my top three finish at it last year, and lined up on the front row. I would guess there were about 20 in the elite wave and then another 50 in the expert class. They start the two groups one minute apart but score it as an overall so the Pro/Semi/Expert Elite was basically just a preferred start for me. I finished 13th overall in this race last year, 3rd in my class and my goal was for a top 10 finish and to beat Andy Messer from Indiana. I'm an in the closet blog a holic and like to know who my competition is so when I recognized the name on the registration list from Nationals I figured he should be coming onto form and would be a good target.

EP jumped everyone at the start and I managed to catch onto the third wheel of the train going up the right side. There was another train coming up the left side as there was a patch of trees in the middle. I was third or fourth going into the woods and knew it was going to be a long day when EP turned on the afterburners up the first climb and had a gap on the field in less than a 1/2 mile of racing. He calls it the St. Louis start, which is pretty much equivalent to a kick in the teeth. I was struggling a little bit to recover on the first lap and started to think that maybe I should have rested a little bit more, but I put my head down and kept going. I settled into 7 or 8th and and yo-yo'ed and was sitting on someones wheel trying to get some rhythm going and recover from the start when a guy came up from behind me and insisted on going around me only to sit on the same wheel... They weren't riding well technically and it was really my only mistake of the day not to go around them sooner. I rested up and on the first big climb at the start of the second lap I went by both of them and dropped them pretty hard and never saw them again.

The rest of the race was pretty good, but I can't say too much about it. I started to pick some guys off and then I caught up with Kenda/KHS rider, Brad Nelson, and we started to battle. Neither of us were laying down super heat attacks but were steadily turning the screws on each other for the rest of the race. I had Anthony Slowinski in my sights for quite some time but lost him somewhere around the end of lap 4. On lap 4/5 I passed up Brad and started to close in on Andy Messer and he let me pass without giving up much of a fight at the top of a climb so I was guessing he wasn't going to chase hard and just started to think about riding smart for the rest of the lap and save some juice for the end.

Going into the last lap I knew I had a decent enough lead but the climbing was so taxing I couldn't let up or not consider that cramping could ruin a good finish. I kept working on the fluids and started to buzz a little bit from the Rooster Booster... Coming down of two pouches of that after a race is no fun, but I am at the point where my body starts to crave it and responds like a match to a bucket of gasoline. I hammered out the last lap and came across the line to EP, Zach and Drew watching the clock to see if I accomplished my main goal of not letting EP beat me by more than 8 minutes... He beat me by 5.

Zach tore it up again and finished first in his age group and beat all but one of the locals that had the preferred start which is pretty awesome. Drew was out in the lead after one lap when he had some bad luck that ruined his day which sucks. EP proved to himself and some of the fastest dudes in the Midwest that when he decides to come to your town, he's coming to party down.

I am more than pleased with my form right now. I wasn't exactly primed and ready to go for this race and suffered through a lot of it, but I was the first expert overall, accomplished all my goals for this race and feel like I am still getting stronger. It's amazing to me that after a half of a season of focusing on XC racing I have made the gains that I have and know that I have been airing on the side of caution and still have plenty of room for growth. These last two races have given me the kind of confidence I need, at exactly the right time going into the main event. Wish me luck!

Russell the Muscle Laying down the heat at Masters Nationals!

2008-07-07T08:41:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to my teammate, mentor and good friend Russ Murphy for bringing home the hardware from the Masters Nationals Criterium this weekend in Louisville, KY. Russ, the master tactician, played his cards just right and had his biggest result ever, a bronze at Masters Nationals.

