Damn You El Nino!

This is just wrong. One week until Christmas and we're warmer than Moab and they are getting snow. On the plus side, Whistler just got 2 feet of snow last weekend, so conditions should be great for our trip in January.

1,2,3...1,2,3...

Had my second dryland session last night and I'm starting to get more psyched about learning to xc-ski. I'm getting the V1 and V2 alternate down, and did some bounding and hill work last night. I can see why skiers are in killer shape, it works every muscle in the body. Having coaches and instructors that really know what they're doing makes a huge difference. Now if only it would snow...

http://www.rideandglide.bizland.com

Aw Yeah...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2003441695_webwhistler21.html

Less than two months to go until I'm up to my eyeballs in sweet, sweet powder. I'm not sure if it will ever snow here. 60 degrees is the forecast high today.

Lebanon Hills

I hit Lebanon Hills for the first time all year on Saturday with Richard. I forgot how much fun that place is. MORC has put in some new sections of trail and some new expert sections, all of which kick ass. The new "Tedman's Curve" is a technical rock garden with a two nice switchbacks thrown in to up the difficulty factor. At first glance the most difficult section seems to be the initial boulders but the real work is in maintaining enough momentum through the switchback to make it up, over and through the next rock section. It definitely builds the skills. We took 2 laps through the expert section with the only casualty being a flat for Richard. We cleaned all the hard stuff, the only time I went down was on the bridge at the beginning of the loop. Not sure how I managed that one.

We headed back for the lot and did another full lap. I must have been feeling a little to cocky after riding so well, as I took a pretty benign corner a little to hot and clipped a tree with my bar. It sent the bar back into my toptube, pinning my shin in between. That was some nice pain. After straightening my bars we rolled on, hitting the expert section for a final time. We were both getting tired at this point, especially the uphill section after the bridges with the big log step-ups, but again we made it through intact.

The exit trail is a blast. Super twisty, bermed turns with a few rocks and short uphills thrown in. I could ride that all day. There's an Evel Knievel sized log pile, about 6 feet tall that I'm convinced is set up at a jump. The approach is pitched so steeply if you hit it with speed it almost throws you into a backflip. Somehow I cleaned it twice, but those were the sketchiest moments of the afternoon. All in all, maybe my best day of riding all year. Easily the best day in terms of sheer fun.

Whistler

Just got the plane tix taken care of, now we're waiting for Craig to come through with the sweet condo hook-up. Snow gods, if you're reading, please dump copious amounts of fluffy-white between now and January 14th.

http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/weather/cams/whistler/index.htm

Halloween

Since Zoe was charging for the door everytime the bell rang with trick-or-treaters, we put her to work handing out candy. I may have to try this at races for hand-ups. Especially for beer hand-ups when I'm not racing.

St. Cloud Revisited

Here are some crappy photos from my phone of the carnage that was St. Cloud. So much mud that it completely fried both sets of brake pads. We had cyclocross weather the final two mtb races. So far, all the CX races have had great weather. What gives?

Red Wing Chillfest

Hit Red Wing with Richard on Saturday. The rain and snow held off and the sun threatened to come out (but never really did). Trail was in really good shape even with all of the leaves. It was about 55 degrees cooler than the first time I raced here this year. We did the expert loop twice which was fun. I hadn't ridden Stairway for a long time and forgot how fun (and painful) that is. It was nice to ride it with a geared bike for once and I cleaned the climb for the first time ever. Second time around I ran out of gas and spun out towards the top. Had an "Oh shit!" moment in the Ravine when I went over the big log pile a little too far forward in the saddle. I felt my shock fully compress and there I sat in a nose wheelie for what seemed like an eternity, not sure if I was going over the bars or setting the back wheel down safely. Thankfully, no OTB action.

Jen and Zoe came along and hiked. I think a GPS may be on the Christmas list for Jen. I had sent her off towards the overlook after my first lap. Suddenly I see her and Zoe coming down Stairway towards us. Apparently she thought she was heading back to the car. Not so much. It all worked out and for once Zoe was tired out (all weekend).

