Mud, Sweat and a mountain bike marathon.

I'm a little slow on getting to this, but like any traumatic experience it's good to talk about it.

Last weekend was Dirt, Sweat and Gears 12 hour. after last year I was hoping for poor conditions so I could win the overall on a singlespeed. little did I know the conditions from last year were great compared to this year. Leading up to race day the course was wet from 8+ inches of rain in the week but had promise of drying out the last three days without any rain. Any one that could access the inter web, and it's series of tubes, was checking the weather. things were looking great, everything was just missing us to the north.

Then about 3 hours before the start someone showed me the radar image and the whole western third of Tennessee was covered in red. We figured that it would hit just exactly at 9:00 when the race started. Unfortunately we were wrong, It hit about 2 minutes before the start. Last year a rain like this created a horrible second lap but everything else was fine(the other 8 laps). This year was so bad that I was lapping people less than 3 miles into my second lap and that has nothing to do with how fast I was. the course had the worst anyone had ever seen/hiked in.

My lap times were something like this:
Lap1: 1:15
lap 2: 2:00
lap 3: 4:00
lap 4: 3:00 (I used cross tires for this lap)

Out of the 42 miles I "raced" I think I was only on the bike for about 14-16. the rest I was carrying my bike on my shoulder.





This post is a work in progress.... check back later for more.

Did that really happen to me?

Things are a little different than last year, especially the weather. the story last year was heavy rain the night before the race, but pretty good the rest of the time. This year has been dry for the races but wet most of the rest of the time... I think it has been raining since Thursday maybe Friday and we are surrounded by water. We decided to check out a place called Land between the lakes. only to find out the "land" part between the lakes is getting smaller because the "lakes are getting bigger....

So for the "did that really happen to me"...

It was time to get out and find some of the singletrack we came here to ride. I was looking for the Piney trail, I saw a sign pointing down a paved "Trail" I thought I would follow it to see if it turned to a good trail. About a half mile later I realized that this was just a little loop that was taking me back to the campground. And very close to the lake. Well actually the lake was covering up the "trail" in a few places. After riding through a couple pieces of the lake that conveniently cleaned off my tires of the mud they had collected in the last couple rides in Little Rock I saw up ahead the there was railing/bridge ahead. But the Hand rail was only about 2.5 feet above water. I started to to ride through the water and it was much deeper than the last couple, almost up to the BB but not quite. I was slowly riding through the lake when all the sudden. SPLASH!!! No I didn't fall in, but rather a fish about 2 feet long went crazy right in front of me and hit my tire.

I never thought I would hit a fish with my bike. I could see Dejay throwing one at me while riding but never this.


Here are a couple photos from the last couple weeks of traveling:

This one was in Oklahoma, I'm not sure if they meant to do this or not...
Here is a picture of the new SS:

On the road and ready to write(a little)

Well the family and I are on the road again we decided to take it a little slower and skip the first race of the NUE and race in Prescott AZ at the Whiskey Off Road then take out time to get to Dirt Sweat and Gears for the third installment of greatness. 

After the Spa City Extreme it was back to training and time to do a few XC races to work on some speed. most of the XC races were disappointing after riding the great trails of the Mas O Menos and Spa City courses. The Kenda cup races were the least either mostly dirt/pavement road courses or they were so rutted out or full of braking bumps that though I was on the bike I really didn't want to be there. 

I had ridden in Prescott years ago, long before I was racing mountain bikes and really didn't do much of anything that I can remember, just some muddy single track. I was very excited to go back and explore more of the area and enjoy the trails. Including participating in an Epic Rides event, Thanks Todd!!!! 

Race day was cool in the morning and colder after the race was over. the whole time in between was super fun.  It was a great course for me, long climbs, flowing singletrack, some technical descending and more than 3 and a half hours(barely).

I sat back until the end of the first big climb to make a move for the lead in the SS field, and only had to fight with one other to get to the single track first with Dejay in third place a few seconds back.  I knew I had the endurance and that a 12 mile long climb to come so I really pushed the pace through the single track, By the first long descent I had a gap and quickly caught a group of four geared guys  that were somewhere around 4-8 place overall. once we hit the bottom, they were going slower than I wanted so I pulled them up the next 30 minute climb, and where they thanked me by dropping me on the next long fire road descent.

The bottom could either really motivate you or truly wreck you.  you hit the bottom of this 9 mile descent then had to turn around and go right back up and do three more miles past where you started coming down.  On my way back up, Still in the SS lead, I figured out that I had about a 2.5 minute lead over second(Mike H - SS winner the last 3 years)  three minutes wasn't much so I really went hard on the climb only slowing down for a minute when I could feel some cramps, but then it was back to racing.  I also had some good motivation that after the top of the climb it was mostly downhill(with a tail wind) to the finish.  The last three miles was littered with riders from the 25 mile race as well, so I had some carrots to motivate me as well. 

Here is a great little video from one of the 25 mile SS guys, I passed him right after the two courses came back together. 

Whiskey Offroad: Hurt from Mark Challoner on Vimeo.

