Windy Century

Only a week after the 6WC race, John G put together a century down South of Lancaster and back.  The ride features about 30 miles of flat and rolling terrain, then 40 miles of big climbs and hills, then 30 miles back on flattish country.   It was super windy that day with 30 mph winds coming from the SSW.  There were four of us: me, John, Todd and Daryl.

John had his new bike together.  It is an awesome custom calfee with a road/cross design.  He has two wheel sets -- road and cross -- disc brakes and S&S couplers.  It is super light and very stiff. 

After a late start and a bunch of smack talk, John got on the front and put the power down.  That guy has a huge motor.  We were doing 17 into a 30 mph headwind.  I don't think I could have done 14 on my own.  I was blitzed.  Perhaps my legs were still tired from the race, but mostly I just don't have the power output of John.  Todd seemed fine and spent a lot of time up front too. 

I couldn't believe these were the same two guys I raced with last week.  Yes, they had bike trouble, but they also seemed plenty burnt out after 3 laps.  Granted my 4th and 5th laps weren't fast, but I still had gas in the tank.  This week was completely different.  I kept getting blown of the back and these two seemed to have power to spare.   The big hills in the middle evened the playing field a bit, but on the way back John got on the front and parked it at about 31.  I couldn't hold his wheel and had to settle for the second group (mostly me and occasionally a merciful Daryl) at 26 mph.  

Unfortunately Todd hit the deck just 5miles out.  I think he took his hands off the bars to clean his glasses.  A gust caught his wheel and he went down hard.  Scraped, bruised ribs and some broken bike parts.  It wasn't pretty.   It was a very hard day to ride no-handed, just so windy. 

I ended up with 95.5 miles, 18 mph, 4600' climbing.  A good very hard day. 

6 Hours of Warrior Creek

John G, Todd and I went down to Wilkesboro, NC for the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek race.  John had pointed it out to me a few years back and we had always talked about going.  We decided to do it this year.  The race sells out in minutes, so we had to be ready with the registration on a Saturday morning.

The drive is 6+ hours each way ... a long trek.  It rained most of the way down, but the weather was pleasant down in NC.  It was amazing how much warmer it was there, maybe 20 deg warmer.  There was a 30% chance of rain overnight, but it never materialized so we had beautiful summer-dry trails.

We arrived around 4pm and drove straight to the trailhead to register and get in a pre-ride lap.  The trail was awesome!  So many swoops, berms, tight turns ... a real roller coaster.  Just enough climbing to keep things interesting but mostly an ungodly number of berms.  This course demanded every ounce of concentration and even then, it tests your sense of equilibrium.  I worried about getting dizzy after 6 hours of it.  We did our first lap in about 1:07 and it felt hard.  Half way through I hit a rock that split open my brand new Racing Ralph which spewed Stans all over but didn't seal.  So we had to put a tube in.  I am NOT loving those Racing Ralphs after both of them split on rocks in the W101 last year.  I've giving them just one more chance before switching away from Schwalbe.

Race morning came and we got an early drive over to the course to get a good parking spot for pitting.  We had about 2 hours to burn while waiting for the start.  There were about 300+ people lined up at the start and the key was to decide how closely to get to the front.  Too close and you get burned out in the first lap.  Too far back and you get stuck behind a bunch of couch potatoes or nancy's.   I got about 5 people deep (about 50 riders) and I think I got it just about perfect.  The first lap was just a bit too fast but not unbearable.  But I never found myself in a spot wishing I could get around someone in my way. 

We hit the first extended lap in 1:21.  I could see John just ahead of me and I sensed Todd was just a few seconds up the road.  I think I caught a glimpse of him in the parking lot section.  I went through for lap 2 without pitting.  I caught John quickly and passed him when he crossed up his front wheel on a berm.   I reeled Todd in shortly after.  Then I got on a great train of about 5 riders, one of the better pro women just in front of me.  She had great lines and was easy to follow.  The pace was high but bearable.   At this point I was worried about making 4 laps, perhaps calling it after 3.   Lap 2 was a quick 1:10. 