Mammoth

Rode the Mammoth system in Chanhassen this weekend. Pretty sweet. It's made up of 4 separate loops covering about 12 miles. It's a lot like it's dear, departed neighbor "The Farm". Super tight, twisty and technical. A few nice rock gardens, a couple of "logs of death", a wicked teeter-totter and some wicked, unexpected jumps. I was too busy trying to keep up with my "tour guides" to take any photos, but you can check out a few at the Minnesota Off Road Cyclist site.

http://www.morcmtb.org/trailreviews/metro/mammoth.shtml

Boom Island CX
Great fall afternoon, too nice for cyclocross. Went to Boom Island and took some shots of fellow Birchwood teammates rocking the cross action. Check out CJ making that barrier his beyatch.

Check out photo set on Flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/vert/

University of Minnesota Season Closer
It was about as picture perfect as a fall morning gets in Minnesota. Warm sunshine, leaves in full color and sweet, sweet racing action. Then it all went to hell.

Let me start by saying I understand how difficult it is to put on a race, so thanks to all involved for putting this together. That being said, I knew from the moment I registered that this would be anything but a smoothly run affair.

Despite the race flyer specifically stating that a NORBA license would NOT be needed for beginner-comp, Mr. NORBA showed up and decided that he needed an extra $10 from everyone anyway. Then there was the issue of the different race categories. A/B collegiate, expert/comp and sport/beginner. Sport and beginner rode an abbreviated course that was supposed to be clearly marked and manned with course marshalls to ensure people made the correct turns. More on that later.

Start. We get a 4 minute warning, then a 30 seconds to go announcement, then nothing and then all of the sudden, a whistle to start. No countdown or anything, nice. I gun it and try to get as far up as possible. Clayton is riding out of his mind and is up in 2nd. I ride like hell to catch his wheel before the singletrack, but end up about 4th or 5th into the trees. I pass a rider or two, and then on the climb out of the singletrack I pass Clayton. I hear a guy behind me ask how many are in front and Clayton says, "Just one". Sweet. So me and this guy are now 2nd and 3rd and on the hunt for the 1st place guy. We are drilling it and have a monster gap on the field. We come to the first course marshall, who points us to the right up into more singletrack. We plow through this section and when we exit onto the doubletrack we see a singlespeeder coming from the left. WTF??? We are sure we didn't miss a turn since the course marshall told us to go into the singletrack. We try to sort it out but don't and eventually we get around singlespeeder and begin lap 2. I told the guy who had been riding my wheel to get around me before we hit the singletrack, which he did. We were starting to pick up some of the racers from the other categories now, so I lost some time waiting for a place to pass. Suddenly I see a Birchwood jersey ahead of me and it's Clayton. Again, WTF??? I passed him almost exactly one lap ago, how could he be in front of me? We rode for a bit and then approached the first course marshall again. This time there is a sign directing riders the correct way. Great. He totally screwed me and the other guy on the first lap. Now I was pissed off, and rode like a madman the rest of the way to the finish.

I had ridden one of my better races only to get f'ed over by a course marshall. The guy I had been riding with got screwed as well. He should have been 2nd or better and I should have been 3rd or better. Instead I got 5th and I think he ended up 7th or 8th because he got screwed again on his second lap and was sent into the expert loop.

First of all, the course needs to be clearly marked and the course marshalls need to know who is in what race. There were 6 different categories all racing at the same time using two different courses. The collegiate racers had numbers below 100, everyone else had numbers in the 200's. They were all white number plates with black lettering. How did they differenciate? They scribbled in "x, comp, sport, begin" with a marker. In fairness to the course marshalls, how the hell are you supposed to read that from a distance and sort it out amongst that many racers. If there are going to be two different courses then the race bibs should be clearly identifiable to avoid confusion.

Then, why are we paying NORBA? The U of M must have had the insurance covered or they wouldn't have stated in their race flyer that licenses weren't needed except for collegiate riders and experts (exactly as it is for the MNSCS). And if it wasn't insurance that we were paying for what was it for? Officiating? Another rider was awarded 2nd place for women, which would have been great if he was in fact a woman. He had to drag the NORBA ref over to the standing sheet to have him correct that, but then also had to tell him to adjust the other women's results accordingly.