I can't tell you how impressed I am with this result and am very proud to tell you about it. Nice job Russ!

not selling my stock in 26'ers

2008-07-02T21:10:00.002-05:00

After the debacle at the KC Cup race I decided I needed to spend quite a bit more time riding off road. While swapping back and forth between new bikes I slowly was gaining some sick confidence as the handling skills became razor sharp... I was having fun on the Alma all last week and have to admit that I was a little apprehensive when I saddled up on the OIZ for a couple hours at the Wood today... In the back of my head I wondered if I truly liked the big wheels better and the OIZ would collect dust. Man, what was I thinking. This bike is crazy fast and still is the ideal race bike for 75% of the stuff I do. Pirtle, you're right, chump. I can say I am stoked to be able to choose between these two sweet bikes as there are definitely times for both. The big difference for me is the ability to sit down and hammer through the rough stuff with the cush and float over the technical stuff. I'm glad to see that I'm riding well and must admit I am a little apprehensive about the descents at Mount Snow, but I tend to go down faster than your average bear so I'm not sweating it too much.

Small wheel turn by the fire and rod
Big wheel turn by the grace of God
Everytime that wheel turn round
bound to cover just a little more ground

The wheel is turning
and you can't slow down
You can't let go
and you can't hold on
You can't go back
and you can't stand still
If the thunder don't get you
then the lightning will

Won't you try just a little bit harder
Couldn't you try just a little bit more?
Won't you try just a little bit harder?
Couldn't you try just a little bit more?
-Hunter

Hello old friend

2008-07-02T09:53:00.003-05:00

I spent countless hours in rain, snow and freezing cold this winter building my base on this bike and then put it in the basement. After deciding that I was only going to race on dirt and selling off all my road equipment I decided it would be good to get this ready for CX and to commute on... I love this bike. It needed a FULL overhaul and the BB and headset were barely turning. After a little love it's ready to go. Euro bend bars, TRP carbon brakes, Cosmic Carbone SL's, super-pro Concor Light saddle and Full DA 10. That's a 50t big ring, but I'm going even more super pro and putting a 46 on there as well as some Dugast Rhinos...

The legs started to feel normal again this morning... I was playing with fire all last week, increasing the work load one last time until I start to taper for Nats... Hopefully I have some legs for this weekend at the DINO AMBC race, it's going to be a fast one... I kept telling myself to train through it but didn't realize my legs were still going to feel like rubber yesterday. Switching back and fourth between two new bikes and one I haven't ridden in a couple months will make some muscles react as well. I think I'm getting them pretty close at this point though.

I'm going to go see how the OIZ feels today. I really want to ride the ALMA at Muscatatuck, but in the back of my head think that since it's my last race before NATS I should race on the bike I'm going to race on there. The course would be pretty well suited for the big wheels though...

I ordered up a BlackSpire 38 tooth chain ring for the Alma. I'm going to run a 38/28 or 26 2x9 on my XTR cranks. I'm thinking about maybe putting a 40 or 42 on the OIZ as well... It's hard to pry those purdy XTR rings off though, especially when they shift so well.

Eat lots of BEETS and Blueberries. They are good for you.

Middle Fork Extravaganza

2008-06-29T19:58:00.002-05:00

Great day shredding trail with the boys. Keeven, Zach, Drewby, Christopher and a surprise visit from Karl King. Everyone was riding well and it was one of the more cohesive epic mountain rides I have ever done... Other then bleeding arms from black raspberry bushes lining the trail in places and a flat things went great... The Alma is a sweet ride.

The DQ Blizzard of the month, the Strawberry Cheese Quake, was a nice way to follow up some decent Mexican...

You know how we do it... Murdered out Orbea Alma

2008-06-25T10:59:00.004-05:00

23 lbs 5 oz... It looks tough... Other than the KCNC Ti Pro Lite seat post (145 grams) and maybe some race hoops down the road this puppy is ready to floss. I'm also considering putting the XTR cranks on the OIZ and trying some Rotor Agilis 2x9 with a 40/28 setup... Not sure about the shifting though so feel free to chime in. I'm going to ride this bad boy today...