At the start of lap 3 I pitted briefly.  Then headed out fast on the trail.  Todd and John were both kaput and decided to stop/rest.  I immediately broke my chain. Fortuitous because it only took me 5 minutes to run back to the pit crew.  I got a power link to put on and was back out on the trail.  Maybe 10 minutes lost. 

Lap 3 was marked by a lot of passing.  I was starting to slow but there were tons more slower people out there.  Some of them had just slipped by while I was fixing my chain.  I even caught a few people still on their first lap.  Lap 3 went by in about 1:29.

I was tiring but still found some depth.  I hit lap 4 aware now that a 5 lap day was a possibility.  I started doing mental math and figured I could ride a 1:30 lap and still make the time cut-off of 3:40 for the last lap exit.  I rolled in about 20 minutes under the cut off, stopped for some water and food and headed out for lap 5.  John and Todd had both called it after 3 laps (both had bad mechanical issues) so I was aware that I was now holding them up for another hour+.   I rode a good solid 5th lap finding bits of power here and there.  I was passing lots of people.  This was the first time I saw people going by me quickly.  I figured they were pro solos, but it turns out they were all relay team riders; I didn't get lapped by a single solo.

I was also only 12 minutes down on the first woman pro and might have caught her if not for the broken chain.  I finished 6th in the 40+ open men (out of 56).  I finished in about the 11th percentile of all solo riders.  This was my best mountain bike race finish by far.  Especially considering how the brutal winter has limited training, I did much better than expected.

It was nice wearing the Freeze Thaw kit and I got quite a few comments from people who recognized it.  The race was super well run and the course was in immaculate condition.  Props to the race crew! Thanks to John G and Todd who split the driving on the way back.  I was so spent I couldn't have driven more than an hour or so.  We arrived in Granville a little after midnight.  I also note that we had 0 beers the whole weekend.  Our dinner place had no alcohol license and the state park didn't allow alcohol either.  Then we were in the car and driving.  

Las Vegas

I have to go to Las Vegas in March for a conference, so ... sounds like a good time for a bike vacation.  

I flew out of chilly OH very early on a Sunday morning (stupid time change) and landed in Vegas at 10:30am local time with warmth and sunshine.  Actually more like searing heat and blinding sunshine.  It is hard to believe there is a part of this country that can be this warm.  These folks must be so soft! 

I went straight to Las Vegas Cyclery to pick up my bike.  After about 30 mins of fitting and paper work I was on my way.  This place is great.  I got a carbon stumpjumper with x7/x9 stuff on it.  Not perfect, but pretty good for a rental bike. Only the brakes were a major letdown.   They had a clean, good bike in working condition.   And they had showers and dressing rooms which were a plus since I hadn't checked in to my hotel yet.  I give them a thumbs up. 

I decided to head out on the west edge of town to the Red Rock area since it was very close to the shop.  I started on the Blue Diamond trail system with about 8-10 miles of interweaving trails.  I got across the street to the Cottonwood Canyon system.  Luckily I bought a map which helped immensely find my way around. 

This is high dessert!  All the ground is bone dry.  Most of the trails are small and medium rocks, a lot like riding a single track gravel road.  There were tons of fist sized and baby head sized rocks which made the footing loose in several places.   Trails either crossed or ran with drainage washes which were full of soft sand or soft stones, again, more loose footing. 

The elevation was more significant than I had anticipated.  Las Vegas is at 3500', but the biggest mountains around the area can reach over 10k.  The trails I rode were mostly between 3800 and 5000; high enough to get me breathing hard on the climbs.  There was also a ton of wind on Day 2.  Maybe steady 20mph with 30 mph gusts.   It was significantly hard riding into it.  And it was too windy in spots to get the map out; it simply fluttered about in the wind making it hard to read and easy to tear.  It was also a bit chilly, especially with the sun tucked behind the clouds.  But perfectly, the sun was

hidden for most of the climbing and out for most of the descending. 