I'm left with the slight satisfaction that I had a good race despite all the bs, and a total confirmation of just how much NORBA blows. I'm surprised they didn't set up a checkpoint at the park exit and charge us an exit fee after the race, too.

Night Ride
The road bike is starting to get lonely. With sunset coming earlier each evening, it gets harder to squeeze in a quality ride after work. Yesterday I charged up the lights and after work I headed down to Salem Park in Inver Grove Heights for some mountain biking. I hadn't ridden here since the Spring Cup way back in May. The trail was in great shape, but the waist-high weeds along the trail could use a trim. I got 2 laps in before dark and then got another 2 in with the lights and almost full moon. Riding at night really makes you trust the bike and focus down the trail to pick good lines. Also, there's nothing quite like barreling around a corner into a bunch of deer at night to get your heart rate up. Scared the crap out of me. I think I could ridden for another hour or so I was having so much fun, but it's a 40 minute drive back home and Chipotle was calling.

The U of M is putting on a race at Red Wing on Sunday. If the weather cooperates and I can get up early enough I think I'll give it a go. That should be it for sweet racing action this year. For the next few weeks it's night and weekend rides and then I get to learn how to xc-ski.

One more thing, Happy Birthday Jen!

Governor Knowles State Forest
Took advantage of a great October afternoon and went hiking near Grantsburg, Wisconsin along the St. Croix River. We were probably about a week early for peak color, but it was still pretty scenic. We hiked for over 2 hours without encountering a single person, which was sweet. Zoe found several small brooks to jump into, and also found her way into the river where she had much fun swimming and scooping up leaves. There are over 40 miles of hiking trails up here and rumor has it some trout streams as well. Definitely worth more exploration.

MNSCS#10 Singletrack Escape
The final race of the season was a total mudfest. The "Jail Trail" (so named since it is on state property adjacent to the St. Cloud state prison) was completely soaked after 3 days of rain. The steady downpour during the morning races only made things greasier.

This trail is tight and twisty with no room to pass except for the few sections of xc-ski trail. There was a prologue lap that ran on the ski trail for about a mile and then led into the last section of singletrack before the laps began. It was a mass start so I did my best to pass as many people as possible before the singletrack. I moved up to about 4th going into the woods when all hell started to break loose. All of the mud and grass was accumulating on my bike and I lost my rear brake. Nice. I kept going since I still had the front brake, and still had sight of the top 3. Somewhere between the end of the prologue and the beginning of Lap 1 I lost my front brake, which meant I now had absolutely no stopping power or control. I thought about bailing but I was feeling great and riding well, still in about 4th place. My problem now was to figure out how to shave speed for all of the corners and not careen off into the woods. After I while I got good at dragging a foot in the mud and/or grabbing a tree to slingshot around a corner. I did take a few turns too hot and wound up smacking some trees, but no major damage done. I stopped to try and clear the rotors, but it didn't help at all, my brakes were shot. I let 2 guys go by me while trying to fix things, then got back to the race. I held my position for the rest of the final lap, until another detour off course cost me some time and I let someone get by. I ended up in 6th place, which considering I did 90% of the race without brakes is pretty damn good. The downer is that I was feeling great and have no doubt I would have finished at least 2-3 places higher if not for the brake issue. Oh well, it wouldn't have changed my overall series standings anyway. I ended up 5th overall for the season. Now I get to ride for fun for a few weeks and then start training for next year.

Laddie's Loppet
I arrived Saturday and quickly set up my tent before the rain resumed. It had poured all day Friday and everything was a big sloppy mess. I prerode the course and it was greasy and largely unridable. I had to stop a couple of times to clear the mud off the sidewalls of my tires, as it was so thick the rear wheel would no longer spin. Braking was useless, as the mud was so thick the tires had nothing to grip. This course is mainly tight singletrack full of roots and rocks – difficult in good conditions – nasty when soaked. I came across a wooden bridge with a super muddy uphill at the end of it. I knew I wouldn't have the traction to ride up that section, so I jumped off and ran across the bridge. The wood was so wet my foot went right though it. Nice. I realized right then that this would be a tough race, basically a super-long cyclocross race on mountain bikes.

