NVGP_Mpls 2

More scenes from the Minneapolis crit.

Nature Valley Grand Prix-Mpls 1

Your eventual stage winner, Health Net's Kirk O'Bee.

Dirt Spanker

Global warming sucks. Another hot race with brutal climbs. The Dirt Spanker at Mont du Lac starts at the bottom of the ski run and sends you all the way to the top. Once up top, it's all tight singletrack with some steep uphills and roaring descents. None of it is particularly smooth, with lots of roots and muddy ruts making for some tricky handling.

I was holding back a little on the first climb, and was able to pass most of the field before the singletrack. Second lap I felt okay, and even the third time up the big climb I didn't feel too bad. I was in about 5th, but about 1/4 of the way into the singletrack I started to fade. By the time I got to the downhill, Tom had gone around me. I stayed on his wheel as best I could until the final climb out. He spun out and walked and I caught up to him just as he got back on his bike. If he wasn't on my team I could have maybe pushed it to get around, but even that might not have happened. Ended up 8th out of 39, 16th overall. Not bad, but not great. At least we picked up some team points. Ton just missed Top Ten with a sweet wipeout on the downhill finish.

Spongebob

In a year or two I can tell my son that I know Spongebob and Patrick and I've got the Polaroid to prove it.

That's not how it looked in the brochure...

Doesn't look too bad, does it? Well, next time you book a reservation, be sure to take advantage of Google Maps new Street View option. Unfortunately, the room was booked already. See below for the "view". Also, FYI, not the greatest hotel. Go to Google Maps and enter this location: 60-30 Maurice Avenue, Maspeth, Queens
Then spin around and check out the neighborhood. I can't wait until this feature is available in more cities.

Even better at night

No tripod, so not the best, but it captures the fun and excitement that is the Comfort Inn and Suites in Maspeth, Queens. I love business travel. Got up at 4:00am yesterday for a 7:00am flight to JFK. Long cab ride to Manhattan. Walk trade show for 5 hours. Dinner at the Marriott Marquis. Long cab ride to hotel. Decide to bag second day of show. Cab to airport at 8:30am to try to get standby seat on an 11:30 flight back to Minneapolis. 1 seat available, which I took. The best part of the whole trip: getting to leave 6 hours early and getting an aisle seat on an exit row. Poor man's first class.

King of Queens

So, if you're the King of Queens, this is a view of your kingdom.
Glorious hotel room view from Maspeth, Queens, in what I can only describe as the Cemetery District.

New York by Cab -- Empire State Building

Another random shot down what I think is 35th St. Just happened to get part of the Empire State Building.

NYC by Cab -- Times Square

Times Square, looking north. Random shot holding camera out of cab window.

Murphy-Hanrehan

I got to ride the new trails at Murphy yesterday, and I was pleasantly surprised. There are 3 loops of increasing difficulty, resulting in about a 10 mile system. The thing I really like about this system is that it is very natural. There are a few bridges, a couple of stepped bridges between sections, and a "log of death", but 99.8% of this system looks like has existed long before the mountain bike was invented. I like Lebanon Hills, but after a while it feels a little gimmicky with all the log piles and other man-made obstacles. Murphy is technical without being gimmicky, with lots of sharp corners, some sustained climbing and fun downhills. It has a good combination of technical sections that keep you on your toes followed by open stretches to recover and flow.

I had time for a warm-up lap on the beginner loop followed by a beginner, intermediate and expert loop. I was maybe expecting something more "extreme" in the Expert loop, ala Lebanon, but after riding it I am glad MORC did what they did. If I want to ride a teeter-totter I can go to Leb. At Murphy, the terrain is the challenge, and for my money that's the way it should be. Sharp corners, bigger rocks, short steep climbs and some drops keep you focused on finding a good line and maintaining momentum. The entire system flows well from start to finish, and would be a blast on a single speed (next time).

Living in the north metro makes this a haul for me, but I'll definitely ride this again. I hope they can manage something close to this at Elm Creek or somewhere else in my neck of the woods. Nice job MORC and all involved.

Pants!

How does this kind of crap even make it into a courtroom?

Peace Coffee

After hanging out with and racing against the Peace Coffee gang for the past few years, Ton finally convinced me to join. I still love the Birchwood crew, but with the exception of Clayton, nobody races in the dirt. Peace Coffee is pretty much all mountain bikers, so for me it made sense. And, I got a pound of Sumatra java in my welcome kit. Can't beat that.

