austincren27

108 miles of Pinhoti

2008-11-03T22:23:00.005-05:00

108 miles and 15,000+ vertical feet of the Pinhoti.

We were dropped off Friday at a trailhead in Summerville, GA. It was pouring down rain and 41 degrees… I was skeptical and debated for a moment about riding. Two of the guys (there were 6 of us) decided to stay dry and warm and took the cars into town for some beers and to buy dry firewood for that night. They were going to meet us at that night’s camping destination. It only took a few minutes to be completely soaked and ok with it. We would shiver any time we stopped moving so we tried to just keep going. We covered 38 miles and over 4,500 feet climbing on gravel road and amazing single track all while it continued to pour. We had our ~40 lb packs on just in case we didn’t make it to the camp site. It was an insane adventure and we were met by our dry friends at the site with hot coffee, dry socks and firewood. We camped at the Snake Creek Gap 17 mile trailhead. It finally stopped raining around 8PM the stars came out and we decided to use the cars to check out Jim's Family Restaurant. That way we could save our packed food and not have to re-up on groceries in Dalton.

The second day started with a welcomed sunrise and a high of ~60 degrees. All 6 of us were ready to roll with all of our equipment for the next 2 days. We covered 40 miles and another 5,000 feet of climbing before we found a really great camping spot. We rode the final 17 miles of Snake Creek Gap (which is an entirely different animal with a 40lb pack and the contents of a seatpost rack slapping you in the bum). We then had to make it to Chatsworth on pavement, so we refueled in Dalton and proceeded with the strangest looking paceline I’ve ever seen. The last few gravel miles before the camp spot felt like 20+ degree grades and I ultimately snapped my chain and bent my derailleur hanger which would haunt me later.

The third day was intense. The sun skipped through the huge hardwoods very early. It was hard to get any sleep so I didn’t mind… My back wouldn’t allow me to lay flat - on my back or stomach, and my hips didn’t like me being on my side… not to mention that we had three dudes crammed into an oversized two man tent. To start the day off, we got lost a couple times and found a nice creek to filter and refill on water. We had used all of our water for dinner and breakfast which were both amazing. Apparently there are some really great JetBoil recipes out there. One we found the Pinhoti again, we climbed some serious grades for what seemed like forever. The views were fantastic and the payoffs were insane! We came out of the woods after several hours to highway 52 and the Cohutta Overlook. It was cool to see the land we had ridden through on the horizon. From the overlook we bombed down the mountain and then over another pass on the most fun single track of the trip which dumped us into Bear Creek. We made it to Elijay where our buddy was waiting with a 15 person van to shuttle us back to where we had left our cars. Day three covered only 30 miles but over 5,500 feet of climbing.

There were surprisingly few mechanicals and no significant crashes – even with all the gear on. It was great to be reminded how vast even north GA is. The riding was very challenging and rewarding. I had previously convinced myself that I had to go to Pisgah in NC to get this type of all day riding in but in reality this stuff is only 60ish miles away.

Fool's Gold '08

2008-09-27T09:48:00.003-04:00

Flashback one year ~ Fool's Gold '07 was my first bike race... I had been riding mountain bikes off and on since high school but never felt the need to be competitive. Mountain biking for me was an excuse to get out of town and play in the woods... observe nature, have fun with friends and do something healthy. Most of my rides were compromised by hangovers and the need for rest stops. I signed up for FG'07 with a group of friends that I had been riding a good amount with. We were riding nearly every weekend and we just wanted to see how far we would get on the 52 mile Bull/Jake Mountain course (this is one of our favorite trail systems). We camped at the top of the mountain and barely made it down to watch the field of riders moving up the first gravel road climb. We were late - but who cares... I'm just in it to finish. It was over 80deg as we mount the bikes at 7AM for the start. The temps quickly rose to over 95 and I struggled through most of the day. Roughly 6 hours and 20 minutes later I surprised myself when I finished the race and actually did ok at 18th place overall (out of ~80 riders). It felt so great to be finished and to think of all of the suffering and how my body was able to overcome and perform. The experiences of camping and the friends and the beer afterwards were all heightened because of the race... I wanted more events like this... I think I'll do more races... and I did this year. I believe I did 12 mountain bike races this year and I actually wish I was at the Black Bear Rampage this weekend for some more.

FOOL'S GOLD '08:

I had been looking forward to this race all year. After doing the entire Georgia State Championship series and some 12 hour / 24 hour team events I was ready for an endurance race. All of the races I had done up to this point in the year were basically just long sprints. Give me 50 miles and all day and let me just have some fun. I was also curious how my time would compare this year with last year's first effort. My goal was to improve by at least 20 minute and finish at sub-6 hours.

I took a half day off work on Friday and we went up to Dahlonega to find a prime camping spot. We arrived around 3PM and the spots were filling up and racers were getting registered and comfortable. We wanted to go have some fun while we waited on the rest of our crew to come in from Atlanta that evening. We rode up the mountain to a swimming hole we had found over the previous year. The water was freezing and I was getting demolished by mosquitoes. We decided to explore down stream but didn't bother putting shoes on... then... I stepped on something painful. I lifted up my foot and found a squirming yellowjacket. He got me right between the toes and my foot was swelling immediately. The plan was to get the rest of the crew set up once they arrive and then head into town for some dinner... By the time we left for dinner my left foot was about twice the size of my right. We made a poor choice and ate dinner at a horrible Italian spot right across the street from another Italian restaurant that we later heard great things about. We still had fun though. On the way back to camp we found a CVS and I scored some benadril and ointment for my throbbing and huge foot. Seriously - any time someone looked at my foot they would laugh. It looked like a cartoon foot and I was getting worried.

The benadril helped me sleep and I woke up at 5:45AM feeling good - but my foot was still huge. I grabbed some breakfast and got ready. I do the best I can to strap my left shoe on and ride over to the start line. It was dark and almost chilly. The weather was going to be perfect for the race, especially compared with last year. The high for the day was 80ish! Also - we found out that the course was rerouted a bit to get the mileage exactly 50 miles - and the section eliminated was the toughest from the previous year. There were some useless horse trails used last year that were completely rutted and stair stepped and un-rideable. I was glad to hear about the weather and course, but now I had to adjust my goal of sub-6hrs. What should I shoot for... maybe 5 hours and 30 minutes? That's a 50 minute improvement - no way!

We line up at 6:50 for the 7AM start and there is a ton of people. Apparently this race had blown up and we now had ~300 racers! The whistle blows and we are off... the first 12 - 13 miles of the course are a gravel road climb with the first 5 miles being straight up and getting steeper along the way. Groups begin to form and I'm not satisfied with the pace. I move up the mountain and find a group of 3 to ride with. They were pushing it and on some sections we could still see the lead group that was about 12 deep. I didn't want to climb too fast and not be able to hang for the final 40 miles, but I didn't want to sit back and wished I had ridden harder either. I was tough to gauge considering I had not done any long rides or endurance events all year. We keep pushing and start to absorb some of the guys who could not hang with the lead group and we also get passed by a few folks. I was still feeling ok and felt even better knowing that there was probably only 15 or so racers ahead. AH!!! It is only 5 miles into the 50 mile course - I can't start thinking about that!! So... I calm down and just enjoy the ride.

I skip the first SAG stop and fly down the other side of that 12 miles of elevation gain. It was super sketchy with loose gravel and a smoke screen from the riders ahead. I'm trying to keep my tires on the ground when I hear someone next to me giving a "yo A! looking good!!" what the hell?? who would ride up next to me on this crazy 30+mph frightening descent? it was none other than the same dude who beat me at every GSC race - Robert! He nailed it and took off through the dust to catch the leaders. I reach the first section of singletrack and was loving it. This race was going to be fun!

I knew that I had about 10 miles before the next rest stop and my bottles were doing ok. I thought I could also skip this stop, but my bladder didn't agree. I'll spare you the details, but I held on till SAG2 so I could empty the bladder and top off my bottles in one stop. The volunteers were throwing a party and offered PBR and cookies - I settled for water and a cookie for now. I head back to the trails and they just kept getting sweeter and sweeter. I was seriously loving it! I finish off this 15 mile loop section and come across SAG3, which by design was also SAG2. They are still partying and I turn down another beer. I make a new bottle and stuff my pockets because I don't want to stop again until the finish. I leave and I'm feeling great still. I'm pacing myself and wondering if I should begin to push it a bit more.

Not sure what else to say - except that I was loving it! Still loving it! One thing that was a bit strange was that I kept having to reach down and tighten my left shoe. I was wondering what was going on but was having too much fun to care if my shoe was falling apart... then I realized that the swelling in my foot was going down. I had totally forgotten about my big throbbing foot!

I skip past SAG4 and head into the final section of the course. I try to increase my pace and realize that I had actually been working a bit... I felt like I could maintain this pace all day, but when I would try to accelerate it would hurt. I passed a few people and wondered how far up the trail that lead group was. Could I break into the top 10?? I had been riding back and forth all day with a Dedicated Athlete rider and he was ahead of me as we dipping back into some twisty singletrack. He crashed right in front of me and told me to go around - something about needing to chill for a minute.

This was a super fun section of trail that must have been the bypass of the horse trails from the previous year. I pass the waterfall and come out onto the last section of doubletrack before the creek crossing and final descent into the finish line. As soon as I come out of the singletrack there is a group of horses coming right for me. The trail was tight and I didn't want to spook them... I make it past the first 3 and then the 4th horse completely falls down right next to me. We spooked the hell out of each other and I felt terrible about it. The horse right behind him spun around and I thought he was about to kick me in the throat. This was ugly and I wasn't sure what to do. I slid through and hoped for the best. I cross the final creek, bomb down the gravel road we had climbed at 7AM and then take the finish re-route over some trees and through the camp. I finish at 4 hours and 42 minutes and just in time to get slapped across the ass by Ritchie. An improvement of ~1.5 hours and 12th place overall. I honestly wanted to ride more... this is the fun stuff!

Full results:
http://www.55nineperformance.com/Results_2008.htm

This guy took some amazing photos throughout the weekend:
http://pa.photoshelter.com/package-show/P0000lfSaqD5aWI8

Me... http://pa.photoshelter.com/img-show/I0000g8Y2hRUgIIA

GSC WRAP UP

2008-09-12T15:52:00.007-04:00

i knew this was going to happen at some point. i let a couple weeks slide and then all of a sudden the 'season' is over and i didn't do a race report for the final 3 races.

where did i leave off?? the Georgia State Championship series ended with a race at Fort Mountain on July 20th and then the finale at the 'Pig Trails' in Macon on August 3rd. these courses were near opposites but both great races.

GSC #7 - Chatsworth, GA - Fort Mountain:

A ~6 mile course where we would do 3 laps. Not sure why I bother explaining every time, but I once again showed up late and didn't get a chance for a pre-ride. This time I barely even got to start. The racers were on the line while I was signing in. I paid and ran over to line up and the guys were giving me a hard time. Some of them are used to watching me fly off the trail on the first lap due to surprises. They asked if I had a chance to look at the finish - I hadn't... They explained that the end of the lap was a downhill that looked like a downhill ski run and followed the straight down power lines.

The whistle blows and I think there were 15 or 16 of us for my group. I try to mash for position at the start and come unclipped from my pedal. I'm trying to get clipped back in as the group pulls away from me - only 30 feet into the race and I'm dead last! We make it to the singletrack and it goes straight up! The group turns into single file and starts climbing - me still in the very back. The rider in 9th or 10th position falls on the climb and we are stuck waiting for him to get up and clear the trail. The lead group pulls away and we get going again. The course opened up after the first mile for some doubletrack and I was able to make some passes. I was really loving this course! It was up and down and tough. I felt good and figured that since I had a bad start and the lead group got away instantly I would just enjoy the ride and work for a top 10 and hope for a 5th or 6th. I was going back and forth with a couple guys I had raced all series and we were pushing each other really hard.... After some great rolling grunt climbs and rocks and fast sections, I hit a tough rock garden about 50 meters long which is followed by a straight up switchback and more climbing. The climb was rocky and long and when I reach the top and the clearing I notice the power lines above. We turn right and drop off the side of the mountain for the final descent of the lap. It was crazy fast and hard to keep the tires on the ground. About half way down I'm hearing cheering and heckling from the announcer... from the bottom of the descent you could watch the entire thing. What a great place to watch the race! Lap 1 was over and I now knew the course and had 2 more to go.

The 2nd and 3rd laps were super fun and from what I remember, I was still having fun with it even though there were some painful sections. Until maybe half way into the 3rd lap I was still fighting for what I assumed was about 5th place with a Dedicated Athlete rider. We had exchanged positions a few times at this point. I finally pull away from him on a climb and I didn't see him again. My 3rd time up the long ending climb and I'm anticipating the downhill on the other side and then the cold beer. I'm climbing and come up on a racer. He is nearly falling off his bike. He tells me as I pass him that he "couldn't hold me off any longer... enjoy second place". I thought he was messing with me so I gasped back... "seriously!?" I crest the climb and fly down the otherside while being heckled some more. I cross the finish line and right then my rear tire blows out. Yes! and great timing! Results are posted and the guy wasn't kidding after all. Finished 2nd and loved it. Possibly my favorite course of the series.

GSC #8 - Macon, GA - Pig Trail:

We had a couple extra hours before this race due to an 11:30AM start. Of course that meant more time in bed rather than leaving early and considering any pre-ride - and temps around 90 degrees at the start. From what I had heard, this was a wide open, flat and fast course. It was a ~8 mile course and we would race for 3 laps. Most of the course was super fast where standing up and mashing in the big ring was the only way to keep up.

