Bike swap Fuzzy begins...

When I bought this bike it was my life time bike! I never thought I would get rid of it. Maybe replace some parts here and there, but never get rid of the frame. 

Well, old faithful has become neglected...I don't think I have ridden this bike for 2 or 3 years...I can't remember. The wheels have fewer than 15 rides on them. the brakes are some what new also. One of the gems of this bike is the NEW Boone Tech 33t spiderless Chainring.

I'm not sure how much to sell it for, I know Ti is expensive but the economy sucks, so if your interested let me know and we can try and strike a deal.

What is on this bike:

Dean Colonel single speed

Fox F80X fork

Avid Juice Carbon Disc Brakes

DT Swiss 240 Hubs Center lock SS

Stan's No Tubes 355 rims

WTB tires 

Thompson seatpost

Easton EA70 Stem

Easton Monkeylite Low rise bars

Salsa QRs

Truvativ Stylo SS cranks

Boone Tech Ti Chainring

Specialized alias seat

The bike is in great shape, there is some wear on the crank arms from my shoes, the tires are almost new. I will include some extras, a custom made tool for adjusting the Eccentric BB, a 26" tube, the spider for the cranks with a 34t chainring and 2 Elite Ciussi Water bottle cages.

A cool week!

>
I just got back to Riverside after spending a long weekend in Arcata. I am so glad to be back in the sun, today the wind is blowing hard but when you go outside it's hot, a little strange but I like it.

I got a little press coverage(and a boost to my ego) from the last race(training race), check it out here.

Here are some pictures from the race as well.

Looking relaxed on the start line.

Moving fast into the switchbacks, a few seconds back from Brad.

I also was interviewed for a pretty big magazine, I let you know if it comes out in print!

Is it next year already?

I know it's not, but I am getting ready for it already. Training has begun, the miles are adding up and I am feeling good. Last weekend I did my 92 mile road ride on Saturday, in about 4 hours and 15 minutes. then on Sunday I went out and did a XC race. The field was maybe 100 strong in the Pro/Semi/Expert race. Some how I pulled out 2nd overall on my singlespeed, only about 10 seconds of the win. I think I might do more XC next year.... ; )  

So back to getting ready for next year, I need to plan my race schedule. does anyone out there have great races to recommend? if so please let me know. I like big climbs, lots of single track  and long walks on the beach(I mean up hike-a-bikes). 

I got a new camera! I have been taking so many of pictures of Ian,  bear with me...

A quick update and a good email.

The last few weeks have been busy to say the least. Taking care of Ian, starting my training for next year, sponsorship proposals, date night, taking care of broken bones, sleep... 

The new work out schedule is not too tough but more hours that I have been doing for a while, I'm tired. lots of 80-100 mile days. 

if you remember I broke my collar bone in the middle of last season, and it pretty much ruined my season. This year I waited until the season to break a bone, a much better move. It's only a toe, or a bone right before the toe. It only hurts when I kick something or put too much weight on it. in the long run not too bad.

Here is a picture of Ian, he loves playing in the orange groves.

With all the election talk going on I have to put in my endorsement... or really just pose a question. What would happen if not a single person voted? Besides Florida electing "W.",Would we go four years with out a president?  

I just got this email, I though it was pretty funny:

Dear Red States:

If you manage to steal this election too we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that includes California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the country's fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation's fresh fruit, 95% of America's quality wines, 90% of all cheese, 90% of the high tech industry, 95% of the corn and soybeans (thanks Iowa!), most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92% of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38% of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the war, the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

Finally, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico

Peace out,

--Blue States

Cross Vegas Picture...

Here is a great picture that my friend Al took at Cross Vegas of Lance...

I wonder if he likes beer?  I'm sure he does ; )

It has to end some time.

I finally finished the season, and have almost completed my one week vacation. How it all ended up was pretty amazing. After the Tahoe Sierra 100 I raced the Cactus Cup omnium, and finished this last weekend with the Tour of the White Mountains.

