Snowmobiking

With the echoes of TSP in my head Lisa and I ventured out on the snowmobile trails yesterday. It was actually super fun! We got to ride in places around our area I hadn't ever seen. We even had first tracks on the club trail just southwest of Leland. It took us up on top of a ridge I hadn't been on before and the views and riding were spectacular. It was one of those days when I could've just kept riding. I know better though, so we turned around and had a sweet fast descent back down to Leland and cruised back home. Only saw 4 snowmobiles all day. Gas to run a sled must be too expensive when laid off, I guess.
I should just shut this down so the picture of Lisa and Junior stays at the top of the page but they say that the show must go on.
We got almost half of the front of the house sided yesterday, too. If I'm not careful I might finish that project up. If that happens look for some sort of black hole or tear in the time space continuim to appear somewhere West of Sauk City.

Chicks and guns

So Lisa finally got her birthday, anniversary and Christmas present for the next couple years. We went down to the local bar in Leland and had us a beer or 2 and picked it up. Pretty sweet. That's Junior standing next to my lovely bride. He's been tending bar and giving opinions on politics and life since he was 10 years old at this place. No matter where you live it's worth the drive to be here in this slice of old time rural Wisconsin at least once in your life. You don't have to buy a gun or even a beer, he's got Sprecher's root beer on tap and that's delicious, too.

On another note, my suggestion is that you ask nicely to pass on the right if you happen to catch Lisa at a race this year. That's a Savage 30-06 and it'll take down something 5 times the size of the average comp racer!

***calm down, she's not going to shoot anybody. Geez. That was meant to be funny.***

Bar-B-Q Pizza

So good. Got to hang out with The Boss and The Boss' wife (the real boss!) . Eat food, drink beer. Ahhhh. That's what I'm talkin' about. It's going to be a great year!

Sh@t Sandwich anyone?

I think they're serving them up to us at work tomorrow. Mmmm. Can't wait.

I Almost

got to bury the cat on Saturday. We heard a commotion and I looked up to see Mason giving one of the cats the death shake. I can't believe he actually dropped it when I yelled at him. We didn't see that cat for a while. She was back around the next day although a noticeably sore. 8 lives left and counting for Stripe.

Crazy Day

Yep, it was. I had a ton hollering directed at me at the State Championships yesterday keeping me going. The course was pretty fun and quite slippery in spots. I felt pretty good and came away with my first State Championship. The offseason started at PBR:30 courtesy of Joe Curtes! Ahhh, so refreshing.

Polska CX

Another great race put on by the Polska team. The bell's were ringing loud on the Polska Puker and it was crazy!! Mr. Braun was wasted and offered beer handups to me on all the laps but the last one when I wanted one. I grabbed what he had in his non-bell ringing hand and ended up with his warm PBR backwash to help me finish the final run up in style. I'm still waiting for the 2nd round of swine flu to hit after that error in judgement. I also got a PBR shower on the run up earlier in the race from Maciej. Mmmm, refreshing. I ended up 2nd and it was ok. Finished off the day by putting a stick through my wheel and ripping the derailluer off my bike while cooling down. Awesome. Lucky for me Mark M. had another 9 speed Dura Ace unit laying around for me to use. Looking forward to Sunday and then some time off the bike. Winter is coming and I don't have much siding on yet....

Sunday

was definitely hard. I suffered through my first 1/2 'cross race. I was above being "on the rivet" as Lisa even noticed I was frothing at the mouth on laps 1-3. Then it was time to settle in and ride with the next group. It was an ok course and good fun racing. I didn't contest anything on the last lap, I just stayed on and ended up 9th. The guy in 8th pulled the four of us around for the last 4 laps and I wasn't going to try and outsprint him. It was pretty evident I'll be back in the masters 30+ next race. I'm glad I did it and I'll do it again. Someday.

Who turned out the lights?

Eternal darkness seems to be upon us. The forecast for the Iceman looks downright balmy. The global warming God is smiling upon those who are racing. Of course it is 3 days away. It'll probably snow. I'll stay home, race cx and roof. Winters coming.

Last Weekend

I finally won something at the WORS banquet. First time in 5 tries. I'll cherish that WORS wind vest 'til the end of my days.
Great fun was had on the Green Circle around Point Saturday and Sunday. Many thanks to the Peariso's for the hospitality. Hopefully their home automation system has fully recovered from my incessant prodding.

It still wasn't Epic

but I did get to ride on some new to me singletrack today. Today's target was located in Inver Grove Heights, MN at Salem Park. Much like it says in the write up, nothing technical or steep but it was fun to ride and I got to be on the MTB. Those days are quickly coming to an end this year. Then it was back to Stillwater for some supper and a Maradbous Dubbel. Delicious. The waitress also had me try the Liftbridge Chestnut Hill. Also very good. Back to the real twin cities tomorrow, Leland and Denzer.
Have you ever used the next blog button? It can get interesting. One never knows what's out there.