I had a good start and was having a pretty good race at about 5 miles in. Too early to get comfortable! I was in 3rd (i believe there were 17 at the start) and did not see anyone in front or behind me. Then.... the course had some new re-routes that were tight, steep and rooty. I am clearly not good at mixing the two styles - wide open speed then tight, technical and slower. It's not the first time I had run into this problem. I hear some riders catching up and as I push harder I get more clumsy. On a particularly tight and rooty switchback I went into in the entirely wrong gear and when I attempt to quickly gear down my bike has some ridiculous chain suck. I tried to back it out but nothing was helping. I could either move another inch and risk snapping my chain or jump off the bike and use my fingers to relieve my chain. As soon as I dismount I am passed by 2 racers. I never saw them again and I was trying to catch up. I did actually see them through the trees a couple times but I think they were further up the trail than it seemed due to number of turns in the trail.

I'm still riding as fast as I know how and I believe that I am holding onto 5th place after my mechanical. I actually have to dismount at least five more times for the chainsuck issue... I think it had a lot to do with the dry and dirty conditions and a stiff link. My chain was in bad need of lube. About half way through the 3rd lap I am passed by a guy with 8xx (eight hundred and something) on his calf. I sit on his wheel for a short bit and decide to let him go since he wasn't in my category (my cat was always in the 700s). After the race I find out that there were several racers in my category that were given the wrong number! The guy that I let go was racing against me - I ended up in 6th for the race. Bummer.

I had secure a 2nd place overall for the Georgia State Championship Series!! The race was followed by a dinner and banquet where palques and tons of prizes were given out.

Final Standings

I really enjoyed the GSC series and learned a lot about my racing. The promoters, racers, and friends were all great and made this summer one of my best ever. I said earlier that I wouldn't commit to the entire series next season. I will probably race a handfull and will try to avoid getting into the points chase. I may move up to the Expert category and race for top 10 finishes rather than the podium. The difference between Sport and Expert seems to be maintaning the race pace for an additional lap. I'll need to find more endurance before next spring!

**to catch up i will have to put out a report for Fool's Gold '08 and FM.24.08. click the linkys for some scoop (think DREADNOK).

The only race I have remaining on my 'schedule' is next weekend's Festival of Speed down at Dick Lane Velodrome. The pro races should be really exciting with some big names coming to town.

Festival of Speed - July '08

2008-07-17T09:32:00.010-04:00

This past weekend was the 2nd Dick Lane Velodrome Festival of Speed for ’08 (there are only 3 each year) – which also happened to be my first. I’ve gone to several festivals as a spectator in the past and always looked on with great respect. Track racing is fast and smart and the riders always appeared to be fearless. I wondered if I would ever decide to step up to the challenge and take on a festival for myself. I started riding this season in the Ds (beginner) and have since then moved up to the Bs (expert) and with that comes an invite to the Festival of Speed. The festival only has Pro / Expert / and Women cats.

I had no idea what to expect going into the festival and I was feeling under-prepared. Going into the 4th of July weekend I rode a couple hammer fest group rides and then went up to the Gaps in north GA… I was busted. Then I stayed off the bike until Wednesday night racing at the track last week. It was the hardest Wednesday night of the year and I could not get on top of my gear. The next day (Thursday) I picked up my dog from the hospital after some pretty rough surgery and it proceeded to rain…. So no riding…. I did spend some time on the trainer which I had not done in months but at this point was critical. So Saturday finally comes and I’m nervous and it is 95deg and steamy. I get on my bike and was surprised to actually feel really good.

Warning - the text below contains specifics and may come off as boring and/or self absorbed. i appologize, however since i personally enjoy reading other people's race reports i don't actually feel bad.

The races started with 5 Lap Scratch heats. My heat had 4 riders and I was able to be in the right position. I rode 3rd wheel for the first 3 laps and then people tried to make a couple moves. The first 2 riders wanted to give up their positions but we weren’t having it. Coming into turn 3 on lap 4 and the rider in 4th position made a strong move over the top. Fortunately we were riding fairly high on the track and I was able to respond quickly underneath and grab his wheel. We turned it on and I just sat in 2nd position until turn 3 on the bell lap. We were coming in all together and I was able to come over top and take the sprint. The winners of the Scratch heats were now qualified for the Handicap race later in the evening.

The next race was a 15 Lap Point A Lap. The first rider over the line each lap would get a point and the rider with the most points wins the race. I sat in for the first few laps and then decided to make a move. I pulled around for a point and then looked back to notice that no one responded. Instead of waiting for the group, I tried to push a smooth line and collect a couple more laps. I’m getting updates from some spectators who are telling me that I have to keep it up… I’m 50 meters out… I collect 7 points and then I’m caught. I tried to do the math and realized that I left 8 points up for grabs. I’m watching the riders in the front and could not tell who was collecting the points now. I then hear over the PA something about a “2 way tie”. I wasn’t sure if this was for first place but I didn’t feel like risking it after the effort that I had put in for this race. I stood up going into turn 1 from about 6 riders deep and took the last lap to guarantee the win.

The next race was a 30 Lap Points Race. We would race for 30 laps (6 miles) with a sprint every 5 laps which scored 3 deep. The rider with the most points wins the race. I don’t exactly remember this race except that it was long and difficult and I was able to get into a small break at the end and somehow come up with enough points for the win.

Later in the evening we raced a Miss And Out which is always super stressful. The last rider across the line each lap is eliminated until the field is reduced to 3 riders. These 3 riders will continue for a 2 lap race. Positioning is very important and I’ve only ridden this race a few times so I’ve yet to find anywhere I would consider comfortable. We were down to about 8 riders and I was completely boxed in at the bottom of the track between turns 1 and 2. We are riding very tight and I feel someone coming down on me. I’m communicating for the rider to “STICK” which means for them to hold their line. The next thing I hear is someone going down right behind me. I look back expecting to see several riders, but it was somehow just Kurt. We roll up the track to clear the scene the next time around and then I look back again to see that he is already gone. Then during a neutral lap, I see Kurt rolling back into the field and the race is back on. That was awesome! Kurt earned some serious cred… I decide to move into the front and attempt to control the pace. If anyone came over the top I would be able to attempt to sprint and there was a good chance that a rider would be boxed in behind me and I would survive another lap. We race for a few more laps and I look back and realize that we are now down to the final 3 – and I’m still alive! We roll through our ‘neutral’ lap and then the bell. I’m riding 2nd wheel and on the back straight 3rd wheel makes his move. It seems that he has decided to box me in instead of completing his pass. I slow a bit and move up and behind him. I’m ok with 3rd wheel for the moment but I realize I need to make a move soon… I have to come way over the top and the final sprint is super tight. We finish all within a bike length and I barely squeeze out the win.

Finally – I’m ready for some hanging out and sports beverage drinking while watching the pros rip it up… but we have the Handicap Race. This is a little complicated, but the winner from each heat of each cat’s Scratch Race is now on a ‘team’. The Women start on the back straight, the Experts start between turns 1-2, and the Pros start on the front straight. It’s a standing start with holders and then nail it for 4 laps. The idea is to have all groups sprinting in the end for places… We Experts put together a game plan and are going to try to be at top speed by turn 3 and then take half lap pulls until the end. We are given the “GO” and my holder gives me an amazing push and I was immediately ahead of one of my ‘teammates’. I get on Kurt’s wheel going into turn 3 and he pulls until turn 1. He pulls up and it’s my turn… I’m pulling as hard as I can and I look back to see no one. This is always a hard decision in the Handicap Race – Do I wait for my team which appears to be all broken up or do I just put my head down and spin as hard and fast as I can. I decide to just go…. I pass the women and I’m feeling really good. I come around for the bell lap in first place and then I all of a sudden felt real bad… I hold on for as long as I can and I’m coming into turn 3 when I look back to see the Pro group (they were still together!) coming up really, really fast… they blew past me like I was standing still and I though about trying to catch a tow from them but there was no way I could have caught on. Then I realize that Alex (a fellow Expert) had caught on with them – smart move!

Once we finished the Handicap Race it finally occurred to me that I was done for the day. I had survived my first Festival of Speed and actually did pretty well. I was excited to grab a beer and relax. Later that night I found out that there was a payout for the Expert class. I thought the money was only for the Pro class and the opportunity did not even occur to me... who would have though that I might be in a position for any type of payout…. So, I got paid a little which was a fantastic surprise and another first for me. I’ll just say that I earned my registration money back and maybe some lunch money…

Full results: RESULTS

All photos by Chris Kelly: PHOTOS

66 - SERC/GSC & mixed feelings

2008-06-26T08:12:00.011-04:00

it's been a while so i have two race reports to post in order to catch up. the past few weekends have been busy... why the cryptic subject? the two races were SERC6 and GSC6 and i came away from each of them with a nearly opposite vibe in the end.

SERC #6 – GSC makeup - Clemson

Two Sundays ago was the Clemson SERC#6 race which was also the GSC makeup race. I needed the makeup since I skipped GSC#4 at Heritage Park. Not a whole lot to say about this race… and without sounding too bitter, this is how the race went down… It was the worst I've felt in a race all year. It may have been a combination of lack of fitness, my sausage biscuit having an argument with me, and the fact that my brakes were 40% on 100% of the time. Pissed... I had my bike overhauled and ended up with new bottom bracket, chain ring, cassette, chain and brake pads. When I pick up the bike from the shop the wheels barely moved and I was told that the new pads would work out after a couple miles. After the race my front wheel was marginally better but my back wheel would still only spin a few rotations before coming to a hard stop. No wonder it felt like I was dragging a weight behind me. I just couldn't get any momentum for some reason... Finished the race in 7th place and looking for revenge.

I have to remind myself to preride the course! Again I raced a course I've never seen. Had a decent start and at the bottom of the first descent I completely missed the hard left inside the tree. I end up off the trail while the entire field passed me. In my condition I couldn't have stayed in the front group anyway, but playing catch up from the beginning is not the ideal way to spend efforts.

GSC #6 – Eatonton - Rock Hawk

This Sunday’s race had our wave of categories taking off at 11:30am which was a welcomed change from the 9:30am start times. However, instead of sleeping in we stayed true to our bros and car pool partners and left Atlanta at 7am (that was the plan anyway). Adrian was racing with the base wave at 9:30… We met up at A&P and a brief series of comedies began. Between loading up 5 people’s gear into 2 separate cars and a last minute wakeup call for ARon, just getting out of town was a challenge. We finally make it out of the city limits around 7:50 and we get Adrian to his start with only a couple minutes to spare – he went on to a strong finish with 5th place.

It was really nice to have the time to eat and get a full warm up before the next wave of races started. Unfortunately I once again did not get to pre-ride the course, but from talking with other riders it was explained to me that the course was really fast – except for where it was really slow. Huh? I even heard it explained as a true yin/yang course. What? So the course was a ~9 mile loop and we would do 2 laps. About half of the course was open undulating double track where big ring mashing was the protocol. The other half of the course was horrible single track that had been created within the past few weeks. It was like they had raked a trail between every tree possible and over rocky off camber climbs and descents. Not my favorite course but there is really great potential out there for some excellent trails.

We line up and there are two rows of riders in my class. I knew the start was going to be fast and within about 50’ we were funneled into a narrow paved path and then there was an initial 3’ drop off of the pavement onto gravel and then dirt. I had been watching all of the other cats start and waited for some carnage at the drop but it appeared to run pretty clean. I was still nervous about how I would find it in traffic... The whistle blows and we are sprinting toward the drop (no problem!) and the first section of extremely narrow and twisty single track. I’m 4th into the single track and we are all in a tight pack. We come out to the first double track climb and we are all still in a pack. A couple guys make their first move and I follow. I end up riding second wheel for the next couple of miles… I look back and notice that we are somehow alone. This part of the course was really fast but with many off camber and loose turns. I was trying to stay with 1st place and we were both in the big ring and standing up to get over the short climbs and then nailing it on the downhills. We make it to the next section of single track and he starts to drop me. At this point we are mixing it up with the riders from the previous cats and once in the single track it was very hard to make passes. I ended up off the bike 3 times on this lap due to slipping out on the new unpacked trail or just looking ahead for a passing lane and being out of control on the rocks below. The first lap is finally over and I figure that there is no reeling in 1st place (this is the same guy that has won the past 3 races) so I need to recover some to finish strong and ride cleaner on the 2nd lap.

This lap was much like the first and when I get to the new single track section I realize that I’ve been caught by the 3rd place rider who I had not seen since around mile 4. This was not good news because I was feeling it… A huge challenge for me on this course was having the fitness to ride all out on the open sections and then still be able to handle the highly technical and slow moving sections. All of my muscles were spent and moving the bike through the rocks and holding the line was getting harder and harder. Everytime the 3rd place guy would get within a few feet of me I would have to dig and pull away some. I was just hoping that I could make it last… we get to the last 500 yards of trail and a singlespeeder crashes about 20’ in front of me and as he’s getting up and about to get on his bike in middle of the trail, I’m yelling at him “heads up – we’re coming hard and we can’t stop”. Well – I had to nearly stop or run right into him…. Now 3rd place is only a couple inches off of my rear tire and I knew that he was setting up for a sprint to the finish line. We pop out of the woods and the last obstacle is a 1’ step-up from the dirt to the pavement and then ~30 yards to the finish line. I decide that I need to get into a taller gear for the sprint and as I’m trying to change gears and not stop pedaling – I completely mistimed the step up and had a pedal strike on the pavement which nearly sent me face down. I’m trying to get clipped back in while I get passed and then it was too late for a true sprint. The announcer and the spectators around the finish all give a collective “oohhh aahhh hhhahaa”. The announcer took pleasure in saying “oh – the pleasure of a win and the agony of a defeat” (I was the defeated). I rode 2nd and finished 3rd. Oh well… I was happy with my effort knowing that I couldn’t have done anymore, but I was disappointed in myself for making that last mistake costing my position.

a photo montage of the GSC race:

*the start - i'm nervous and already paranoid.

*sitting up and looking for a passing lane.

*struggling a bit.
*done.