Even after my disaster at Afton, I'm in 7th overall in the series right now. Hopefully I will return to normal for the Dirt Spanker in two weeks. We'll see how the cruise intervals go tonight, and the Bwood hill ride tomorrow.

Photo by Skinnyski.com

A Perfect Storm

No sleep+feeling woozy+hot+humid+no water or food+Afton=Death march/bonkfest.

What was supposed to be my A race at Afton turned into my worst race ever, and probably my second worst day on the bike ever (I would consider the day I broke my collarbone better than this one). I could not fall asleep Saturday night. I took a sleeping pill which did nothing but make me feel loopy. Woke up tired and feeling weak and sick. Decided to race anyway. I didn't get my usual warm up, and felt pretty weak the few times I gave a hard effort. It was already in the 80's and humid by 10:30, and after standing over my bike in the sun for 15 minutes at the start line, I already felt worked. I could only find one of the energy gels I brought, so I didn't take one before the race like I usually do, saving it for later. Not good.

Race starts and as soon as we hit the first grassy climb I can tell it's going to be a long day. I've got nothing. No power, can't breathe. I was in the first 15 but after the Bridge Loop and Shady Lane I was completely cooked. The sun was killing me and to make matters worse I could not get anything out of my CamelBack for some reason. I gave up on racing and focused on finishing. I don't really know why I bothered since I knew I would throw this result away anyway. I guess I was hoping that I would somehow recover, which was a pipedream considering I had no water or energy drink and couldn't really try to suck down a gel with nothing to wash it down.

Somehow I didn't come in DFL, but 30th is about 27 places lower than I had planned on finishing and my worst finish ever in an MNSCS race (barring DNF's). 4th last week and 30th yesterday. Hopefully that's as bad as it will ever get.

Seaweed!!!

One of the best bands of the 90's is getting back together for a few shows in Seattle. Hopefully they'll hit Minneapolis. Of all the bands I have seen, I somehow never saw them live. It would be so, so sweet.

Hell has Officially Frozen Over

My buddy Grayson was in town this weekend for the Capitol Crit on Sunday. He asked if I wanted to ride on Saturday. I really didn't want to because of the hundreds of times we've ridden, it has never been leisurely, and I didn't want to blow up the day before my mountain bike race. We both promised to keep it mellow (again, that's happened hundreds of times before), and I met him and 2 other guys to do "the Loop" from St. Paul-Mendota-Mpls-St.Paul. Usually, I'd drop the hammer on the High Bridge climb, Grayson and Michael would contest every sprint sign, and John would be about 2 towns back trying to keep up.

Well, the 4 of us managed to get through the entire ride without even getting close to anaerobic. The High Bridge never felt so good -- granny gear all the way up, spinning and chatting the whole way. The only sprinting came in the last couple of miles to get out of a downpour. I'm still in shock.

Training Peaks

I forked over a C-Note to sign up for a Training Peaks plan back in January. It's hard to tell for sure, but I think the training plan has been going well. It killed my road racing in April, since I didn't want to peak that early. But off-road, my race times are several minutes faster than last year's. I'm not sure if that's due to better fitness, better strategy or a combination. I think the most helpful thing has been incorporating a rest week every 3-4 weeks. In the past, I would just go out and hammer every time I was on the bike. I'd usually be burned out by July.

Check out Training Peaks

MNSCS#2 Steeplechase

I used to hate this course, now I'm kinda diggin' it. They made a few changes and additions that seemed to help the race conditions, namely some tough climbs to thin the herd.

Top 10 in the series got a call-up to the front for the start, that was sweet (I was in 9th going in to this one). Prologue out the gravel road, then down into the ski area on the grass for some roller-coaster climbing, then back around the main building and into the singletrack. I went out as hard as I could and managed to get into the singletrack in about 5th position. The trail was pretty decent but corners were slick from the rain. I avoided any mistakes up top (narrowly avoiding Jaimison's faceplant) and exited to the twisty downhill leading to the new climb. NICE!! A loose, gravely, rocky, sandy climb where you can pass (unlike last year where it seemed like about 90% singletrack). Then, a super technical, steep climb back into the lower singletrack section. It bottlenecked a bit behind some of the first wave riders, but I was able to maintain a rhythm and keep the rubber side down.