The Cactus Cup was my first time trial and first super D, which I got 1st and 2nd respectively. It wasn’t a huge field buy Yuri and Dejay were in the mix. Ok so I was the only other besides them for the omnium, there were others for the Super D and the XC which I placed 1st.

Time trial: I think my time was about 2 minutes and 40 seconds, unfortunately I had to run over half the course due to my chain falling off. But it was probably faster anyways, it was super steep, and windy, Dejay actually got blown off his bike.

The Super D: A little climbing and a bunch of kinda down hill stuff. It was a fun course but a little flat for a singlespeed(we were pretty spun out). Dejay and I were on the front most of the time, I had a little spill about 2 km from the finish where Dejay got away from me. I almost caught him on the last little climb but there wasn’t enough time.

XC: it was a Great course! A bunch of single track with great flow, a few long climbs and some technical sandy rocky areas(made easy by my Niner singlespeed). I was able to pull away from Dejay on the long climb to finish the first of two laps and stay away the rest of the race. My only other objective was to catch as many of the semi pro men that I could, their heat started 2 minutes ahead of the singlespeeders. The last lap I caught three or four people on the last climb and I ended up making up the gap on all of the semi pro men!


The Tour of the White Mountains:
67 miles and about 70 more that I was ready for, still recovering from Interbike and a sleepless few days with Ian. It was the last one for the year, and I had to show everyone the power of Ergon grips. Before the race I did a little warm up and felt like I did before my worst race of the year, not a good sign. I had no power and no pop. Luckily it started out pretty slow and I was able to get second wheel going into the first single track section. Again, my pet peeve… about 7 miles into the race we came to a down tree with a good sized ramp up one side and down the other(we were told it was easily ridable at the start line), the guy in the lead gets off his bike and jumps over the log! When did mountain bikers forget what mountain biking was. Ride over the dam log, your leading the race!

Back to the riding part of the race. Three of us were together for a while, one guy flatted and then there were two. I got dropped on the flats. Got a flat(slow leak), that I stopped to fill a couple times. I had some fun towards the end with a great technical rocky section. And ended up 4th overall and the fastest singlespeed.

Now it's time to regroup, find some new sponsors, race a little cross and get ready to kick some butt next year.

So for the Tahoe Sierra report.

Dejay and I made our way to the Sierras to learn the course and rest up a full week early. Which was good because it took forever to get there, with pulling the trailer on the super curvy and steep roads that were littered with cows that were trying to block the road(so we wouldn't find bigfoot).
Eventually we made it and we able to ride about 85 miles of the course, and get a good idea of what was to come.  The area was beautiful, great views, big mountains and deep canyons(we stopped on the way out for 20 minutes because the van brakes were smoking).  Unfortunately for the 270 riders that registered for the event the promoter had to change course and it ended up being 100 miles of fire road(a few feet were kinda narrow), it was a little boring but it was over quicker even with about 14,000' of climbing, most of it rideable.  Along with being amazingly beautiful the area was so isolated I really had time to focus and get ready for the race.  

We went back into town on Tuesday to get the supplies we needed to make it through the weekend(we thought). lots of food, propane movies and did our last bit of internet/email action before we went back to the woods. We didn’t realize we were out of shot bloks and only had two tubes.

All the usual suspects showed up for the start plus a few others, Harlan Price, the trek crew(Chris Eatough, Jeff Schalk, and Jeremiah Bishiop), Evan plews, Tinker, Josh Tostado, Mark Santubane,  and single speeders Dez, Conrad, Tom, Rich, Dejay of course, Yuri and a few other fast ones that I didn't get to meet.  For some reason this was the slowest start of any race in the series(that I have done), even those with a controlled start! it was super mellow for a little more than a mile,  then the pace started to increase to where I'm sure some people were dropped but not many. At one point while after the pace picked up someone said something to the effect of what is that singlespeeder doing up here in the front, I usually ignore things like that and let my riding show them. But Jeremiah bishop chimed in and said something like “that's Fuzzy he's got the super cadence”.  The short track and marathon national champion saying something like that about will always give you a little boost. Maybe that’s why when we hit the bottom of the first climb the whole field went back to taking it easy, and before I knew it I was a few hundred yards or more in front of everyone else. After I realized that I had a gap I did my best to settle into a groove and ride my race, but it was kind of exciting being off the front of that group.