It eventually stopped raining Saturday night, and by Sunday the sun was trying to come out. The course was still quite sloppy for the Sport start. I got a decent start, staying towards the back of the lead group. Predictably, once we hit the singletrack it was tough going. Even with a tire change I didn't have enough traction for the quick climbs or twisting decents. After spinning out or sliding downhill (into trees like a pinball) with little control I decided to give up and run these sections. I had already planned on running the log bridges and downhill rock gardens, and the notorious Lakeside Drops would be ridden if they were dry enough. I rode them on Saturday: the uphills were to muddy to ride up, I was able to ride the drops, but it was super sketchy with all that mud. When I got there the spectators were out in full force, waiting to see someone take the drop to0 hot and fly off into the lake. (The trail snakes along the bank, culminating in a 12 foot drop which takes a 90 degree left literally at the water's edge. Misjudge it and you hit some rocks before launching into the lake). There were 3-4 riders ahead of me all struggling through this section, so I decided to shoulder the bike and run the entire thing. No style points, but I got ahead of them.

The rest of the singletrack was brutal, and I struggled to get any kind of rhythym going. Even walking the bike down some of the sections was difficult. It was like wearing bowling shoes on a slip-and-slide. About halfway through I slid out on a downhill section and somehow cracked the rail on my saddle. So now half the saddle was sticking up making riding seated difficult at best. Finally on the back section of singletrack I was able to stay on the bike long enough to make some progress. With the glasses fogged and in my jersey pocket, I got a nice chunk of mud in the right eye, making vision and depth-perception difficult. Especially ironic when you look at my race number. (I finally got the mud out of my eye about halfway through my drive home.) Pretty much if it could go wrong it did. Not one of my better rides to say the least. But, despite some scraped and bruised legs and a sore ass from the broken saddle, no real harm done. I finished 7th, killing any chance at top 3 and pretty much resigning me to 5th place barring a miracle scenario at the last race, where 4th is the absolute best I can hope for.

As usual, photos by Skinnyski.com

Powder Monkey/Gluek RR
I headed into MNSCS#8 in virtual 2nd place. At the gun Horner and Melhus took off. I didn't redline it, but made sure I got as far up as I could before the singletrack. This course is brutal as there really are no flat parts. You're either climbing up short technical rocky sections, negotiating tight downhill curves, bombing down bumpy grassy ski hill, or making the long climb back up Spirit Mountain. The long climb seems to be the easy part here. After lap 1 I was in about 5th place. There was only one rider right behind me, and we made our way through the technical singletrack up top. Somehow, I got bounced off a rock to the left of the trail. My bar end snagged a tree and I ended up getting clotheslined. My throat had a nice bloody scrape and my right knee and thigh smacked into the rocks on impact. I cleared the cobwebs, got back on and made about 2 pedal strokes when I heard all the air come out of my rear tire. Stupidly, I relied on the previously bulletproof tubeless tires and didn't have a tube or CO2 with me. Game over. Matt was on fire and I wouldn't have caught him anyway. Hopefully I can get him at Laddie's this weekend.

Gluek Road Race went about as well. We had 6 guys total for the Cat 3/4 race, and our gameplan was to work for Matt, who is on the verge of winning Rider of the Year for Cat 4. Lap 1 I attacked before turn 2. It didn't stick and I was reeled in immediately. Andy took off right after that and was soon caught. Another Birchwood rider attacked after the start/finish area on Lap 2 and stayed out for a while. The peloton let him dangle and soon caught him (I was too far back to tell who it was). I was on the back going into the climb, but made my way up front at the base of the hill and attacked. I was able to string out the field and Matt and James went by at the top with a couple of other riders. It looked like I gave them a good gap, but it eventually came back together. I got dropped soon after that, and instead of being smart and DNF'ing, I finished the last two laps solo. Just like at Plainview, a giant hay wagon was blocking the entire road, which forced me and 2 other riders to stop and wait. I caught a guy on the hill on the last lap, and we traded pulls to the finish. I stood up to sprint and dropped my chain. I coasted to the finish to come in DFL. Sweet. 3 teammates who started the race with me where there in street clothes to greet me.