GSC #5 - Carter's Lake

2008-06-11T11:00:00.008-04:00

from what we had heard and read, the Carter's Lake trail was really tough. we decided to head up to Elijay on Saturday for a preride and some camping which worked out great. it was ridiculously hot at over 95deg so i took it really easy and just tried to imagine the course at a race pace. the course was a 5 mile loop which was had several screaming rocky descents and gruelling climbs. the rest of the course is what i heard some people call 'undulating', but that seems like a bit of an understatement. after the ride we jumped in the lake and then headed into town for a nice dinner. perfect day.

[while we were in the lake we watched an episode of our favorite hick sitcom unfold right before our eyes... a family showed up to do some fishing and within a couple minutes the very pregnant daughter gets hooked in the thigh. the dad unsuccessfully tries to pull out the hook and everyone else is mad at her for ruining their fishing trip. they pile back in the car and leave in a hurry. we were making up several alternate endings...]

7am and the race promoters are there blasting Cake through the woods. we wake up and cook up some breakfast and head to the starting line. the race starts at 9:30AM and it is already pushing 90deg! my old man category voted for 2 laps (8 to 7 - i voted 3 but was sort of glad when i was done after 2). it was hot and the course was steep. we toed the line and once i knew that it was going to be a short race i knew that the start was the most crucial part. i pounded up the start climb as fast as i could... i was first to the chicain (sp??) that funneled us into the singletrack - but then Ed flies past me through the cones. we hit the first descent and it is fast and scary. on the first climb i'm riding Ed's wheel and two guys pass us quickly. i follow them and they are killing it. the number 2 guy in front of me is starting to blow up and he is trying to recover on the downhills while i watch 1st place disappearing. i'm telling this guy to "keep pedaling - keep the gap - you've got this - keep up with #1 - do you mind if i get around...." i'm scrubbing this guys tire but there is nowhere to pass. we finally make it to a double track climb and i pass him but never again see 1st place. that guy won by ~2 minutes in an 11 mile race. thats nuts!

this was a great mountain bike course. i wish it was a longer trail because it would be fun to go RIDE (not necessarily do RACE loops on). i understand at least 2 collarbones were left on the trail.

*the pits indicate the heat index.

Goldsprints! ATL

2008-06-04T08:41:00.013-04:00

Goldsprints have made it to the south - and they are painful. I raced a few heats on Saturday night and i'm still a little sore.

this was all part of the Faster Mustache 3 Year Birthday Party and Fundraiser. bands, djs, mustache contest and the main event - Goldsprints... it was a really good time and after a couple good heats and knowing what was left in the bracket - i was feeling pretty good about the competition. i wanted that Kazane! (sorry Chicken). i'm called up for round 4 after Night Moves finished their set. at this point it was about 11PM and i had been at Lenny's since 5:30 with no dinner.... we had to register by 5:30 and run qualifiers at 6 to build the brackets... so - in round 4 they call me and Scott Hodge to the stage. Hodge never shows up and apparently had bailed - much like his lunch after round 3. after some confusion, they decided to call up the late arriving Billy 'the East Point Outlaw' Santana to race against me. whatever - he just happens to be the #3 points holder and Elite/A racer at the Velodrome - spent all winter with his coach riding 20-25 hours a week - and it would be his first heat since he didn't come to Lenny's until after registration, qualifiers and 3 heats were in the bag - so, yup. this was intense and people were putting money on it (i think there was a $3 pot to go to me if i won). they decided to level the playing field a bit and fatigue Billy by having him chug a PBR. so - they count us down and we're off. spinning like frigging crazy and we have people seriously about 5 inches from our faces screaming at the tops of their lungs. fun stuff... i'm being screamed at that i'm ahead and then everyone yells for us to stop. the program had crashed (not the first time) and we were going to have to start over. apparently i was ahead and it crashed right at the half way point - so - they make a rule that if the program crashes at the halfway point or beyond they call the race to the spinner who was ahead - starting now - like if it happened again - not for me. thanks. so they remind us that the program crashes when people jump the count and they begin to count us down again. i listen to the entire count and give too long of a delay (i wanted to be certain that the program would not crash as i was into the last efforts my body would possibly allow). Billy got a jump and i had to catch up. i caught him and kept it really close and lost. something about some hundreths of a second at the finish. i was toast and quickly proceeded to the bar in an attempt to replace the fire in my legs with the cool comfort of a pibber. Billy went on to take home the frame in the final.

i'll share one of my heats... this is what it looked like to race Skip of No Brakes ATL:

This was not the last Goldsprint to be had in Atlanta.

a good report from Kurt at FM with links to photos.

**edit: the party and sprints were given mention on How To Avoid The Bummer Life!! one of my favorite blogs! see if you recognize the photo**

sweet revenge

2008-05-21T22:36:00.008-04:00

While 24 Hours of Conyers was about having a good time and riding hard... not expecting 1st overall.... part of the race was also about my revenge. It feels really good to have a win on the course that put a steel plate in my shoulder. i guess i now have a couple types 'medal' to thank Conyers for.

*Conyers 'medal' - Summer 2005

It seems folks are stingy with their photos. There were a lot of photographers on the trail but very few pics have surfaced.

*cheek made contact with tree

*final laps

*PODIUM - 2008 round of medals.

more ridiculous photos here:

http://fastermustache.org/gallery/biking/race/Conyers24_08/

24 Hours of Conyers

2008-05-18T19:53:00.004-04:00

Not sure what it is – but sometimes after a significant event, regardless of the outcome – I get bummed. I raced with Faster Mustache this weekend at 24 Hours of Conyers. We did well with first place in our cat and overall. A great event, amazing riding, solid and fun teammates…. but now it’s all over and I’m finally home and bored. None of my friends or family who mentioned that they would come show some love actually came – or called – or texted even. This was the first semi-local race (only ~25 minutes from ATL) so I hoped to see some familiar faces. Don’t get me wrong. We had amazing support with team management by Roger and several great friends came and spent time with us. Just no one that had personally told me they were going to come… And I lost my favorite t-shirt. This sunken feeling will fade after my body allows a real/hot meal and some sleep.

The race report….. the longer the event - the shorter the report. or maybe i'm just tired.

We raced hard for 24 Hours and had a rider on course at all times – we met both of our goals. I was able to pull 2 day laps, 3 night laps and then a morning lap with times I’m happy with (42,42,44,47,48,44 min). I always wondered how long it would take me to ride a full loop at Conyers if I actually bothered to time myself. Now I know… My first two night laps were met with sliding off of trail and crashing into large trees. I have trail/tree rash on my face and arms. There were tons of shenanigans including actual mustaches, capes, shirtless speedo/underwear laps, and team FM calisthenics at midnight. The team was solid and everyone really stepped up. I was inspired and made good friends this weekend. Part of me wishes I was still out there struggling.

OVERALL RESULTS

Faster Mustache

**edit - these links seem to have changed...

I'll link up some photos when they're shared. There should be some funny ones.

Dirt Sweat and Gears - '08

2008-05-06T13:08:00.002-04:00

This past weekend I was able to join some friends in Fayetteville, TN for this year’s Dirt Sweat and Gears – “the south’s premier 12 hour mountain bike shindig”. This was a first rate event and from talking with some of the promoters, we could see this event become the east side’s Sea Otter one day. They already have SSUSA the night before main event which we missed but sounded hilarious. It was a 3-stage battle for the singlespeeds… a 2 lap race where the top 20 went on to a hill climb time trial and then the top 8 had to joust American Gladiator style to decide the overall winner. We did make it in time to set up camp before dark and for the viewing of Klunkerz and a few pre-race ‘sports beverages’. We hit our tents around midnightish under a light and intermittent sprinkle - the radars were calling for severe weather.

I wake up around 2AM to talk a short walk into the woods and it is still barely sprinkling. The wind was intense and I couldn’t get back to sleep as I was just waiting for the sky to open up. Still awake and at approximately 3:47AM, the storm hit hard. I was able to squeeze in a couple more hours of sleep and woke up before my alarm at 6:30AM. It’s still raining! We make it over to the pancake breakfast and grab coffee and then it was time to get the bikes ready to roll.

The rain stops at 8:30AM and everyone is wondering what the trails would be like. It was super wet!! I was racing with Faster Mustache and we were fielding two 2 man teams (FasterMustach:Brobots, FasterMustache:YallBros). My Brobots teammate, Aaron (A-Ron Burgundy), wanted to try his legs at the lemans start and I was more than happy to watch. I’ve run the past two lemans starts for whatever team I was riding with and it was going to be fun to watch the action this time. At this point we did not realize how epic this first lap would be. Everyone runs, finds their bikes, and rides off into the woods. That was the last we saw of all of the racers for a long time…. The pros still weren’t back from their first lap and over an hour had passed. Finally, the riders start to trickle in. Many of the riders were running next to their bike and completely covered in mud. There were tons of missing derailers and wheels that wouldn’t roll. I was waiting for my teammate so that I could take off on my first lap and hearing the stories coming out of the woods was making me pretty concerned. I’m starting to see riders come through who I would have expected Aaron to have been in front off and I’m really starting to wonder if he is ok. I’m still waiting at the 2 hour mark and then I see him coming towards the timing tent. He makes a last effort and actually wipes out right in front of the tent to the delight of Bruce Dickman (race announcer extraordinaire). We bump nucks and I’m off for Brobots lap #2! It turns out that Aaron’s tire selection was not ideal for the thick muddy conditions… he had to stop every 50’ to pull mud from between the tire and chainstays just to get the bike to roll. Miserable.

I’m very concerned about how this lap is going to go. We were probably in last place for the 2 man teams and I’m looking at a potential 2 hours of muddy hurt… I’m sliding all over the place but feeling pretty good. I was having fun with it and passing a ton of people. I might have made it into the second mile and halfway up the first long slippery climb… people are struggling up the center and muddiest part of the trail so I decided to hug the right side of the trail. I’m passing folks up the climb and then my rear tire blows out – I can only guess that I ran over a sharp root or something. My rear tire deflates within a couple seconds and I’m stuck and then I realize that I had left my blowout kit at camp!! I start to panic and I’m not sure what to do. I hate to ask anyone for help during a race and I seriously start to walk back down the hill and wonder if I’m even allowed to walk backwards on the course and cancel the lap. It was going to suck to walk the remaining ~9 miles in the thick mud while pushing a bike. Luckily, this festival and race had brought the nicest and most generous of racers... A couple people stop to give me a tube, tire levers, two CO2s and a cartridge popper. I tell them where my tent is so that they can get their gear back and they go on their way. My tube change took forever and I’m feeling demoralized. I finally get on the bike and start to ride – hard. I pass most of the folks who asked me if I was ok while changing my flat and then I passed both of the riders who provided me with their spare gear. I was feeling better now. Then I come across Neal from FasterMustache:YallBros who is on the side of the trail with a broken chain. Of course I’m no help considering I left everything at camp, but I was able to track down a chain tool from a rider up ahead and Neal was finally getting some help. I finish my lap with about 17psi in the rear and Aaron is off on lap 3 for the Brobots.

At this point the sun breaks through and the winds are helping to dry out the trails. Our lap times kept getting quicker as the trail continued to improve. I checked our placement after 4 laps and we were in 12th place (out of 20). It was time to turn it on if we were going to finish in the top 10. We kept ramping up the pace and we were able to finish 6th and only 1 minute and 40 seconds behind 5th. I was happy with my lap times once I realized that all of my non-flat laps were less than 1:05:00 with my final lap putting our team with the second fastest team lap of the 2 man teams (the first place team had several really fast laps). It was finally time for the free BBQ dinner and some cold beers.

We watched the pros (Tinker Juarez wins!) and the super fast on the podiums. They raffle off a ton of frames and complete bikes and Gary Fisher is there to personally hand out the Fishers. The entire event was well run and an absolute blast. I will definitely be back next year!

Dirt Sweat Gears '08 - RESULTS

Brobot Laps

Clay Higgin’s (landowner/race promoter) photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/clayhiggins/DSG2008

GSC#3 - Ft Yargo - Rookie Mistakes.

2008-04-28T19:08:00.004-04:00

after a great week of some riding and watching the pros at the Tour de Georgia and Athen's Twilight Criterium, it was my turn to race on Sunday morning. we went to Athens for Twilight and found couches to crash on so that we would be fairly close to Winder for Sunday's race. we wake up at 6:30AM (only a few hours after going to sleep) and have a quick bite and rush over to Ft Yargo. our previous GSC races have started at 9:30 so we were surprised to find out that #3 would be starting at 11:30. we were super early which gave the Faster Mustache crew plenty of time to set up their new headquarters... although i'm racing and super proud to be a member of APB, i'm also an FM elder and will be racing some team events with them. this allows me access to their headquarters and provides all of us access to a great thing... carpools, rides, high fives, etc...

so, we're all there super early in the rain and i go over to the registration table where they have posted the race information. we will be doing 2 laps of ~5.2 miles each. a 10.? mile race is half of what we would typically do and would definitely be a hammer-fest! since we had so much time to kill and the trail conditions were questionable and since the lap was only 5ish miles - we decide to do a quick lap. we are riding for a while and i'm wondering why this 5 miles was taking so long! turns out that the posting was wrong and we were to race 2 laps at 11 miles each. we had just killed it for 11 miles just before a 22 mile race which will come back to haunt me later. another note about this race which would haunt me from the very beginning - this was a combination race with the SERC series. there were a lot of new faces and a really deep field of 26. SERC apparently brings out the big trailers, RVs, and teams.