New singletrack section on the bottom is pretty flat. It snakes through the woods and pops out into a grassy doubletrack. The grass is a real speed killer, which leads to the long climb back out. I was able to pass some guys and had clear sailing in front of me for lap 2. The only guy on my wheel was Brian from Silver Cycling, who I held off as long as I could. He had that little bit of energy I was lacking and went around me. I was getting pretty tired and starting to get a little squirrly on the bike. I came off the bike a couple of times in some technical sections, costing me some time, but no serious crashes. I ground out the climbs and came in about 30 seconds behind Brian for 4th place. I'll take it, this is a tough course, especially with the conditions today.

Next week, Afton, and possibly riding in new colors??? Stay tuned...

Man Utd sign Hargreaves

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/6707995.stm
The midfield is beginning to look pretty formidable. Hargreaves, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Ronaldo -- that's pretty much All-World right there, and one of those 5 wouldn't even get a start in the traditional 4-4-2. Now, how about some help at the back and a strike partner for Wayne Rooney? Get rid of Saha for starters, and I wouldn't lose much sleep if John O'Shea went bye -bye as well. Should be an interesting transfer season. Only 3 months to go until the Premiership resumes (please Lord, let it be in Hi-Def this year...).

It's (going to be) a Boy!

Had our Level 2 ultrasound this morning. After the genetic counselors terrified us with everything that could possibly be wrong, the scan showed a normal, healthy baby boy. We're not out of the woods 100% yet, but we feel much better. We were both certain it was going to be a girl -- just the first of many things we will be wrong on when it comes to the kid, I'm sure. Pictures tomorrow.

Erik's Spring Cup

First race of the 2007 mtb campaign. Cold, cloudy day, with temps struggling to get into the 50's. Not my kind of weather. I got a good warm up only to learn that the start had been moved back 30 minutes. So, I warmed up some more. When I got the starting area there were already about 10 rows of riders in front of me. I was able to move up to about 3rd row back at the gun, and made my way through the field in the prologue to about 15th. This course is pretty flat, so there aren't many places to drop someone and even fewer places to pass as it's all singletrack. I was able to make my way around a group of 3 riders in one of the prairie sections, and worked hard to keep reeling in riders. Once we hit the prologue section I was able to pass a few more riders and settled in for Lap 2. I was able to hold my position and by now was with 2 other riders, pushing the pace. I started to fade about halfway through the lap, but only got passed once. I did my best to keep on the wheel of the guy in front of me (who I had been on for the last half of the lap). Once we cleared the singletrack I was able to drop the guys behind me and tried to get around the guy in front of me. We had a full-on sprint for the line, where he got me by 3/4 of a bike. I got 9th in my age group (54 in our field), which I'm happy with on this course in cold weather. I got 13th overall out of 155 racers in Sport. Not too bad. Looking forward to a warmer race with some climbs.
Photos by SkinnySki.com

More cheaters

"It's unfair that cyclists have to prove our innocence. I am ready to do anything, but if I have to use DNA to demonstrate my innocence, I will leave cycling, because it's obvious that cycling like that isn't worth it." - Oscar Pereiro

It may be unfair that pro cyclists have to prove their innocence, but when the entire peloton allows this crap to go on unchecked for years, it's nobody's fault but their own. So, yes, innocent until proven guilty is dead, thanks to Landis, Basso, Ulrich, et al. The only way to restore any shred of credibility to this sport again is by moving forward with the assumption that everyone is guilty until they can prove otherwise.

So, back to Pereiro. You were the runner up in last year's Tour, robbed of the biggest victory of your career by a doper (oh, sorry, alleged doper). If you rode a clean race and were cheated out of the biggest victory of your career, wouldn't you really want to do anything you possibly could to make sure your honesty and integrity remained intact? Especially considering you will be declared the winner of the Tour when (oh, sorry again, if) Landis is stripped of the title? Wouldn't you be the first in line to give DNA samples?

Of course you would, if it wasn't for the fact that you're just as bad as Landis yourself. If you weren't a doper, you would be the loudest proponent on planet Earth for stricter testing. Either that, or you really don't care about winning the toughest sporting event in the world, and your profession's highest honor. Which is more believable?