Welch Village
It was a pretty muggy morning on race day. That coupled with a nasty intestinal bug made for a pleasant time. I warmed up for about 40 minutes, but couldn't really eat anything solid without fear of getting sick. So, I gulped down an energy gel and lined up for the start. We were doing a prologue and then 2 full laps which would include a new surprise.

This course runs right up a climb from the start, into some singletrack and out into another climb. I made sure I was in the top 10 before the singletrack and held my position up the next climb and into the singletrack up top. We made our way back down the switchbacks and began lap 2. I was beginning to burn out a bit from not eating anything. Still, I held my position and made sure nobody passed me. After the second singletrack section instead of running us right into the next singletrack, they routed us down to the wall climb. It was basically straight up for a few hundred yards. I prerode the course on Saturday with some other guys, and we did this climb thinking it wouldn't be in the Sport race, but we were wrong. I was able to grind it out, passing those who were walking up and entered the next section of singletrack with enough of a gap to recover a bit.

Final lap I began to feel a little better. I tried to maintain a steady pace on the climbs and tried to stay off the brakes in the singletrack. Coming up the wall climb I was able to pass several riders and also hold off Sean (see photo) for the time being. We leapfrogged each other through the next few miles. On the final climb out of the woods I was able to give it a little more gas and passed Sean again. I rode as hard as I could to the final downhill switchbacks, trying to hold him off. He was right behind me going into the downhill, so I went faster than I normally would have, being careful in the corners. I ended up about 20 seconds in front of him, which was good enough for 4th place on the day. Not bad considering I had almost decided not to race at all the way I was feeling beforehand.

Next week is Spirit Mountain, which should be brutal. I think I'm in second place overall now, so hopefully I can have a couple more good finishes and make top 3 at the end of the season.

Photo by skinnyski.com

North Shore
Spent a couple of days camping at Cascade State Park and 3 days at a condo near Hovland, right on Lake Superior.

The first night of camping was probably the tipping point in my campaign to have "Murphy's Law" officially renamed in my honor. We pull into our campsite and (I am not making this up) it starts pouring the exact moment I open the car door. With no sign of a letup I set up the tent in the rain. So instead of sitting around getting soaked, we went to Grand Marais for dinner. It stopped raining for a while, but everything was soaked, so the campfire was not happening and we hit the hay early. That night there were some serious storms. Lots of lightning and the thunder would reverberate up and down the shore, making the ground rumble beneath our sleeping bags.

More to come later.

The photo of Zoe was taken at the mouth of the Cascade River (Lake Superior in background).
The other photo is of Grand Marais harbor at sunset.

Red Wing
This is one of the best courses around, with some super twisty singletrack and pretty technical sections. Gus took out the Stairway climb, but there were a few super steep technical climbs that more than made up for it. Temps were in the 90's with dew points in the 70's so it was pretty sticky.

They did a mass start for sport which meant 93 riders all going at once. Needless to say there was a big bottleneck going into the first stretch of singletrack. I had the misfortune of being about 30 riders back. You had to come to a complete stop and wait for an opening to get into the woods. Even once that was accomplished it was wheel to wheel with the less experienced riders not being able to ride up the short, steep climbs. Eventually I got off and ran with my bike since it was faster than trying to ride behind these people. For the rest of the first lap I opened it up in the wider sections and tried to keep up the tempo in the singletrack. I made it down the sketchy ravine section fine (actually cleaned it for the first time ever). The climb out was new to me. Twisty, tight, steep, long, loose and rooty. Sweet! Unfortunately there was another traffic jam here, so it was cyclocross time again. I ran around the bike pushers and got back on without spiking the heart rate too badly. I made good progress along the off-camber section, but I took a bad line down the rocky, sandy downhill section. My wheels just slid through the sand and I drifted off trail into the woods and to the ground. No major damage, but it cost me some time. Got back on and came through the exit section of steep banked climbs.