Two miles into the climb the big eight bridged the gap and we(Harlan, Chris, Jeff, Jeremiah, Tinker, Mark, Josh, Evan and I)rode together for another two miles. A mile or so before the top Harlan threw in a little surge and I decided I didn’t want to go any harder and kept my pace going, and would settle for 9th place overall again(the third time in a row…). I thought I could never catch these guys. But I kept my pace high to make sure no others would catch me. I had Jim Hewitt not to far back on the first climb and a few others were close I’m sure.

In the long run, it was probably best that I let them go, at least my lungs thought so. It was so dusty, being a minute behind the lead group on the first descent it was even thick in a few corners. Then for about 5 miles the dust was gone and I could breath again, I was now at about mile 18 and been on my own for 11 miles when the dust began to get thick again, I thought to myself, am I catching the leaders? But it was just Jeff, who had suffered a bad crash and was limping his way back to the start/finish.
this is how bad the dust was...
I’ll take it, I’m going for eighth now just a bit more motivation to keep the pace high. I was up and over the next climb and on my way down to the bottom of the second long climb when I passed Tinker on the side with a flat or something, I was now up to seventh place. Go, Go, Go!!! This could be my best finish ever with this deep of a field.
23 miles down, and sitting in 7th place, there was a long way to go, and a lot of false flat fire roads with some big climbs toward the end. I kept repeating my mantra, ate my Cytomax gels(vanilla) kept hydrated and talked to myself a bunch for the next 5+ hours as I never saw another racer. I crossed the finish line in 7h 45m 54s about 44 minutes behind Jeremiah and Chris who tied. Some how Josh T. missed a turn and I slipped up to 6th overall, but only five minutes ahead of Dez the second place singlespeeder.

This was my second win of the series and with my two second place finishes I won the NUE singlespeed Category and am the 2008 national SS champion.

Just a quick thanks to Cytomax for getting me gels and drink so fast and making sure I was prepared for the race. To Niner, Dt Swiss, Stan’s no tubes, Ergon, Kenda, Chris King, Shoair and all my other sponsors that keep me and my bikes rolling so fast!
This one was for you all.

Tahoe Sierra 100 race report!

Coming soon. To tired of driving, and played with Ian all day today. I will get the story out tomorrow(Tuesday). For a quick update check out Harlan's recap at this place.  

Don't go to Rich "the weenie" Dillen's site, he has no real report yet either. nor is he good at telling the past(that kid is an Eagle scout, and he is at least 12). 

Tahoe Sierra 100

The last race in the NUE series is this Saturday. It seems like it is mostly or all fire road so it might be a little boring but the views from the parts of the course are great!!! The best of the year. There is also a ton of climbing, I like that! the venue is hours from anywhere, it takes about an hour and a half to get anywhere with cell phone reception, so this will be my last post before the race. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I'm going in tied with Chris M. and one to 4 points ahead of Dejay.  In order to win the series I need to finish better than 7th and with in one place of Dejay... 

Singlespeed worlds 2008

Just a quick report(a bit late)...

The weekend started a little slow, but once it got going it went way too fast!!!

Saturday about 5:30 Curtis announced that the contest to decide where SSWC09 will be, will start a 6:30 at the bowling alley. If you wanted to be involved needed to get up on stage and introduce themselves. What the hell, I try and win one for New Zealand, I'd like to go there!!! As I know the folks from NZ(not the Australians) would like to host it. The first round was Bowling, the top two move on... Getting the win would have been tough but beating third and fourth was pretty easy!!!
Next was head to head at Ms. Pacman, unfortunately Durango was too good, even withFlash photography in the face he still beat me. I may have not won the right to host next year, but the NZers gave me a cool jersey, thanks guys....

