2012

Ok I an going to bring this back to life again, or at least try to. So far no real racing action for me other then finishing up cross season with Nationals in Madison back in January, that race went a little better then expected I had a goal of not getting lapped and also lasting more then 1/2 the race before getting pulled/lapped. I understand they have a rule of 80% of being behind the leaders and you get pulled, now how far back I was not really sure and would I have gotten lapped before completing 2 more laps, probably, but I was just happy to be racing my bike with the Nations best racers and knowing that I have a lit of work to do before the race returns next year. Speaking of that I am going to try and follow some more structured training this year instead of my just riding around like I have the past 5 years or so, I have never really did any intervals other then hill repeats and pulls on fast group rides.

So far I just finished up a 5 week training block getting back on the bike with mostly base type riding nothing overly hard, did a couple hill rides just to try and judge where I am at and with Kent Park coming up in 2 weeks I will need as much hill work as I can get. On call week ends tomorrow, daylight savings was last night, and temps are going to be in the 70's most of this coming week.

The other thing that has changed is Angy has decided she want to run a 1/2 marathon in May and I have been running with her on most of her workouts including the long runs on the weekend, which is up to 9 miles today, when we started running 3 miles seemed like forever, but after 2 weeks in a row of 8 miles it really isn't too bad.

A few pictures from Nationals

Iowa State Gravel Championships

Today was the State Gravel race hosted by Twisted Spokes down just south of Kalona, I saw this race a little while back and wasn't sure if I was committed to racing on gravel, but as the time came closer I decided that it might be fun to give it a go. Looking at the race flyer I noticed there was a Mountain Bike Open class, and since my cross bike is down right now with a shifter that isn't making with the happy, I figured this was something I could do. Load up the car and head down, get there with about an hour till we were off, got registered and waited to see who was showing up, saw Landon, and he was giving me crap about doing the mountain bike class since he too would be doing it, and then a little later another guy shows up with a mountain bike, not sure who he was but was from an Iowa City team and didn't know how strong he would be. We got all lined up and it was a neutral start for the first 1/2 mile or so till we got to the actual course.

The course is 7 miles long with pretty much rolling hills for the first 5 miles and then the last 2 miles are where the bigger hills come in.

Heading into the first lap we were joking about just rolling the first 2 laps together and go all out on the 3rd, but quickly that plan changed. I dropped back to talk to the other mountain bike guy to find out what his fitness level was and what kind of threat he might be. The group was rolling along really well together until we started hitting some hills, I was up front with the only singlespeed guy in the group and we pulled the others around, there was only 9 of us in the 4 or 5 different categories that were on the road and the mountain bike class was the biggest with 3. We get to the west section and that is straight into the wind, and being as I was up front I was doing most of the work, I tried to drop back a few spots but seemed like noone really wanted to come through. Turn onto the final stretch with all the climbing and I think on the 2nd of 4 hills is when we started to lose people off the back, by the time we got onto the 2nd lap we were down to a group of just 5, the guy on the single speed, 2 60+ guys and Landon and myself both on mountain bikes.

I tried to get the others to work on this lap to just put more time in between us and the others, but didn't get much interest in that, so I continued to set the pace at the front and tried to sit in if I could on some sections to conserve energy. This lap would be pretty uneventful as the 5 of us rolled along the countryside, no attacks, no one really falling behind we just stayed where we were at. Legs were feeling good on the hills and towards the end I would put in a few little digs on the hills to see if anyone else in the group would be going with, and John Adamson was the only one to really keep with me. Going into the 3rd and final lap we had a small gap, maybe 15 seconds, and I was ready to go, but he informed me that he would be going with, but not working at all since his teammate Landon was racing against me, and he wasn't attacking a teammate. So for a little while I kept going and decided it would be more fun to wait for the group and battle it out at the end. Sat up and within about a mile of that time the guy on the singlespeed had gotten a flat so he pulled off to fix that, now we are down to 4, John makes an attack and I decide not to chase him, I probably could have bridged up to him, but since we were about to turn into the headwind I wanted someone's wheel to sit on. So thats what I did, got onto the wheel of the other 60+ guy and sat there waiting for the final right hander leading us into the climbs again. We get there and now it is on, Landon comes charging from behind on the first hill and I follow right on his wheel, second climb I put in a small effort to only have it matched, and realized it will be best to wait. On the 3rd climb Landon tells me he is fully expecting me to pull away from him on the final climb and once we get to the bridge it is on, so we get to that point and now I am up front and he is on my wheel, I don't attack on the bottom part of the climb, but you can start to see the barn where the finish line is so I give it a little more, he follows, and then once we hit the 200 meters to go sign I decide it is full on sprint time, put my head down, pick up one gear at a time and don't look back.

Ended up 2nd overall for the group, and got my 1st Win since returning to racing in 2006, felt really good, and to know that I have the legs to attack and recover pretty quickly was awesome. I did get some crap from my wife for beating an old guy, but it's all good. Headed back to registration to change and get my medal, and my prize, a plate of homemade Cinnamon Rolls from Landon's wife, they are so good.

So I am the 2011 Iowa State Gravel Road Race Champion in the Mountain Bike Open Class!!!

2011 Team

Guess I never announced it but I am back racing for HBA Racing for the 2011 Season.

Snake Alley Crit

This past weekend brought the return of road racing to my season, first time since 2009, and what a way to come back but to do the hardest race in the area. For those of you not familiar with the course it is a .8 mile lap with a climb up the second "crookedest" street in the world, with 6 switchbacks and an average grade of 12.5 percent and a max of 19 percent.

I didn't make the decision to race until just over a month ago which meant I was behind on getting a great starting spot, but was still good enough for a 4th row call up, and with as wide as we line up on the line I was in the 3rd row, looking around there were a few people I recongnized but for the most part it was out of state racers and even the ones from Iowa I wasn't familiar with. I had a game plan and that was to line up as far to the left as possible as the start is a downhill roll out to a 90 degree right turn which then starts you with a one block straight up climb before entering the narrow street know as Snake Alley. My reasoning for this was I figured everyone would be fighting for a position on the inside line of the corner and I would be able to carry more speed on the outside, so they give us the countdown and we are off.

I was able to get clipped in right away and was trying to move up as fast as possible, but got caught behind people that didn't get in right away, boy do I love my Speedplay pedals, a little bumping but was able to get where I wanted to be, and turns out that my plan worked flawlessly, I was able to get down into the little ring before climbing and not worrying about dropping a chain, shot past a good part of the field and entered the Snake up in the front, by the time we hit the top of the hill I was sitting in 3rd place, wow not where I was expecting to be, and once you get there you drop down into a technical descent with 3 downhill 90 degree turns, full of painted lines, and manhole covers, my descending skills are pretty good so I was able to retain my position until we hit the bottom where it flattens out a little bit and the guys with bigger motors then I have passed my, but still sitting up in the top 10 heading up the Snake again. The next few laps were about the same, I would try and climb the best I could, but was losing some time and places there, turns out I just ran out of gears quicker then I thought, next year I will have a 12-27 out back for that little extra climbing gear.

I would continue to ride the next few laps solo, lost some more places by now, not sure how I am doing, and we are at the halfway point now. The field was so blown apart and I see Rob McKillip at the top of the hill cheering me on, he started with me but got pulled early on, so at this point I was in survival mode and tried my best to TT the best I can to avoid getting caught and pulled, had very consistant lap times through these last few all around the 2:44 area and was hoping to stay away, come up towards the line on lap 7 or 8 and see the USCF Ref down on the street kind of waiting to pull people, and thought my time was up, but I was spared and he pulled the 2 guys that were maybe 10-15 seconds behind me, dodged that bullet, next lap saw him again and I was still allowed to continue, so figured I was doing well enough that I wasn't holding anyone up or causing a situation to where I should be pulled.

At this point the sky's opened up and it started to downpour on us, not good for this race, but knowing there was a chance of rain I was running a lower tire pressure to try and get just that little bit of extra traction. I was climbing when it started and going down the first time was borderline scary, I grabbed the brakes going into the first corner and they didn't do much for me, only slowed a little, so I sat upright and trued to avoid leaning the bike in the corner so I didn't go down. Climbing proved to be a challenge as well since you can't stand up on the bricks when they are soaking wet, and I am not a good sit down climber, with 3 to go I got caught by the solo leader, so I only had 2 more laps to go. I did the best I could to stay out of the way of riders that were lapping me, but of course they were catching me on the climb, so I would take the far outside line, was easier to climb there, but my lap times suffered pretty bad. Final lap and I had been caught by 3 guys but had another group of 6 or so charging pretty hard so I basically sat up before descending to get out of the way, was a mistake because no one was actually going downhill faster then me so I just jumped in line and would get out of the way at the bottom, I had one guy think I was on the lead lap and almost sprinted but told him I was lapped, he smiled give me the thumbs up and cruised across the line.