Floyd

http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/12271.0.html

Could it be more obvious that Floyd is guilty? After spewing out a new excuse every day after the Tour for why he failed a doping control, he now pulls this crap. If by some miracle he was actually innocent, I could care less. What a prick. Please, just shut up and go away. Better yet, be a man, admit you're a cheater and let the rest of us enjoy this year's Tour without having to endure your dog and pony show.

Trout

Met Brad and his brother and father-in-law Saturday for some evening fly fishing on the Rush. Brad and I jumped in the Trimbelle by the Gas Lite bar while we were waiting for Grant and Jerry to show up. Despite a never ending stream of people walking right down to the water where I was fishing, I managed to get two small browns out of a riffle. Once everyone was there, we headed over to the Rush. Cars everywhere, so we decided to hike in through a small coulee. Some local comes up the road, super pissed. In a Dick Cheney voice he keeps yelling, "Dutch Coulee, Dutch Coulee!" or something like that. He looked about a case-and a-half of Miller Lite's into the evening, so we headed up the road and fished Lost Creek, 3rd bridge up. I hiked up past the curve and worked the tailout of a small riffle. Caught two nice-sized brookies on a Yellow Humpy. I forgot how much fun it is watching a trout smack a dry fly off the surface. We headed back down to find Grant and Jerry, and hiked into the Rush. I found a nice riffle that tailed-out into an elbow shaped pool. I pulled in 5 nice browns on a Bead Head Prince (#18) in the course of about 45 minutes. Then it died down. I hiked upstream and worked a couple of sections with no luck. We met Grant and walked back down towards the pool I started at and waited for Jerry. I made a few casts into the pool and hit my best fish of the day, a nice fat brown trout, about 12-13 inches. With the sun dipping behind the bluffs, we called it a day and headed back to the Gas Lite.

At the Gas Lite, there was some hillbilly band playing AC/DC, Joe Cocker and countless other "classic rock" hits at the bar. The best part was this one yokel doing some crazy Elaine Bennis/Seinfeld dance around the bar (with shoes removed for better sliding action). Earlier in the day there was a car-smashing event, and according to the sign out front, "Thrsdays all can beer $1". Yes folks, this is the land of my ancestors.

Afton ride

Rolled with the fast group last night from Mahtomedi to Afton, about 40 miles. "Warm up" consisted of immediate tempo and pacelining, which gradually ramped up as we neared Afton. When we got to Valley Creek the entire group missed the turn except for Brian and me. So, instead of killing each other up Trading Post, we kept it somewhat sane. When the wrong-way riders went by us on Old 95, Brian turned around and joined them. I didn't know he did this until I looked over my shoulder and saw the whole group way up the hill behind me. Hooray!

So, now I was in solo mode (much like last year's ride where I flatted at the top of Trading Post). I made my way into Afton and saw 4 riders from one of the ride's other groups. They were just putting along, so I decided to fly by and hopefully catch somebody else along the way, and work to latch back onto the group. I passed a few stragglers up Indian, but no one had the legs to work together. Same story on Hudson, I passed about 5 guys but nobody grabbed my wheel. One guy latched-on on Neal, and by that time I could see another group just up the road. I said, "let's go get 'em!" but he didn't pull through and eventually fell off. I could still catch glimpses of the group about half of a mile ahead, so I went into time trial mode. After much suffering, I latched on at Lake Elmo. Feeling surprisingly good, I went to the front and proceeded to pull 99% of the way back to Mahtomedi. I was actually able to put in attacks on the last two climbs and stay off the front. Why the hell can't I ride like that in a race?

Cravings

And so it begins...
Last night we drove to Target at 8:30 to buy a marble cake with frosting. I'm sure this will be the first of many such impromptu trips.

Glory, Glory Man United!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/6630511.stm

Anyone who knows me knows how freaking happy I am today!! It was pretty painful having to root for Arsenal, but well worth it. Wednesday's match with Chelsea is gonna be so, so sweet. If we can beat them at Stamford Bridge and beat them again in the FA Cup, I may have to make a temporary exemption to my nine-month moratorium on adult beverages.

Ken Woods

Let's start with the weather—absolutely perfect. Pre-race temps were in the 60's with a WNW wind of about 10mph. That meant a tailwind up Sogn Hill, sweet. Last year, it was raining sideways and about 45 or 50 degrees with a monster wind.