The race was tough three laps each with about 1600 feet of climbing. I did well in the la mans start, Good enough to get a picture in the NY times... I think I was in third starting the bike, until all the guys in Borat bathing suits passed me. Almost at the end of the first lap I was sitting in 7th place when I flatted and had to put in air a couple times. realizing it wouldn't last I had to stop and put in a tube.  I must have dropped back to 40th place or so before I got it fixed. the next two lap was time to move, and after it was all said and done I made it back to 20th overall out of 425+. I'll take it with a flat. Here are some cool pictures....More pictures from Carson Blume (there is one of me middle row on the far right...)

Where did that month go? And where have I been?

Since my last post we (Kristina, Ian, Dejay and I) spent a few nice relaxing days in northern Michigan on a lake doing some sailing and some serious fudge eating before heading to Wisconsin for the 24 hour nationals where we added Rebbecca to the caravan. This was my first race this year that I have just watched(and supported), it was a great change. No mad craziness before the race, no watching what I eat or any of my other pre race quirks. Just a few beers and hanging out with Kristina and Ian.

After 24 nationals we (Kristina, Ian, Dejay, Rebbecca and I) took off to ride part of the Maah Daah Hey trail in North Dakota. We spent three days there riding different sections of the trail. The parts of the trail I rode were OK, but I found the spur trails were much more fun! Some day I will go back and ride the whole 96 mile trail over a few days and do all the spur trails. I guess this is one to put on the list of trails to do...just avoid the wet days!!! It’s about the worst mud I have ridden in.


Next stop Missoula, Pick up Andrew, do a quick spin with the whole family the hit the road again.

Now we (Kristina, Ian, Dejay, Rebbecca, Andrew and I) are on the way to Bend, Oregon. I love this place in the three days we had so much fun! Three days of riding(from town), 4+ hours per day and a ton of single track, then finish it off with one of the breweries and a float down the river. I going back soon! After Bend we made a quick stop to ride the Mackenzie river trail on our way back to my (old)home town Arcata, CA.


Same old Arcata, clod and foggy with a couple of whacked out people welcoming us to town. The short story...Some old dude in his tighty whiteys with a big flash light yelling at us for parking in the closest spot to my house as I could get. Up early for my favorite home town ride Tish Tang, got some poison oak but with a little help from friends it got better pretty quick(Thanks Geoff!) It was great to see everyone while we were there. I hope to see you all soon(except the underwear guy). I think I will be back in October for La Grange.

Last stop for the big crew Single Speed Worlds in Napa!

Call it a come back.

Last Saturday was the Wilderness 101, the 5th race in the NUE series. Dejay was leading the overall with a total of 6 points and I was in second with 11 points. I had some serious ground to make up! But it wasn’t quite as bad ad it seems as they only count your best four races, my worst score was a 7th, all possibilities point in the direction that I will be throwing out that one and end up with less the 11 for a total.

Other than Dejay there are always a bunch of other fast single speeders that could be in the running. Like Matt Fararri, Topher, Gunnar, Tim, Slohio Rob(now AshvilleRob) and the big name for this weekend was Wes Schempf. Wes won the USA Cycling national championship XC and short track in the semi pro category the previous weekend, he is from PA , and was the fastest single speeder last year in the 101.

The race actually started with a neutral roll out that was truly neutral, there were even a few single speeders on the front for a while. But that never lasts long enough and the first hill ripped the group to shreds. For a mile or so I was the leading singlespeeders and shortly after I let the lead group go Wes came around me and went with them. My plan before the race was to let him go early expecting that he would fade. The front group was out of sight before the descent and was pulling farther away. I settled into my pace for the long flat sections and was joined by Tim, Gunnar and Matt. Tim didn’t last long before his faceplate broke, but Matt and Gunner stayed close. Even though they were locals they let me on the single track first and instantly I had a gap so I figured it was time to go. I build a minute or so before I was brought to a stop by a pit bull that thought he deserved the trail more than me. I didn’t argue but I cussed a bunch after I made my way around him. Matt and Gunnar had me in their sights when we hit the next climb but I hit it hard again and I don’t think they saw me again after the first switch back.