At this point it was still raining hard and I had no idea how I did, went and found my wife and headed back to the car to change, the rain stopped shortly after my race and I was able get changed and walked over to look at results, ended up in 23rd out of 52 finishers, 62 starters, and 5th Iowan. I was very pleased with that result. Came home and downloaded the info from my Polar power meter and compared my race to when I did Snake Alley 2 years ago and had an increase of 32 watts average for the race, I was pleased with that as that is a 10% increase in power over 2 years time, means I am still getting stronger.

Pictures from the race can be found here

2011 So Far

I know I have been bad about updating this since I have been into the social media with Facebook, and recently twitter, and have been letting people know what has been going on there. I will try and keep this more up to date though as race season is getting into full swing.

Training so far hasn't been consistent to say the least, had an awesome January, February I fell off a little bit, March wasn't great either, but April things started coming around as I got to a few group rides, races started up and was getting good mileage each week, and now we are into May and things are going well.

First race for me was Sylvan Island MTB race in April, always a great way to start the season, this year I will be competing in the new Comp Class in the IMBCS Series basically in between Cat 2 and Cat 1, and the same people I was battling with last year for the overall in the series also stepped up to this class, and with that they have upped their training. So this year they decided to do a parade lap which was about a mile long to add some longer double track sections and try and break up the pack more before heading into the singletrack to prevent a bottleneck. Well from what I was told beforehand we would not be doing that as our classes were small enough that we wouldn't need that, apparently the USCF Ref didn't get that message and sent us out to do the lap, so the tape was moved at the finish line area but not in the woods, I was in 2nd place at the time and the tape was across so I yelled out to the guy in front to just go under it, and a course marshall held the tape up so the rest of the field could get under it, so now I am in 1st place leading the way though the lap, and we come back down by where the start line was to see all the Cat 1 guys standing there and they stopped us saying we weren't supposed to do that and we would be restarting, crap my HR was up and I was ready, but now I had to stop and stand around again. On the restart I was bumped into the 2nd row somehow and even though I got clipped in right away I didn't get a great start and was 3rd going into the woods. First lap I felt like I was doing awesome, till I couldn't reel in the guys in front and could hear guys coming from behind, so I just did my best to hold my position. I would lose a few spots before that lap was over, and was doing my best to keep up the pace I had set. The problem with Sylvan is that they only have so much room to build trails so it is tight singletrack with many turns with short sections in between so you are flying into every corner and pushing to get out of them as fast as possible, well after a couple laps of that it takes it's toll on you and I was really starting to lose some major time on each lap. By the last lap I was toast and every corner I just wanted to stop and get off the bike and walk out of the woods, but knew I had to just keep going, was helpful that there are a ton of spectators out there cheering and that keeps you going. I came across the line in 14th place in the Comp Class, not bad for the first race of the year, but farther down then I was hoping. Pictures are here http://angysnoop.smugmug.com/

Next race was the Decorah MTB TT going into this race I knew there would be a lot of climbing which I did my best to train for by hitting some hills around here, but still nothing can prepare you for this race. The weather was less then desirable for this time of year, when we arrived it was 37 with a wind chill of 32, I didn't pack for that kind of temps, I did have arm and leg warmers, but just my summer long finger gloves. I did pre-register which gives you the option of choosing your start time when you check in, and since it rained the day before I wanted a later time to let it dry out a little more, and was able to get 40th spot. I got a little warm-up in and rolled up a few minutes before I was to go, and knew who my guys right before and right after me were, and with 1 minute intervals you can kind of judge how you are doing out in the woods if you can see them. I started off up the road towards the entrance of the singletrack and dove into the woods to start climbing, this year was dryer then last year and that was nice being able to climb everything and not have to get off and run, I started catching a few of the slower riders not too far into the woods, so we climb almost to the top of the hillside, and then switchback down towards the bottom to only climb again, and repeat a few times, except this year they had a cruel idea of sending us basically all they way down to the start line to climb all the way back up as a sustained climb that would take somewhere in the 3-4 minute range, then drop down the backside of the hill and hit yet another 3+ minute climb, then bomb back down to the flat section of the course next to the river. For only being 6.1 miles long there was just over 1100 feet of climbing, took me 42:15 which was good enough for an 11th place overall and 3rd in my age group which the overall placing was awesome for me and I was pleased with that. Here is a video I took with our Go Pro handlebar cam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGeZr1XsQtg

After that I did Snake Alley Crit which I will do a separate write-up on that later.

2010 Cyclocross Season

I know it has been a long time since this has been updated, so I will cover the whole cross season in one post, and Jingle Cross will get it's own.

First race of the season was at a new venue in North Liberty at Bobber's Bar and Grill put on by the Iowa City Crew, and Race #1 in the Eastern Iowa Cyclocross Experiment (EICE) For the series I did the combined Cat 3/4 lined up on a nice 50 degree day with a mist in the air, not really raining but enough to make it chilly. Lined up front row as the start wasn't very long, and then had a 90 degree left onto the grass, got a good start and was either first or second going onto the grass, lead into the barriers and continued there for a little while. Halfway through the first lap and we had a gap forming and 5 of us were gone. We would battle that out over the next few laps and exchanged places depending on what section of the course we were at. About the halfway point I was still feeling strong, and could tell some of the others were starting to fade, so I put in another good lap and was all alone by the time we came through with 2 to go. This is the point where I don't like being as there are guys in front you can't catch, and the guys behind aren't really gaining on you much, so just have to continue to give it all you got. I go around with one to go, and know I am in a good position, cruise that lap and end up coming across the line in 3rd Place out of 15, good enough to score me some upgrade points.

There was a couple week gap in the schedule till the next EICE race, and I didn't feel like travelling to Des Moines, so I found out about a race in Illinois that was only about a 3 hour drive, and decided we should go out there and see how I do in a larger field. So we head out there and I go to register and after turning around my wife points out that Barry Wicks is standing right behind me, and she gets all giddy like a school girl, Barry is the man. Being as this was part of a series and I didn't pre-register I knew I wouldn't get a good start like at the local races, but didn't realize it would be this bad, I was in the last row of about 70+ starters, oops. Oh another sweet thing is this race had a fly over, which I have always wanted to do a race with one, but nothing was local, was awesome. So back to the start, I was able to get clipped in right away, fast start into a left and then a right, weaved through the pack, was able to get into about mid-pack and was riding well, barriers in the woods, and with this being a Cat 3 race you would think people would know how to dismount and remount, but nope was a traffic jam, I was able to get through and pick up a few spots, but of course by now the leaders were gone. Found myself in a group with about 6-7 other guys and was nice for a change to be with people, I think this was the first race that I was with someone else the whole time. I did have one stupid crash on the first lap on a downhill 180 degree corner, but once I found the line through there I was good. The course wasn't overly technical, so of course the stronger road guys would pull away on the straights, but I would bring them right back in the corners, or the short run up. Going into the last lap I found myself with a small group of 2-3 guys, was able to loose all but 1 going into the last little bit, and found us sprinting for the line which I don't recall ever having to do that. Came across the line in 34th out of 64 finishers, and was pleased with that result, wish I had a better start maybe could have pick up a few more spots.

Back to Iowa for the next race in the EICE, Devil's Cross in the Quad Cities. Always a good venue with a good run-up, some climbing, and technical corners, line up again on the front line, and once we are off I get the holeshot into the first corner, around the tree into the barriers, lead for a little bit longer, then I crashed going into a corner way too hot, and since the ground was dry from the lack of rain this year it was loose, also 2nd place went down on the same corner, was able to get back up quickly and retain my position, got passed on the run-up and was ready to settle in behind those guys. At this point I was sitting in 3rd place going into the 2nd lap. Next few laps were pretty much riding by myself in no mans land again, and then I notice Steve Bullerman coming from behind with Carl on his wheel, did my best to keep them behind me, but after another lap they caught me and were gone. At this point my plan was to hold off any more riders from catching me, going into the last lap I was starting to gain a little ground on the guys in front of me, but just could never catch them, oh well I would settle for a 5th place finish.

Onto the first double weekend for us with Bobber's Cross II on Saturday, and Middle Park Madness on Sunday, I didn't have a great night going into Saturdays race I knew I would not have a great race but still lined up on the front row and got the holeshot, but was quickly passed once we got out in the field, this race was shorter the the other race held here, was slightly more technical with the corners but I still wasn't mentally into it. I tried to do what I could to pull people back that I usually beat, but just didn't have it in me. Spent the rest of the race trying to not lose many more places, and came across the line in 8th place.