Not wanting to race the extra lap with the 3/4's I rolled with the Masters 4/5 30+. We had around 70 guys in this race, wow. It was Tom, FPA and me representing the Blue Train. Tom managed to start right at the front, I was about 10 back and FPA was somewhere behind me I think. Neutral start to the first turn and then WHAM! it's on! Immediately there's a break of about 5 guys, and at this point I can't see who's in it. Once we hit the rollers I catch a glimpse of Blue and realize Tom made the selection. There was a mob of GP and Silver Cycling guys at the front trying to organize the chase. I wasn't sure if the break was serious at this point, so I just sat in and watched. After the 2nd turn, it looked like the break was actually putting some time into us, and the GP & SC boys were trying to ramp it up. I was squeezed on the centerline trying to stay out of the crosswind, but eventually swung around and got on the front and started blocking. I was able to keep doing this for the first lap all the way to the climb before the chase group got really strung out. Those repeated forays into the wind were taking their toll on me and I fell off a bit on the climb. The back of the chase was agonizingly close in front of me, but I couldn't reattach. Finally, a 5 man group swept me up and we traded pulls, finally bridging back mid-way through the east-west section after turn 2. Once we were back, I immediately went to the front and started blocking again. I could see Tom and the breakaway were still away with a good gap, awesome! I kept trying to disrupt the chase until the smaller climb by the river, where I got attacked. I knew I wouldn't reattach this time, but I was hoping that was job done for me. Another groupetto formed and we tried working together, but it didn't really pan out. At least one of the 2 LSC guys gave it a try. He was kind of pissed at his teammate for not getting it. 3 of them tried attacking us on that smaller hill, but we let them go, and swept them up shortly thereafter. Once our group hit the bottom of Sogn Hill I went. I shelled those guys and swept up another rider or two on the way up. It didn't matter at all for my overall placing, but it felt great! Better yet, Tom managed to stay away the entire race and wound up in 3rd (despite breaking a spoke and a brake issue!).

Long story short, this race exemplifies why I love this sport. It really is a team endeavor, and even when you are outnumbered 2 or 3 to 1 by other teams, if you play your cards right you can control the entire race. Big, big props to Tom for crushing it all day. Not sure how FPA fared but I know he finished, which is always a good thing.

News!

We're a little further along so we can finally make it public. Jen is doing well. No morning sickness, just really tired. Due date is October 15th. We won't know if it's a boy or a girl for about 2 months. They did this ultrasound because the doctor wasn't able to find a heartbeat using the doppler. It turns out that was because the baby was moving around too much to get a good reading, everything's fine. Pretty cool!

March Madness

March is my least favorite month of the year. It's such a tease. It's all like, "Hey man, it's 65 degrees out today, spring is here!" one day, and then it's, "Uh, yeah, about that spring thing...I was just kidding. Here's some more cold and snow beyatch".

Two days ago it was 65 and sunny and all I needed were arm/leg warmers and a vest to ride. Yesterday it was in the 30's, cloudy, windy and snowing. I made the mistake of not wearing warm gloves and paid the price. Completely frozen fingers, which took a painful 10-15 to thaw to the point where I could use them again. I guess it's good training for Ken Woods.

Portfolio

I just don't have the time to update my portfolio website, so I'm transitioning over to blog mode. Not as polished, but I'd rather get some more recent work out there now than wait for "freetime" to add it to my website. See what I do for a living at: vertci.blogspot.com

Pike Place Pigs

Among the strange sights near the Pike Place market in Seattle was this storefront full of nothing but giant pig sculptures. I'm not sure what the deal is, maybe it's a porcine armada getting ready to rise up against the baconistas.

Snow

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 15" of snow between Saturday and Sunday. I had a 3 hour Zone 2 training ride scheduled, but I think 4 hours of shoveling was good enough reason to skip the trainer. My octogenarian neighbor saved my ass by brining his snowblower across the street and clearing some of the driveway for me. He is about as good of a neighbor as you could ever hope for. I'll have to get a picture of the cupholder he built for inside the "bubble" of his snowblower. Sweet!

Today the power was out when I went home for lunch. Good times. Hopefully that isn't a long-term deal or it's gonna be a bit chilly at the Van Ert estate.