It wasn't "Epic"

but I did ride around the lovely White Bear Lake today. It was raining and about 48 ° outside but that's much better than riding the trainer with nobbbies in the hotel room. I got to see things in White Bear Lake I hadn't seen the 3 times I'd been here before and I liked it. I also happened upon a road sign that informed me I was a mere 11 miles from Stillwater. Now, I didn't get to take the river down there or ride a pack of dogs when I got there like Johnny Cash or Soundgarden did. I did, however, get to have a fantastic dining experience at Mad Capper. The raspberry drizzled pork loin with smashed potatoes and some fantastic toasted bread was amazing. Then there was the beer list. I opted for the Schell's Roggenbier, a fantastic wheat and then I sampled a Maredsous Dubbel . I've never had such a flavorfull and delicious beer. Where can I get some? I also sampled the TRIPLE KARMELIET and found it quite remarkable as well. It would sure have been nice to have shared this with Lisa, especially since our anniversary is tomorrow and I'll be in White Bear Lake. Alone. With myself. Oh, well. Next year will be 10 years of wedded bliss. Of course one could say that for me, being ignorant is bliss. Or something like that. Of course, it's not all bad. I can still make her laugh somedays. See.






I'm so classy.

The End

With WORS being over the house projects have become the priority for sure. My nesting instinct has been suppressed and the drive to work on house projects has somewhat diminished but I'm getting stuff done. Sheboygan was a blast, as usual. I managed a decent finish and it was an appropriate end to an up and down year.
So now it's time to try to squeeze in a ride now and again and then hit as many cx races as possible. Oh, and do all the stuff at home I put off all summer.
Lisa did both cx races last weekend as a 2, her first foray into the Big Girls races. 5th both days and I think she may have even almost liked racing. I pulled myself away from home on Saturday to do the Masters 30+ race at Badger Prairie and suffered my way to 3rd. It was the first time I did this race and there wasn't an announcer on the job. I liked the announcer. I guess job cuts have hit the cx announcers now, too. That's a shame.
So, I'm in White Bear Lake, MN. Home of White Bear Lake everything. Almost every business starts it's name with White Bear Lake and it's on White Bear Rd, Lane, Street, Avenue, etc. The hotel I'm at even has a white bear above the breakfast bar, eg. pour your own waffle and get your froot loops bar. Delicious.

Catch up

I missed a week and an event so we'll start with last weekend's USGP. Woke up at 2 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Lisa was up sick all night so she couldn't race. So I started working on house projects and showed up too late for the lady to let me race even though I had already preregistered and payed to race. Hmmm. I was already grumpy and that didn't help. I was going to stay and watch the "good guys" race but my mood was too foul to let me enjoy being there. Shallow, I know. Plus Kylie had a birthday party to get to and she was anxious to get there.
Sunday started out much better. I actually slept. Lisa felt better and raced to a 3rd place finish in the Women's 3's race. Not bad for the way she felt the day before. I got my customary back row (well, 3rd to last) row start. Moved my way up and ended up 11th on the day in the Masters 35+ race. I was pretty happy with that! So the mood was better that day for sure. We stayed and watched the "good guys" and had a darn good day.
Fast forward to this weekend. Drove way up in the Northwoods to White Lake to pre ride the new venue. All the chatter was how horrible the race was going to be. Well, they were wrong. You just can't trust them, whoever "they" are. The course was sweet! Lots of nice singletrack and just enough double track to allow good passing oppurtunities without it becoming a road race. The opening climb was brutal. My start was actually not too horrible and the race went well. Lots of fun riding with Jeff M. and holding off Ray. Almost no cramping, lots of smiles. The way it should be, really. Lisa rocked a 2nd place finish in the women's race, her best finish ever. Very nice. So now she's better than me again as the best I ever managed was a 3rd. Oh well, at least I'm still taller than her.

Left out

No cool Fat Tire 40 stories here. I wasn't one of the chosen ones. Sounds like it was fast and fun. Congrats to Senor Matter on the second jewel in the Triple Crown crown. My weekend was spent building a garage for the fast one in our family to park in this winter and it was Kylie's birthday party yesterday. We tried to give away a bunch of tomatoes so Lisa doesn't have to spend all her time canning the tomatoes and freezing the raspberries and juicing the grapes. It's been a good year for the garden which equates to more time in the kitchen, I guess.
The USGP is already here. That's crazy. Let the suffering begin!

