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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