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.

Merry Christmas
I haven't posted for a while, been too busy with work and the holiday festivities. Zoe says Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hopefully I'll have time to post more soon.

Mmmmm.....Smoggy
This photo was shot from my hotel room in Century City, looking towards downtown L.A. Not only can you not see downtown (which is about 15 miles away) but you can barely see the office buildings in the background that are about 3 miles away. And this is at 8:30 in the morning. The air smells like a wet ashtray, especially the closer you get to LAX.

Traffic. Holy crap does traffic suck. There was an 85 year old woman in a wheelchair wearing an oxygen mask going faster than my cab. Santa Monica to Beverly Hills/Century City is only about 15 miles. I spent one and a half hours in a cab listening to the soft jazz CD my unintelligible driver was playing. I believe this was one of Dante's cirlces of hell.

On the plus side, great weather (although everyone was complaining about how cold it was at 70 degrees), great sushi in Santa Monica and VIP treatment at the hotel and Fox Studio lot. Rob "Meathead" Reiner and creator of Family Guy, Seth McFarland, chatted with us. Cheech Marin was on my flight home to Minneapolis. No sign of Chong.

Rock Art
Centuries old Anasazi petroglyphs on Poison Spider Mesa, Moab, Utah.

Moab Takes It's Toll on Everyone
After 21 hours in the car, desert sun, being sandblasted by the wind, and having constant attention from anyone near our camp, Zoe gets some well-deserved shuteye. She's an awesome travel dog. The only time she even made a peep on the entire drive was on the rollercoaster drive out of Moab along the Colorado River.

24 Hours of Moab Summary
First of all let me just say that this was the hardest race I've ever done. The driving alone was epic, with almost 3,000 miles covered in a few days time. Thanks to Jen for keeping me awake and to Zoe for being the best travel dog ever.

With the Subaru locked and loaded, we left the Twin Cities on Thursday morning for the slog to Denver. We left Denver Friday morning and arrived in Moab with enough time to set up camp and do a team pre-ride on the course. Having been sick and off the bike for 7 days, the pre-ride nearly did me in. The course is a sampler platter of everything Moab has to offer: slickrock, ledges, sand, jeep roads and brutal sun (even in October).

Saturday morning arrived and after the race meeting we made our way to the start. Richard had the "honor" of going first since he was team captain, which meant he did the Le Mans start. I was last in the rotation, so I had a few hours to wait before my lap. I really wanted to get that first one out of the way so I could get a gauge on how I was doing. After fueling up and chugging much Accelerade and water, it was my turn to ride. I got stuck behind a few riders on the sandy singletrack, but dropped most of them on the first technical climb. I was feeling much stronger than on the pre-ride and cleaned about 90% of the course, walking "Nose Dive" and the super steep sandy climb as I would do for the entire race. I never saw anyone ride Nose Dive, but saw one guy almost punch his ticket on the EMS helicopter trying to show off before he thought better of it at the very last second. I finished my first lap with a respectable 1:20 something time.

Lap 2 was my first night lap. As soon as I hit the singletrack I knew that my light was way too weak for this course. I was running a helmet mount only, and all I could see was dust between my eyes and the handlebars. I was pretty much riding blind, and the weight of my light kept shifting my helmet around, causing endless aggravation. My lack of vision cost me in the technical sections as I couldn't get into a rhythm and and to repeatedly dismount and carry my bike around sections I could easily ride in the day. When I finally hit the jeep road I opened it up. I still couldn't see anything and occasionally I'd nail some rocks at about 35 miles an hour, but the bike sucked it up fine. I was just about at the end of the last climb when my battery went dead. I struggled up the last 3/4 mile rock and sand section, unable to find a line in the dark. A woman I had just passed a couple of minutes earlier now passed me as we approached the descent. I grabbed her wheel and poached her light the last few miles in. She was awesome, absolutely drilling it the whole way. Mindi from Team Sleeping Beauties I owe you a beer, you're an absolute rock star. This bit of good fortune turned a potentially disastrous lap into a minor miracle time of 1:48.

Lap 3 was another night lap. Needless to say I had zero confidence in my lights at this point. I borrowed a handlebar light from Daren who had finished his night riding duties. It wasn't fully charged but I was hoping it would get me through the technical stuff before I'd have to switch to my headlamp. It almost made it. I was at the bottom of a rocky descent went it went very, very black. It was Zen riding at its best as I let gravity and momentum take over and when I rolled to a stop in the sand I quickly switched on my headlamp. I was starting to bonk so I sucked down some Gu and some Accelerade. Riding with my headlamp was pretty sketchy again, since all I could see was dust. My lighting cost me at least 40 minutes during the night. Very disappointing. Next year it's all about the H.I.D.

I tried to get some sleep before my next lap but with sunrise and the return of the race announcers on the PA, that wasn't happening. I waited at the exchange tent for Grayson to roll in. We were camping with another team from Utah, friends and relatives of Richard on our team. Going into the final lap we were about dead even. When Grayson came in and I went out for my final lap, I thought I was out in front of Max from the other team. I rode hard, but within myself, thinking that as long as I kept moving and he didn't pass me we were good. Well, I had a good lap considering I got zero sleep and the sun was now starting to cook. I was killing all the technical sections and feeling stronger as the miles went on. At the top of the last climb (scene of my Lap 2 blackout) I was about to pass a rider and give him my usual "Nice job dude, keep going" spiel, only to turn and hear, "Oh no, it's you!" It was Max. It turns out he had about a 5 minute head start on me but I had reeled him in. Then he says, "You realize that you have to beat me by ANOTHER 5 minutes since Richard lost the baton, right?". I forgot that on his last lap Richard somehow lost the little wooden baton that we exchange at the start/finish line, so we were penalized 5 minutes. At that point I didn't care. I threw it in the big ring and gunned it, Hollywood crit style all the way to the finish. I put 28 seconds on Max between there and the finish, and made up 5-1/2 minutes on him on that last lap. At least I finished on a good note. We didn't beat Synagogue of the Holy Mountain Bike in the standings, but we all know who won.

Overall, I was very disappointed with my night laps. I almost hurled my battery and light off Dead Horse Point, but thought better of it (mostly for environmental reasons). With a better setup I could have saved our team a good chunk of time and I'm sure we would have been Top 30 or better. Ended up 34th out of 105. Not bad for a bunch of flatlanders (and one mountain goat from Colorado). Sounds like it's on again for next year. Big Ups to Richard, Daren and Grayson for one hell of a good time. Next year, Top 25 for sure. And Di, there is no way that 24 Hours of Afton is harder than 24 Hours of Moab.

Photo courtesy of Richard Bennett

24 Hours of Moab
Glad to be done with the first 4+ miles of technical climbing and sandy slogs. Flying down the jeep road towards Prostitute Butte.
Photo courtesy of Action Shots, Moab, UT.

Corona Arch
Another view of Corona Arch, in artsy fartsy sepia tone.
I have a degree in artsy fartsy you know...

GrannyTown, USA
Click the image for a panoramic view of the 24 Hours of Moab base camp and Behind the Rocks race course. I didn't use a tripod, so it's not a professional as it could be, but it still works.