The hose at the start/finish area provided a nice blast of coolness. I was feeling pretty good, so I popped it in the big ring and hammered through the grass section. I had managed to pass quite a few people, but it was hard to tell who was in your class with the mass start. Back into the singletrack, and I managed to reel in some more guys. I caught up to Ton and passed him and a few other guys on a climb. I saw Mark Consugar up ahead and caught a brief glimpse of Sean Nelson. A few minutes later, I saw Sean standing off to the side of the trail, then saw his pedal laying on the ground. Bummer. A little bit after that I saw Mark with a mechanical. Both guys DNF'ed. On the Crosstown section I reeled in Matthew on the climb and passed him, figuring he'd probably grab my wheel and pass me again shortly. Surprisingly I opened a gap and when I got the top of the climb I hammered across the field and down into the ravine. Made it through there without too much difficulty and came around for the final lap.

I kept the tempo up and passed a few more guys. There were some people behind me, but I had a pretty good gap. Now I just wanted to stay upright and not let anyone pass me. The trails switchback so much it's hard to judge how close you are to other riders. I started playing leapfrog with a singlespeeder who kept cursing his gear selection. I kept telling him he was crushing most of the field and to keep going strong. Down in the ravine some of the Peace Coffee boys were coming back into the picture, so I revved it up as much as I could on the climb out. Had a little trouble with some roots and had to run for it. Now I was behind one guy on the off camber section and had to bide my time to pass. I finally came around him on the last high-banked climb and also passed the singlespeed guy again. One guy ahead of me yet on the final climb to the finish. I sprinted around him since I wasn't sure if he was in my class or not and beat him to the line.

Ended up 3rd in my class, 16th overall. If not for my trip into the trees I would have had second for sure (only 30 seconds down). Best finish in the MNSCS ever. Finally got some hardware. Looking forward to Welch in 3 weeks.

Mankato
Lots of climbing and technical singletrack make this a fun course. It's usually super hot for this race, but this year the temps were in the low 80's making it a little less brutal. Climbing from the base of the ski hill to the top at the start, I passed a few riders on the way up to get into top 10. Inexplicably, I sketched out before the bridge and went down. I'd thrown my chain and by the time I got that fixed I had lost a minute or two, and lost contact with the lead group. I rode fast, passing the few riders who had just passed me. I was able to get around a few more on some of the technical climbing sections. Having had a few crashes last year on some of the switchbacks, I rode conservatively on the faster difficult sections.

I was able to reel in a few more on the big climb on lap 2. Then I started to have my usual lap 2 power fade. I was struggling but tried to keep a steady pace and keep hydrated. On the nasty hairpin on Mad Squirrel there was a rider in the middle of the trail fixing something, so instead of riding it I ran it and got in front of him. This turned out to be a good move as the two riders behind me tried to ride it only to be blocked by that guy. I was able to put a little more time into them on the climbs out of that section.

Coming back through the start/finish for the final lap the guys at the feed zone where telling me to hold my position because I was in 3rd or 4th place. I thought they must have had me confused with someone else, but was appreciative nonetheless. It's difficult to tell who is in your age group with such a large field, so you never know if you're passing somebody that really counts or not. I pulled back 2 more guys on the big climb and was able to recover quicker at the top. I settled into a good pace and had a better feel for the course by now. I was trying to catch a rider who was still visible about 100 meters ahead of me, and I was trying to hold off 3 riders about 50 meters behind me. This lap I was able to clean all of the climbs and keep the pace steady. I never caught the guy in front of me, but nobody passed me on that lap either. I ramped it up through the last wooded section and when I started down towards the finish line there wasn't anyone within striking distance behind me, so I eased into the finish. Ended up 5th, which is a personal best for me in the series races.

Solo Century
After not doing a hundred mile ride at all last year, I figured it was time. I've never attempted to do one solo before, but it sounded like a good idea. I used a combination of Google Pedometer and National Geographic Back Road Explorer to map out a route. It made it very easy to sketch out a general distance and then go back and tweak it.

