Coming down to the wire....

So, it looks like we will be riding in at least some mud this Saturday up at St.Cloud....so it goes this year, and it will still be a blast.

One thing I did notice and the reason for the post is that second place in the series comes down to this race between Cody and Samo (note that the scoring on the MNMTB website is currently screwed up and not throwing out the lowest races). That should be an exciting race for all to watch! Hopefully I can have a front row seat=)

Who do you think it will be??? It might depend on if Cody does the SS race in the morning, as both are very skilled riders in the twisty stuff.

Shredin' the Lag

I am not sure what to say about Maplelag that I haven't already said in previous posts. Needless to say, it was hard to leave Monday.

The racing was hot this year with some Road/CX pros showing up to spice up the TT and STXC. Also, Jason Sager, a top national pro who runs and rides for the Jamis mtbk team, flew in to checkout some Midwest racing.
TT: It was cooler and more damp than last year. I contend that this is the most painful 10 minutes of my entire year. This year I didn't feel great and it showed with a time of 9:57, 7 seconds slower than Jason. The only good news is that my course record from the previous year of 9:36 still stands.
STXC: This was the fastest STXC to date up there. It only took a few minutes before it was me, Jason, Doug, Patty Cakes Lemieux, and Adam Bergman. Adam and Patty worked hard to blow us all up w/ relentless attacking. In the end, they blew each other up, and I was happy to see Doug take the win and the MN STXC State Champ t-shirt=) I just rode at the back of the pack and finished 5th. It would have been smart of me to move up a few spots to avoid the whiplash around every corner. Either way, I felt ok and didn't want to dig too deep with the impending XC race destruction. My only comments on the post race shenanigans are below in the picture caption.A face we don't get to see around the Midwest enough anymore

The lead group in the STXC
When roady tactics meet mtbking prowess and "never say die" attitude mountain bike racing can be frustrating for some=) I have never seen anything like this at a mtbk race, 'nuff said.

XC: It took a while to get things going and after following Jason's horrible line that wrapped me a round a tree (I gave him a hard time for that!) and dropping my chain 3x (not sure what was going on there because it went away the last 2 laps!). The 2nd and 3rd lap saw me catching Samo after he had ridden away and reeling in Jason. The reeling was too little too late though and I ended up 30 some seconds back as the first looser;) I have to say that on the second 2 laps, I felt pretty strong, which is encouraging this time of year when both fitness and motivation tend to slip. The XC finish was good enough for another second place in the omnium.Discussing the finer points of tire choice w/ Jason...he was on Geax Tubulars, I was running Bonti XR1,0.
How the singletrack rolls up at Maplelag...you better always be paying attention!
Ah, the Lakeside Drops...not the most difficult thing on the course, but probably the scariest looking. % grade? Who knows, maybe 50%?

Fun: Along with me came my parents, Jen's Parents, Jen's sister Amanda, Ben, Casey, and Tegan. We had wonderful accommodations overlooking the Lakside Drops. Tegan had a blast playing w/ Jon Richards and the Grammas/Pappas. Casey is pretty attached to Mommy and Daddy right now, but I know at least a few folks got some time with her away from us.

Pictures: All the pics above are from Skinnyski.com...awesome as usual.

Next? Hmm, not sure. I won't be up in Hayward on the 18th, but I will be in St. Cloud for a couple (or three) races the following weekend.

Anything I missed? Oh yeah, I went running today...CX is coming soon.

the 2-4

Fisher, Ben, Samo, and I went in to Salsa 24 w/ the only goal being to have fun and keep rubber side down. We basically accomplished that other than a little missing skin on Fisher's hip.
This year, we all put in one pretty hard lap and then started pulling double laps. With the shorter laps, double laps ranged in time from 1:10-1:30 which is perfect (on par w/ the Moab lap times).

The weather was perfect, the new race director Amanda did a stellar job, and the course was the rockiest, bumpiest and most technical I have seen it, awesome.

The only downer was that I didn't get any sleep. Tegan spent the entire time out there w/ us, and when I had a 3 hour window to catch a nap (2 am to 5 am), he decided to cry, whine for mommy, and pee through his diaper. I guess those are the perils of being a daddy racer!

My family and I can't wait for Maplelag.

Better than Spirit Mt?