The following day was Middle Park Madness, held in the Quad Cities, I love this race, always a fast start, and a perfectly made, natural jump over a drainage pipe, got a much better night of sleep, felt refreshed, and was back on my game. The start line is about halfway through the lap as to sort us out some before hitting the run-up, so we start, around the pond to the barriers, I am leading at this point, through the tight turns in the field, hit the run-up, get back on as soon as it flattens out some, still in the lead on the upper field section, down to the jump, get a decent amount of air, was a little farther down the hill then I though and the landing was a little sketchy, but all good. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold the lead for much longer, got passed in the barriers and made a wrong turn and almost through the caution tape I went. Regrouped, figured out I needed to just calm down a little and race, next couple laps more of the same, not really losing to many spots until I crashed, not once but twice on the same lap. Once again due to how dry it has been the grass was a little tricky in some of the 180 degree corners, and I went down, the second time I had ripped the scab off from the crash at Devils Cross, and was bleeding again, doh. I yelled to the wife I had crashed, and of course being supportive as always she cheered me on and said I was doing great and to keep at it. Well with 2 laps to go I find myself in 4th place, and 5th was closing in on my slightly, he was on a SS so I would have the advantage in some sections, and others he would catch back up, going by my wife this time she yelled out that if I get top 5 I can get new tires, as the ones I am on this was their 3rd season, and that was the motivation I needed to just keep hammering away. 5th place never did catch me as the run into the last bit was downhill from the jump, then around the pond and the small field section, I was gone, bug ring the whole way just cranking on it, came across the line in 4th place, and decided we were heading to Geoff's Bike and Ski on the way home to get some new tires, picked up a sweet set of Challenge Grifo's :)

The next week I went on-call for work, had it all worked out for a guy to cover my weekend so I could race both days of Cedar Valley X, but that fell through and was only able to find someone to cover Sunday, oh well one day is better then none. So we get up to Cedar Falls, and the course is huge, 2 miles long with a giant whirl, it took almost a minute to get through it. The start was a decent length climb that switchbacked up to the finish line, then down hill, a couple corners to the run-up, over to the long paved section, about 1/2 mile, and then barriers, the whirl, and then repeat. Get to the starting line and Carson is there along with a few other fast road guys, and with this being a pretty much all out power course with little technical section, I knew I was screwed, so in my typical fashion I got to the front of the line and when the whistle blew I was off, didn't realize how big of a gap I had till after the race and looked at some pictures. I lead the entire first lap, and bobbled the run-up as I had wasted most of my energy already, and just couldn't get back onto the leader group. I did bridge up to another guy on the paved section and was able to sit on his wheel into the headwind, and we caught the leaders, seemed as if they were trying to use some road tactics, and of course it worked because shortly after we got on they went again, I did all I could to try and keep up, but just wasn't happening. I would ride the next few laps solo, which wasn't too bad, but the paved section sucked into the headwind, so when I thought I would get a little break on that section I ended up working harder then I wanted. Once again I didn't have the legs I wanted, so I would just settle for a 7th Place finish, and be happy I was racing my bike and not working.

Then my season went really bad, got sick on Halloween, was in bed for 2 days, got over that and still didn't feel right, ended up I had Bronchitis and it took just over 3 weeks to get better from that.

But in that time of being sick I had one more race in the EICE, Psyclofest in the Quad Cities, another all out power course with one killer run-up, I decided I would show up, do the race for points in the series, and if I didn't do well I had a pretty good excuse. I lined up with everyone else, didn't go all out at the start, wasn't leading, but once we got to the backside of the course and started climbing I knew it was over, I basically had no power in my legs, couldn't breath, and just realized I shouldn't be out there. I did the best I could to keep moving forward, which at some points wasn't easy. Phil's Hill was killer, was really hating that thing after about 2 laps, and at that point I was so far off the back it didn't matter. Halfway through the race I was feeling worse, so I made the decision I would finish, but I did sit up and made it a point to get lapped. It took a while for that to happen as it was a long course, but eventually it did and I was relieved. Came across the line in last place, and just rolled over to the car, loaded the bike and sat down for about 30 minutes before moving.

That race was the final race in the EICE series, so we waited around watching the mens open race, and ate some pizza and drank some Gatorade that was provided by DICE/Healthy Habits. Once the results were all final and the series standing were posted I ended up in 2nd Overall in the Cat 3/4 for the series.

There is one thing I have learned from doing both the IMBCS Series the past 3 years, and this Series this year, is you don't have to be the fastest to do well, all you have to do is be consistent to do well.

I will do a separate write-up in Jingle Cross later as that needs it's own post, and this should be more then enough reading for now.

WORS Race Lake Geneva

2 weekends ago we decided to travel to Wisconsin to do a WORS Race, having never done one, but always hearing great things about them and it only being 3.5 hours away we went for it. Get directions and we are off, get closer and we follow some signs which lead us to the Grand Geneva Resort, I mean this is an upscale place, they have a sweet stone entrance, a whole bunch of fountains, huge resort buildings with sports complexes, golf course, and an airport. Tucked all the way in the back though is a small ski hill that would be the venue for the race. I decided to try out the Comp Class which is basically in between Cat 2 where I usually race and Cat 1, which I hope to achieve someday.

Roll up to the staging area after getting a good warm-up and look around, don't know anyone, talk to a few guys that pre-rode the day before and got some pointers on the course, and they go through the call ups for series leaders, not looking good, so the rest of us finally get up to the line and I am 3rd row. Not where I am used to starting, usually am on the front row and ready to rock out, now I would have to fight for a decent position. The way the had us staged was in 2 separate age groups lumped together, so wasn't really sure who I was racing against. The countdown to go, and we are off, now since it is a ski hill, and we are at the base of it, guess where we get to go, that's right, up, and up some more, the start is fast, short grass flat and then turn left and climb, was in a decent position by the top of the hill, maybe top 10, and once you get to the top, you have to come back down, really fast side hill singletrack downhill, into another left and climb back up, back down and then the final ascent on the frontside that would take us all the way to the top of the hill. Get up there, lost a few spots as I didn't know the course so didn't want to blow up too quickly, into the singletrack on the backside, and just hold my current position. The singletrack was a lot of fun, twisty, and rooty and rocky, my kind of course, but of course the local had the advantage, so I would end up losing a few more spots before getting to the rock garden. That was a blast, it seemed every spectator was there waiting for carnage, and you could hear the cheering from about 1/2 mile away. Small drop down, sweeping right and now you are in the rocks, thankfully there was a line established by this time from all the other riders before me and was pretty smooth, after the rocks was a set of 4 drops that dropped you back off on the fire road. Now we are about 3 miles into the 6.75 mile course, and I was doing my best to follow wheels, started to catch up to the back end of the Elite Womans field that started 3 minutes or so before us, and passing wasn't an option in most places, so you did have to wait some. One spot was a pine tree section that reminded me of Sugar Bottom for a short while, but that was quickly replaced with more tight twisty rocky, rooty singletrack. Before making it back to the lap line, you had a series of switchbacks that were just about180 degrees, and very tight making for some hard going for the 29ers, but as long as you took it wide you were good to go. One final double track climb and time to rinse and repeat 2 more times.

Feed zones was established at the top of the first climb, and was able to get my empty bottle to Salem so he could get it refilled for me before the last lap. By now the guys from the next wave were starting to catch up to us, and not knowing what class they were in I assumed they weren't with me as they were moving pretty good. Back up to the top and down into the singletrack, had 2 guys gaining on me at this point and told them I would let them pass when we got the chance, well I rode that section well and took till the next doubletrack before the catch. They go by and I try and hold their wheel the best I can, but that was a lost cause, and they were gone. Look up ahead and see a familiar jersey in front of me, and it was on the shoulders of Brittany McConnell from Iowa City. Couldn't quite catch up to her before the rock garden, went through there again with relative ease and was feeling pretty good, caught Brittany on a singletrack section, and waited till it opened up again to make the pass, exchanged a few words and kept on moving. It was pretty neat as half way through the course they had a neutral water station set up and had 12-15 people with water cups lined up handing them out to racers that wanted them, or they would splash you with it if you liked, so I would grab one at the first guy and drink that one and then grab another towards the end and throw that one on myself, was really refreshing as it was close to 85 degrees that day. End of the 2nd lap and I was starting to feel my legs just yelling at me telling me enough already, but had one more lap to go.

Start the 3rd lap and was able to get both my water bottles, so I had plenty of fluid to get me though, just didn't know if I had anything left in the legs. Climbing the 2nd hill on the frontside I actually dropped into my little ring and just sat there and spun, I think that is 1st time in an XC race the past 3 years I have used the little ring, only other time was the 24 Hour Race last year. Crested the hill for the last time and was back into the singletrack, rock garden seemed to come quicker this lap, was probably all mental but go there and flew down through the chute again, and was felling like I was ready for the race to be over. But alas there was still almost 4 miles of the race left and knew I had to keep on moving. Get to the feed zone and the 1st Place Elite racer flew by me like I wasn't moving, ok so he has made up a whole lap on me now, damn. I just keep plugging away knowing I just need to keep pedaling and not look back. The nice thing was you could tell when the Elite guys were coming because you would hear them talking to guys behind me, so about 2 minutes or so later 2nd place comes by. I did my best to stay out of their way, not sure if I ever stopped, but would get over and let them go. Final time through the switchbacks and you can hear the announcer at the finish starting to rattle off names of finishers in my race as well as the Elite's. Coming up that doubletrack for the final time was a relief, I was in pain, legs were shot, and I did all I could to not allow anyone to pass me. Finished.