It was already super hot and humid at 9:30 as I headed from my house towards White Bear Lake. Past Withrow on 7 to Manning then north to Chisago City. I missed a turn so I ended up riding through Lindstrom before hitting Hwy 25 (passing by the massive holiday weekend traffic jam). 25/3 took me all the way back down to Scandia where I stopped to refill my water bottles and grab a Coke. I rode down to 4 and contemplated wussing out on climbing Nason Hill. After I had gone through the tunnel and made my way down out of Marine I decided to go for it. I took it easy, stayed seated and kept my heart rate in the 160's (usually this is a 170-180 bpm climb for me, as I can never keep it mellow on a climb). Halfway up a deer casually crossed the road in front of me, watched me for a while and then sauntered off into the woods.

The climb was the easy part, because now the next 40 miles would be into the wind or a strong crosswind. This was about the time I wished I had some other riders to draft. I made my way over the rollers down to Square Lake, then over more of the same down Partridge and over to Stonebridge. The headwind and heat were really getting to me now. There was a little shelter on Mendel and the zig-zag back to Withrow, but after that it was pretty brutal. My computer read 94 degrees and I had about a 15mph headwind for the next 20 miles. After 80 miles, my legs felt good, it was mostly my neck and shoulders that were sore. I was back on familiar territory now, riding part of my normal training loop. I hit 100 miles about a block from home (man that software is accurate!).

100.26 miles in just over 5 hours, burning 3,350 calories. The obvious drawback to doing it solo is not having anyone to draft off of, so there's no rest from the wind. The nice thing about it is being able to maintain a higher, steady pace, and not having to make multiple stops. It was so much better making one short, 10-minute stop halfway through. It's hard to take 3-4 long breaks and then get back on the bike each time. I felt great that night and yesterday. I did a 25 mile recovery ride yesterday afternoon, and feel no worse for wear today. We'll see if any of that carries over into race day fitness. At any rate, I can cross that one off my cycling to-do list.

Racing
Afton Avalanche mtb race went ok. Didn't have a good start position, but made my up from the back to top 5 after the first few climbs. Had a good first and second lap, but faded in the heat on lap 3. I had top 5 but slowly drifted back to 9th. After 3 races I'm in 4th place.

State Championship Road Race went not so well. I arrived too late for the 4/5 race in the morning. So, I did the Masters 4/5 in the afternoon. I hadn't brought extra food since I was fueled up for the morning race, so I was already hurting at the start. Super sketchy race, with elbows flying and plenty of random braking. On the downhill on lap 2 we were doing 40-45mph. I saw a rider go down into the right ditch, his bike cartwheeling 10-15 feet in the air over the road and taking out another rider. Crazy. Lap 3 I was in decent position after the climb, but got blocked out and then cracked trying to bridge up to the group. Ran out of calories, and that was the end of my race.

Mankato is this Sunday, I'm sure it will be 100 degrees as usual.

Erik's Spring Cup
No longer at Buck Hill, the first race of the season was held at Harmon Park in Inver Grove. 5 miles of flat, fast singletrack with little room to pass. We had 3 laps plus a prologue to string things out before the singletrack.

I managed to get in the top 10 before the singletrack but still got jammed up behind some riders. Almost all passing was off trail, and the twisty trail forced you to make your moves quickly.

I was top 10 heading into the final lap when I nailed something and got flipped over the bars. No idea what happened. Got up, ran with the bike until I could find a wide enough section to get back on without jamming up the trail. Adrenaline is a powerful drug, because despite the pain and stiffness I had my fastest of the 3 laps. The crash cost me about 2-1/2 minutes and 2-3 places in the standings. I ended up 12th out of 53 in my age group and 33rd out of 180 something overall. Nice turnout. Looking forward to the upcoming races that have some climbing.

Ken Woods Memorial Road Race
45 degrees, steady rain and 25mph winds. A true spring classic.

Having come down with a cold the day before, I wasn't even sure I was going to do this race. I decided to give it a go, in the hopes I could contribute to the team competition. After a 20 minute "warm-up" which did nothing but get me completely soaked we sat at the line for the start. After waiting for about 5 minutes nearly all of us where shivering like crazy. The start comes, and I'm shaking so much I can't even clip in. I finally find my pedal and make my way into the group.