Marks comments on his video: "This is just a small sample of the suffering that occurs on the big climb at the Whiskey Offroad mountain bike race put on by my boy Todd Sadow at epicrides.com. I was battling for third place in the 25 Proof, when my friend John "Fuzzy" Mylne came stomping by us! Fuzzy had started an hour earlier than us for the 50 Proof, and had already been climbing for 12 steep miles!"

Hopefully I will be saying this a lot this year... after the climb was over it was a sweet trail(s) back to town where I captured another SS win and another top 10 overall finish. 

Update: We are on the road in Little Rock, AR and almost to the Cotton Mill in TN. I'll post some pictures that I have from the travels across the road soon.

  

Spa City Extreme

After spending a long weekend in Hot Springs, Arkansas you would think I would be rested and refreshed. I can’t say that I am worse than before, but I am coming home with a lot of sore muscles and other parts. I have also come to realize that no matter how hard I try there will always be a glitch in the plans.

I arrived in Little Rock Wednesday night late and went straight to be so I could start Thursday early. Picked up the rental car a drove to Hot Springs to build the bike and a check out the course. The first glitch happened while building my bike. While pulling my bike out of my Thule hard case I realized I forgot my front wheel. No, not really.

 The bike went together pretty smooth, front wheel included. What I did forget was a pump, I had given my Genuine Innovations CO2 to Danielle in TX so I didn’t have to fly with it. So I used the shops compressor to fill my rear tire BOOM! ! ! I blew the tire of the rim, I think their gauge was a little off. I have learned that you shouldn't try to put a tire back on after it’s been blown off the rim so I used my spare. BOOM!!!! Again, this time even bigger, I set the shops fire alarm off, my free hub body got blown off the hub and almost a finger or two. So much for riding Niner’s new rigid fork. I’m glad I have the DT Swiss squishy fork too. Next stop, find some water the hit the course.

While driving around Hot Springs looking for water there seemed to be something strange about town(I could never figure out what it was) but I did find a strip karaoke club…
Once at the course things were smooth, the bike was working great and my legs were feeling good. It was about a 10 mile lap and I made it around in about a half an hour...unfortunately I missed half the lap(it wasn’t completely marked yet). So I went back out and found the loop I missed. WOW what a fun course. At least 95% single track, it was tight, flowing, it had switchbacks, jumps, rocks and drops. I have to say I was excited after racing the lame course at Bonelli Park last weekend.

Everyone rolled in by Friday morning and we all went for a lap. Rebecca, Danielle, Ted(Mr. Super Pit Crew) Ernesto, Chris, Lee and the locals. After the lap it was time to relax and put the feet up, but not before we found some “better beer”(more on that later).

I woke up too early Saturday, Around 4:00 and the race started at 10:00. So it seemed to take all day for the start to come. I did the usual prep, and went pee a lot.
So when the race started with a lemans start around the BMX track I was ready. I was the first one on the bike and took the early lead, not what I wanted to do but it kept me out of trouble. Before I knew it there was a group of about 5 or 6 of us that was gapping the everyone else. Still getting used to riding trails again I washed out my front wheel on a switchback and had to put a foot down. It worked well to get me off the front but some how I caught my shoe in my rear derailleur cable and messed up my shifting, luckily it worked itself back into working order in the next few laps.

Ernesto set a great pace on the front of that first lap, letting a the frisky ride off the front and before we would shoot them out the back. Coming to the feed zone I new my pit was past the others in the group so I went around them so we wouldn’t get tangled. I rolled through the start/finish line in the lead and the others were tight on my wheel. Half way through the lap I pushed the pace a little to see what would happen, the only person that stayed with me was Chris(also riding a Niner). I couldn’t feel it but I think he was holding onto my pocket or something because he was tight on my wheel through to almost the end of the 5th lap when he flatted for the first time.

I knew we would get 7 or 8 laps total, so I had to keep him away for 2 to 3. Time to put it in overdrive. I finished the lap and Ted told me I had to do 3 more.  30 miles and the cleat on my right shoe had come loose. After lap 6 I wasn’t sure if I need to do 8 so I went out like it was my last with out fixing my cleat. It got really bad and my foot was killing me. The only way I could pedal with out it hurting was to point my foot straight down while standing, not very efficient. I finished #7 strong and there was still an hour to go, I had to do another. I had Ted tighten my cleat but he could only tighten one as the other was stripped.

On this course even with all the tight corners 10 miles went very fast. I knew the trail so well by this point I was on auto pilot just flying. When I crossed the finish line 6:20:20 after the gun, I lapped the fastest team, and set a new course record with 8 laps and won my first race of the year!

Here is a link to the results.

Thanks to all the folks that helped put on this race. It was a blast, I hope I can make it out next year!

Bike Rumor

Click here to see the latest interview with Dejay and I.

Planning for the 2009 season

I think the hardest part about getting for the 2009 race season is choosing the right hair style. here are a few Ideas that I have found. What do you think?

I like the freedom of this style.

A more classic look....

Maybe try and be a little more like Dejay.

I'm so confused, So many choices.

I don't know which way to look.