we finally line up for the start and i'm all the way to the left. i look ahead and realize that there are two huge trees between me and the hole. i was alone until Chip Whitworth comes and joins me. we decide to stay wide left and try to cut the field off... the whistle blows and we're racing. i get a pretty good start and i'm the sixth going into the single track. i make a couple passes on the first climb and now i'm in fourth. i was trying to keep the leaders in sight but they were flying and i was potentially going to blow up. the top two guys (including Chip) are gone and i'm following the third rider through the woods. we are keeping a really fast pace but after a few more miles i start to get my lungs back and settle in a bit. so at about 8 miles into the 22 mile race, my inexperience really came shining through... we were on a climb and i'm wondering when i would be able to grab a drink from my bottle (i usually ride with a camelbak, but i've been trying to race with a bottle. i've found that the tight twisty stuff is nearly impossible to drink in, the decents are nearly impossible to drink in and the open flats are where i tend to stand up and try to hammer it making it nearly impossible to drink. i need to reconsider my hydration plan for these races). i reach down for my bottle and decide to take a peak over my should to see what kind of gap we've created to determine the number of sips. before i even turn back to the trail, i'm in the trees and over the bars. i pull my bike back to the trail and my chain is off! while fixing it i get passed by a few guys. i get back on and try to clip in (on a climb which is difficult), and my chain pops off again. this happened 3 times and i get passed by 7 or 8 guys. i'm really frustrated and consider quiting for a second... this whole sequence only lasted a few seconds, but it changed the entire day (and probably week) for me. i take a breath, get back on the bike and start trying to reel in anyone i could. i catch a couple guys and make passes before the 1st lap was completed. Faster Mustache handed me a bottle in the feed zone and i chugged and tossed it.

now into second lap and my new goal is to finish in the top 10. i'm used to getting a small second wind, but no luck in this race. i was blasted could not help but to question our 11 mile warm up lap earlier in the morning, our lack of sleep and my dumb decisions. it starts to rain again and it gets slippery. i'm plugging away and mixing it up with some riders from the earlier waves. my next amature move came when i was working on setting up a pass around a slower rider. we were on a narrow climb and i was standing up trying to look over their shoulder. my front tire goes off the left lip of the trail and i'm over the bars again. this time was even more embarassing even though there was no one behind me to see it. and... now my hand and wrist were in throb mode. i keep riding and pass team Faster Mustache who throw out a "Brobot!" shout out and make me laugh. at this point i'm battling with another rider in my category and we are going back and forth a bit. i'm nailing it on a couple flat sections to create some space and then i'd be wasted and he would quickly pass me in the trees. i tried to hold on to him but he powered through a couple more passes of other cat riders and i didn't have the muscle to power through the quick passes with him. at this point i can see what looks like my entire group just ~50' in front of me. i make up a little more ground and realize that it is probably too little too late. there is only a short section of single track left and no open section for passing before the finish. i catch my breath and push through the finish and hope for a top 10.

results are posted and i get 9th. i'll link up the results and any photos when they become available. from what i remember, the top two guys finished 7 minutes ahead of the rest of the riders with the rest of the top 9 coming in within a minute of each other. a dip in the lake, a few sports beverages and some HQ shenanigans and i was happy to be at home and in bed.

this next month will be the hardest for me yet and i'm fearing full on melt down or burn out by June. we are racing every weekend:

May 3-4: Dirt Sweat and Gears
May 10: Festival Of Speed
May 17-18: 24 Hours of Conyers
May 25: GSC#4

no time to explain

2008-04-18T18:20:00.010-04:00

as things get busier i realize that i'm in no place to blog... i just don't have the time to be smart or funny or to even make the entries required to be an actual blogger. that's ok since all i really wanted to do was keep my first season's race and ride reports together.

in the past week i:
-worked a lot and in some strange places**(1)
-saw life ending and was reminded that it's ok**(2)
-spent time in Atlanta, Columbus, Albany and Athens
-raced and won GSC#2**(3)
-was stood up for a date
-saw several shows (Colin Meloy, WhiteRabitts, TheWalkmen, Spoon, OkkervilRiver, TheNewPornographers)
-rode in a sketchy group ride**(4)
-raced at the track and earned some points**(5)
-barely slept

**short reports below:

(1)
if there is anything i enjoy about my job it would have to be that i don't know what each day may bring. for the most part, my work days are mundane and just like most peoples, but what keeps it interesting is the fact that some days i end up in the strangest places. i like the downtown rooftop visit days. i don't mind having to investigate an issue during an interesting event or at a sweet venue. traveling Europe was amazing, even if i was 'working'. yesterday i had no idea when i woke up that i would be in an operating room while a chest was being pried open.

(2) i slammed on the brakes and was sure the squirrel had made an escape. i was shocked and upset when i stopped and looked back to see the guy on his back and kicking. it became worse when his buddy came out of the ditch and circled him a few times while he was kicking and dying. he finally kicked one last time and his buddy hung out for a minute or so before returning to the woods. it was really disturbing to watch him die and interesting to see the concern from his buddy. i walked down the street and moved him to the edge of the woods. i swear that i'm not making this part up.... the next day i was on the trail down in Columbus getting in a pre-ride for GSC#2 when.... a solid white squirrel runs on the trail just in front of me. i only saw it for a few seconds, but i swear it was solid white! maybe it was a ghost?

(3)
*i did not crop this.
GSC#2 was Sunday at Flat Rock Park in Columbus, GA. it was a fast course and we raced two laps which was a total of ~22 miles. no significant climbs, but a lot of tight and twisting trails and dips, rocks, and roots. some of the course had long open false-flats which were ideal for mashing roadie style. there were 17 riders in my CAT (sport 30-39) and once again, they looked fast. the whistle blew and everyone was off. i was about 10 riders deep when we turned onto the trail from the dirt road. i quickly started making passes. i didn't want to let the lead group get away while i was stuck behind riders blowing up after starting too fast. by the 5 mile mark i passed the two lead riders. they stayed about 50 feet behind me for the next ~15 miles. everytime i would create some gap i would find myself stuck behind some other riders from other CATs in the tight/twisty stuff. i would hear the riders catching me and have to beg the slower riders to allow me to pass. about 5 miles remained and i'm telling myself that 'this is your race to lose! just finish clean and don't do anything stupid!' now i hear them giving chase again. they're getting close... on a full 180deg switchback, i try to get a glimpse of them behind me. when i look back down to the trail i find myself over the bars and head first into a tree. my ear and face hated me for that...STUPID! so i calm down and just ride it out. i finish and take the win.

GSC#2 Results

(4) i enjoy a good group ride. weeknights are great for getting out and meeting other riders and crushing it. the ride that seems to be the most regular for me is the Wednesday night Outback ride. this ride has always been known as sketch and i've seen a lot of really close calls. last week we had a couple bad crashes. i think i'll always try to stay in the front group on this ride so that i'm less likely to be taken down.

(5) Tuesday night was rookie night at the track. i'm still working towards my 84 points for a CAT upgrade. we had 5 races and i was somehow able to win all of them. i was blasted... we raced a 5 Lap Scratch, 5 Lap Tempo, 5 Lap Point-A-Lap, 20 Lap Points Race, and Unknown Distance. i'm sitting at 75 points and hope to reach my goal of CATing up before the first Festival Of Speed.

DLV Results

*found a picture at No Brakes! ...

Return To Pisgah

2008-04-07T19:21:00.013-04:00

-visited Asheville.
-ate ridiculous amounts of food.
-contemplated vegetarianism.
-truck camped with Buckley.
-remembered a camera.
-thrashed gnar.
-actually used said camera.
-collected/distributed nucks and high-fives.

Track -- Attack

2008-04-04T16:27:00.008-04:00

Tuesday night was the first race of 2008 at Dick Lane Velodrome. I’ve been nervously anticipating my first race for the past year. The track is just like road and mountain racing in that you have to start somewhere. As a recently certified first time racer I’m in Cat 5 and weary of the sketchiness that comes with that. We are racing with no brakes on one of the steepest tracks in the country (38deg banking). I was just imagining all hell when another first time racer sits up in front of me and gets tossed when he forgets to keep pedaling the fixed gear. Luckily – this did not happen.

Anyway, the first race is in the bag. There were 13 racers in Cat 5 and we all looked pretty green and equally intimidated. It was a partial who’s-who of the Atlanta alley-cat scene which made it fun. There are 3 races which all start with a neutral lap. Overall points are tallied for final placement. We started with a 7 lap ‘Scratch’ race where you score points based on your finish after 7 laps. The pack stayed pretty tight and I was in the exact position I wanted to be in. I rode 3rd wheel for the first 5 laps and then took 2nd wheel for lap 6 and setup for the pass and win on lap 7. The second race was a 9 lap ‘Point A Lap’ race. The first rider over the line for every lap gets a point. Basically, a sprint would ensue each lap. I sat back at first and tried to figure out the strategy for this race. Once I looked up I realized that there were 4 riders that had taken off and left the pack. If they worked together they could paceline then sprint and divide up all of the laps amongst themselves. I guess it took a couple laps, but I got myself back into the mix and was sprinting for points on each lap. I ended up with 7 points. The final race of the night was a 15 lap ‘Points’ race. We would ride 15 laps with every 5 laps being a sprint which scored 3 deep. I made a couple friends and we decided to try to work together on the off laps to get away from the group. We were quickly boxed in and our plan failed. I kept myself up front and the sprints were really tough. I was second on the 5th lap, and took 1st on laps 10 and 15. I was able to win each of the 3 races and my score for the night was 21 which gave me the overall win. I have to earn 84 points to be bumped up to the next Cat (and suffer a rude awakening).

Since some of you have asked – The Masters, Women and Rookies (me) race every 1st and 3rd Tuesday. Pursuit racing is on the other Tuesdays of the month (open Cat with qualifiers). The Competitive/Expert/Elite Cats race on Wednesday nights. Racing is a 7:30PM under the lights.

DLV Week1 RESULTS

********************************************************

i can't help but post this because i can't stop thinking about it. i got word last night that an old friend was a hit and run victim of a drunken dump truck - he is going to be ~fine - but WTF!

train wreck

this guy enjoys pain, but probably did not have this in mind. he moved to Thailand last year to teach math, but when he was in Atlanta he was known for putting together some of the most brutal of alleycats. three notable and painful races - The Hills Race / Alleycross / The Rock.

Lambsandwich - get better my friend!!

GSC#1 - 3/30 - Arrowhead Park

2008-04-01T17:47:00.007-04:00

a double post day - still trying to get current.

Sunday was the first of the Georgia State Championship races. My race went something like this – I’d never done a mass-start/XC type race and really didn’t know what to expect. I also had never ridden any of the course until the start. As this is my first season I'll be racing Sport with the other young and hungry riders. There are lots of complicated classes and rules that I may not have figured out yet.

We line up and the whistle blows. These guys are hammering it up the initial climb. I wasn’t sure how long the climb was so I didn’t know if I should sneak in to grab a wheel or up-shift, stand up and hammer, or just ride my own pace. I ended up trying to drill it into the woods like everyone else. I was probably middle of the pack going into the single track. I try to get my heart rate down but quickly realize that the whole race was going to be a full on sprint and there was no time for recovery. I’m riding hard and trying to catch the leaders. I round the lake and I start to settle in and create a little distance behind me. I’m a little hot as I approach a large hip in the trail. I fly off the hip to find… a second equally large mound of dirt. These woopdy-doos were about waist high and there was no landing. I crashed hard and my bike was bouncing off the trail. A volunteer runs my bike up to me while I do a quick assessment for any damage. I feel fine and I explain “that’s what I get for no pre-ride” and we were both free to laugh. I take off for the next climb and that’s when I realize that I may have reduced my chances of bearing children in the long term, and in the short term – I may need to throw up. I get some really deep breaths down and recover some while my bits begin to descend into their proper places. I'm feeling better... I’m caught by a couple guys and I try to pick up the pace again. A Dedicated Athlete rider stayed on my tire for the next 1.5 laps. Every time I would call “on your left” and make a pass, I would immediately hear “one more!”. I knew I wasn’t shaking this guy off. We pushed each other and ended up catching some of our group. I snuck in a couple more passes and I looked back to find myself alone for once – with only half a lap left. I worked to keep a quick pace and hoped to catch more riders, but I mostly just wanted to finish clean. I finish and then chat with the guys who came in just after me. We all felt we were racing for ~5th. I was surprised when they posted the results and I was 3rd – I’ll take it.

The race was tough. The trail was tight with lots of short grunt climbs. My bike and its broken spoke were not happy with me. XC is a different animal.

*start

*finish

Camp APB - Pisgah - March 21-23

2008-04-01T17:07:00.009-04:00

Trying to catch up here… it’s only been two weeks but it feels like much longer. I’m disappointed in myself for not getting any good photos while in Pisgah. I’ll give the abbreviated version of what went down at camp APB…

Day 1:

We arrived at our camp spot around 11AM on Friday and were on the road bikes within the hour. 10 of us left for a supposed mid-tempo scenic ride that would take us through parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The first 13 miles were basically a climb from Brevard to the Blue Ridge Parkway with the last 7 or 8 miles being steep and slow. We get spread out and meet up at the top. We are now a group of 8 as two of the guys took an alternate route. We descend like crazy and pass cars and dump trucks. It was a little scary…. We were going over 40mph into turns that were posted for 20. Fun stuff. At the bottom the group gets back together and we start pushing the tempo. A nice paceline forms and we're holding a really quick pace of ~30mph for a really long time. We approach the next major climb and half the group decides to back off of the 98% effort and settle down to a 75%. We had two more days of mountain biking and we were going to be blasted!! In reality, no one slowed down and we continued to push it at 90something%. The final 8 mile climb started and this thing was really steep. We were strung out quickly and it took a solid hour to make it up (I wasn’t DFL up either climb!). As we approach the top there was ice all over the place and I was freezing.

We were now really high up on the BRP and the views were amazing. They don’t even maintain these sections of the parkway in the winter due to ice and debris from trees, so we had the whole thing to ourselves. Maybe the most beautiful road I’ve ever been on and it was closed to motorized vehicles! As we gradually descended the pace was somehow over 40mph for a while on what looked like a flat. I felt like I was now on a gradual incline but my speed kept increasing… this was an intense ‘false incline’ and we were apparently actually flying downhill. We approach a pitch black tunnel and I slow down. There were chunks of ice near the entrance and I couldn’t see anything on the inside. I was just waiting to hit some ice and go down. I come out the other side and I was now alone for the rest of the trip back to camp. It was mostly downhill and fast and I was freezing and beat. Not sure what happened to the guys in front or behind me. I kept waiting to be caught by someone but instead I caught 3 of the guys that were ahead of me. We make it back to the campsite and my computer informed me that I had just ridden 72 miles. That was easily the best road ride I have ever been on – too bad I was completely spent and we had two more days of riding ahead.