Now all I needed to catch the semipro national champion and maybe a few geared guys as well. Luckily I had a few friendly geared guys that helped me out and pulled me though the next flat section to aid two. A quick exchange of bottles and I was off. The longest climb of the day was coming and I was feeling great, time to make a move. I found myself a the back of a pace line, I spent my time in line then did my pull. Unfortunately after I was dome there was only one guy left and he was only good for a second pull. I found another piece of motivation not to far up the road, Wes. I gradually pulled him in through the rest of the climb and had him within 40 seconds and caught him on the descent when he was having problems with his bike. No attack was needed, as soon as I passed him he stopped to work on his bike.

I was now in the SS lead a feeling as good as I did on the starting line, now it was time to get those geared guys! I passed a hand full more on the hills before aid three. But then the rough course started taking it’s toll on the bike. Around mile 45 my chain started to come off, and it continued to do so for the rest of the day, it came off 20- 25 times. And I flatted on one if the steep rocky descents, that wasn’t too bad it just needed a quick blast of Co2 to keep the Stan’s no tubes rolling. Then after mile 60 I only passed on other and chased one to the finish.

In the end, I was the fastest singlespeeder and 9th place overall. I set the Single speed course record and I beat Wes who finished 2nd by 21 Minutes and Dejay came in 10th.

So the series… I have 12 points and Dejay has 16 and if you remove our bad races I have 5 and Dejay has 6. Thats a pretty close series.

Check out the Cycling news report,

It's mostly accurate. Harlan, My name is spelled Mylne and I that was my first NUE win this year, I have two second place finishes though.

Stay tuned for a write up about the bike/components I ride. Niner, Stan’s, DT Swiss, Ergon…

The week in pictures. (last week)

Some strange coincidences, something a little scary, and some things that make me ask, “Are we really that stupid?”

The first two pictures are of Dejay and Merl the mule, who’s coral was very close to where we had parked the trailer for about three weeks. Shortly after we departed Tennessee Merl’s winter coat started falling out, which in itself is not strange. However the pattern in which it did is a little strange, I guess everyone wants to be a little bit like Dejay.

(Notice the sideburns)


The next two are looking out of a very large tent at the USA Cycling National Championships. This tent is about 80’ by 160’, with both ends open and all but a total of about 20’ along the sides. So pretty much any direction you walk, if you walk far enough, you can make your way out. And if for some reason you run into part of the tent all you have to do is take one step to either side and there will be an opening.

Here is the picture of one of the ends…


Here is a small section of the first picture(it’s a little hard to make this show up and get the whole end of the tent in the picture)…


Story time with Dejay:

All I can say about this picture is, “Parents be worried ”.

Mt Snow National championships

Sorry for the delay in posting, I have a bunch to put up but have not had a Internet connection for the last week(thanks At&t, More bars in more places, yeah right!).
So here is the quick scoop of my weekend at the XC nationals.
Saturday was the Open Singlespeed XC race. I had been feeling good all week and was looking forward to the super short race. the lap was fun with some tough climbs and technical descents(for a normal XC race...) that were super fast in preriding the course. As usual for us The rain came in Friday night about midnight, and made the course super slippery and the descents much slower. with that the laps were still only 32 minutes each.
At the start my teammate Josh Kelly went out fast and I found myself not to far of his wheel in second place. a mile or so into the race I had a little difficulty climbing a section with a lot of roots and a couple guys caught me and made it around me, back to fourth place. I made it to the top of the course with out loosing another spot but the descent was so different being wet I again had some trouble keeping the speed up and was passed again.
Unfortunately josh had a mechanical failure and had to drop out. so I made it back to fourth pace on the first lap and stayed there the rest of the race.
My time was 1:35:48(give or take a few seconds). I was faster than all but one expert geared rider and I would have won my age group by about 2 minutes. Pretty cool.

As soon as I get my computer working I have a bunch of pictures to put up...

Muffin top...

I got this one before Dejay....

