Pleasure and Relaxation

If all goes as planned, 4 of us - Chris, Paul, SamO and I - will be riding the rough stuff for 295 miles while climbing 56,500 feet (combined) between 5 pm Friday and 5pm Saturday....

Zen and the Art of Passing

Sunday was a pretty packed day for the family...play date, race, and flight.
Jen and Tegan headed out to a play date early and took the day "off" of racing. Tegan still managed to skirt a nap...grr.
I headed over to the WORS race in River Falls to do battle with the great group of guys over there. It was a nice hard start that sorted things out, which saw a group of 6 of us off the front. Soon after, Nathan Guerrera had a flat leaving 5 of us: Mark, Jesse, Mike, TJ, and myself. We rode together for most of the rest of the race. The MO was to hammer in any of the labeled "passing sections" and then take it easy in the singletrack. We all had each other marked and the one small climb on the course was taken seriously each time. Laps 3 and 4 were passing fests... for the most part, people were great about it, but it is no fun for us or them when 5 of us have to sneak by. On the final lap, I thought I was holding the right cards. To that point, I had been under very little pressure, but TJ put in a ferocious attack...it was pretty sweet except for the fact that I just barely couldn't hang on. Mark was the only one to match him, with Jesse popping and Mike holding my wheel. I knew that if TJ and Mark got lapped riders between us it would be almost impossible to real them in....with a 5-10 second gap in that first field, it happened. After an a comp racer endod in front of us on one of the bridges and a few other rough passes, I told Mike that they were gone. We went fast from then on but didn't have the advantage of yelling "race leaders" coming, which garners a little more respect. I didn't know what to yell..."chasers" ?? =) Mike put in a nice little move about a minute from the finish line that put 5 seconds on me..he claims that Matter did it to him the year prior. I am getting someone with that next year! The finishing shoot was a dangerous S-bend so I don't think a sprint would have been a good idea anyway.
The race was what I expected and I had fun. My constructive criticism would be to run the experts and comps at different times with fields that large and laps that short (maybe elites on Sat afternoon)...or be sure that the laps are longer. With 4 or better yet 3 longer laps, the passing is much more reasonable.
I couldn't stay for awards, as I had to hurry home, catch a shower, and head to MSP for a flight out to Longmont CO. If I was a "real" pro, I would be coming out here to ride, but I am out here on business deploying a new metrology for hard drives. I would tell you what the metrology does but then I would have to ....make sure you don't tell Western Digital=)

Thanks to the WORS organizers and volunteers for inviting us over. You guys and girls do a bang up job. Maybe we can return the favor next year at Afton=)

Ankle socks and khaki sorts

I had the night open (Jen & Tegan at her parents) so I headed up to an area the world knows as a golf mecca....while I like golf, it is really a mtbking hot spot, the elusive Mammoth trail. Geez, I forgot how raw and challenging the singletrack is there, or maybe I am just out of "mammoth shape."
The Goodyear blimp seemed to be following me the whole time. Hopefully they didn't get any shots of me dabbing=)

Its all about performance...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn29DvMITu4

Intensity

Busy week.....
First, Ben (my bro) and Jake (Richards) hit up the National at Mt.Snow on Saturday (I was a little jealous). Ben scored a 35th place after a back row call up...awesome! Jake won his age group and took 6th overall in Juniors...awesomer!

It was busy for me too, as I did a 3 short but intense races: TT at Murphy Hanrehan on Wed, Buck Hill Thurs Series, and Buck Bump on Sunday. Whew! It felt good to lay on the couch and watch James Bond last night.
The TT went well and I bested my time from last year by over a minute.
Buck Thurs was fantastic...not my racing, but the fact that 230+ racers showed up for a mid-week race. There were probably 50-70 kid racers on top of that. Tegan wrapped up his season with a strong performance .. he only cut the course once (trying to follow me inside the cones) and got 2 piece of candy for his effort (vs. the typical 1). =)
Buck Bump, MNSCS #7, was to be a laps 71-76 for me out at Buck Hill this summer by my calculations. Needless to say, I have seen enough of that course for a while. I knew it would be a short race even though it was six laps. Several of the "usual suspects" weren't there due to Ore to Shore, a National, and Leadville preparation. I decide the best plan would be to get in front and punch it from the start so things could sort out before the lapped traffic began. I ended up putting time into the chasing duo of Jesse and Eric T each lap and finished with the win in a little over 1:10. Charly Tri, one of Velo Rochester's endurance specialists, had a really strong performance posting 4th...he will be one to watch for 24 of Afton in the solo division.
Next up is another TT Wednesday and a WORS race this weekend. Maybe next year we will do the combo WORS/MNSCS race on a MN style course like Afton=)

Absurd Commuting

While an R3 SL w/ Aeolus 6.5s is not a necessary piece of equipment for commuting, it is definitely entertaining:

Note: The wheels are a borrowed item from Penn... Tyson told me to give em a whirl, which I plan to on our lunch ride today. I know my co-workers are excited.