Sat down on the side of the hill, layed down and was convinced I would just stay there for a while. Got up about 5 minutes or so later, and talked with Kyle, Robin, Kevin, and Brittany for a few minutes, headed back to the car to change and hangout and try and eat. They are really quick about getting the results in, so walked back over and saw I was 13th in my age group, and found out later that I was 44th overall for the Comp Class, a pretty good result as it was my first time racing at that level, and hoping next year to make it back up there to do some more WORS Races.

Next up Cyclocross Season :)

8-29-10 Sugar Bottom Scramble

Been a while but finally have some down time to write this up, hopefully I can remember most of the details. Sugarbottom is the longest lap of any of the IMBCS Series races, at just over 10.5 miles of almost all singe track goodness with rocks, roots, and a fair amount of climbing it is a true test of skill and stamina. Also helps that it is a local race for us and have the ability to ride there often, and although I didn't take advantage of that as much as I should have this year, the trails mostly stayed the same from last year with the exception of a few needed reroutes. Showed up early so the kids could race in the morning, with both of them doing the youth race and placing 1st and 3rd, Salem decided he would attempt the Junior Race which was a full lap of the course, would prove to be a challenge for him thats for sure. He did great and ended up in 5th overall and 1st in his age group, awesome result for him, and got a State Championship medal.

On to my race now, knowing this start sucks I positioned myself on the front line in the center of the gravel road, looking around there was probably 30 or so of us and knew it would be a fast start. Off we go heading towards the gravel climb that is probably 1/2 mile up the road, I was clipped in and just picking up gears as quick as I could, look back and I had a 20-30 foot gap going into the climb, knowing I would fade slightly and there were some faster local guys that ride there alot I was in to just try and hit the woods in the top 10. I started counting as guys went by and entered the woods close to 8th or 9th, right where I wanted to be, and the big reward for making it into the woods up front is you now descend with some switchbacks and can for the most part recover. I sat in right on Ryan VH's wheel, right where I was hoping to be as me and him are close for the top spot in the overall, and since I knew the course pretty well I was able to give him little heads up here and there on sections coming up so we didn't lose the lead group. All is going well till we hit the one section where you drop down do a 180 turn right up a little hill, then turn 180 to the left and right back down, at this point Ryan goes down and I do my best to avoid hitting him and his bike and end up hitting a tree myself going down and losing my water bottle on the ground, so I make sure to pick that up as it was 90 degrees and knew I needed that. I do a quick run up the hill and do my best cyclocross remount and only lost 2 spots and was now riding behind Kyle Williams. Another 3/4 of a mile and we would exit out onto the gravel road, made a risky pass to get by Kyle and started to reel Ryan back in, at this point I had ran out of gears, was doing upwards of 33 mph and went by Ryan on the right, taking a couple other guys with me. We get into the next section which is a flat flowy trail that I was using to recover before starting the North side with all of it's climbing. Got onto the Northside single track and just plugged away at the ups and downs. This has the only Black Diamond trail as well as the Double Black known as "Cyclocross Hill" You could hear all the spectators on cyclocross hill as they go looking for carnage, this year though it was the most rideable as it has ever been, so was able to fly into it carry that speed most of the way up the other side and come out with a decent amount of speed still, in previous years it wasn't as fast and most would walk/shift under load and break chains. Another flat flowy section and we would be heading into lap 2.

Start of lap 2 found me getting caught by the 2 guys behind me but I had gapped Ryan by now and wasn't sure how far back he was, then it happened. I missed my feed zone and was heading out with less then a full water bottle, not good. At this point I decided I wouldn't chase the 2 guys of front of me and just sit in at a pace I could hold for the next hour. First section went pretty well for me, was able to keep the guys in front of me in sight and wasn't losing any time, still didn't know where Ryan was behind me and knew I had to keep going the best I could to stay up. I was passing water bottles on the ground and thought I would stop and grab one to drink so I had something, but not knowing what people have in their bottles I didn't want to risk it, so I continued on. This time I was able to ride the Southside cleanly and had no mishaps heading into the gravel road again, hoping my feed zone might be there, nope :( Oh well only have about 4 miles or so to make it through, and almost out of water, it would be crucial to just sit and spin up the climbs and not go all out. I made it to the top of the climb and noone else was in sight either in front of me or behind me at this point. Took a few chances on the downhills to keep my speed up and try and make up any time I lost on climbing. Got to cyclocross hill and could hear cheering before I got there so knew someone wasn't to far ahead, but not sure if I could go any harder, then it happened, climbing up the other side I started to cramp my left calf, so knew I was done with any hard riding. Thankfully it was basically flat the next mile or so to the finish, I would be able to cruise it home and retain my position. Out into the field, put it in the big ring and just went for all I had left, finished.

Sat down and drank some water, some Coke at a sandwich and just watched everyone else finish. Waited around for results and once they were posted I wondered over to find out I was 7th overall for the Cat 2 Open, good result for me and I was pleased, my second lap time suffered due to the conservative riding I had to do, but was able to retain a good finish. Waited around as they were paying 8 deep, found out it was just a table full of schwag and was a pick your prize deal, so I ended up grabbing a tubeless conversion kit of my 29er, so will get around to doing that for next year. Also they had a raffle drawing and we ended up winning a sweet New Belgium Brewing pitcher, shirt and a couple other things. Overall I was pleased with the result and kept me in contention for a top spot in the overall in the IMBCS Series.

Pics are here

IMBCS #7 Seven Oaks Rec. Boone

After 2 months away from racing the mountain bike, yesterday found us traveling out to Boone for another adventure around that race course. I have had little luck mechanically at this place with my double flat 2 years ago and tacoing my wheel last year, things weren't looking good going into this one, but I am always up for the challenge of conquering my past demons. With all the rain we have had the past few weeks the back section of the course is missing bridges, and sections are washed out pretty badly, so the day before the decision was made to run the upper section of the race course, less climbing, but still enough technical sections to make it a hard race. Got there plenty early so I could head out and get a pre-ride in which was really helpful to see where the slick spots were and where to push it if I could.

Standard Boone start, far end of the field which would give us about 1/4 to 1/2 a mile of grass to ride through before hitting the climb for the first lap, got a good jump and was sitting in 3rd going into the singletrack, first time up the climb there were a few bobbles on some of the switchbacks behind us which would allow small gaps to form. Hit the top and was now time to open it up. There is nowhere near the amount of climbing as usual here, so that would prove to be a set back for me as I like climbing, but the 3 of us pushed on and at one point started to open up a gap. 1st place got a head a little bit and I was able to get around 2nd place towards the top and try not to let the gap get too big, but that didn't happen as he was already gone. Came through the first lap in 2nd place, but was getting caught in the field section at the bottom.

Started the 2nd lap in 3rd place with Ryan sitting about 20 yards off my wheel, he would stay there on some sections, others be right behind me, then I would open it up again. That first climb would prove to be my breaking point as I was having an issue recovering after it on the top section, usually we would get to the top and then have a descent to get a little rest, not today though. I was having a good day on the short punchy climbs though and that was helping to keep the gap. By the end of the 2nd lap Ryan would catch me at the bottom of the hill and we would enter the 3rd lap together. Climbing back through the switchback I asked how he was feeling, said pretty good, so I knew I would be conceding my spot to him on this lap, once again by the top of the hill I was pretty much unable to recover so I let him go by, trying my best to keep him in sight and try not to let the gap go too far out. 3rd lap was the only one I was able to ride cleanly, so I knew I had slowed down a little, because the first 2 laps I made some stupid mistakes from pushing the pace a little too high. Got down to the bottom to start the final lap and now was all alone with Ryan about a minute ahead and John Peters just over a minute behind.

Started the 4th lap and decided that opening climb kicked my butt the other 3 times, and would drop down into my little ring and just spin my way up. Felt better at the top this time from not pushing too big of a gear, and probably should have done that sooner. About 1/2 way through this lap I was starting to get caught by the front 2 Cat 1 racers, Kevin McConnell and Cam Kirkpatrick would be just a little behind him, pulled off and stopped to let Kevin go and a few minute later did the same for Cam. Descending for the final time the trail switchbacks going down giving you the chance to see people in front and behind you, so never saw Ryan again but could see John on a section behind me. Out to the field for one final time, ended up catching Mike Johnson whom was at the tail end of the Cat 1's just before the line.