Day 2:

The next day we were joined by a few more riders and ~14 of us head out of camp on mountain bikes. I had never ridden in Pisgah and was glad that we apparently had plenty of tour guides. All I had to do was try to keep up – which proved very quickly to be very difficult. My legs were super heavy and by the time we make it up the first gravel road climb, I was wondering what these guys had planned for the day. Some of the group took a right into some nice single track and mention a ‘shorter loop’. The rest of the group takes a left and proceeds to ride straight up some massive water bar stairs. I follow them… this is my first apb camp so I can’t back down… This climb was brutal and I was anaerobic within 50 feet. Most of it was hike a bike (for me) or sometimes I would try to hold onto a tree while clipping back in. 20 feet later and I’d be force back off the bike again. I hike and look up and see a few of the guys hiking above me. We get to the top and they let me know that this is a ‘good preview’. We bomb down a steep downhill section that is covered in a foot of leaves and there were fallen trees every few hundred feet. I don’t think these trails had been ridden in the past year. There were several points where I would just lower my head and use my helmet as a battering ram to get me through a fallen trees limbs that were all over the trail. I have the scabs to prove it... This goes on for a couple hours and I was in pain. I finally come out of the woods and find the leaders of the group sitting and eating – they looked nicely recovered. Just as I roll up they said it was time to go – no rest for me!

We ride some absolutely amazing trails. I wish I had a map or made someone write down the trail names for me. We rode a lot of the trails that I’ve read about. I ran out of water and my bottle of Cytomax was only making my want to throw up – I was on the verge of a bonk. I had a couple really great crashes and spent more time in my small chainring on this ride than I probably have in all of my past riding combined. The ride finally ends and we are back on the gravel road to camp. Over 5 hours and 40something miles had passed…. Then – I look up and see my Faster Mustache crew peering up Bennets Gap. They had arrived that afternoon. I stop and chat and we all return to camp together.

To be perfectly honest – on that day (looking back is a little different) – this ride may have been on my 3 worst days on a bike list. I was blasted from the previous day’s road ride, my nutrition prior to the ride was completely lacking, my nutrition on the trail was non-existent, and the first two hours of hiking and climbing and sprinting to keep up did not start the day off in the right way.

Day 3:

I actually drove into town the previous night and bought some real groceries for dinner and breakfast. I didn’t have quite as many beers and tried to recover a bit. I wasn’t sure what we were getting into on Day 3, but if it was anything like the previous day I was potentially going to be feeling it in a bad way.

We added a few more riders and we now had a group of ~18 heading up the gravel road on mountain bikes. I’m told that today was to be a more ridable, shorter and a more fun day. I had eaten well and actually felt much better than I had 24 hours prior so I was tentatively up for anything, while at the same time relieved that today would be ‘more fun’. We climb up Bennet’s at a snails pace. It was funny because we were in such a tight pack climbing so slowly on the single track. We descend off the other side down to the highway. After a couple miles on the highway I find out that we’ll be doing a Fish Hatchery and Caney Bottoms loop. I’ve heard these are super fun and flowing trails and I’m stoked.

We climb some really long gravel roads to get to the trailhead. The trails were great and fast. The guys leading the way were so talented. I’ve never seen such smooth and powerful riding. I get a flat and change it and catch up and the pack is still tight and everyone is having a great time. We come out of a long fast descent and part of my FM crew was no where to be found. Some of the lead guys were actively training for the Cohutta 100 so I did not like making them wait. I had done enough of that on Day 2. We convience the group to split up and some of the guys stayed with me as we climbed back up the steep descent we had just come down to look for FM. We never did find them, but now we had earned another ride down that sweet downhill! We finished the loop and a couple of us decided to get in another. We took our time and soaked it all up. For the first time all weekend I had the chance to slow down and take in some of the views (with no camera). I can not believe that I’ve never been to Pisgah. It really is amazing up there and I can’t wait to go back.

We finish our second loop and explore some short single track just off the highway and finally get back to camp. Another 5+ hour day on the bike and it’s now time to pack up for home.

I’d like to thank team APB for being welcoming and a lot of fun. I have a huge respect for the team, especially after seeing them in action – we really do have some super strong riders and I look forward to taking more notes from these guys. I also want to thank some of the local crew who were fantastic tour guides. They know this forest like the back of their hands and linked up 3 days and almost 15 hours of ridiculous riding (an example of their knowledge without name dropping: 6 riders on these top 8 teams were at camp). I have to say that we had some the best riders in the region at this camp... A Top10 nationals pro, Trans Rockies winners, and some enduro-super stars. Super impressed and can’t wait for next year!

-time to go already??

-camp APB

-my tire also wanted to throw up

dark funnel shaped secrets

2008-03-18T20:59:00.008-04:00

things have been really busy around here but i have nothing specific to speak of for it. i will share some highlights.

there were a couple firsts last week... i finally went to Bear Creek for the first time and rode every square foot of it. the trail was featured in last month's Bike Magazine as Georgia's representative. to be honest, i don't fully understand why they chose BC, but what is there is super fun. lots of gravel road climbs and super fast single track (but not enough to rep GA!). the skies were finally blue, there was still snow on the ground and the water crossings were deep and cold. beautiful! that was Sunday... i would love to tell the 'first' i rode on Monday, but then i'd have to go into some witness protection program or something. it was so great that i don't mind keeping it a secret and i'm stoked to have been invited back. there was also some riding at the track and some Planet Earth watched while on the trainer.

then came Friday... i had been debating on riding this year's first Dirty Spokes 6 hour race at Heritage Park. once i saw the weather moving in for the weekend and noticed the late registration fee and then also realized that my mom was coming Saturday and staying at my house, my decision was pretty easy (i didn't go if you were still wondering). i was at home Friday night getting the house ~clean when the weather became loud. it was about 9:35PM. Buckley and i went onto the front porch because we're be fans of loud violent storms. it began to hail and the rain was flying completely sideways. Friday was trash day and i was laughing because all of the trash can's that people had left at the street were now cruising down the street in a raging river. they were all piling up against my neighbors truck which was parked on the street. it was dark and crazy and maybe the worst 'thunderstorm' i had ever seen. then my phone rings and it was a buddy telling me to turn on the news. he just had a funnel cloud hop over his truck. he was downtown at Philip's Arena and a tornado in downtown Atlanta was unheard of. well... turns out that it was a tornado. it was later determined to be a high F2 with winds over 135mph. it left a 6 mile seam through downtown into the in-town neighborhoods and then lifted up about 1000' feet from my house.

we took the mountain bikes out on Saturday for a destruction tour ride. the news did not come close to capturing what the damage looked like in person. downtown was practically shut down because of falling glass and clean up efforts. people were out helping their neighbors. at times i felt like i was in the Will Smith NY vampire movie. we had the downtown streets to ourselves but we had to watch out for police tape, broken glass and sheet metal. crumbled brick buildings and abandoned wrecked cars littered many corners. it was just plain surreal. after seeing the damage and hearing the stories, it is really amazing that so few people were hurt and no one in Atlanta was killed. some close friends had some close calls and will be a little uncomfortable for a while. we were caught in another wave of storms Saturday afternoon and as it started to hail pretty big we ditched the bikes and ran into the closest Willy's. we had a burrito and a beer while we watched the warnings on the news and the weather out the window.

**i only took a few pictures. didn't want to be too much of a gawker.

family came in town the the weather finally blew over. we had a cookout and all was well... it was my niece's birthday on Sunday so the plan was to go over to their place for breakfast. once i thought about it, i actually had 3 birthday get togethers on Sunday and i was really excited about the opportunity to squeeze in a couple hour road ride between what ended up being a noon breakfast at Cafe 458 and another birthday cookout on the A&P rooftop. i took an in-town loop which tours my favorite in-town neighborhoods. i was feeling a little guilty because i was enjoying the weather and my ride so much but i was having to weave through some seriously damaged parts of town. i got my first ridiculous tan line of the year and made it to A&P for some beverages and grilled foods. i had to take off from there for another friend's birthday dinner which happened to be at a restaurant in the first floor of 101 Marietta St. the building was all busted up and we were surrounded by damage again. our party of 8 was the only table in the place the entire night (weird) and that was the end of a roller coaster weekend.

last night was the first Monday night advanced training session at the velodrome. it was tough and i threw up a little. 4 separate 8 minute intervals with 100% sprint efforts at random will pretty much do it... green beer followed and i was real happy.

Buckley and i just got back from the Oakhurst dogpark and it is officially spring-ish (when does spring start?). the place was slammed with lots of rowdy pups and i couldn't help but notice the bikes. i honestly saw at least 60 people ride by while i was tossing the ball. there were three different group rides that went by. each group had between 10 and 20 riders and a completely different paces/age/vibe. then there were several small groups of friends just cruising and some soloist doing hard efforts. bring on spring and good/dry/non-funnel shaped weather!!

it's official - i'm sort of a sell out?

2008-03-08T11:38:00.004-05:00

i’m excited to announce (to both of my readers – hi mom!) that i’m officially part of the Atlanta Pro Bikes 2008 roster (website is not '08 ready). the team has been around since 1995 and i’ve personally been dusted by a couple of the guys in the recent past. don’t let the name fool you… this is no “pro” deal by any means but there are some perks. with a list of sponsors including Sweetwater, Highland Bakery, Maxxis, Willy’s, The Highlander, etc… i hope to get a burrito and maybe a beer out of the season. in fact, i’ve already learned that anytime i stop by the shop on North Highland Ave i’m greeted with a PBR (and occasionally the chance to dance the polka). combine the PBRs with the experience of being on a team with some really strong riders and to say i’m excited is probably an understatement. i’m still planning on hitting it on the mountain bike and will continue to ride at the track this year. some of the team has started with the first couple road races of ’08 with some very impressive results. while i had not intended on doing road this year i may have to jump into a couple races just to see what it’s like.

since this blog is in the spirit of being green to all of this cycling stuff… i have to let you know that the thought of riding with a team and having a logo covered ‘kit’ never occurred to me a couple years ago. Example… i raced in a 24 hour road race,FM.24.06, a couple years ago on a fully fixed gear all jeans and t-shirt team. my only road bike for a couple years was my fixie beater that was intended for commuting and the occasional alleycat or bar ride. we, DREADNOK, finished in fourth place (out of 37) and were the only team in the top six riding all fixed gear and not on a ‘squid’ team. DREADNOK came back this past September for FM.24.07. we had ridden enough to learn about the relief of chamois and half of us rode geared bikes. we finished second (out of 59) behind the same AVX team that won the previous year. I knew the transition had started… by transition, i don’t mean that i’m moving away from the fixie and the in town cycling culture, but i have begun the leap into trying all facets of riding/racing and putting in the effort to do so while wearing the funny clothes that make everything much more comfortable. i'm getting a little old to be racing down Peachtree St at midnight on a Friday for $5 - not to say that i won't be doing that on occasion. hey, at least i don’t shave my legs – yet. we’ll see what this year brings.

i’m looking forward to the APB ‘camp’. i’ve actually only met five of the riders so far so it will be great to put faces with the e-mail chatter. we’ll all be in Pisgah for a long weekend, March 21-23.

**keep an eye out… another perk – by getting into an APB kit, i’ve just reduced my chances of being hit by a car by at least some. that is the brightest green I’ve ever seen.

Snake '08 - Version 3.0 - Finale

2008-03-03T21:58:00.001-05:00

the third and final 2008 Snake Creek time trial was this past Saturday. the weather was amazing and the trail was nearly perfect. some wet spots and deep water crossings, but probably the best condition of the three events. i felt a little unprepared going in but i was relaxed and looking forward to it. we get there and as usual we are the stragglers. we load up our bikes on the trailers and jump in shuttles for the start line. for some reason the trailer with my bike doesn't show up until most of the riders had already started. i had hoped that i would get an early start so i wouldn't be spending excess energy making passes. while i waited for my bike i talked with last year's winner and find out that even though he wasn’t registered for the 17 miler, he was sent to be the spoiler – to “knock me down” - by an APB rider no less... it was cool and friendly and i was actually thinking that if i could get him to start right before me he could be a good rabbit to chase.

i finally get my bike and spin around the parking lot for a quick ~warm-up. i decide to go ahead and shed the leg and arm warmers and before completing the first climb i knew i had made a wise decision for once. i start my ride at 10:59AM and there isn't a whole lot to tell. i rode hard and hoped for the best. i felt pretty good and made it to the long gravel road climb before my only split marker - no Les Savy Fav yet! this made me really excited and i started to push harder. i made it over the climb and back into the second half of the course just as the song came on so i knew i was probably around 3 minutes ahead of my January pace. i was sloppy in parts, slow in parts and fast in other parts. i had no falls this time and a handful less dabs. i did suffer through the couple usual hike-a-bikes and the long one took a lot out of me. in the previous events i pretty much forgot about water and nutrition. this time i had decided to try to remember to take down a gel during the ~100' hike. that may have been the toughest moment... being completely anaerobic while dragging a bike one handed up the climb and digging for a gel with the other and then trying to get it down and drink water all without stopping. i nearly gagged, but i think it helped in those last brutal miles where fatigue won't allow you to concentrate on finding a line. i had one close call that was a lot of fun... i was pretty much screaming on a downhill and there was a quick left that i missed. i ended up off the trail and endoing through briars and dips just between trees. i somehow stayed upright and clipped in and eventually made it back up to the trail and later got my heart rate down after letting out a 'HOLY CRAP!!' or something.

it was the same bumpy (gross understatement) trail and i was feeling the same fatigue but having a really good time. i realize that it's almost over and i'm approaching the last ridge and eventually the towers (if you've ever been on this trail you know how important 'the towers' are). i come across some spectators hiking up the trail and they give me some words of encouragement. i think they said something to the effect of "looking good! only 200 more yards and then it's all downhill!" no more than 20 yards later and i thought i was going to bonk. for some reason those last '200 yards' were really tough and felt like 2 miles. i reach the towers and hammer down to the finish line and this time there are 10 songs left on the playlist. SWEET!!! i was happy to have improved my time from January and after the mechanicals i had in Arizona, i was super relieved that my bike performed like a champ. funny thing though, both of my tires were completely flat by Sunday morning. i somehow got a slow leak in both of my tires but no flats on the trail. that is some good luck!

so... i guess i closed the series with the proverbial 'hat trick' and first overall for 17 miles. the after party was great. we enjoyed some 'sports beverages' and lots of free food. the supergroup, A Fine Mess (i think?), dad-rocked our faces off with covers of everything from Billy Idol to Puddle Of Stained. joking... but seriously, i hope to have some pictures just so you can see these guys. there was also a father/son trials duo in the lot giving a really cool demo.

unfortunately our brofessional FasterMustache crew suffered an upset in the end. we went into the finale with seven of the top eight times between the four of us. we were shooting for finishing with first through fourth overall in the end. there was a 34 second spoiler that showed up and knocked our number three guy off the podium. he only rode the March event and finished with third overall but i guess that's the way it goes at Snake Creek.