After looking at my lap times from Sunday I have to say I am really pleased with my consistency... I didn't even fall off the pace of lap 1 too much. Check my math but I think it's right this time...
1) 21:48 2) 22:27 3) 22:24 4) 22:24

Truman's Big Love

2008-06-24T08:06:00.004-05:00

I have to be honest here, I have never won an XC race this big. It feels pretty awesome. I've had some ups and downs in the bigger races this year and in the back of my head I started to question if I had what it took to take the overall in a bigger event like this one. I know this is no NMBS Series race or WORS race, but the racing this weekend was no joke. With names like Chris Ploch, Aaron Elwell, Cameron Chambers, John Matthews, Shadd Smith, Mark Studnicki and Tom Price, I was standing on the line wondering if my goal for a top five was even realistic. For those of you that don't know, Cameron Chambers has a National Championship Jersey from winning the 2005 24 Hour Solo Championships and John Matthews has stood on the 2cd step of the podium at the Masters World Mountain Biking Championships (one step below Tilford). Aaron Elwell was the 2007 NMBS Series Expert overall winner and had turned the fastest lap at last years Rapture In Misery race with some seriously fast dudes in attendance. These are the names to know when you line up, I doubt that most of them knew my name.

It was a 4 lap race and without all the drama I had in the last race, I can keep it short. We started out up a double track grinder, big ring wheel to wheel. I took count of 7 guys in front of me and wasn't feeling too confident that any of these guys would be falling off the pace. I turned around as we made a 90* turn into the single track and in the first mile we had already shelled the other 30 guys in the field. Occasionally a dab or slide out would cost a place or two but we basically were pace lining through some very tight single track. The first lap was pretty much uneventful and I started to wait for my legs to say no, which they didn't.

The second lap was more of the same. I sucked down some liquid crack and made pace. Occasionally a little gap would open or someone would move up a spot or two through the field, but for the most part, everyone was still riding their A game and it was a very tight race. Mark Studnicki opened up a little bit of a gap on us and was actually out of sight for the second half of the lap. As we came flying through the start/finish I was worried because I needed to grab a bottle, but luckily so did a couple others and I was able to catch back on. I was amazed at the snap that I had in the legs and started to feel a little confidence boost.

At the start of the third lap I downed another Rooster Booster and things started to happen. We caught up to Studnicki just as you entered the first section of single track and he didn't look like he had any power. Chris, Myself and Shadd hit the first section of uphill single track, before the big double track section at some serious speed and there was some separation. I looked back to see Tom Price get caught in a rut and crash and Cam was able to go around him. Shadd sensed catching the guy off the front and then the little mishap and opened it up with Chris and I in tow. Free lunch. I noticed that Shadd was bogging down a little though the single track at the top of the nasty rocky run up and gambled when we popped out into the field; we had just a little gap and I knew that if I were able to get into the woods at the other end first he might slow up the flossers through the next real tight section just enough for me to open it up. The OIZ was made to dominate tight, rooty, fun trail like this and I got on it. I was worried that I laid the cards down too early, but I was riding so well and having so much fun that I wasn't about to look back... Going down Tasty I caught glimpses of Chris and Mark chasing, but I wasn't having too much trouble finding out of the saddle power and was floating over the technical stuff. The were hot on my heels as we came though for the last lap but I wasn't looking back.

The fourth lap was tough. I was doing a lot of self motivating; reminding myself to ride smart, stay on the gas and tried not to think about how much an overall win like this would mean to me. I can't remember much except for the feeling of the legs turning to rubber when I would jam the big ring for another 10 pedal strokes in between the super tech. I thought I had a decent gap and I could ride Tasty conservatively and not risk any crashed or flats when I started to see Elwell and Chambers in hot pursuit... these two guys own the shit out of this trail and weren't about to let me walk away without a fight. I was hammering my brains out and they were closing in... When I hit the double track at the end I got in the full DB TT tuck and dug deep. I didn't dare take my eyes off the ruts.