HDTV

This also helps make the indoor riding sessions less painful. 60" Sony SXRD 1080p Rear Projection HDTV. Maybe by next winter I'll have a CompuTrainer hooked up to this bad boy. Or at least a PS3. All I can say is analog tv is for suckas. When Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV go HD I may never leave the house. And watching the Tour this July? I'll be able to see the needle marks on the cheaters arms...

Trainer -vs- Outside

Trainer wins.
2 hours and 35 minutes of pedalling and going nowhere. Watched the Manchester United/Tottenham match, which killed about 2 hours of the ride. This is a recovery week with a fitness test on Saturday, so no indoor death marches until next week.

Sea to Sky Highway

http://www.leanbackvids.com/videoblog/action-sports/road-to-whistler/
Came across this video of the drive from Vancouver to Whistler. Cool way to use Google Earth. Wish he would have gotten more footage of the Sea to Sky Highway. That is one of the coolest drives I have ever done, and sadly I have only some crappy shots taken from inside a moving car to show for it.

Why do I live here again?

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN HAS ISSUED
A WIND CHILL ADVISORY...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 9 PM THIS EVENING
TO 12 PM CST MONDAY.

A PROLONGED PERIOD OF SUB-ZERO TEMPERATURES...COUPLED WITH BRISK
NORTHWEST WINDS...WILL CAUSE DANGEROUS WIND CHILL CONDITIONS
THROUGH MONDAY MORNING. THE MOST HAZARDOUS WIND CHILLS ARE
EXPECTED DURING THE LATE EVENING THROUGH EARLY MORNING TIME
PERIODS. WIND CHILLS FROM MINUS 25 TO NEARLY MINUS 40 DEGREES ARE
EXPECTED ACROSS MUCH OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA AND
WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN.

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY MEANS THAT VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS
WILL COMBINE TO GENERATE LOW WIND CHILLS. THIS WILL RESULT IN
FROST BITE AND LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA IF PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN.
IF YOU MUST VENTURE OUTDOORS...MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HAT AND
GLOVES. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL...BE SURE YOUR CAR IS EQUIPPED WITH A
WINTER SAFETY KIT IN CASE OF EMERGENCY.

Sushi Whore

Mashiko Sushi in West Seattle. Hole in the wall with really, really good sushi (if you're willing to wait a couple of hours for a table). Seems like you can't swing a dead cat in Seattle without hitting a sushi place. Not a bad problem to have.

Punk Rock Breakfast

I'll take punk rock with a side of hip hop.
Easy Street in West Seattle. Sweet record store, cafe, live band venue. Where else can you buy Gorillaz action figures, get an omelet and catch a show? Sorry, I was too groggy to operate a camera, so this will have to do.

Zoe

Here's Zoe after a week at Downtown Dogs. She's not used to playing with other dogs much, and she was part of a pack for a week straight. She had fun, but she was worn out. She slept for 2 days straight.

Seattle Waterfront

Best Radio Station on Earth

Seattle

The view from the rooftop garden of our hotel. Not too shabby. Even better on a clear day, but it is Seattle. Right across from Pike Place Market, which is apparently the homeless capital of the world.

Whistler Summit

Rode the gondola and chair all the way to the top of Whister, more than a mile of vertical. The chair to the peak was a bit sketchy, about 100 feet in the air over jagged cliffs. Once on the summit it's all alpine bowls or out of bounds on all sides. After floating in the 12cm (it is Canada, ey) of fresh snow for about 20 minutes, my legs were burning and we still had about 5,000 vertical feet to go. Unbelievable snow, best I've ever ridden in. Had the two most spectacular crashes ever on the way down. Lot's of facewash, but no real damage.

After lunch Craig and I hit the Super G/Downhill run that will be in the 2010 Olympics. Those guys are crazy. Rode until our legs wouldn't work anymore and called it a day.

Me Likey Snow

The view from our condo in the Upper Village. We were a short walk from the Blackcomb lifts, and spent day one on Blackcomb. I believe it when they say this is the largest ski resort in North America. The place is absolutely ginormous. We spent all day on Blackcomb and didn't see more than a quarter of it at most.

Whistler

Looks like the weather may cooperate for once. The drive from Seattle to Vancouver and Whistler should be pretty spectacular. I should have internet access most of the trip, so I hope to be updating daily. It'll be nice to be able catch a glimpse of Zoe now and then with the webcams while she's at Downtown Dogs, too.

Now lets hope I remember how to do this snowboarding thing...

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.