Man, that was a cool course on sunday (MNSCS #9 at Lester Park in Duluth). I am not sure it is better than Spirit Mt, but it definitely ranks up there.
My race? Oh, it was pretty much a culmination of some bad luck that I hadn't had in a while. It started about a week earlier with the onset of a head cold. Thursday and Friday were rough achy days. My wife encouraged me to stay home on Sunday, but she knew what my answer to that would be.
Yes, of course the race was muddy...thick clay filled mud. I think nasty conditions can just be assumed for 90% of the races this year. But the Bontrager XR2s strapped to the Fuel made navigation easy and after as strong lead out by Mr Chequamegon himself, Doug Swanson, I found myself riding very comfortably with SamO and Erik Tonkin. I was under very little pressure and wasn't going to let either one of them slip away until bad luck started. My LCR friend Jim turned his bike sideways in front of me on one of the slippery ski trail downhills just as SamO snuck by. I took his tire in my chest and have an imprint of his tread on my arm, but it actually doesn't really hurt today. I got up and quickly chased back up to Sam and Erik...just in time to hear pssssttttt. Yup, a puncture through the tread. I was following close and took a hard hit on a rock that I might normally avoid. After fiddling with CO2 and the inability of Stans to seal the hole 5 min, I decided to run with my bike to the next feed/tech zone for some help (I need to start running anyway if I am going to do some 'cross =).Running practice capture by Jay...I think we were both laughing at my misfortunre as I went by.
There, I got a pump, a tube from a friendly racer, and even a pliers because my tubeless valve was stuck. The fix took a LONG time, but I HATE to DNF. I was determined to finish, which I did.
My takeaway is that my fitness is relatively high for this time of year, and if I can stay healthy, it should bode well for me up at Maplelag, St. Cloud and into 'cross season.

For now, the bike is a 30 lb disaster of clay filled mud, the bike (at least one of them) needs a small chainring put back on it, I need to kick this cold, and I need to get those lights fired up for 24 Hours of Salsa/Afton this weekend! Luckily, I have a my mechanic, Tegan, pumped up about helping with this stuff....

Update: So, I wanted to inspect my rim before posted this, but my Bonti XXX lite carbon mtbk rim still appears to be fine despite the flat on Sunday. The tire is shot. I thought this might be interesting to some folks, as I too was once a skeptic about the use of carbon rims on mtbks.
The fact that the rims is intact is pretty amazing considering how hard I must have hit that rock (was only running 20 PSI for grip reasons). The flat both bruised/cut the bead area and punctured through the tread area of a fairly "safe" 580 gram tire. So a rock smacked right through the tread, through the sidewall, and down to the rim. Any aluminum rim would have been dented and probably ruined.

5 in 10 and R&R

Better late than never, here are the happenings over the last couple weeks.
The Border Battle ended a 5 xc race in 10 day stretch for me. 3 of the 5 were at Buck and one was an offroad TT at Murphy Hanrehan, a local 10 mile singletrack loop.
The Murphy TT was Wed and as per the norm this year, 10 minutes before the start, a cloud blew up and it rained. It did not rain at my house 8 miles away, but it poured for 10 minutes on the trail, just enough to make it really slick. I played it safe around corners and across the many bridges, but ended up working very hard to accelerate back up to speed. I think about 90% of the folks out there crashed...some pretty hard. I managed to avoid crashing and take the win but it was no record setting day.
The last Thursday Night at Buck is always a blast and with live music and pyrotechnics thrown in, this was no exception. My plan was to ride 2 laps hard and then tempo it in. I did so and it was good enough for second place, with Cody Larson taking the win. I knew going hard for all four laps would make the forecasted hot and steamy conditions at the Border Battle that much tougher.
The Border Battle was a great race and a recap can be found here and an interview here. I was the hottest race I remember doing, and as I drove away the radio reported a current heat index of 103. I am not sure I could have avoided the cramping in those conditions.
I followed that stretch of racing with my families vacation in the Dells. We rode the ducks, went to a circus, did a lot of pool time, suffered a little (or a lot in some cases), and had a very fun week. One of the highlights for me was 4.5 hour ride my brothers and I did on a 95 degree day. My younger brother Brad had is first full-on-bonk-cramping-in-every-muscle (including hands) experience. It was a sight to see and his is a stronger man now than he was before.

Cheers.

Wish I could have been there...

Great story and a happy ending down at Rochester Cycling and Fitness.
Nice work Charly!

66 and counting

By my estimation, upon completion of MNMBS#7 and 10 of the 11 Thursday Night Penn Series I have somewhere in the range of 66 laps in at Buck Hill this year! We have done this course forward, backward, upside down, and right side up. I am not complaining, mind you. It is a good race course in a very convenient location, and the races are always run well with more than adequate facilities.

