The series....

Well, it is done, my season that is. It ended up being a tough race up in St. Cloud and a sprint finish between Sam and I for the series and 2nd place (Jeff won). I don't have a lot of time to blog about the race, as I am headed to interbike tonite and want to maximize time with the family.

By my calculations, Sam and I have the same number of series points, 1006 to 1006...crazy! The winner is then decided by head to head match ups. I beat Sam 6 out the 9 head-to-head races (we both missed Red Wing), so that makes me the State Champ.

In other awesome news, Jen Meyer wrapped up the State Championship again as well!

Overall it was a great day for Velo Rochester and our sister team WOW (Women on Wheels),as we repeated with both the Women's and Men's State Mountain Bike Championships!

Next blog will be a recap of Interbike! It is going to be a wild party with Portilla, Paul, and Jo Mama.

CN

I have fallen behind on blog reading, but I found this on Jay's blog...a Cyclingnews.com recap of Maplelag...
http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb/?id=2007/sep07/laddiesloppet07

Cool!

Long in the tooth...

Preface: I know a lot of people feel that Cheqaumee is a one of the most important races of the year. For me it is not, but they do put on a pretty wonderful spectacle. Sorry for my weak performance, I would have like to put in a good ride for my team, friends, family, etc.

Ahh, the start....there was the token big crash sending people to the hospital....all I heard was crunching metal and some groans/"oh craps". To add to the sweetness, some guy in a Fassa Bortolo jersey slapped Fisher in the face on Hwy 77 (apparently he didn't like getting passed???). I have heard of road racers fighting, but never mountain bikers... either way, Fisher was a stand up guy and just raced on w/out retaliation.
For me, the race ended early, and I fell apart in the first 5 miles. The pace wasn't absurd, but I could feel it coming when warming up. In the crisp weather, my legs just weren't responding (and tend not to). I rode the middle 15 miles up to Fire Tower hill at a very easy tempo pace w/ the O boys and some others. At the hill, I just climbed it at my pace and found my self in no man's land w/ one other guy. As I passed people going to the finish, I was in a steady temp mode. I guess I finished 20th (overall). The posted results are apparently screwed up, who knows. The biggest surprise for me was too see that I was only 5 minutes behind the winner...with they way I thought I was riding, it felt like I should have been 20 minutes back.
The rest of the weekend was awesome. Our family friend let the Fishers...I mean Jen and Chris, my brother, my dad, and myself stay at his cabin. We had a nice bonfire Sat night on the shores of beautiful Gull Lake. I wish every night after a race was spent that way.
I haven't talked to him, but it looks like Fisher did well today at the STXC. I was going to go but with the long season, I don't think my legs have too many more races left in them before they are going to scream for rest=)
If you are wondering about Ben..he had a wicked cold all week and almost didn't come. He finished 49th. He was feeling so crappy that he slept for 4 hours after the race. Hopefully he doesn't get more sick.
I only have 1 more race planned this year, and it is next w/e at St. Cloud. Our weekends until Nov are booked so I can't make Sheboygan or any of the other season closers.

Quiet

Wowsas, no racing this weekend. There was a WORS race, but I needed the rest. My brother went and said it was the course had one small section of singletrack and mowed doubletrack the rest of the 15 minute lap. He rode w/ Chris P the whole time and said that was cool.

There is a video on Erics blog http://ericoftedahl.blogspot.com/ of me climbing Suicide hill in the TT last weekend. Eric said I was the only one of the experts who just sat and pedaled up it.

Tego got his 6-7 month pics taken this weekend. We are fortunate enough to have a neighbor that does professional photography, so he just came over and took the shots. They turned out really well!
http://www.jensrunninblog.blogspot.com/

In other news, my second road-style race of the season, Chequamegon, is this weekend. No expectations from me...I go for the festival atmosphere. The actual race? It will be fast for sure.

Super fun and some Team work!

The weekend up at Maplelag is the most fun race of the season. If you could dream up what a mountain bike race should be, this would be it. The cabins overlook the lake, the race course/singletrack is out the front door, the food is always on time and good, and last but not least, the racing is HOT!
My parents made the trip up, as they became "empty nesters" this week when they sent my youngest brother Brad off to college. Wow...it only took 28 years! It was really great to hang with them, and I know they loved Maplelag. Maybe we will make this a yearly thing.

On to the racing. The TT was Saturday morning on a 3 mile double and singletrack course. I ended up winning it by 5 seconds over TJ. I was pretty darn close to full on.

The STXC that afternoon was really exciting and hard. There was a lead group of 7 from the start: Sam, Doug, Dan, Paul, Chris, TJ, and Me. Doug took some 'fliers but with a group that big, no one was getting away. When it came down to the last two laps I pulled up on the side of the Chris and told him to follow me. I knew he stood a better chance in a sprint and wanted to give him an opportunity to win. Unfortunately he didn't know it was the last lap, and after I strung the field out, Dan made a hard effort and took the win....my effort was rewarded though with Chris getting second. Everyone I talked to after the STXC was saying how fast we were going. I saw some video, and usually videos are lame, but we do look fast=) I will post some if Jen Meyer gives them to me.

The XC went like this: 1. Lead group forms with TJ, Paul, Sam, Chris and I; 2. I get on the front because I was getting frustrated riding behind people in the singletrack and I feel no pressure; 3. I start to bonk for no reason...combo of 2 x 24 hour races in a month and the previous day I think; 4. Sam and TJ get away, and Chris pulls me up to Paul. 5. Chris pulls the ultimate Teammate move by talking me out of my lack of energy, and he pulls me around for 1.5 laps. He sacrificed his overall 3rd in the stage race so I could stay close to Sam. The MNSCS series will come down to the last race in St. Cloud.
For those who haven't been there the "Lakeside Drops" are steep...go to Skinnyski.com under the XC Sport class photos (about #65) to see a SWEET crash.
Chris pulling Paul and I aroundGiving Prop's to my Chris for his help
The final podium plus my little stud muffin.Chris and I soaking our legs after the XCIn other Velo Rochester news, Jen kicked butt and got the overall expert womens trophy! She is such a good technical rider and ended up beating most of the Comp Mens field. So in the end 1st TT, 6th STXC (lead group though=), and 3rd XC...and I am totally fried. It has been 4 hard weekends of racing in a row with the last 2 being 24 of Afton and the Maplelag stage race...lots of racing and I know I didn't fully recover from Afton. As Jay said last night, it is time to rest and then cash in on some of this hard stretch of racing.

2 more left - Cheq, and MNSCS #10