Beaver Fever(maybe) and the Firecracker

While I have been having a great time riding and exploring Colorado, I haven’t been writing about it. So here is a little report of the Firecracker 50, but first I need to tell you a little about the preride. Sunday, A little bit of a late start but we got going about the same time the race starts. Steve, Jake and I rolled up the first climb at a pretty mellow pace, I did a few surges to see how the altitude felt and it wasn’t too bad. There were a ton of people out riding the course and we took our time and chatted with a few of them. The course was a lot of fire road climbing the steep loose rocky fall line descents. Not the best designed course but what do expect for a USA cycling National Championship event. At the bottom of the first descent I realized I had a slow leak in my rear tire so we stopped again to fix it. More climbing and fire roads and decided I should adjust the angle of my stem so we took a few minutes to do that while we caught our breath at the top of the course. After that we managed to stop only 3 or 4 more times to talk, wait or tighten the centerloc adapter on Jakes rear rotor which came completely off. So with all those stops it took us a total of 2 hours and 53 minutes. Considering the pace we took I though I would be able to pull off a first lap of about 2:00 to 2:05.
The week before the race I did all my priming the legs rides and I had the bike dialed. Unfortunately there were a few things I couldn’t control, I had horrible allergies which was interfering with the little sleep that I was getting and got some kind of intestinal tract issue which to put it politely, left me dehydrated. Nun the less I was still motivated.

Race day came and the Firecracker went off with a neutral start following a guy on a bike caring a flag or something similar… after a couple hundred yards the dude went down hard and took out a few riders behind him. He ended up being a pretty strong rider and came sprinting past us to get to the point where the neutral start ended and it was on. The pace was high from the start and I soon realized that it wasn’t my day, and soon after that a bunch of people I have beaten very easily this year were passing me after making up the gap from the different categories. Some made up the 7-8 minute head-start I had with in the first half hour. I wanted to have some fun so I made it through the first lap and called it a day.

So I guess my Firecracker 50 was a dud.

At least USA cycling is fair to all it’s members and I won’t have to worry about the unfair advantage of the altitude for a third year in a row at the Marathon National Championships, as I’m sure they will move the venue some where else ; )

Eating right on the road.

Dejay, Juda(the dog) and I are on the road by ourselves, just the boys as Kristina and Ian have flown the coop ahead of us. They left yesterday for some RnR in NYC with my Sister family and my parents. I know what your thinking, but your wrong!!!

Now that it is just the boys we are eating crap and staying up half the night. Well, that’s part true. We are driving halfway through the night but we are eating great!!! While we are a little shy on the green vegetables we are loading up on the meat and potatoes, and feeling great.

An update from the road....

Truly from the road. My first time using the computer while moving in the car.

A quick conversation between Dejay and Fuzzy:

Dejay: "I think my shoulder hair is getting crazy, I need to pluck it out"

Fuzzy: " Your really worried about the hair on you shoulders?"

Can't go a week without a little Flight of the Conchords

Incase you haven't seen the TV show Flight of the Conchords, you really need to check it out...

Here is a clip from one of their live performances, the TV show is even better.

Loving the riding!

Still in Colorado and doing some great rides, both trails and road. I could definitely find myself living here in the future.  Day before yesterday Jake, Steve and I prerode the course for the Firecracker 50, the Marathon National Championships, it is a pretty good one lots of climbing and some fast, loose and rocky descents. Overall I think it is a great course for me, however the elevation will be a little bit of an issue, as most of the course is over 10,000'. 

No pictures from the ride but it is a beautiful area, there is still snow along the course, they actually plowed part of the course 4 days ago, and across the valley. 

Free Ergon Grips...

Hey everyone Dejay and I are helping to give away free Ergon grips. All you have to do is check in with the Ergon website, look at a picture and figure out what trail Dejay and I are Riding... and be the first one to do it.  The plan is to post a new picture every month, so follow our blogs and watch where we have been and send in your entries...  

Here is the link to the first round.

Good luck to you all.  

If your looking for a hint I am accepting bribes ; )

Rolling in the front range.