Punchy

Yeah, if you weren't up for ~1000 accelerations per lap, you probably had a rough one out there on Sunday. The Elk River course is a new and welcome addition to the MNSCS, and while the biggest climb out there is probably 40 feet of elevation gain, Rich's GPS says that there is still 1000 feet total per lap. After racing it, I wouldn't argue w/ that figure...either way, it was a little piece of singletrack heaven.

From the gun, Devin Curran opened up the throttle on his single speed...nice! I managed past him on the only doubletrack climb (part of the lap but included in the prologue, which helped sort things out). As I pulled back onto the road for the remainder of the prologue I looked back an I had a good gap. I didn't feel like being a carrot from the start so I let up a little and Jeff Hall caught me. After catching me, we started chatting and I told him to go first into the single track...he wasn't eager though. Basically, on a course like this, I knew he would be the one to beat. Our conversation lasted a little too long and a charging field caught us. I made a quick acceleration getting into the next first bottleneck 4th wheel, and before exiting the prologue I was 3rd wheel behind Justin Reinhart and Jeff. Justin was putting down a solid pace so I just waited as the engine began to warm up. It is a often easier following the first bit for me especially on more technical courses like this one. When we came upon a "technical section" with a bypass, Justin and Jeff took the bypass, I went straight down the pile of gorilla-head-size rocks and skirted into the lead. From there, I just rode the singletrack as fast as I could without being inefficient. I was able to steadily open the gap up to 2 minutes by then end...I suffered some doing so, but it was still fun cruising the singletrack=)
The only big mistake I made was that I forgot to have a Gu on board, and my energy levels were hovering around E for the last 40-50 minutes of the race. However, the Gu2O was JUST enough to keep me going until the finish.
I will be out at Buck this week and will follow that up with a weekend at the Fisher family cabin. Chris is going to let me try his new Jet 4 road wheels...I am pumped!
I will post some pics when I find some...

Last night at Buck went better that I expected... after fair amount of fun riding last weekend, a heart stopping Tuesday, a solo lunch ride on Wednesday (too nice to ride slow), and that uh-oh-bad-legs feeling in warm ups, I wasn't sure that I belonged on the front line. However, I was pretty sure the ensuing laps would have me on the red line.
Doug Swanson showed up to make things interesting, but after a hot first lap I was able to gap he and SamO. My legs were too close to locking up so I couldn't put in another big surge. The gap to SamO grew slowly, and the first two laps were very painful. I finally found a maintainable groove for the last two and was able to cruise in alone.

Equipment setup update: I tried a new fork setup last night that seemed to work well...for those that know Rock Shox, I locked my fork out but turned the "floodgate" almost all the way off (one click in). Then I lowered the fork pressure. This left me with a fork that feels kind of like the old Fox inertia valves except it can be preloaded and never gets "confused" (those that rode the FX forks know what I mean). I am going to give it a few more rides before I commit to this, but it definitely felt stiffer sprinting out of corners while still being compliant over the bumpy stuff.

Cheers.

Flat Goosebumps

Ok, the flat and the misfunctioning air can I can take... thats part of the game (thanks to the neutral support for getting me going again after I had given up and was walking back to my car).
Being cold at a starting line on July 16th...I cannot=(

Breezy Point - Memorial - Breezy Point

Last Friday, we cruised up to Breezy Point, MN for family vaca... however, that was not going to stop my dad and I from cruising down Sunday to Red Wing for a race that I have missed several years in a row.
This is another MNSCS destination where, simply put, if you don't like the Red Wing course, you probably don't like mountain biking. The course was a little longer this year, but with cooler temps, I don't think anyone was complaining about an extended Sunday ride.
I made a mistake on Sunday leading out the race. Beyond the first "whoop" section, I didn't remember anything about the course and given the twisty track, knowing where you are going is imperative for efficient riding. I dropped the field in the section of course that I knew, but some of them pulled me back when I overshot a couple corners later on. SamO was riding the strongest and he led Jack and I around until the start of the third lap. BTW, after a double-flat-bonk WORS race last weekend, Jack came back really strong. It shows mental toughness to recover from something like that to race well.
Going in to the third lap, I was FINALLY getting in the singletrack groove, and I took a couple Roctane's after the 2nd and 3rd laps that were starting kick in. SamO and I gapped Jack, and other that the climbing, I was having a blast (my legs were not very good on the climbs). In the "prologue" part of the last lap, SamO told me to keep it hot (or did he say consistent, I can't remember=) through the single track to get more of a gap on Jack. I did keep it hot and was able to put some time on him. From there, I suffered through the last time up the "Stairway" climb to claim the victory.
Again, we had another great MNSCS turn out. Lets all keep it rolling!
I have a couple days left up here at Breezy Point before returning to reality. I am sure Jen will have some updates on our activities up here, but suffice it to say, we are enjoying ourselves.

Yes, yes we are...

http://mooreblessingsfromabove.blogspot.com/