Here are the Overall Results.

i felt pretty good once we got back to Atlanta. we decided to ride to get some celebratory Mexican food and then possibly find something to get into. i ended up riding to a couple parties and then to see some friends in the Highlands. i think the combination of being up and riding the fixie around town until 3AM finished me off and left me with some blasted legs yesterday.

reclaim your streets!

2008-02-29T20:58:00.000-05:00

**borrowed image of Critical Mass, Budapest (e-mailed to me).

Atlanta --> www.criticalmassatlanta.org/

Wiki --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass/

today is the day to reclaim the streets, even if it's only for a moment. find out where your city's meetup is (probably at ~6PM, so hurry) and go ride around town with all of your best bike friends. for me the ride is not a protest - it's a celebration and an act of awareness. don't piss anyone off and have a happy Friday!

i'm working on the algorithm that would explain my opinion about CM. first of all, i feel like CM is a great time for people to come out and try biking in the city. CM is safe and slow and reminds people that biking in the city is doable and the most fun way to get around. the feeling and sights of the city make it so worth leaving the car at home when you can.

back to the math... if you have ever seen Critical Mass or ridden in one or read anything about it, you know that it is fairly controversial. Friday night douchebags in their cars hate it! it makes them arrive to their couch maybe five minutes later than originally planned. some bike commuters are against CM because they feel it makes them unsafe when one of the pissed off cagers comes across them days after a bad CM experience. participants, new and old, enjoy the experience and take it to the streets on a more regular basis. incorporating the bike into someone's daily life could change a lifestyle for the better, while making the rest of us safer... Atlanta seems particularly unsafe simply because the drivers are just not used to dealing with bikes on the road. they don't know the laws or how to react. more bikes on the road equals more awareness and a safer bike community. in the long run that makes for a happier and potentially healthier city.

so, maybe it could start out something like this...
1 Critical Mass
5 new participants - who realize they can ride in town and actually do it.
10 really pissed motorists (this is a high estimate)

the pissed off motorists may tell some friends and their uptight mental state could go either way. they could convert a non-bike hater to their side or be brought back to reality and find some compassion and fun in their heart. so lets say 6 months later and those 10 pissed off motorist equal a total of 15 still pissed off drivers from that Critical Mass event. i doubt that number is realistic at all and i would expect it to be much lower.

now, the 5 new riders will have a blast and will tell their friends. they will bring more friends to future CMs and continue to talk about how their bike has made them feel. they will be witnessed on the road and create a positive awareness for the community. some of their friends will either pull out a bike on their own or if they never ride at all, they will likely always pass a cyclist with care while wondering if the rider is a friend of theirs. so lets say that after 6 months the overall influence of the 5 new participants equals 50 positively influenced cyclists and drivers.

Six months after a hypothetical Critical Mass and the cycling community has a net gain of 35! now consider years or a lifetime later... this is purely a theory, but i've seen this effect with my own community and circle of friends and it's way cool. i've ridden CM for the past few years in Atlanta and once in Chicago, which was amazing. it seems every city has their own flavor but mostly its a positive vibe. i don't feel like i 'have' to ride every month but it is still fun to get out and play.

Happy Friday!

my thumb is weird

2008-02-26T20:54:00.000-05:00

this past week has been pretty rough... probably because of too much work and very little play. work has been nuts - this better not be a pattern - enough said. we have SnakeCreek '08 version 3.0 this weekend and i am feeling way unprepared. my bike did not make it back from Arizona until last night which means that i have not ridden it in over a week. i'm excited to see the box and can't wait to pretend it's a new bike that i'm unpacking and putting together. the only problem is that i have a busted pivot bolt and there is no way i can ride the darn bike until i find a new bolt! i finish unpacking the bike and FRIG!!! the downtube is smashed... dented and paint chipping. i'm pissed! luckily the smash is far enough away from the welds to make me too worried about compromising the frame. maybe this is just another sign that i'm due for a new mountain bike???

now for the pivot bolt... it seems like the only way to get a pivot bolt is to order an entire rebuild kit which costs over $100 (and can't be shipped before the weekend). i left my bike at a shop so they could try to find a spare bolt lying around today - no luck. i go to pick up my bike and it is boltless in i'm potentially bikeless for another weekend and will miss the SnakeCreek finale. i express a little of this frustration with Ben at Peachtree Bikes and we talk about the different forums i could post on to possibly get a bike or pivot for the weekend... i decide that i'll just go to a hardware store and try to rig something up. thats when Ben decides to pull the good bolt out and take a look. something clicked and i could see the light bulb come on. within a couple minutes he had fabricated an entire pivot rebuild from a Shimano derailer bolt (the one that attaches the derailer to the hanger), two washers, and two bushings made from a juice bottle. perfect fit! a friend of our shows up at the shop and Ben chats her up while working on my bike. a while later and my bike is pretty much race ready. both of my brakes had been adjusted, my rotors trued, my chainring tooth straightened and minor shifting adjustments. sweet! now i have no excuses for not showing up this weekend - except i think my thumb is infected from that damn cactus. it has red spots on it, its warm and throbby and feels like its jammed. unless i was playing basketball at some point in my sleep i have no idea how it could be jammed... do they amputate digits for being hot, throbbing, and possibly jammed??

so... if you lose a pivot bolt and don't want to spend a ton of money or you're on the trail and can't wait to get to your local bike CoOp (SOPO!!) for a busted deralier to part out - a quick fix could be to pull your deralier, shorten your chain for single speed and then use the bolt in your busted suspension. Ben and Peachtree Bikes are the jam (sorry apb - i'll make it up to you).

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo

2008-02-20T00:32:00.000-05:00

24 Hours of Old Pueblo is now gone and i miss it already. i've ridden a couple 24 hour road races, but this was my first on the mountain bike and it was easily ten times the size of any event i had been to. registration closed at 3,000 and then there were the friends, family, volunteers and the folks who just came to 24 Hour Town just for the party. 24 Hour Town is about 45 minutes outside of Tucson, AZ and then another 45 minutes down a dirt road into the middle of the desert. I'm not sure how long it took everyone else to get down the dirt road, but my friend's lowered VW GTI doesn't like the mud.

so, we arrive to town around 3PM on Friday and it was 40 degrees and had been raining for a solid day and is supposed to continue to rain through the night. we meet up with our two other teammates and pick a camping spot and begin to setup... we then realize that we were not at all prepared for this. wasn't i in the desert!!? how am i going to get rid of this head cold!? no pre-ride!? we decide to pile into the Honda and head back to Tucson for a good meal and a warm/dry hotel room... we check out the weather forcast and it calls for 2-6 inches of snow. meh, i never claimed to be hard core.

we get back to our camp the next morning to find our colapsed canopy with a pile of snow next to it. at least the rain had stopped and now it was just cold. the captain's meeting is in 15 minutes so we all walk over and get orientated. it turns out that i'm going to do the first lap which means i'll be running a lemans start and hit the trail with several hundred other crazy and anxious mountain bikers.

i'll explain the race and the course a bit... i'm trying to make this short, but its hard... so the race lasts for 24 Hours. the team (we registered in the 4 man category, but there were also soloist who are completely nuts) with the most laps the quickest after 24 hours wins. races often have a running (lemans) start in order to thin out the crowd a bit before diving into the singletrack. the 16.? mile course for this race was really great. it started with about a mile of fun and fast single track and then a series of six steep climbs and desents on service roads. they call these 'the bitches' for a reason. then you dive back into mostly fast single track with quick turns and cacti everywhere. the last five miles have you climbing into the 'high point' trail which goes around the back of the mountain next to town. the final two miles are possibly the most fun trail i've ridden. you scream down through rocks and dips and the edge of 24 Hour Town. people are scattered sporadically throughout the entire course cheering and clanking cow bells, but when you come into town and there are people lining the trail, the energy is amazing. the trail ends with 'the option'. you can either go right and have smooth sailing into the timing tent/finish or go left and climb up a series of rocks and then down the other side to the delight of all of the spectators just waiting for a quick and smooth decsent, a possible huck, or an all out crash.

ok - i'll speed this up... at noon the gun is fired and i'm running 400 yards down a muddy road in cycling shoes with several hundred screaming and panting bikers. the road is lined with people the whole way and we are being cheered for and laughed at. i find my bike and i'm off... at this point i'm actually still stuck among the parked bikes and the running masses. we're basically leaning on each other to keep from falling as we make our way to the trail. we were moving fast and there were bikes for as far as i could see. i was probably in the first 2/3 of the people on the the trail. one of the great things about riding in the desert is you can see for miles. it was fun to see the riders weaving through trails and switch backs that i haven't made it to yet and then to see then once i hit a switch back i can see bikes coming forever. the bitches had people pulling table tops over some the hips on the desents and i was squinting as hard as i could because pebbles and mud were flying everywhere and i had forgotten my glasses. i did get some air of my own, although i'm not sure i was intending to. we settle into a very fast pace and we are cramming into the single track for the first time in a pace line. this was my first time riding out west and contending with cacti. i had a chunk of a pricklypear stuck to my hand within minutes of arriving into town and i did not care to experience that again. after a scare, i learn quickly to follow the guy in front of me and not attempt to look around him for a pass. some parts of the trail were soupy mud and really slippery. by mile 10 the paceline was starting to break up and some people were breaking down and getting passed. there were some quick spurs off the trail or around a cactus to allow for passing but you had to time these perfectly. i was feeling good and making some passes and there were several people right on my rear tire. with only about 3 miles left in this first lap i started to slow down and lose traction. i could tell my front tire had a slow leak in it... less than a minute later the slow leak was a full on flat and i had to pull out and make a change. i was really impressed that the guys behind me actually commented with a 'shit! that sucks man!!' and acted disappointed as if they were enjoying themselves and hated to see me go. i pulled my tire off and started to get my new tube in within seconds. people were flying past and i think every single one of them asked if i was ok or if i had everything i needed. i was and i did, but i was getting frustrated. everytime i got one side of the tire seated the other would pop off. i was clearly freaking out and making this fix harder than it needed to be. i had to stop and take a few breaths and drink some water. now i was calm and ready to finish my fix and get back on the trail. i pop my CO2 and fill up my new tube. i ride hard on about 19PSI for the rest of the lap. the last climb and couple of miles through town are ridiculous fun. i get to the end and take 'the option' before even know it. awesome! i hand off the baton to my teammate and he's out on our second lap.

the sun starts to break through and i'm hearing that the trail is getting better by the minute. i hang out and watch other riders go through the option. i wander around town and check out some of the vendors. i eat some cookies and wait. by the time it was my turn again it was dark. i was going to ride my first night lap through the desert and i was stoked! it was cold at camp but i felt great on the trail. this lap was uneventful... there were a lot of people on the trail and i passed many of them and got passed by some superstars. one more time over the option and i'm handing of my baton. we each had put in a night lap and my team lets me know that they are done for the night. i decide to go back out and wanted to ride hard thinking that the trail would be a little more clear at 1AM. this lap was fast! it felt great but wasn't without incident. my light is the cheapest thing on the market several years ago. after seeing everyone else's lights on the trail i now know that i got what i paid for. i passed three guys and before my eyes could adjust to not having their lights leading the way, i was off the trail and going over the bars. i somehow landed on my feet and grabbed my bike and ran back onto the trail before they had made it back up to me. that was over... then at the end i wanted to have my way with the option this time. maybe see about a nice huck over the last drop. i speed into the option and pedal strike a rock which sends my bike sideways into the air. i come unclipped but somehow don't go down. i'm over the option with a huck and a few cheers from the late night crowd. my lap was completed at 1:44AM (i think?) and the time was 1hr 13min and i was happy.

these night laps were interesting because the soloist that were still on the course were at the breaking point. either they will make it through the cold night or decide to break for some warmth and possibly some rest. maybe even sleep... some of these soloist were creeping at a walking pace and others were sitting on the side of the trail staring at their bikes. certain parts of the trail started having lifesize cutouts of John Wayne and aliens appear. i'm pretty sure the soloist were delusional enough at this point to think they were about to be abducted.

after my 2nd night lap i go back to camp to warm up and see if anyone had decided to go out for a lap. a couple of the teammates were hitting the sack and the other one was volunteering in the timing tent. i hung out for a while and decided to check out the timing tent and possibly volunteer if they needed me. i found my teammate and he trained me real quick and we were now signing people in and out on laps. this was really fun because i was able to see the spirit of the soloist still going at it at 3:30AM and the dynamic between the highly competitive teams. while this was fun, it also made me feel like a slacker. why wasn't i out there riding!?