Fort Collins and Boulder, CO have been our playground for the last week while preparing for the Firecracker 50. I have been very impressed with the trails and the number of people using them. 

I have to admit after riding in Michigan I was timid riding anything remotely technical. It is such a different world here, I think I encountered more rocks in the first mile of riding in Colorado than in all 250ish miles I rode in Michigan. but I think my skills are coming back to me...

I think in our quest to find a new place to live Colorado has moved toward the top of the list.

This is my buddy Steve, on the walker ranch loop out side of Boulder.

Here is Jake on some trail I don't remember the name of, But you might be able to figure it out.

So I am fighting a little cold right now, hopefully I will be well for the race on Friday.

Pictures from the lumberjack 100

Here is another good picture of Dejay walking...

The mud pit.

Another long car ride...

The secret of my success!!!

Well I'm sure some of you would, or have, stumbled upon this yourself soon enough; so I going to go ahead and tell you.

This has to be one of the best investments to go faster after carbon water bottle cages. Amazingly enough it only cost me $39.99,  so here it is, the big secret.... 

The Man Groomer.

Here are some reasons the MANGROOMER Can Improve Your Life
Look and Feel Clean and Manicured – Eliminating unsightly back hair presents a more refined, clean image to others.

Confidence – 

Increase your confidence knowing that you are 'back hair free' and no one will be staring / snickering at you or getting turned off by unsightly back hair.

Romance – 

Start up that spark in your relationship or marriage by surprising your partner with a smooth sexy back – not the ape look…

Summer Essentials – 

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Lumberjack 100

This race was day and night from the Mohican of two weeks ago. Being mostly single track, about 98%, there was really no time you could go on auto pilot. Also doing 4 laps of the same thing you could really learn the course and ride more aggressively as the day went on. Another huge difference was this course got better in the rain, except for a section about a quarter mile long that turned into a two foot deep bog.

Another 7:00 a.m. road sprint start, I heard some one saying that we were going 37 miles an hour. Somehow after a mile and a half Dejay and I were in the top 15 turning onto the trail. I’m not sure why but Dejay wanted to sprint to the corner turning into the trail head parking lot. This left him a little winded for the firs “big” climb of the race. As I caught Dejay I could tell he was already at his limit so I did a little push and got in to the the lead group of eight. Harlan Price, Jeff Schock, Chris Eat of a plate, a few others and I did the first 20 miles together before I was removed from the back of the group to settle into my pace.

The course was not suited to my riding style, as I perform better when there are long extended climbs. It was flat with a few short punchy climbs, none longer that maybe two minutes. I picked a pretty good gear that kept me moving at a good clip on the flats but I bogged down on the hills, I guess I need a little more power in my legs if I want to run a big gear like that again.

A few miles into the second lap I caught one of the top 7 who had stopped to get some relief. We worked together for most of that lap(well I drafted him most of the time). Then he got away and I was alone again. Around the same place that I caught the speedgoat rider I had to pee too, I stopped and then I was caught by the second place singlespeed rider. He followed me for most of the lap and dropped me at about the same spot that everyone else had on the previous laps. I took a short section to refuel to make it sure I made it through the last lap.

The last lap was pretty crowded, most of the people were great about getting out of the way but a few slowed me down for longer than I would have liked. All said and done… I finished in 9th place(I thought I was in 8th) 7 hours, 58 minutes and a few seconds. Less that a minute back from the first place single speeder. Only about 50 minutes back from the overall winner.

The weather man....

If you remember from a couple weeks ago I predicted heavy rain for last Friday, well it came a day early.

We were watching the TV show Weeds, when the rain started coming down so hard we could hardly hear the sound the show much less each other talking. Then at about 10:00 there came pounding on the door, amazingly enough they weren't trying to kick us out of our camping spot. As soon as we open the door the guy says, “There is a tornado warning(our second in 2 weeks) and the storm shelter is open”. So we debate on what to do, stay in the trailer and ride out a tornado or go to the storm shelter. I wasn’t convinced either way so I walked(more like waded to the shelter. The first route I stopped and came back after reaching water deeper than my Knees. When I made it up to the shelter, the first person I saw said they say saw a water spout. So I decided to go back and get the family.
We stayed in the shelter for about 20 minutes eating twizlers and watching the lighting show.