As I crossed the finish line my teammate Matt Keeven was there with high fives and hugs. Elwell, Chambers and Ploch rolled though seconds later. I couldn't have been more happy. That was some serious racing, by far the tightest XC race I have ever done. Hopefully there is more where that came from.

The post race festivities were pretty awesome with so many good friends around and aside from some roof rack mishaps on the ride home and the dirtiest Dairy Queen ever, things were good. Matt Keeven was nice enough to treat us all to some kickass Mexican in Columbia, making nice use of his green that isn't 5 feet under flood water. On the ride home MJ and I talked about racing and rocked out to our usual Built to Spill as the rookies slept in the backseat dreaming about the expert class.

I really love racing my bike.

Smoke show...

2008-06-20T09:59:00.002-05:00

Against my better judgement, most of the Mesa A team will be headed to Landahl again this weekend. The course is smoking fast, fun and since everyone is going I don't want to miss it... Coming off of a full week of rest this is going to be a shocker... but it's too good to miss and we scored a free hotey in KC so it's low impact for me... If I was feeling better I'd be running my Dura Ace 55 tooth TT ring for this course. At the Rapture last year they used both of these trails so after 11 laps in a row I had it pretty dialed... I've got that going for me. Awesome.

Luck of the Irish

2008-06-17T11:32:00.004-05:00

Hopefully Kobe did the Pro thing and got all wasted after winning the other night and is hungover in Beantown... I watched more basketball on Sunday night than I have, EVER!

THE OIZ CARBON

2008-06-15T09:55:00.003-05:00

This bike is nothing short of sick! It took me a couple days to get it dialed; funny how no matter how exact the measurements are there is always some tweaking to make it just right. It happened last night near the end of a farewell group ride for my teammate and friend, Corey Klein, who is moving to Ohio. Frustrated by the drunkness joking about me not wanting to drink beer on the ride unless it was out of carbon cans I tore off down the trail... little did I know that Corey and Zach were more interested in shredding more trail before the sun set too and saving the beer drinking for later... I heard them behind me and slowed up as we headed up JustinsTrail towards Ries Rd. When we hit the top the bliss began. I told Corey to go ahead and own it, after all it was his old backyard, and he did. Corey set the pace, Zach next and then me. We flossed like Oral B; wheel to wheel, at race pace, all A game was brought and the beer drinkers were dropped. Sometime between the yelling and footwork of fury smashing on the pedals sending us faster, faster and way too fast, it came over me like a sweet Trey Solo. I started to get goosebumps and realized I was owning the shit out of the OIZ and it wasn't trying to throw me off anymore. It was great. The whole time we were out of the saddle sprinting in between the loose gravel turns down Grotpeter I couldn't help to think to myself how messed up someones grill would have been if they were coming up the trail in the wrong direction, but luckily, as the sun faded, we flossed and no grills were damaged. When we got down to the bottom there was some serious high fiveing and karate chopping going on and I realized how fast Zach and Corey are riding and that is pretty awesome too... They took it to the next level like Super Mario.

The OIZ is everything I expected and wanted it to be. This thing just shreds. The biggest difference I notice is when I get up out of the saddle I feel like a jet taking off of a carrier instead of a big diesel gaining speed. It is serious fast. I am getting full travel with my body weight in the FOX RP23 and it in the open position, but never feel the suspension which is the way I like it... for a fast course with minimal descents the ProPedal would be ideal, but there is hardy any bob in the open position so it would have to be fire road fast to warrant using the ProPedal.

Thanks to Eric Pirtle and Orbea, I have a full XTR Alma 29'er that will be shipping this week. I couldn't be more stoked. I have wanted to have a short travel 26'er and 29'er in the arsenal for quite some time, thanks for making it happen! I'm going to run the Alma full rigid and see if I have the skills like my teammate Matt Keeven. Hopefully I'll have some kickass Industry Nine wheels to bling it out!! I'll keep you posted.