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.