i head back to camp around 4:30AM and sit next to the fire. i am loving it... i could look out over the desert and see 24 Hour Town and then off in the distance see the lights of the riders on the trail miles away. this was sureal... i pulled out the iPod and tried to pick some nightcap music appropriate for the sweet spot i was sitting in. nothing was able to do the morning justice, but Songs:Ohia Magnolia Electric will hopefully always take me back to that moment. i crashed for a couple hours.

i wake up and the sun is out. not a single cloud in the sky! i had to snag a sunrise lap before the team was up and stirring. i started to get my gear together and realize that everything, shoes, jersey, bike, is covered with frost. my teammate wakes up and starts cooking some breakfast. i give him the opportunity to grab the first lap of the day but he says its fine if i go since i'm already ready. i sign in and head out for the glorious morning lap! my shadow was 20' long and i'm cranking through the bitches. i'm in the big chainring on the way down and then realize that i'm cruising in the big gear on the single track. the trail was in the best condition and the most wide open i had seen. i kept thinking to myself that this could be the last 16 miles i ride in the wild west for a really long time. i was determined to make it count... with about 6 miles left on this lap and still feeling strong, i start to hear a strange scrubbing sound. then my rear tire starts to lose traction and i'm feeling a little out of control. great! i was pissed! another flat, and this time it was at a really bad time. i push to a road crossing about a 1/2 mile ahead and hope that one of the spectators here will have a floor pump so that i can properly top off my new tube after the change. as i'm rolling up, i start yelling for tools and a pump. no one has anything... i jump off the bike and grab my tire to see how much air i had lost... the tire was stiff. i didn't have a flat - my rear pivot bolt had broken and fallen out on the trail. i was going to either have to walk back to town and forfeit that lap or finish with a broken bike. i decided to crank my way through the rest of the lap with my rear all over the trail. my bike squealed and sounded pitiful with each pedal stroke. i come into town and i've somehow gotten my speed up. my bike was making all sorts of sounds and my wheel was wobbling between the chainstays. i take the option one last time and hope that the other bolt doesn't snap. i'm done! my lap time appeared to be 1hr 4min which made me super excited. i had gone into the tent to sign in just after 7:55AM and finished my lap at 9:02AM. i go back to verify my lap time and they break the news to me... my start time was technically the same time as the end of the previous lap. that made my lap over 7 hours long and i was bummed. i go back to camp with a broken bike and a busted ego.

the fastest lap was right at 1hr and i just wanted to somehow get into the top25 of the fastest laps since my team wasn't exactly competing.

i took in the sights and enjoyed the rest of the morning. the vibe at 24 Hour Town was incredible. it seemed that mountain biking is a different sport out west. there were tons of spectators cheering for the riders. calling them by name and discussing their seasons. these were mostly friends and family and everyone was really pumped about bikes. kids were riding and climbing on the rocks. music was blasting and it felt like i was at a snowboarding event or something. mountain biking is definitely more rock and roll out there. i had to tell myself that Georgia could be like that, but there are just too many trees for people to enjoy the events.

we watch the awards and score some free beers. we head back to Phoenix and i pass out within the hour. after a great breakfast and some negotiations to get my bike shipped back home, it was off to the airport. i had a couple hours before my flight and was happy to just hang out. i find out that my flight was oversold and i may get bumped. i volunteer my seat and take a free round trip voucher and settle in for the later flight to Atlanta. definitely worth the wait considering i had no reason to rush home.

lessons learned... what i got out of this race... ?? i don't know. i had a great time and rode through a desert for the first time. i could have and probably should have ridden a couple more laps through the night when i found out that my team wasn't interested. i guess i don't have any regrets really. oh - don't touch the pricklypear!

some pictures

Snake '08 - Version 2.0

2008-02-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

i made it up to Dalton and the Pinhoti trails for the second Snake Creek time trial on Saturday. i put a lot of thought into this run because i wanted to take 3 minutes off of January's time. i actually paid money to have my bike overhauled and didn't even have a beer for (almost) a week before the race. what was i thinking!? obviously it was overkill...

a quick assesment of my goals and strategy:

Goals:
1- Ride hard. ** i rode hard.
2- Always work on catching and passing someone. ** ~40th rider to start. 3rd to finish. i passed a few folks.
3- Improve on previous time. ** NOPE.

Strategy:
Les Savy Fav came on during the same gravel road climb and i was not happy about that. i tried to step up the pace for the second half and just couldn't close the gap. TV On The Radio beat me to the finish.

after a couple days of rain, the trail was in surprisingly good shape. the race coordinators were on the trail all day Friday clearing trees that had fallen during the storms. the creek crossing were pretty deep and the only real problem spots were some of the slippery turns and the 'peanut butter' climbs that completely zapped my energy. i was sloppy on the rocks during the last five miles and took a pretty hard fall. i actually took a few falls, but only one of them was what i would call hard. i think my hand and ankle will be fine and the bruises should all be gone within a few days...

this month's run was definitely tougher on me. my bike was having some ghost shift issues (why did i pay $ for a tune up?) and actually dropped the chain at a couple really unfortunate spots. the rocks had sliced into my rear tire's sidewall during the last run so i put on a new tire which slipped out on some climbs. these tires may be good for Arizona in a couple weeks, but for next month's Snake3 i may have to put my old tires on and just boot the sidewall gash. anyway, aside from all of the excuses, everything turned out pretty good. after all that, i only lost 3 minutes from last month and that was good enough.

our crew finished early and after the race we met some of the likeminded Yazoo crew and enjoyed their namesake's libations. it looks like we'll be seeing them on their turf at Dirt, Sweat and Gears. without Bruce announcing this month, it was a little too quite so we bought some of our own 'sports beverages' and pulled the Scion around for some tunes. we ate free chili, cobler and cookies while watching the rest of the field and the 34 milers finish up. the NWGASORBA folks run a great race.

another exciting development - after two months, me and the boys are sitting with 7 of the top 8 times.

Overall Results so far

they can move some bikes...

here is what Saturday's frustrated effort looked like:

**i really hope that other photogragher somehow deleted the picture of my crotch making contact with the top-tube as i was falling between some rocks. that was a cruel place for a photo-op unless he was looking for blackmail!

moving on... to continue my 'streak' this weekend, i put $5 into the pot for the Super Bowl last night. apparently the game was squares and it was my first time gambling. to my surprise - i won! i had the 1 out of 100 squares that paid out at the end of the game! nice! but life is much like the Pinhoti (see - it's sort of bike relevant), every pay-off is followed by another bruttle climb. i woke up this morning and was on my way to host my Monday morning meeting when.... this is emabarassing.... the low fuel light comes on. i didn't have time to stop for gas and thought i could make it. i was wrong and ended up walking up the Holcomb Bridge exit during rush hour this morning. i quickly remedied the situation and ran into the meeting smelling like 89 octane and only a couple minutes late. i open my laptop to get started and realize that my power source had also failed this morning and i was pretty much screwed. the work day just got worse from there, but i'll keep it to myself. that's what riding is for.

ready or not?

2008-02-01T21:48:00.000-05:00

i'm about as ready as i'm going to be. Snake08 version 2.0 is tomorrow. i rode hard last weekend. i recovered. i spent a freezing night at the velodrome. unfortunately that was cut a little short since i left any base layer at home and lost feeling in my fingers and toes... i even spent some time spinning the 'wheels' while it was raining outside. iPod is charged. my bike is clean and dialed in (i hope).

with all of the details leading up to race day covered (like a true amature), now i need to worry about the actual race. good thing i have a strategy... i've never worn a heart monitor, i don't wear a watch and my bike isn't fitted with a computer or GPS. so, this is my master plan... my goals... same as they ever were...

1- Ride hard.
2- Always be working to pass someone.
3- Improve on previous time.

goals 1 and 2 will be up to me and my riding style and effort. goal 3 is a little harder to quantify until it's too late. since the only technology i'll be toting on the trail is my iPod it will have to serve as my coach. thats why i came up with this:

**click to enlarge

this is the same playlist used for Snake08 version 1. all i really remember which may help me set a pace is that i was on a long forest service road climb when Les Savy Fav - Pots and Pans came on. i remember yelling along with "NO NO NO" & "THIS TOUR IS A TEST" just to take my mind off of the climb. so... i will need to be finished with that climb before that song comes on to know that i'm faster than my previous pace. unfortunately that is right before the mid point of the course so i don't have pace setting landmarks for the second half... i need to finish the course before TV on The Radio!

now it's time to stuff my belly with some tasty carbos...

**feel free to copy this playlist. it may make you faster, happier or maybe even sad. i have no idea... i just snagged some songs off of some of my favorite albums i was into last year and shuffled them.

out with the cold?

2008-01-30T00:54:00.000-05:00

with the death of our snow friend (there was a lump of ice in the yard for almost a week) and Snake Creek 2.0 this weekend, i needed to get out and ride! i tooled around town a bit but decided that wasn't enough to make me feel on top of my game.... so i decided to get some night laps in at Conyers. unfortunately it was still ridiculously cold Thursday night. between the windy 20deg temperatures and the slippery freeze though conditions, i only stayed for a single lap. i was happy to warm up with a beer and comedy night.

i wasn't satisfied with the riding i had been doing, so i was really excited about the weekend and the prospect of an epic day with the crew. we headed up to the Pinhoti (Snake Creek Gap) Sunday morning with the plan to ride the full 34 miles of trail. we brought our own SAG support and shuttle. we dropped a car off at the conference center and then dropped off our SAG supplies at the half way mark and then found the beginning of the trail. we didn't get started until around noon... the first half of the Pinhoti is really fun with some big climbs at the beginning and big jumps at the end. the SAG stop in the middle was perfect with Aaron supplying the best PB&J and cookies i may have ever had. while making sandwiches we watched a few people get started from this parking lot. there was a couple that had ridden the trail before and clearly knew what they were doing. then there was a young guy who looked eager, but maybe not very experienced... we finish up and get started about 15 or 20 minutes later.

i rode fairly hard and was having a really good time. i figured that we would meet up at the top of the gravel road at mile 25. i came out of the single track to see the couple approaching the gravel road. i passed them and they decided to pick it up... i could hear them on my wheel as we pushed each other. this climb seemed longer than i had remembered and i think we were waiting for someone else to crack. no one cracked, but we did stop at the top to chat and i waited for the rest of my crew. the couple took off again and told me they were turning back in 10 minutes so they could get back to their car. that made me think... where was that eager kid that headed out of the parking lot without a water bottle or a hydration pack. as i waited i started to realize that the temperatures were dropping and i was wet from a recent creek crossing. i put on some leg warmers and was ready to go.

we all headed back into the single track for the last and most difficult nine miles. i started to get colder and decided to push hard... i hoped that that would warm me up, get me out of the woods before dark and maybe into some dry socks. after a couple more miles i finally come across the eager beaver. he was standing next to the trail looking a little out of it. i sacrificed some sweet downhill and stopped to make sure he was ok. he was wondering how much farther till he was back at his car. he didn't know that the trail was a straight line and not a loop... he did not bring any water or food and was spent. i gave him my CliffBar and offered to get him back to his car if he continued with the last ~7 miles. he decided to head back the 10 miles back to his car. there was only about an hour of daylight left so i knew he was going to struggle in the dark and cold for a while.

i continue on and get tired and sloppy and have a couple good falls on the rocks. i'm happy to to finally see the cell tower which lets me know that i'm out of the woods. i fly down the gravel road to the highway and then realize that i have to dip back into the woods for a quick 100 foot section of single track that nearly spits me out and onto the highway. at the end of this short section there is a nice lip and i'm so excited that i decide to pull up hard and try to fly to the pavement. i didn't even get close and land hard in loose gravel... my front wheel turns and i superman over the bars. i'm bruised, but happy because i'm done for the day.

we all meet up at the car and go to pick up our SAG supplies and then back to the other car. Unfortunately the kid's car is still in the dark lot at ~9PM. we leave a gallon of water for him and hope that he's either almost done hiking or camping with a guy we saw on the trail. either option sounds pretty awful.

now i'm satisfied - for a day at least. unfortunately i feel like i've wasted whatever edge i may have had on Sunday night by not getting out today. i'll have to do something about that before Saturday. also, i had a ranger visit the trailhead to make sure the kid's car was gone. it was and i'm sure he has a good story to tell.

Snow Day '08

2008-01-20T10:26:00.000-05:00

it snowed in Atlanta yesterday and we did what most self respecting Atlantan's would do... we played like children. well - the adult version of children...

**not pictured.
-my friend's (and new neighbor) reveal for HGTV's My First Place. look for us on cable sometime this spring.
-me being pelted in the face with snowballs.
-another friend's (and neighbor) surprise birthday party.
-the jerk who stole my hat off of our snow friend.

here is a before and after just to remind us all that no one is ever completely safe. not even on a snow day when you are the guest of honor.

sympathy pains?

2008-01-18T17:20:00.000-05:00

this week has been pretty low key... since our recent knee surgery we've been watching the first two seasons of Dexter and eating tons of comfort food. ok - i didn't have surgery, but my roommate did and i'm starting to believe in sympathy pains. my roommate tore his meniscus during one of our Piedmont Park field days back in November and finally had the clean up surgery. since i was beginning to hate myself for the number of cookies i'd eaten and the number of hours spent sedentary, i forced myself to check out a spin class. believe it or not, my knee was sore the whole hour.

to be perfectly honest, the weather here has been pretty awful this week and i've felt like a wuss. it has been cold and wet, which are both surprising for Atlanta these days, and even more surprising is the fact that we had snow! for the past couple months i had been planning on going to Macon this weekend for the Thompson Appreciation Day but with my friends having other plans and the weather not cooperating i've put the idea to the back of my mind. i was planning on trading in my Thompson winnings from the Tumbling Creek race a few months ago for a new seat post... i'll just mail it in with my condolenses... in a sad turn of events, the man of the weekend, Ronnie Thompson, passed away last week and now the birthday party is a memorial service.