Sunday was hot...hot AND humid. 88 degrees and 69 degree dew point according to Jen's iphone. While the race was short in time, it was long in pain. I don't think any of the elite racers would have asked for more than the 6 laps that we did. That said, the second half of my race was much better than the first.
I lead the first lap but had some gut rot (maybe due to heat, I am not sure) so I kept the pace reasonable. Cody lead the next lap and went hard enough that it was only he, Eric Thompson, and I left with SamO just dangling. The third time up the main climb, Cody's pace slowed, and I attacked with Eric the only one still hanging on. The fourth lap I did the same and was able to get a gap on Eric. By then my stomach was feeling better and it must have showed on my face because Jay Richards said I looked a lot stronger (and I felt a lot stronger) on the last 2 laps. I finished all alone at the front, not necessarily exhausted, but still hurting from the short, hard, very hot effort. SamO caught Eric near the end and nipped him at the line to round out the podium. The picture above was taken by Jay.

Equipment wise, I did ride the Top Fuel out there rather than the hardtail. I was debating given the climby, punchy nature of the course. I have gone back and forth this year at the Thursday nights, but for me right now the fuel is faster, period. The tire combo of Bontrager 2.2 XR1 front and XR0 rear has proven to be faster and more supple than last years Rocket Ron and Racing Ralph combo, but the Ron definitely has more bite as a front tire in the loose stuff than the XR1. The XR2 is more comparable to the Ron, but you have to trade off weight (100gs heavier) with durability (Ron's cut very easily just ask Jake Richards about his running race yesterday!).
If you get a chance to try some of the new XC Bontrager treads XR2, XR1, and XR0, do so.... if you want to race them, be sure to get the Team Issue compound.

I am not sure what my plans are this week other than commuting. I would like to hit Murphy Wed, Buck Thurs, and the Border Battle Sunday, but there is only so much zoom-zoom in the legs and likely I will only hit one of the weekday races.
Most importantly, we are heading to the Dells on Sunday for our family vacation where we have 3 condos rented to house my parents, the 5 of us kids, 4 grandchildren, 2 spouses, and 1-2 significant others. I am excited to hang with everyone and to get away for some R&R...oh wait never mind, Tegan won't let that happen=) Ben will be there too so I am sure some light pedaling will occur....

Does anyone know if Devils Head still has any trails open? Riding there used to be awesome, and we will only be 20 min away.

Face Brake

Dang, I need to stop crashing. For whatever reason, I crashed on these stairs (that I have ridden dozens of times) on Sunday at MMBS #6. How to properly ride the stairs....

The crash happened at the beginning of the race and made for a long day chasing a fast riding Cody Larson. My face is pretty chewed up - I won't be shaving my chin for a while - and my shoulder is bruised pretty good, but I don't think I sustained any permanent injuries.
Other than, that and dropping my chain once, the event was awesome. Rich puts on one of the best shows in the series and the volunteer help was AMAZING!
Although I got 2nd to Cody, my time was actually 2 seconds faster than last year on the exact same course and very similar conditions. Last year I won by a couple minutes beating a tough crew of Jeff Hall, SamO, and TJ that day so that tell you how good Cody was going.

Riding wise, I am not sure what to do right now. I am overly tired too often...maybe partly due to being a 2x daddy and the fact that neither of my kids sleep through the night (although Jen DEFINITELY takes the brunt of that). E.g. On Sunday morning, I could barely stay awake and fell asleep several times at home and on the drive up to the race.
I also may be in a fitness lull or there is something else is wrong physiologically. Only time will tell.
All I know is that IT isn't all their right now....

Different Purpose

This weekend, rather than riding around in circles with a number attached to my bike I pulled 100+ pounds of boy and gear to a local campground about 12 miles away.This is my new all weather all conditions commuter that Trek hooked me up with. It is a Trek 6000 ht mountain bike w/ a rigid fork, full fenders, and a rack. I still am yet to drive to Seagate since starting work there a couple weeks ago=)

Needless to say, we had a ball camping. My cousin Jeff, Dad, friend Ted, and his boy Brody met us there (they all drove), which made things easier on Tegan and I. We couldn't have fit any more in anyway!
Tegan slept on both the out and back trip....I did not have that luxury. Tegan and Uncle Jeff (technically not an uncle but has earned the title)
Sunday was a chill day with the family. I was wearing my faux white t-shirt.

This week brings another Buck Hill and MMBS#6. I am not doing the National Championships out in Colorado. The recent job change has left me vacationless, and I know based on previous Col vacations that I would need at least a week of time out there to acclimate if I wanted to compete at a reasonable level. As a side note, in the spirit of competition, I am not sure that starting nationals at 7K+ feet sets a level playing field for all the nations riders...

Head Brake

Sunday was ANOTHER mudfest. 4 out of 5 MNSCS races have now been muddy/rainy.
Basically, I was feeling pretty good and strong at the start, but I couldn't steer and went to hard trying to compensate. Then I crashed and used my head to stop myself. My helmet broke and wouldn't stay on my head, but I managed to limp to the finish in 3rd. I guess I looked pretty disheveled at the finish with the helmet barely hanging on:
Maybe the next one will be dry....