Turn 1 greets us with a massive cross-wind. My bike is swerving so much I think I've got headset issues again, so I fall off the back to make sure my bars aren't about to come off. Turns out it was just the wind. Great. Now I've got to chase to get back on. I pull myself back up to the pack just in time, as the stragglers I was with get dropped for good. Turn 2 provides a 25-30mph tail wind, and the lead group drills it. Much like last week, I'm too far back to react to the surge in time, and get caught in the split. Again, I chase like crazy, taking a big pull. My teammate, Matt, swings around and reaches the group. Sweet. About 2 minutes later I see him on the side of the road with a flat. He's done for the day. I stay with the chase group through turn 3 where again, we encounter the crazy cross-wind. We've got about 10 guys in this group and only 4 of us are willing to form an eschelon. That lasts until the big roller when the wheel suckers come around and attack. Now those of us doing the work get left behind. The three other guys who just got dropped scramble to catch the chase group. I spin out the rest of the roller and prepare for the big climb ahead. Sure enough, once we hit the big one I'm able to pass those guys. I catch an Erik's rider (Mike?) by the church and we trade pulls going into the cross-wind.

By turn 3 I'm feeling much better, and I pull the entire stretch, easing up enough to keep 2 riders with me to help work on the backside of the course. We catch 2 riders up the road, one of whom is my teammate, Andy. Always good to have a teammate. We immediately get a paceline going, taking short but brutal pulls into the driving wind and rain. By this time none of us can feel our feet, but our communal bitching about the conditions is a morale booster nonetheless. We hit the big roller at a sensible pace, saving a little for the final push up Sogn Hill.

We round the corner and begin the climb. I find a good cadence, put my head down and get into a rhythym. The Masters group that passed us about 2 miles back is now only a couple of hundred meters away, so I give it a little more gas and latch on. They pick up the pace, and I struggle to stay on and out of the headwind. I look back to see if someone can come around and pull, but nobody is there, so I keep chugging up the hill to the finish. (see photo, I'm the one on the back)

I don't know where I placed and I don't really care. That was a true death march, and I'm just glad I finished. I began shivering like crazy once I stopped pedalling, and struggled for about 15 minutes to get into some dry clothes. Good times.

Photo courtesy of Skinnyski.com

Durand
Race season is finally here, and man am I not at all ready. Did the 4/5 race at Durand. Decent weather, a little chilly, but not too bad. Hung with the lead group for 2-1/2 laps and then got caught in a bad position going into the climbs on the final lap. I was too far back and couldn't maneuver around all the people that where getting spit off the back. Once I got around I had to chase like crazy to make contact with the lead group again. By the time I got back on I was totally worked. I couldn't recover enough for the climb and that was it for my race. On a better note, we had 6 Birchwood guys in the top 12, including 1st and 2nd. Sweet.

Viva Las Vegas
I'm in Vegas for 2-1/2 days for work. With a delayed flight I arrived just in time for sunset. Went over to the Strip, grabbed some sushi (Shibuya, MGM Grand...don't walk, run. Then be prepared to wait a long time, but it's totally worth it), made the obligatory slot machine donation and hiked back to the hotel. I need to come back here with the Greene's and get the insider's tour. The photos are a combination of cell phone and digital camera (through the frosty airplane window). Uploaded courtesy the brand new MacBook Pro. Ah, technology...

Winter Riding
With the warmer than usual temps I've been able to get outside and ride a bit. About 25 people from the team showed up on Saturday for a spin out to Minnetonka. It was pretty cold starting out at 9:00am, and my fingers and toes were suffering. Nothing a stop at Dunn Bros and some espresso couldn't cure. Got some new gloves to test out this weekend. Maybe it was due to the number of people in our group or something, but we actually had people cheering, clapping and encouraging us along the way. Wierd. At least they weren't trying to run us over with their SUV's. That's more of a summertime thing. I guess cooler heads do prevail.