Came across in 4th Place overall for the Cat 2's and that would also be 4th Place in the Cat 2 Open for the series. Boone however did get the last word because after changing and getting ready to load my bike I noticed my front tire was flat, must have picked up a thorn somewhere, but held air till I got down to the finish so that was a good thing.

Summerset Shootout

Last weekend found us traveling out to Des Moines for the 4th race in the IMBCS Series, headed out Saturday afternoon to get in a couple pre-ride laps with Rick, Ryan, Kyle and Bruce. We also took the kids and wifes bike and they also pre-rode the course as Sunday was Angela's birthday, and she was thinking about racing but wanted to see the course before making her decision.

Sunday morning we arrive to get registered and warmed up, the whole family was racing this weekend, Kaden doing the kids race, which he won (small course), then Angela and Salem were lined up for the beginner race, they made the decision that the women and juniors would do 2 laps of the 2.5 mile technical course. They got off to a rolling start down the road towards the singletrack, Salem went into the woods before Angela and he was keeping right up with most of the guys, remember he is only 12 years old, so he was doing awesome. Angela came through where I was standing at about 4 minutes after Salem and she was smiling, at least for the pictures. I handed off the camera to Kaden so I could get warmed up, decided I would go and find her on the course and cheer her on, Salem was walking back towards the Start/Finish area with a flat tire, bummer. I rolled up behind Angela to see how she was doing, and she was doing good except on a couple of the looser climbs, one of which I wish I had the camera for because she was upside down about 6 foot down off the trail and still clipped in, funny, helped her out of her bike and let he finish her race, I turned off to head back towards the staging area. I get back to find out that when Salem came back they told him since he was the only Junior if he could grab another bike he could go finish the race, Kaden's bike was locked on the car and I had no keys, so he jumped on Eric Penne's son's bike, he is I think 7 years old, so he takes off on a bike that is clearly way too small for him, and was able to finish the race. Overall Angela came through shortly before we started in 2nd Place in the women's race, her first mountain bike race, and Salem was 1st since he was the only Junior.

On to my race now, we would be doing 5 laps of the Northside of Summerset, which is some of the most technically challenging course we race on, not in terms of rocks/roots but in the form of trails with no real flow to them, some really steep drops, so climbs that you go into carrying some speed from the previous downhill, but go into them at a 90 degree turn, or more, and side hill stuff that you almost can't pedal all the way through without hitting your pedals on the ground. Lined up with some familiar faces, Neil and Tyler would be 2 that I knew I had to try and not let get away, and I was on the front line with them. We go, and it is probably just over 1/4 mile into the singletrack on the paved road, I am 3rd wheel behind Neil and Tyler, and holding that place going through the first section. I am doing a good job keeping them just in front of me, but can see them starting to pull away slightly, I do have someone on my wheel which was good, kept me motivated to go. I get gapped about 1/2 way through the first lap, and when we got to a spot I let the guy behind me go chase them down as by now I know I have lost contact with them and would not get it back. The end of the first lap I turned in just over 17 minutes, way faster then my pre-ride, and knew I wouldn't be able to keep that pace, so I scaled it back a little for the next few laps.

Lap 2 was basically maintaining my position and trying to figure out how to ride the course cleanly, did a really good job of that on this lap, at this point we were picking up the back end of the SS class which started 1 minute before us, much respect to those guys especially on this course, not SS friendly. The one thing about this course is there is only 2 places to grab a drink and they both come towards the end of lap, so water management was an issue, especially with it being 90+ degrees out and very humid. At the end of this lap on the road section I picked up one of the SS guys spinning away, he jumped on my wheel and drafted me to the entrance of the trail again which was helpful to him. I finally thought I had this course figured out, was on top of one of the ridges on the back section, and BAM, I was on the ground, apparently I clipped a tree with my bars and was laying across the trail. Now to pick myself back up and try and regain my mental focus and get back into it. I was doing a good job of keeping with lap times of around 18-19 minutes.

Going int lap 4 I saw Tom Anderson from Rassy's on the road, catch up to him and let him to jump on my wheel on the road section, and he was saying the Ryan from Rassy's who was just in front of me on lap 2 was still only about a minute up there and I could probably catch him. I did all I could, but by now I was starting to feel the pain in my legs, and also a little pain in my lower back, not sure what that was all about though, and ended up dropping it to the little ring and spinning up the steep climbs instead of trying to power them in the middle ring. This course was no longer fun at all and it turned into a death march to just get through it to the end. I never did see Ryan in the few spots I thought I would be able to, so my chase was over, and decided I was good as long as noone else caught me. By now we were starting to lap the back end of the Cat 2 field, it is amazing the range of riders this class covers, the top 3 or so should be in the Cat 1's and the back 5 or so are ones that just came up from the Cat 3's. Back through the road section for the final time heading into lap 5.

I did get a chance to see Rick ahead of me on one section, and decided he would be my carrot and I would try and chase him down, but had nothing left in the legs for any speed, and never able to get up to him, I knew he still had 2 more laps after this one so he was just trying to get through it. I think I was able to ride the whole 5th lap cleanly, dropping to where I could spin helped out a lot, and also knowing the race was almost over was a relief. Came across the line in 1:35:08 which I know was a good time for this course, just not 100% sure where that put me overall.

Waited around a little to watch others finish, and then went to change before coming back for results. That was a big cluster, and instead of posting results they just announced the top 3 in each class, and I knew I wasn't one of them so I had no clue how I did leaving there. Angela did get a gift card from one of the local bike shops and a prize off the table, she grabbed a wind breaker, and Salem got a new bike computer for his road bike. After they did awards they had a hill climb setup behind registration, cash entry $1 per try, and I usually am a good climber so I tried it out, ended up being tougher then I thought, never got the a clean run into it so didn't get too far. It was however won by Adam P who was on a SS, he had it dialed in and just powered up it.

Result finally came out and it turns out I ended up in 5th overall for the Cat 2's and 4th in the Cat 2 Open for the series category. Next race for the IMBCS is Ida Grove, but not sure if we are making it to that one as it is a 4 hour drive one way, very fun course though, so we shall see.

As always pictures are here

IMBCS #3 Waverly

This past Sunday was the 3rd race in the series, Camp Ingawanis Boy Scout camp near Waverly. I was originally not intending on doing this race as I was on-call for work this week and couldn't find anyone to cover it being it was Mother's Day. Thursday afternoon I was able to nail down a coworker to cover the time I needed to head up and race, so right in the middle of my rest week I was going to be racing my bike.

Got up there around 9:15 as they were having a youth race at 10:05 that we told the boys they could do, so we get them all registered and set up to race. They did a shortened version of the full course, but still had a good mix of hills, and singletrack for the kids, so I offered to ride behind them and make sure they all found their way around the course the first lap. Salem took off on the opening climb and was ahead quite a bit, and Kaden wasn't too far behind. After the first lap I went ahead to where Salem was at and followed him through the course. He ended up coming across the line in 1st, and a couple minutes later there was a heated battle between Kaden and one of the youth girls, and a sprint finish at the end put Kaden in 2nd, good racing for them.

I then took off up the hill and decided to check out the first 2 miles or so of trail so I knew what to expect at the start. The opening hill is always a killer, good way to separate the pack a little before hitting the woods, then it is some really flowing trail down to the river. Got to a point where I knew how to get back to the car and decided I had seen enough. Got back with plenty of time before my 11:05 start time.

Lined up after the Cat 1's took off, front row, left side, best line for getting up the hill, so go through the usual pre-checks, bike in big ring, check, fork locked out, check, ready to go, check. They give us the countdown from 10 and I know at this point it is on, GO, and I am off towards the hill, get clipped in right away and sprint up the hill, holeshot into the woods again, I don't quite have the same gap as I did at Sylvan Island, but a few seconds. I am not sure who is behind me at this point, but know there was a couple fast guys right there. The first section I am riding pretty strong, and knowing I am not holding anyone up, one almost missed turn, wanted to go left, but the trail went right, oops, thankfully I could regroup and not lose anything there. By this point I am feeling some pressure from behind and know there are a couple guys that want to get around, I knew it opened up shortly, so as soon as it did 2 guys get by me, and now I have Ryan Neipert from QC FORC on my wheel, neither of us had ridden this section beforehand, so I asked if he wanted to go around, and he declined as long as we were keeping the leaders in sight, so I did my best to do so. Now we hit the climbing sections of the race course, first one comes and it is a grinder with the trails being a little more then tacky from the rain a couple days before, so standing wasn't an option. Next up is the rock garden, and the guy infront of us bobbles the entrance, causing me to have to unclip, not wanting to lose any more spots I keep going without being in my pedals for the first section, finally get in just before the huge rock drop off, clean that section and we are off again. Descending again which mean we will be going back up, so I let Ryan and another guy go so I didn't hold them up any longer. The best climb come at about a mile from the finish, you come down to a low spot, and then it is a climb up in basically a gully that is about 3 feet deep, exposed roots, and switchbacking up. Come down that and it is across the bridge, short road section, then down to the start finish line.