There are no trees up here so you can view the trails for miles around.  The only thing obstructing views is the hills and other elevation changes.  It is strange to be able to look down onto a big valley and see other riders coming up the trail still miles away.  In the woods in the midwest, you usually don't see anyone until the last second.   There were some cacti and joshua trees and such.  Some tumble weeds but mostly sparse scrub plants.   Fortunately I didn't see any thorns or goatheads or anything else like that.  I did come across a herd of wild horses.  These were big animals; no small ponies here.  They seemed to ignore me and I was happy to pass them by without incident.

The trails were not super well marked.  Some intersections had markings with a post, but no trail names.  There were many other intersections with no markings at all.  And a whole bunch of trails that were unmarked or bandit trails.  Fortunately, with the wide open views, you had a good idea where the trails were going.  I would have been very lost without the map ... lost in the sense of not knowing where I was on the map but not lost as in can't find my way back.   As I went higher up in the back country, the trail markings became more sparse. 

I ended up with 35 miles on Day 1 and another 20 miles on Day 2.   Two good weekend rides on dry dirt with shorts.  

January Long Ride

Good ride today.  The roads cleared off of slush, snow and salt with yesterday's rains.  It was cold and blustery today, but dry roads meant a good time for a longer ride.  I went north, through Appleton, then Mount Vernon and on to Gambier.  The diner I had planned for a meal wasn't open, so a coke and pop tart had to do instead.  I took the hilly back way home through Millersburg and St Louisville.   There are a lot of bridges out and roads closed.  And St Louisville was a real mess with all the sewer work going on there. 

It was nice to be out on the Fargo.  Beautiful back roads.  Rolling hills.  I only took one photo (of the abandoned nut house). But the winds made things tough.  And it never really got much above 30 or so when I started (colder with windchill).  I'm glad I layered up and didn't pay attention to the weatherman who were saying temps of lower 40s.   

Stats for the day: 66.5 miles, 3400' vertical, 15.7 mph.  Not bad.  

I registered for the Dirty Kanza 200 yesterday morning.  200 miles with 12k' feet of climbing.  Almost all of it on hilly gravel and it is very likely to have stiff winds.  I imagine today's ride is a lot like the terrain except that today I was mostly on pavement and it was cold instead of beastly hot.  I've got some work to do if I'm to extend a 67 mile ride like this to 200 miles. 

Paradise Garage has dumped the price on their 2013 Foundry Auger.  I test road this bike a while back and have had my eye on it ... that was when it was $2600.  Now it is only $1900.  It is very tempting.  I may have to trade up on my cross/gravel bike sometime soon.

Happy 2014

A new year greets us and I am back after a few months hiatus in blogging.

I took the Mukluk to PA for the annual Christmas visit with my folks.  I got out for two awesome rides.  In the first, I parked just above Pine Grove Mills and followed the ridgeline on a gravel forest road to Spruce Creek.  After dropping down to the river and climbing back up, I went over the top to the backside of the ridge and did some more forest road exploring.  Swirling winds, gently falling snow, and cold temps made it a fun event.

In the second ride, I parked at Galbraith Gap and did the fire tower climb.  A quick descent on Old Shingletown road preceded the long climb back up to Little Flat Top.  I came around on North Meadows road and finished with Longberger and Three Bridges.  This was the first time I cleaned the rock garden after Three Bridges!

This year I got in two good rides.  On New Year's day I joined a group of about 6 or 7 of us to explore the gravel on the east side of Dresden.  This is an area of reclaimed strip mining so it has the same open-savanah feel you get with the AEP recreation lands.  Weird for Ohio but it was a good outing with loads of climbing.   Today I got out for a bike path hammerfest on 3" of fresh snow that fell overnight.   I've managed to ride about 12 of the last 14 days and still have two promising weeks of hard training before the school year starts.  I hope this will give me a good fitness boost I can maintain during the spring semester.

Eli is still riding to school everyday.  He hasn't missed a day yet.  Rain, snow, bitter cold ... doesn't matter.   He just wants to ride his bike every day.  I'm proud of him.  But it is his decision, not mine to push him on.