BRF

Every year in the Fall, we go on a camping outing with anyone and everyone who we can round up. This year 12 of us ventured over to Hatfield Wisco (right by BRF or Black River Falls)...why Hatfield? Well, it is 1 mile from a 20-30 mile set of singletrack, duh!
The attendee list: Wenksta, Paul, Jeff, Jen, Jen, Mat, Jodi, Andy, Audrey, Erin, Fisher, and I.
The weather on Saturday was beyond perfect, and 10 of us ended up going on a 4 hour ride that had us up on senic overlooks and hauling through flowing Midwest style singletrack. By the end of the ride, there was neither a drop of water nor a cliff bar unconsumed, and I think everyone was getting close to bonksville. The ride was supposed to be 2 hours, but I underestimated a couple of the loops=)
That night we spend climbing trees, swinging axes, and taking down Jagerbombs. Yikes! My wife went to bed early, but came back out around midnight for a bathroom break. She said we were all just sitting around the fire giggling like school girls. Good times...Good times!
Sunday was rainy so we just headed to Grandma and Grandpa's (Jen's parents) house to pick up Tegan.
This weekend is the MNSCS Awards, so we will probably be doing a ride on Saturday weather permitting. Let me know if y'all are interested.
Cheers!

So busy...off season right?

While my posts are not as latent as Paul's they are lacking since St. Cloud. A lot has happened! I went to interbike and had a great time. Then I was back for 1.5 days before I headed out to Janesville Wisco for my Neice's baptism.

I-Bike:

So sweet.... I attended with my teammate Charly, Jo Mama, Tri. He is a riot and can sure ride those clown bikes (29ers). We rode 4 hours each day at the outdoor demo on everything from the newest Trek Fuel Ex to a $10K Cervelo. Because Fisher and I had been there before, I knew the trails and we ventured off on the "not-supposed-to-ride" cool trails. 4 flats later, we were ready for the show. We only had one day at the show which was barely enough.

I spent the show talking to prospective sponsors. I talked to a pretty sweet potential wheel sponsor, which I hope works out, and Charly talked to a few other companies for our team. I am not going to list any names until I/we have a chance to talk to these companies post-Ibike.

Stay tuned, but I could be riding an even lighter and faster bike next year....I will need it to keep up with all you fliers.

This last weekend down in Janesville, I hoped to catch up w/ Ben for a ride. Instead, he hammered and I got dropped. We showed up at Kettle Moraine to find a "timed ride" going on. It was some fall festival that they don't call a race for insurance reasons. Anyway, we were too late to race, but we did poach the unused trails over at Emma Carlin. They have some wicked fun single track there. It would be a great place for a 24 hour race. Ben said after, "I felt like hammering." To which, I replied, "I got sick of being anaerobic after about 2 hours."

Pictures:

Dt Swiss's $3300 mountain bike wheelset...come ON!

Calfee's Bamboo Bike

Cannondale/SRAM's Creation?

Grandma with Aubrey and Tegan

My sister Bri, Aubrey, and Tegan Playing in the Baptismal water

Uncle Ben explaining how to drop Brendan on a mountain bike ride

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

24 Hours of Climbing

I slept hard last night, and I haven't done much today....reports on Ben and Chris are similar. I haven't heard, but I am guessing that Paul isn't bouncing of the walls either.

This report won't be lengthy. We rode 38 laps out at Afton over 24 hours (5PM Friday - 5PM Sat) with no major problems. Then next team was 2.5-3 hours down so the race was not too stressful. Lap times were 35-40 minutes depending on the amount of light. Chris and Paul put up 33:58 and 34:20 laps respectivly around noon on Saturday! They must have found some fresh chamois=) Ben was consitently fast even though he was in a "base" phase for the Collegiate season...Go UW!

Probably the most amazing thing that happened at the race is that Rich "Richzilla" Omdahl sucked down 30 White Castle sliders between laps...who knew sliders were a substitute for Gu?

http://www.morcmtb.org/forums/showthread.php?t=22657

Paul brought the RV...making this the most comfortable setup yet

Walking to the starting line

Ben working itTegan and Cousin Jeff hangin'Grandpa and Tegan Fisher getting ready for another oneCarnagePaul...no longer a 24 hour virgin

Control - Alt - Delete

For you computer literate, yep, that is what I did this week. Start over with a restful easy riding week....the volume was the same, but I kept the intensity very low. The feeling I had last weekend is not one I want to feel again. I think the reboot worked.

I felt much better at Spirit Mt yesterday, and while the result show that I got worked by Jeff, I am content this morning. Off the start, I took the hole shot and Jeff followed. By 5 min in we had a 20 second gap or so, and I wasn't' riding under any pressure. Then all of a sudden, after a rocky section, Jeff and I look up the hill to see the field cruising by. They had all unintentionally cut at least 30-40 seconds off the course! Jeff and I flew up the trail and they let us pass. I was flustered, but they all let us by. We had a gap soon again, but a foolish crash left me alone with missing skin on my left hip. I waited up for Paul and the chasers who I finished the first 1/2 lap with (it was a 2.5 lap race and the first lap was a 1/2 lap).

At the start of the next lap, I got away by a bit again...then BURP! Yep, the tire burped, but luckily Mr Stan and my CO2 cartridge saved the day. Sam went by me and the chasers almost caught me by the time I got back in the saddle. I went hard and caught Sam, and from then on we rode together (save the time I twisted my handlebars and had to chase back again!). We gapped the chasers pretty good on the sweet new climb they added. I should not that this is the most fun and challenging climb I have encountered in the Midwest....rocky, rooty and steep. Thanks to all the Duluth trail workers and Scotty K for making a sweet course.

Going into the final lap, Jeff had 3 minutes on us, so Sam and I just sat up and took a easy lap. He was feeling pretty bad about cutting the course, and he said that I had him on the rivet during the climb anyway. In the end I rolled in ahead of Sam, as he burped a tire on the last climb and told me not to wait.

Summary: legs felt good despite 2 silly crashes and a flat. I definitely could have gone faster yesterday, but it just would have made the gap smaller to Jeff...what is the point of being a closer second? =)

24 of Afton this weekend...if it doesn't dry out, we are out.

Just one of 'dem days...

My face at the finish says it all: Welch really took it to me today. I kind of saw it coming, but didn't want to believe it and didn't tell anybody. My legs had been hurting abnormally this week. I felt it at Buck on Thursday, where Sam rode away from me, and it was the same story today. To be honest, I really wanted to quit, and I had to convince myself to keep riding. The reason that I kept going was to show the younger riders that never giving up is important.

The race:

At the start, Jason Wenk slipped a pedal or something and took me out. I was dead last before I knew it. I got clipped in and had to put in a hard effort to recover, but this put me into the red way too early. This was the worst scenario, as my legs already had lead in them. From there, I hung on to the leaders for about 1/2 the first lap...never really recovering.

At that point, I decided to cut my losses and just ride. Sam O is climbing like a crazy man right now and rode away from Ben and Jay. Sam told me on Thursday and again today that he is feeling amazing right now.

I don't know how, but I ended up only a minute or so down from Ben and Jay (according to my dad, I haven't seen the results). With dead legs, 4th is more than I deserved.

Me, no where to be seen at the startWorking my way up

Tegan telling me, "its ok, daddy, get em next time."

Next weekend is Spirit Mt in Duluth....until the, some rest.