Lap 2 starts with me letting a group of 4 guys go, including a couple of the SS guys, up the hill I try and just maintain their pace as long as I can, which isn't long, at this point I can feel that I haven't ridden all week, and fatigue has set in, so I just tried to make the best of it. Was riding along with on of the SS guys for a good amount of the lower section, but as soon as we hit the hills, he to me he was cramping, so he let me go ahead of him and we would go back and forth we me having the advantage on the hills with my gears, and him catching back up to me on the flatter sections. This time we had gotten to the rock garden and nobody was infront of us, so I was able to be in the right gear and just flow through it, feeling pretty good now knowing we had just 2 more climbs to go. We caught up to Brittany McConnell on the first climb, so that was a good time for me to be able to rest a little and not try and pass her on the climb, so once it opened up again at the top we went around and now there was 3 of us together. Back to the final big climb up through the gully and the SS guy opted to run the section due to the steepness of it, and I was just powering through it, back down to the road and got passed by the other guy that was with us, tried to match his speed, but had no power left in the legs at this point. Final section of singletrack, lost the guy in front of us, and has the SS guy right on my wheel, was able to hold him off as it was a downhill run into the finish line, and had the gear advantage.

Came across the line in just over an hour and four minutes, knowing I was out of the top spot it would just be a waiting game to see where I ended up when the got results sorted out. Got some food and waited, they started getting this posted, and I was 10th overall in the Cat 2 combined, and 7th place Cat 2 Open. I knew going into it I wouldn't have the results I did at the other 2 races, but still pleased with where I finished. Next race up is Summerset Shootout in Des Moines on the 23rd, so back to some serious training for me this weekend.

As always pictures can be found here

Decorah MTB TT

This is one of those races I have heard about for the past couple years, but never made it up to because it was always the same weekend as the Old Capitol Crit in Iowa City. This year though it is part of the IMBCS Series so it was put on the calendar, and I am glad it was. This was the 20th running of TT's in Decorah for them, the race is ran rain or shine, and once again this year it would be rain. The trails were slick in spots, mostly the exposed roots on the climbs were the spots that would prove to be challenging.

I did pre-register so I was able to select my start time, I wanted to get going early because there was still the threat of rain all day. I got the 30th start time leaving the start at 10:30, got a decent warm-up on the rollers before starting as there was really nowhere else to warm-up, and roller up to the start line with about 10 minutes to start. The first 200 yards or so was a paved road leading up to the singletrack, and once you hit the woods you start climbing, really slick on the first couple parts, but was able to just sit and spin up them for the most part. Bobbled one section and took part in my first of about 5 or so hike a bike sections, but unlike in the past where I would just work my way up them at a decent pace I know I had to run them, so off I was running. We started in 1 min intervals and within the first 3/4 of a mile I had caught 2 guys that started ahead of me. The first 2 miles would be basically switchbacking up and down the frontside of the hill, almost to the point of going all the way back to the bottom only to have to climb back to the top. By mile 3 I had caught I believe 5 of the people that started before me, and was just trying to maintain a good pace.

We have now dropped down the backside of the hill and into a valley between 2 hills, so that means time to climb again. This next climb was a nice one, about 1/2 mile in length, rocky, and climbed about 200 feet verticly, I had not caught up to anyone in a while, but could start seeing people in the next couple sections ahead, so I had something to shoot for. That is the one thing I don't like about the TT is you have noone behind you pushing you all the time, and usually you don't have anyone in front of you to chase. Now we get into the really technical sections of the course, lots of off-camber side hill riding, plenty of log crossings, and really tight corners. Make it through there passing about 5 more guys, and I come up to the pine tree section and notice a BikeIowa.com jersey, it was Kurt Benson, I went past him, and was just flowing through the pines, almost a 1/2 mile section, and at one point I thought I missed a turn because there were no course markings, nothing, but finally found one and was back on the right track. Made my way back down this hill and know I was getting close to the finish, would have to climb part of the first hill once again to make it back over, dropped down through another rock garden section and down to the pavement, cross that and down to the river trail, which was mainly flat once you got through the first section, threw it into the big ring and just hammered it out to the finish line.

Looking back I would have liked to be able to pre-ride the course, maybe I could have pushed it more in some sections. Headed over to T-Bock's where they would have the results and awards ceremony, so while waiting we ordered a couple plates of fries, and a Snakebite, which is now one of my favorite drinks, Woodchuck and Guinness, sweet.

Finished the 11.2 mile race in 1hour 13minutes and 04seconds which would be good enough for a 2nd Place in Mens 32-33 category (got a sweet plaque for that) 18th Place Overall out of 87 finishers and 2 Place for the IMBCS Series in the Cat 2 Open class.

Sylvan Island Stampede

Sunday brought us to the Quad Cities for the first Mountain Bike Race of the 2010 season, and the start if the IMBCS Series. The weather would be much nicer then last year with temps in the low 70's and sunny, it would prove to be some fast lap times, and huge crowds. We had gone down the day before to pre-ride a couple laps, and I am really glad we did that, trying to pre-ride in the morning can prove to be a hassle on some courses.

We arrived pretty early which was good because sometimes parking can be a pain, but they had guys out directing us where to go, so all was good there. We went and got registered, the kids were doing the kids race at 11:15 so we walked around looking for good spots to take pictures and also watch some of the Novice Race. Got the kids to their race, and I warmed up for a little while they were doing that.

I made sure to show up to the line early so I could get a good spot on the front row, I had heard there was 119 of us in the Cat 2/Womens Open Races, so we would all be on course at the same time. This year the Women were sent off 4 minutes before us, as they are a much smaller group with 25 of them compared to the 90+ of us. Off they went, and we waited, talk about a long 4 minutes. I made sure I was in my big ring and had my fork locked out. The start is a 6 foot or so wide trail that would funnel down into a single track on the other side of the island which is about .2 miles away, so not too long.

From my past experience you want to be in the front, so the whistle blows, I clip in and go. I once again have the holeshot heading towards the singletrack, and after the race I would find out I was doing 29.6mph along that section on the start. First lap has begun, and I am leading for quite a while. We do start catching the tail end of the womens field, and they were pretty good about letting us go by when we caught up to them. Before this lap was over I was in 5th place or so and we have caught almost half the womens field. Onto lap 2 I am feeling pretty good, and know I just have to maintain the pace I have been going at. I do lose another position to one of the Junior racers, so no biggie there. By now I have a pretty good handle on where I am at on the course and know where to push and where to sit up for a second and recover.

Lap 3 starts with being able to see some more guys about a section or so behind me, so I keep turning the pedals over the best I can, and try to maintain my pace. By now I have worked my way almost through the entire womens field with the exception of maybe the top 5. Still feeling pretty good I am basically in cruise control mode now and feeling the flow of the Island. I did get caught by another one of the 40+ guys before the lap ended, and he followed me around for a bit before it opened up and I let him go ahead of me, I tried holding his wheel for a little bit, but wasn't able to. Final lap and I am feeling the pace starting to get to me, but know there are guys coming. The sections between the tight twisty singletrack are big ring hammerfest and making sure I don't slip any. I am now over half way through the final lap and have a pretty decent gap on the next guy behind me, and know I am not gaining on the guy in front so I just have to hold this pace. Come into the final straight to the finish which was the same as the start .2 miles of flat fast trail, so back into the big ring and bring it home.

I come across the line in 1hour 23minutes 20seconds, and from start to finish my lap time only went up 56seconds with times of 20:19 20:48 21:00 and 21:15. I am very pleased with my result here, 7th overall and 3rd in my Category. Next race up is in 2 weeks in Decorah, and from what I have heard I better bring my climbing legs.

Pictures up here

2010 Training so far

I have been riding quite a bit this year in the first couple months, and have managed to stay off the rollers for a good amount of it. Temps have been warm enough to allow me to be able to ride outside quite often on the weekends which has been really nice, and makes me want to ride more then just sitting there aimlessly pedaling in the same spot.

I did start off with doing about 6 weeks of low effort rides, some longer then others, so not a total base workout, but no real intensity, so hopefully I will not burnout mid-season like last year, that was a huge blow to my motivation.

I did go and get a fitting done for my road bike 3 weeks ago at Geoff's Bike and Ski and that has made a huge difference in my comfort on the bike. I can go for longer periods of time without the feeling of constantly adjusting my position on the saddle so I can go further. I am going back in tomorrow morning to have Kevin check on a few minor things with the fit, but that is the great thing about having them so close is I can go back and have him make these tweeks. So after that I will be riding back home from there, should make about a 50 mile ride out of it.

