Fire now ice

The Cowbell is over and the fire is out. I got off the bus in Breckenridge a few days ago, and with in an hour of riding I found myself in the snow. I almost went into shock, late June and I was cold going up a climb. It was nice.

I met up with Josh Tostado a couple days ago and he showed me around a little bit. He led me down some one of the best descents of my life! it seemed like it went on all day long ant it had everything from rocky rough terrain to as fast as you want to go flowing singletrack. It was so good I had to go back the next day and do it again.

Rebecca TomaWiki and I headed out first thing in the morning @ 12:45, for this second run. I wanted to skip the big climb that Josh and I did and just do the fast section. Unable to find the trail we climbed an extra 1000+ feet of fire road before we turned around and found the trail.

after some fun trail and another 20+ minute climb I crested the top and began to roll the descent. the first time I touched my brakes there was a terrible noise coming from my rear brake. Instantly I had a feeling what is was, and I was right. I folded the return spring on my rear brake pads and it was rubbing on the rotor.

With only a mini tool, I was worried that I would not be able to get the brake to work correctly and have to run the descent with only one brake. totally possible to do, but nowhere near as fun. I was once again blessed with good karma(thanks Eddie) and with in two minutes, the only mountain bikers we saw on the ride passed by and one of them had a Leatherman with pliers. I was able to bend it back into place. I was back and rolling in less than 6 minutes!!!

Some of the views and wiki wiki.

Race report for the Cowbell Challenge marathon.

Race # 5 of the USA Cycling ultra endurance series stayed true to form with it's more than uncomfortable weather. Though very different from the peanut butter mud and hiking of DSG we found the other extreme, HOT, HOT, HOT! I was woken up before 7:00 with sweat dripping down my face. know there were more than 3 hours before the race I knew it was going to be a tough day. You can see it in my eyes in the picture below...

The town of Davidson, NC was the host city providing the starting line for the days event. When the horn sounded the start was not much different than any other endurance race fairly mellow pace and one guy taking a flyer who stayed away for about 7 miles. By the time the chase group caught the leader it was a group of 4 going into the single track to race 5 eight mile laps of fun tight twisty root filled trail. Shortly after the single track started I began to get a pretty bad headache the roots of the trail jarred my brain and I was unable to keep my focus and dropped of the group. later in the lap the trail smoothed out and the headache subsided and I was able to push the pace a little more. Starting the second lap about an hour into the race it was close to 97 degrees with humidity nearing 90%. I felt like I would be able to work my way back to the group and still have a chance at the win. But before to long I was stricken with stomach issues and really had to back of my pace.

I settled into my pace and kept going the full time. Dumping ice water on my head through the lap only for the water dripping down my face to feel hot in a matter of seconds. the last three laps were all about survival. I was able to stay in fourth position and only loose about 14 minutes to Harlan Price who too the win.

Over all it was a great event, Tyler the promoter was awesome. He took great care of everyone and ran a fun event. All my equipment was great, especially my new wheels, the combo of DT Swiss 190 hubs and Stan's 29" race rims were super fast and light(1300 grams even!!!). the course was fun, and it had more technical features than most 100 mile courses.

Will I do it again? Yes, assuming the heat index is not 115 degrees.

Everyone should see this movie.

Another post coming later today.

Some reason it is cutting the side off... to see it all go here:

http://www.foodincmovie.com/index.php

Mohican 100

Back in the groove(or is that a rut), We made it back from Italy without all the terrible thing that happened on the way there but it was not uneventful. While boarding the plane Kristina found that Ian had a temperature and felt very hot. not to long after take off I borrowed some Tylenol from another family as ours was checked, that kept his fever down but it kept coming back up when the medicine would wear off. When we landed in Atlanta and got to out thermometer he had a temperature of 104, we were in the emergency room in less than 20 minutes. Need less to say the doctor said to keep doing what we had been doing but to come back in 2 days if he isn't better. He was fine the next day.

I can't say that I was a little scared on the starting line, this field was stacked. If you are a fast ultra endurance singlespeeder from the east you were at this race, I couldn't think of anyone besides (Ohio)Rob that wasn't there. Going through what I had in the last week, it was hard to be confident. Since DSG I haven't really ridden my bike other than racing, the blisters on my heels were so bad that I couldn't wear shoes.  I had no idea what my legs were capable of, I hadn't ridden 100 miles in any 2 week period since April. 

I stayed with my usual tactic of starting fast, and was the lead singlespeeder going into the first singletrack. Shortly there after I knew I didn't have the legs for racing the top geared riders like I end up doing.  I backed off and decided to let the next singlespeeder catch me then I would just match him and hope that he would POP before I did. He was strong, attacking every steep hill, but he was never far in front at the top. and I was able to catch him on the descents. We exchanged the lead a few times on the singletrack, he would attack the climbs and I would pass him as he made wrong turns. 

After aid 2 we were caught be the first Pro men's chase group(they made a wrong turn) that had 6 riders. and this really put the hurt on me. it was a battle of wills to see which one could hold on the longest. Even with the geared riders he attacked the climbs trying to drop me, I managed to be in 3rd wheel going into the single track before aid three. after a few minutes I looked back and couldn't see him behind me, I figured he flatted or something. I knew he was strong, he couldn't have dropped off that far. by the time I got to aid 3 I knew I had at least 1/4 mile on him.  

The super high cadence needed to stay with the geared guys brought the cramps. there was a few time that I had to stop and stretch, or really slow down. I had about 40 miles to go after I got passed by josh Tostado(he got lost too), and from that point it was pretty lonely. long, Straight, boring, strait, flat roads then a couple big climbs to the finish. 

Walking across the finish line in first place. So glad to be done!

I finished in 7:39:@# about 20 minutes faster than second place Dejay Birtch(Niner/Ergon teammate). the guy I had been racing the first half of the race had broken his frame. In endurance racing it's not always the rider that makes the difference. Niner thanks for making such great bikes!