Atlanta is supposed to get more snow tomorrow which could be fun and i guess as a concession we were given a really nice afternoon today. i made a list, pulled out the beater and enjoyed getting some errands done. i even cashed in my winnings from last month’s Faster Mustache Toys For Tots race at Outback. i finally replaced my crushed Giro helmet with an LAS Kripton. it looks fancier and is likely much more safe than my cracked helmet but I’m sure it won’t make me look any less like a tool. point is, it's always fun to play in traffic on a beautiful Friday afternoon.

*********************************************************

IN MORE EXCITING NEWS... i’m officially going to Arizona for the first time!

i’m meeting some friends next month for 24HoursofOldPueblo!!

Thursday, February 14, 2008
US Airways # 617
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson ATL (ATL) to Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl (PHX)
Departure (ATL): February 14, 7:29 PM EST (evening)
Arrival (PHX): February 14, 10:00 PM MST (evening)

i guess i’ll have to buy my bike some chocolates.

i just hope our knee has recovered by then.

note to self - fix your own chain!

2008-01-15T11:30:00.000-05:00

This past week was full of good rides, failed ride attempts and excellent makeup rides. We made it out to our ‘weekly’ night ride on Tuesday... Last winter we rode practically every Thursday night no matter what the temperature. It seemed to always be freezing cold but after a couple laps we would all stand in our steam clouds while talking about how hot we had gotten. This year has either been exceptionally mild or we’ve been much lazier. I have gotten a good number of night rides in but I haven’t seen my own steam at all this winter… It was a beautiful night in Conyers and five of us were there with lights fully charged. The parking lot and the infield of the horse park were becoming covered with dense fog. The lights lit up the fog and limited our visibility making me think this ride was going to fun. We had escaped the fog right as we entered the woods and there was an immediate fifteen degree temperature difference. Throughout the trail there were patches of cold clouds attempting to block our way.

Conyers seems to hand out failures in pairs… On my birthday we had planned on riding three complete laps, one for each decade. We ran out of spare tubes after I got two flats on the exact same root on two consecutive laps. We ended up heading back to the house and kicked off the best birthday party ever just a little early. Tuesday night I broke my chain on the exact same rock where I left a link only a couple months ago. This latest failure has reminded me to buy some QuickLinks and makes me wonder how long it will be before Conyers takes my other collar bone.

Wednesday night is track night and this past week was really great. There were at least twenty people putting in some winter laps. I’m new to the track so I’m just happy to get into some pacelines and eavesdrop on the more experienced guys. I took off a little early so that I could have my favorite spinach salad at Ace’s with a side basket of curly fries. And a couple LoneStars – the puzzles are fun.

I woke up Saturday with 35 miles of Bull and Jake mountains in mind. After a Kirkwood breakfast and some dog park time…. I ended up only having time to make it to Blankets Creek. The place was completely slammed and I was quickly reminded why I don’t ride Blankets during daylight, especially on the weekend. It was actually really nice to see the number of people interested in riding and the number of families appreciating some quality time. It was really crowded, but apparently not many folks venture down to the South Loop.

Sunday I woke up with every intention of catching the airport ride. I ran around in circles all morning trying to get breakfast for Buckley and myself which meant a trip to the grocery store. I knew I was cutting it close, but unfortunately I cut right through it and missed the start. Later that morning I was lucky enough to get an invite to Chicopee and my afternoon plans were made. I broke a chain within the first mile and was again reminded to BUY SOME QUICKLINKS! We rode every inch of Chicopee at a killer pace and I was happy to get home and crash. My legs felt abnormally heavy and it appears my reliabilibuddies are on a mission to take out their revenge on Snake Creek. I guess we are going to ride hard for the next couple of months…. all business I guess? Not sure how I feel about that.

happy friday.

2008-01-14T18:57:00.000-05:00

I was minding my own business at lunch a couple days ago when I got a text message from a friend that I haven't seen more than once in almost a year. “omg your blog is so boring!” I would assume this was just a quick pick-me-up from an old friend to help usher in a great weekend, but something tells me it was likely just the opposite. I never claimed to be interesting and I’m positive that the vast majority of people could care less about bikes. I can only imagine what torture reading about the combination might be. So, I’m not arguing the point, I’m just providing disclaimer… This is where I may be keeping some ride and race reports. I’ve enjoyed some other rider blogs for some time now so I guess I am the target audience – chances are – you aren’t.

These lucky bastards are the real thing – you probably wouldn’t like their blogs either:
http://teamdicky.blog.com/
http://eddieodea.com/
http://harveyminton.blogspot.com/
http://namrita.blogspot.com/
http://www.kristapark.com/

Snake '08 - Version 1.0

2008-01-09T09:30:00.000-05:00

This is a time trial series where they take the best time of three attempts. There is a 17 mile and a 34 mile option. The trail is so tough that they expect you to have serious mechanical problems for at least one of the attempts I guess. This is the only 5 star difficulty trail in GA (according to Kurt's book). I registered for the 17 mile option which puts me onto the back 17 of the 34 (the ‘impossible’ half).

I had never ridden the Pinhoti before and from what I had been hearing, the trail was impossible. I wasn’t intimidated by the trail, but I was a little intimidated by the 250 bikers there. Everyone looked really tough…

So – I went out really hard with three goals in mind.

1- Ride as hard as possible until I get to the ‘impossible’ parts. Make up time where it’s possible.
2- Always have a rider in sight and work on passing them. We were let out of the gate ~1 minute from each other.
3- Finish before my 2.5 hour playlist.

The ride was fast in sections and very technically difficult. I’d pay money to watch someone clean a couple of those climbs. I ended up with 2 crashes, 2 hikes and several dabs.

Result – I did not get passed. I passed probably 40 riders. I finished with 9 songs left on my playlist.

http://www.nwgasorba.org/Snake2008/Snake08_JanuaryResults.htm

Now I have to go back for Snake2 and 3 in Feb and March to try to improve my time and defend my standing. So far I’m the only rider that has broken the 2 hour mark. I’m fully expecting some competition from some unfortunate riders who may have been dealing with a series of mechanicals.

This is what a sub-2hour effort on the Pinhoti looks like:
(**it's not pretty**)

I should mention that I rode up to Dalton with three of my ‘bros’. My accountibilibros… We have ridden a ton of miles together over the past year and have watched each other improve. We each have our own style but somehow we always finish a trail at the same time… [Example: We rode in the Fool’s Gold 50 mile event (http://55nine.blogspot.com/2007/08/fools-gold-100-50-mountain-bike-race.html ) last summer and after 6 hours of riding we finished within 10 minutes of each other.] We are shooting for taking spots 1-4 once the series is said and done… after January we are sitting in 1,2,4,and 14. Aaron had three flats in Snake1, so we expect to see him up top next month if he can keep his bike healthy.

The important questions…

2008-01-08T20:15:00.000-05:00

People often ask me “what made you get into bikes?” I always answer “umm… I was a kid once?”

I am not a serious bike advocate or a world class racer. I haven’t defined a message for myself, nor do I know how many watts I generate in the first 10 meters of a sprint. I am a fan of bike culture(s) and having a good time. I strongly believe that a bike friendly city is a happier city. In any given week I may ride multiple bikes in distinctly different styles with the only commonality being that each one is fun. I ride around town, in alleycats, and to the bar on an old fixie conversion and get a kick out of the hipsters… I ride a geared road bike in large and quick group rides and get a kick out of the lycra-clad, heart rate monitoring cyclists… I ride a track bike at the velodrome and try to keep up with the obsessive track racers who secretly train all year with their coaches and relate every moment to their regimen… I ride my mountain bike everywhere that isn’t paved and love everything about it, including the beer and taquitos…

This is a place for me to share with my friends and family. This may or may not be a place where I share random observations and/or aspects of my life not bike related at all. I make no guarantees about how often I will post as I am typically a private person. That’s something I’m working on… My family feels like I don’t let them know what I’m up to and for years many of my friends have given me the nickname ‘the ever elusive Austin’. Maybe this will help us understand each other a little more. Even though “what made you get into bikes?” is a simple question, it may have a much more complicated answer than we know just yet. Another reason I'm sharing here is for my benefit. Over the past few years it has seemed like every experience is either a first or the best. I realize that a lot of that has to do with the newness of the previous experience being lost. I'd like to make my experiences last a little longer.

the buildup...

2008-01-08T17:25:00.001-05:00

A quick story to fill in some of the gaps up to present...

If I claimed to remember learning to ride a bike it would be a stretch. I have a very blurred memory of the event, but I believe it happened pretty quickly. This was before training wheels and helmets were a necessity. All you needed was someone to hold the back of your seat for a couple pedal strokes and then the resilience to allow you to fall a few times without deciding to give up and watch cartoons instead. I do however remember my first bike race! It was a sprint in Spearman, TX. I was seven and it was the summer of the ’84 Olympics, I had been matched up against the fastest dog in the neighborhood. I think he was a black lab, but I’m certain he liked to chase bikes. I was winning by half a dog length when I looked back to make sure my ankle wasn’t about to become a chew toy. Before I turn my eyes back to the road in front of me, my front tire sunk into a bike eating pothole and my chin was sliding across the pavement. After a handful of stitches and more than 20 years, I am still asked about the scar on my chin on a regular basis.

I wanted to race BMX just like every kid – or every kid I knew at the time. We built dirt tracks all over the neighborhood and in the surrounding woods. Our moms would take turns dropping us off at Cheehaw Park in Albany, GA where there was an amazing dirt track with huge jumps. We rode all day everyday and would take breaks to get motivation from our favorite movie, RAD! Like all of my friends, we moved on to freestyle bikes and then skateboards… My mom was the coolest in the neighborhood so naturally my back yard had a half pipe and the street in front of the house had multiple launch ramps, boxes and rails, not to mention at least 3 kids with attitudes drinking our Kool Aid. I also wanted to be a distance runner which was different than any of my friends. I did many junior races with a decent record and 1 triathlon… Oklahoma City, won the 10-12 year old category! Mostly, I just spent my childhood playing. Constantly. Unfortunately, we also liked to be dangerous and one afternoon a trampoline/sprinkler incident led to me having stretched knee ligaments and the development of Osgood Schlatter’s disease. This put an end to my very young running career. So I continued with the typical evolution of an active boy as far as I knew in south GA. I became more interested in girls, playing in bands and working my minimum wage jobs to pay for gas and fast food. And then it was off to college.

With the idea of getting around campus, I bought a cheap mountain bike a few months before I thought I’d be leaving for college. What actually happened was that I fell in love with the bike and I went out looking for the trails we used to ride when I was much younger. Unfortunately the woods surrounding my neighborhood were now just more neighborhoods. There were no trails or woods to be found. I did find some trails on the other side of a narrow highway and visited them practically everyday during the summer after high school. I also liked to surprise my girlfriend and shock her parents by riding my bike to their house. We only lived about 15 miles from each other, but this was in a town with a lot of fast two lane roads and drivers who have never seen a bike outside of a subdivision. Maybe I’m lucky… it had never even crossed my mind to buy a helmet back then. The summer came to an end and I was happy find out that Georgia Southern’s campus was crawling with bikes and several of my new friends in the dorm were equally excited.

I’ve wanted to race mountain bikes since my freshman year of college. I used to ride my fully rigid (clearance sale) Diamond Back all over Statesboro and we would have midnight rides on campus several nights a week after studying. I came across the Georgia Southern mountain bike team in the woods one afternoon and rode with them for a couple hours. I was able to ride along side them and outride some of them…. Yet, they weren’t very friendly and I never saw or heard from them again. I think a lot of it had to do with my ‘WalMart-ish’ bike and I didn’t have the money to buy a nicer one. So, on one really fast midnight ride I crashed and my wrist, lower back and that bike were never the same. I didn’t ride much at all through the rest of college as I moved to Georgia Tech and continued to get busier with studies and figuring out how to pay for the real world.

Every spring between ’98 and ‘03 I would get the itch to go riding and would go bike shopping. I didn’t have nearly the money for the bikes I wanted so I would rationalize why I should concentrate on work rather than risking being relatively broke and potentially broken again. I was living the consultant lifestyle where you didn’t know who was going to write your paycheck from project to project. I had been laid off from projects twice before and was told that my latest contract was going to end 6 months prior to initial thought. So, after being a consultant for several years and not having time to do anything but work, worry, eat and gain my freshman 15 a few years late, I hired onto a full time position which to me simply meant less money but more free time and stability. I could consider a hobby!

With my first salaried position and my first ‘bonus’ (which was not nearly what my imagination had led me to hope for) I did some serious mountain bike shopping. I bought a previous year’s model at a clearance sale and went directly to the nearest trail. I was so eager to get out there that I didn’t wait to get a helmet, water, food….or directions. I ended up lost in the woods for a couple extra hours and as it was getting dark, I started to wonder if this was really something I wanted to get into. Before my next ride I went out and bought all of the essential supplies.

Some time (years) passed and I had gotten a few miles under my belt. I was proud of myself if I got out of town a couple times a month and rode maybe 10-15 miles. I would often take my dog with me and he loved to run the trail right on my back tire. He runs as hard as it takes to keep up and I have to stop more often now to keep him from completely blowing himself up. I was alone at the ’96 Olympic trail in Conyers when I reconsidered my hobby again. I went down hard and could not lift my arm. I hiked back to my car which was over two miles away while dragging my bike and then after asking for directions, drove myself to the emergency room. I had a “shattered” clavicle and had to have a steel plate and a series of 8 screws permanently installed. Yikes! This kept me off the bike for a few months and took a lot of the fun out of riding until I met some great friends who are usually up for riding at any time.

Now I ride often and begin to feel unlike myself if I go more than two days without getting on a bike. I’ve been lucky enough to incorporate bikes into my lifestyle. Weather it is riding to the store, bar, work or on a quick road ride, the track or on some of the great trails that surround us in Atlanta. Bikes have kept me young at heart and have reminded me what it was like to be a kid instead of constantly worrying about the everyday grind that beats so many of us down until we settled into a recliner talking about the good old days. Everyday is a good day and the opportunities just continue.