Today I went out in search of hills as part of my training to get ready for the Decorah MTB TT coming up in April. I have never ridden up there, but hear the climbing is pretty brutal so I want to be ready for it. Ended up finding 1660 feet of climbing in 28 miles that I can hit from my house, so I will be incorporating that into my usual training once a week.

Video from today's ride here

And the power profile

So far so good, hope the rest of my March goes good, first race is April 11th Sylvan Island Stampede in the Quad Cities.

2009 Year in Review/2010 plans

2009 was by far the longest season I have had so far, not in the number of races I entered, but it all started back in January with roller races and continued on with at least one race a month till November. I feel that by dong that I had peaked really early in the season and in turn had a bad cross season.

One thing I was focused on was winning the Cat 2 overall for the IMBCS mountain bike series, and after the first couple of races it was looking pretty good with myself and Nick Sobocinski going back and forth for the top spot. I did get a gap in the points by going to the race in Ida Grove that only few people traveled out to, great race course, but 4+ hour drives aren't friendly. Then about 1/2 way through the season Rick Blackford came from out of nowhere, started winning races and made for a really tight battle in points, but a few wins from him, and me not traveling to Council Bluffs and the cancellation of Sugar Bottom left me 13 points shy of winning. Such a disappointment on my end, but the stronger rider came out on top.

I did a few road events, and really realized that I am not cut out to be a road racer, I don't understand tactics that are needed to do well, I hear them say start and I tear myself inside out in the first few minutes like I would in a MTB race, and then when I settle into a rhythm that works for me, I get dropped, and it is game over. I did manage a decent result at Snake Alley, thanks to me ability to climb pretty well, but the next day at Melon City I was OTB after 2 laps and pulled not to long after that. The State Crit I tried to help a teammate that went off the front in the beginning of the race, fell off again and never recovered.

Then there was cross season, the one thing that I look forward to the most in the year, and I had a decent first race, but then got sick with some sinus stuff that wouldn't go away, I was sick for well over a month, and once I would start feeling good, I would go ride and right back to feeling like crap. So I took it easy and tried to make sure I was good for Jingle Cross, so instead of the 15 or so races that I could have done, I was down to just 6 for the fall season. I did pretty well at Jingle Cross considering I am a back of the pack Cat 3, and it was a really strong Cat 2/3 race.

Ok now moving on to 2010. I am at a point where I need to start thinking about the other members of my family and what they want to do with their cycling. Both of our kids will be old enough to race in the Junior races, and my wife has showed interest in doing both more cross races, and also trying a crit or 2.

I think it will be best for me then to put any personal major goals on hold for this year and help focus on them and their training, so I will not be competing for the overall win in the IMBCS series but will hit some of the more fun races and try for good results at those events. Road events will be limited to Snake Alley and the race that HBA will be putting on here in the Cedar Rapids/Marion area, oh and if Kent Park happens I will do that. Cross Season will be my major focus so hoping for a late peak in my training so I can be a little more competitive.

Training for 2010 starts next week, I have been on the rollers/riding outside at least once or twice a week in December just to keep the legs moving, but the real stuff starts soon. I hope to see you all out there again, and I will keep this updated as often as I race, maybe some status updates on how training is going and how the family is doing in their racing.

Jingle Cross Rock

Last weekend brought Thanksgiving, and the return of the Jingle Cross Rock, only this year would be the first year as a 3 day event with night racing Friday night on a course powered by lighting from Musco, and some Christmas lights.

Lets start with Friday night, this was a toss up if I would even be racing in this one as I had to work Friday, and not sure if I was getting off early. I did get off and loaded up the car and headed down the highway towards Iowa City. I had heard from Kyle that the descent off Mt. Krumpit was sketchy with all the rain we have had that would turn it into a muddy mess, and it was on off camber switchback coming down, and as soon as we pull into the parking lot you can look up the hill and see it. I did get up there to check it out, didn't get to ride it before racing as other races were going on and it was rideable. Show up to the line for staging and see that there was about 65-70 of us in the Cat 2/3 race, I was sitting 4th row and it was a fast start with the first lap having us do basically a half lap including the descent of Mt Krumpit before heading out for a full lap. The first time down I knew it would be really bad with that many people trying to go down at once, by the time we hit that section I was towards the back of the pack, but still had enough people around me to make it even more sketchy. I get into the first right hander of the switchback, and the guy infront of me didn't go around the corner, he decided to stop and head straight down towards the fence, and that caused me to crash over the fence I tumbled, and it took me a few seconds to recover and get back to my bike losing time, but I was able to get back on and catch most of the people that chose to walk the hill. Next time around I had fewer people around me so I was able to make up any time I lost on the run-up by just letting it go down the hill and fly by those walking. The course conditions were pretty bad with mud that was really thick and it was causing alot of problems with people breaking rear derailleurs or hangers, the unofficial total was 30 for the night. I was able to ride it the next few laps only having problems on the 2nd to last lap where I got stuck in a rut and went down, but this time I was right back up and going again. The barns we went through were all lit up, and Grinch's lair was nicely groomed and there was a nice path through the sand. I had my best finish of the weekend taking 35th out of 45 starters.

Day 2 would bring us back to conditions that were a little better, a little less mud and temperatures in the mid 50's with lots of sun. Todays race would take us up the big run-up on Mt. Krumpit, 80 meters long and deep mud from the bottom to the top. I got about the same starting position, but would not get that great of a start and ended up towards the back fairly quickly but still had people behind me. The descent down Mt. Krumpit was a long not so steep hill, but it was very muddy, and people had lots of issues getting down and lots of crashes. I was able to find a great line, and figured out if you just point the bike in the direction you wanted to go and kept pedaling you could make good time down the hill. I did hear from alot of people that I made it down just as good if not better then most of the others including some of the Pro's that raced later in the day. I did make plans today to have my dads bike in the pit so after 2 laps I did grab his bike and let him clean off my bike a little bit. One thing I noticed is his bike has less clearance on the fork and clogged up with mud at the top of the hill, so I lost some time there, but switched back when I could. I did end up staying with the same group for most of the race, I would pass them on the downhill and they would pull away in the field sections. I didn't do quite as good as Friday night, but still 44th place for the day.

Sunday would find us up really early as both Angy and Salem were racing at 8:30am and the both did great. We showed up early enough to get a lap in before their race started, and with this being my wifes second race ever she was nervous and excited, and had a goal to not let Salem beat her again. They did start the juniors about 1 minute after, and she was able to hold him off, and even make up some more time then the one minute gap at the start. The did rerake the sand, so it was harder to ride today. My legs were really feeling the effects of racing 2 days and also running around taking pictures and cheering on others, coming up to the line was an effort in itself but I had every intention of finishing. Typically on Sunday we would be descending Mt. Krumpit on that same section that was the run-up from the previous day, but they decided to change it due to the conditions and we would use the switchback downhill, but this time it would be a left, right, left, right and then a short drop off and another right turn. I knew that section would be hectic, but it was so late in the lap that we would be very spread out. Today we would also see lots of long field sections with about a 20 mph headwind, I was off the back after one lap, and I had one or two guys in front of me but just could never catch them, I would make up some time on the downhill, but they would drop me again in the fields. I was going into the second to last lap and could hear them announcing that the leaders were coming down the hill just after I had crossed the line, so for the first time this weekend I would be getting lapped, but I would try my best to hold them off. I made it all the way to the run-up before getting caught, so I let the first 2 guys go by before descending for the final time. In a way I was relieved to get lapped because I would have been the last one out on course and was not looking forward to another lap in that wind. I finished in 45th place on the day, so my worst finish of the weekend, but still a decent showing.

Looking back I now know what 3 days of racing feels like, and I know what I will have to do before next year to get ready for it, also I realized that I am a very good technical rider, and I need to work on the fast flat sections so I can be an all around better rider, and maybe next year I will have more consistant finishes. So that brings an end to the 2009 race season, pictures will be up at Angy's Photo's shortly.

Cross Season Updates

Well this year has not gone as planned thats for sure. Sugarbottom ended up getting cancelled, so that shot my chances of winning the IMBCS Series again, instead I ended up in 2nd Place for the Cat 2 Open class. Since that weekend I have been fighting a cold on and off, and finally all of my sinuses have started draining, so that is a good thing, and I can finally get back on the bike and salvage the rest of this season.

October 11th was my first race of the season, and also being our 12th Wedding Anniversary my wife also decided to race as her first race ever. She did great coming in 3rd place in the Beginner Women's race, and she now knows how much pain cross involves when you are trying to go all out for as long as you can. I did the 3/4 race which was right after her race, so while I was running around trying to take pictures, it didn't give me much time to warm up. Oh well I lined up and was ready to go, got a decent start, and was in the pack for the first lap or so, but then started sliding back towards the back of the field and would just stay there for the rest of the race. I was able to catch and pass a couple people, but not making up any ground quickly. I think I ended up finishing around 14th or so out of 17. Was a great day though as we had cupcakes, and the wife and I dressed up, she had altered a dress and had her headpiece attached to her helmet, and I had a dress shirt we modified with a corsage on it, so we had a lot of fun with it.