It continued to rain all night and this is the lake the campground turned into… the first site we thought about staying is right in the middle of this lake….

The storm ended up being the largest amount of rain that this town has seen in a 24 hour period in the last 60 years. When we made it back to town the power was out(which meant no Cappuccino) and there were boats sinking in the harbor.

Here is an offer….
If your town is in need of rain, put on a race and invite Dejay and I to show up!

What to do now???

The lumberjack 100 is on Saturday, it should be a very good day on the bike. the course is about 98% single track, 4 laps mostly flat with really good flow. I hear the hardest part is passing you car about 8 times during the race, I can see if your having a bad day it could be easy to finish early.

After the lumberjack we planned on going to the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo in Iowa. Unfortunately Iowa in under water and we cant figure out what to do next weekend... We need to be in Denver on the 25th so Dejay can catch a flight to Canada. Does any one know of any good happenings on the way from Michigan to Colorado for next weekend?

Here are a couple pictures of Southern Michigan.
Dejay on the bridge.


A bird that Juda was driving crazy....

Hotter than a hot tub!!! wetter too...

Were finished with Ohio and are in Michigan now. But before we left we had too big days of weather. the First, 4-5 inches of rain, the next 95+ degree heat, a wonderful combo for some good humidity.  I think were passed that now but we have found the mosquitos...

LumberJack here we come...

A great day of pedaling and a bunch of bad luck.

Mohican 100,  NUE series race # 2

Muddy, of course we wouldn't have it any other way. 

the 7:00 am start lead us through downtown Loundonville. luckily for us singlespeeders it was a controlled start, the speed was limited by how fast the geared guys wanted to go. As soon as we hit the singletrack Dejay and I began to pass when ever we got the chance, "on your right"," On your left", sometimes I went on the right as Dejay went on the left. about a mile into the singletrack the bad luck began; as I was passing on the left I was pushed toward the bank and did a super slow motion over the bars endo. That started the theme for the day, Catch up to dejay. by the time I got back on my bike and on the trail 7 or 8 people had passed me. We did a small hike a bike and came ripping down  a fire road,  When I got in to a campground there were about twenty riders riding toward me, and looking confused. We did the whole ride in a circle wagon train thing the group split into two. Dejay went one way I went the other. A minute later we were on the singletrack with 20+ riders between the two of us and Dejay in the lead.

Time to catch Dejay again...

It was 5-7 miles before I could do some real passing and got close to the front of the group which consisted of Floyd Landis(DNF), Christopher Beck, and a few others. Rolling through aid two the singletrack opened up and so did the pace, another hike and I saw Dejay again.

BANG! Flat tire.

Time to catch Dejay again

Three minutes to change a flat and three hours of pedaling I almost caught Dejay again. he goes over a rise then makes a right, I went straight for 3-4 minutes.

Time to catch Dejay again.


I think I saw him one more time but I couldn't be sure. a bunch more gravel and paved roads and one last wrong turn that took me to the finish line the wrong way, a ride back in a truck to make the right turn and a cruised back into the finish. I still finished second in the SS category and 16th overall.

Cycling news coverage

You know it...

Now the rest of the country is starting to think like a singlespeeder...

Why am I writing about the weather..?

Well,  every race Dejay and I have done in the USA together this year we have had a massive downpour the morning before the race. so I just thought I would go out on a limb and make a weather prediction two weeks before the next race... The Lumberjack 100.

Weather forcast....

My weather forecast for the morning before the Lumberjack 100 in Michigan:

Heavy rain.

More photos from Italy.

The day after the race..

Dejay going the wrong way...

Ian playing in a tunnel...
The podium
Me going the wrong way...

Riding through town after riding the trails at the race course

A little intergalactic fun....
...
A photo of our photo shoot the day after the race...
A view from the race course, I got both the sunset and sunrise laps. the view from here was amazing!