2 weeks later would find us back in the Quad Cities for the second race in the Dice Series, and even though I was the only one racing today I decided to do the Masters 30+ race, one for the 60 minute race time for more training, and we didn't have to get up as early. We had gotten a bit of rain the week before, and there was one section that was sloppy, but for the most part it was fast and dry. I wanted to get a good start because in the earlier race the first corner claimed a few riders as it was a slick 90 degree left hander. I know going into this race I would be towards the back, and after 2 laps I was off the back of the 30+ and was back with some of the 40 and 50 guys, so I had people to ride with. I set out to just ride my own race, and not worry about position. I was finally feeling decent on the bike, so was able to put some power down to the pedals. Was a great day for a race, temps in the 50's and sunny, here is a video of me at the one barrier section http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Xn3WASEW4

This past weekend was the first time I was able to get back on the bike and feel somewhat normal, I am still feeling the effects of being sick, trying to get rid of this before Jingle Cross Thanksgiving weekend. There are 2 races between now and then, and I will hopefully get updates up here sooner then 2 weeks.

As always pictures can be found here

24 Hours of Seven Oaks

Once again it is that time of the year, time to have the most fun you can have on a bike in 24 hours, well that is the theory. I did have a good time again, was a lot tougher then last year but still fun. Our first hurdle was not being able to find a 4th for our team, so we ended up doing it as a 3 man 24 hour team, good and bad. Good because the 3 of us are pretty evenly matched when it comes to how we ride and lap times, but bad because less rest between laps.

Once again this year I would start us off, I had no problems with that, gave me the opportunity to get us into a decent position after the first lap. Le Mans style start (lay your bike down and run to it) and I was the first to my bike, was able to get through the traffic, get on my bike and be first out to the gravel road. From there it is a long 1/2 mile climb up to the campground where we would drop into the singletrack and work our way down to the start finish area and begin the real lap from there. First lap went fairly routinely as I was 5th or so into the woods, and really the front guys are going to usually be your fastest anyways so I wasn't too worried about being stuck behind anybody. I was with 2 other guys for a little bit, one who had never ridden the trails here before and when he bobbled one of the switchback climbs I was able to get around him, which he used to his advantage so he could follow my lines as I have ridden many laps here in the past year. We get back down to the bottom and go into the chute for the exchange to the next rider, get Tom on his way and I can go rest. Look down and notice I did the first lap in under 45 minutes, sweet that is a crazy fast time considering at the XC race 2 weeks before I was doing 45 minute laps, and they were 1/2 mile shorter laps.

Now it was time to sit back and rest a little while Tom and Chris would each ride their first laps, so I sat down ate some food, and watched others race. We were keeping track of who was coming through, how fast they were doing laps, and also what place we were in overall. Watching as the first 3 teams would jockey back and forth depending on who was riding. My turn came up and I would head out for another lap, and this one had less traffic so I was able to just set my own pace and go for it. This lap would be about a minute slower then my previous one, but still a respectable time. So now we are 4 laps into it, and can see we are sitting in 3rd place for the overall, sweet. Next couple laps go by and we are behind by a few minutes, and a few minutes ahead of the next closest team, so as long as we can keep up the pace we were going at we would be fine. Chris was turning some really great lap times in the low 40 minute range, so that was helping us out. I went out for my next lap and saw the one guy from the 2nd place team come running back with his chain in his hand, oops, but that just put us back into second. I was able to match my previous lap time of just over 45 minutes keeping us where we were at. By now it was time to sit down eat some dinner which was some chicken and rice, and rest before heading back out for what would be my last lap before nightfall.

After 7pm you are required to take your lights with you whether you use them or not they have to be there. So I get my bike all setup for night racing and go wait for the exchange. I got going just before 7, and knew the sun would be setting soon, so I had to bust out another good lap to make it back before dark, wanted to conserve light if I could. It did start to get a little dark in the woods for the last mile, but I was able to make it through without the use of my lights, and still had a good lap time. Now that night had fallen I knew that both fatigue and the fact that I don't have the greatest lights would slow me down a little bit for the next few times. Got out on my first night lap right around 10pm and it was dark. I was out running my lights on the downhill sections, not good, and trying to get them pointed where I wanted was costing me a little time. I did slow down some on that lap, down to 53 minutes as I was really starting to get tired, so when I got back I went and layed down for a little to try and rest. My next lap was up just before midnight, and not having slept yet and with the cool temps it was hard to get the legs going. It was a full moon 2 nights before, so when you got to an open area the moon was very bright and helped being able to see some. That lap I was in at 56 minutes and needed some sleep.

Now here is where we went wrong, we didn't switch to 2 laps each to allow some rest time, we kept going on a 1 lap rotation like we had been, and that proved to be a problem. I did get about 30 minutes of sleep this time, and knew going back out I would be able to still do a lap, just not as fast. I got back on the bike and was just all over the place by now, and tried the best I could to keep moving forward and not stop. Now that is was 3 in the morning most guys had stopped racing, or something because there was hardly anyone out in the woods, was peaceful and all, but had no one in front or behind be to judge my lap times off. This lap I slowed a little and was just over 57 minutes, back to try and catch some sleep.

30 more minutes of sleep and mt alarm goes off, it is now 5:40am, and I know Chris is coming around soon, so I just up get dressed, grab my light off the charger and run over to the finish line to wait. Hmm no Chris, ok there are a few guys coming in, so I go and check out the lap board to see that we are a lap or 2 down now from 3rd place, damn. So I talked with the couple people that were still there, and someone asked if that was the updated numbers and they said yes, but wait the last completed lap by our team was at 3:30ish which would have been my last lap, did they miss Tom, I know I heard Chris get up to do his lap, hmm we will deal with that soon. Fast forward to 6am now and I can see what I believe is Chris coming down the hill, quite foggy hard to see. Indeed it was Chris, he comes across the line, tells me that Tom had quit 1/2 way through his lap, he was going to hit the shower and sleep, he was done. Crap what do I do, I got up, I might as well go do a lap so we don't fall too far behind, so I head out for what would be my slowest lap of the race. I never got off the bike to walk any of the hills, I would just sit and spin at 2 mph on some of them and keep making forward progress. Got back with a lap time of 1hour 2 minutes, and decided it was time to lay down, the sun had started coming up on this last lap, I watched the sunrise on top of the hill, and looked into the valley to a fog covered ski area, was a very nice view, but at that point I was too tired to admire it.

I never fell back asleep, but did hear Chris wake up at about 8 so I decided to get up and see what he was feeling like and what his plans were. He figured by now we were so far out of contention we should probably just pack it in and call it a day, since I now had my coffee in hand, and the wife started the grill for pancakes, we headed over to look at the scoreboard. Wow we were still sitting in 5th place overall and 2nd place in the 3 man team's. So we didn't want to lose those places and we did see guys still turning out laps, so we decided to both turn in one more lap a piece since the team that was winning was 3 laps ahead of us, and they had that many done just after 7am, even if we did 3 we couldn't catch them, and to do 4 with just under 4 hours would have been impossible with how we felt. Chris decided to fore go breakfast and head out for an easy lap, he said even if it was an hour and 10 minutes he was doing it, so I ate and waited for a little to get dressed. At around the 55 minute mark or so someone said they saw Chris at the top of the hill, at that point I had about 4 minutes to get dressed and back on the bike, not a problem, he only had to wait about 2 minutes for me over at the exchange area. I was back on the bike, full of caffeine and pancakes, and ready to rock. I had yet to ride a clean lap without putting a foot down all weekend, and was starting to get pissed about that, so that was my goal for this lap. I got to the top of the hill for the last time, looked down and noticed, hey I am only about 6 minutes off my day time laps from the previous day, hmm do I have enough for one more lap??? Well by this time the other team in first place caught on that we were riding more laps, so they sent a guy out to chase us down so we didn't pull off a sneak attack late in the race. I stopped by and grabbed a Coke from the tent on my way by, and headed out for one last lap. This lap would be about 3 minutes slower then my other one, but did it feel good to be that strong after not sleeping and racing so much. I am happy to report that both of those laps were ridden cleanly with the only time I stopped was to fill my bottle.

Some stats from the weekend,

5th Place Overall

2nd Place 3 man 24 Hour

10 laps of Boone

8hours 39 minutes of racing

81 miles

8000+ feet of climbing

I need to thank all the people that made this possible this weekend including my wonderful wife who made food for us, and we wouldn't have eaten as well if not for her. Chris's dad for coming out and helping with setup and tear down of our camp. My kids for being there to cheer on our team as well as most of the other guys that we now know from doing races, and all the people involved in making this race happen.