That was....

interesting? What a fun race. I actually felt like I was racing yesterday. The singletrack was awesome and I moved up instead of backwards most of the race. I got to see Chris P. throw up more times than I've seen my kids do it. On lap 3 at the bottom of a steep, short descent towards the end of the lap, someone totally squashed a chipmunk. That brightened the rest of my race since I figured I was doing better than that little fellow. He progressively got flatter and wider each lap. A big thank you to Landon for taking care of my first ever thumb-forearm cramp. I'm pretty sure I was the only one with cramping issues yesterday. (does the implied humor work in a blog?) Nice work by Lisa, too. She ended up 4th on the day.

Practicing to Hurt

We made the trip to Madison to do the Cyclocross practice at Yahara last night. It was quite enjoyable. We showed up late, of course, so I wasn't too sure how it was supposed to work. I sat in and tried to figure out, quickly gave up on that and then just rode. Lots of nice people out jumping off perfectly good bikes to run over obstacles that don't need to be there. I'm ok with that. Actually, more than ok, I really dig this. So we'll hopefully hit a few more of these and get some skills.
I'm officially a year older today. Sucks.

The weekend

was dominated by house projects. I was pretty burned out on working on the house by Sunday and thankfully Sam came and rescued me in the afternoon. I hadn't really planned on riding for as long as we did but we conquered a bunch of new roads. The Kwik Trip in Richland Center had 4 for a dollar cookies and some delicious Dr. Pepper. Not quite Loganville quality but close. The ride back was capped off with a vicious turn at the front by Sam at the 4 hour mark. I guess he wanted to get back home. My legs were pretty useless the rest of the day, they barely got me around Menards. The Rolo's we bought for a treat were just what I needed for full mental recovery. Monday mornings trip down the stairs was interesting. Got the house ready for siding, put the screen door back on just in time for my Gramma's dog to run through it. Cleaned up the mess in the yard and called it good for now. Capped of the weekend with a trip to Devil's Lake with the girls. Very nice.

Pounding the Head

Well, not so much pounding but the trails were sweet last night at Devil's Head. Kurt and Terry and maybe a few more folks have been doing a FANTASTIC job of keeping the weeds at bay this year. It's really nice to keep most of my blood inside of me. Usually the berry bushes are so wicked it looks like I was in a fight with 3 large tomcats after a September ride there. We usually ride at 6 pm on Thursday night but we may move it up to 5:30 with the dwindling daylight and my lack of lighting. Feel free to join us.

I really

don't have much to say. My week has been mostly trying to get some house projects done. Winter is coming and there's a lot to do. After much prodding and peer pressure I finally signed up for the USGP races in Sun Prairie. I watched this cool cyclocross training video Jerry made for me. Maybe I'll put the link up so every can learn his wicked skills. I'm finally realizing that my biggest issue racing is my lack of the ability to not always be nice to people I'm racing with. I have trouble sprinting around someone who just pulled me around the course for and hour or two and beating them. It doesn't seem right. Obviously most other people don't have that issue. It is a race and I should race to the finish line. I hate that guy that sits in and outsprints his pullers at the end and I really don't want to be that guy but maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. Anyway, looking forward to riding Devil's Head tonight. It's been a few weeks since we rode there. Should be sweet.

Catch up

So I'll go all the way back to the Friday Night fish fry in Hillpoint. We experienced the Villa's fine cuisine and the plethora of Packer decor that was The Villa. Small town Wisconsin and fried food at it's finest. Saturday started out ok and I actually got more house projects on their way to done. I was just going up the steps to go on the ride I had set up when the phone rings. Never good when it's your weekend to be on call. So the ride left without me and I left for the American Family Childrens Hospital to help keep the kiddies comfortable. Back home a few hours later and still cranky from actually having to go on a call. So I went out and did 2x20's which proved to be a bad move as I find out the next day when the Pearisos showed up for the Brefixt ride. The Brefixt ride portion was ok, it was the 3 hours after with Chris and Spencer that became the problem.
So I'm definitely not the fastest guy around and I'm well aware of this fact. That being said, I got my ass handed to me on a "tempo" ride by both of those guys. It was the first time I'd been dropped on a road ride in a loooong time. It was awesome!!! Very motivating for me. So we followed the ride up with beer and pizza at La Rue Tavern. A great day.
Reforestation on Sunday. Should be awesome.

The flu

really sucks. Didn't get to race at River Falls due to better judgement. I probably could have showed up and dug my hole deeper, instead I stayed home and worked around the house and rested. It's amazing how much I can get done if I don't ride my bike. I really don't like not riding my bike, though. It is nice to be able to use the dishwasher without plugging it into an extension cord though.

O2S

What a great weekend. Amazingly enough I finished yet another race without a mechanical and I felt pretty good to boot! It had to be the chocolate rocks Michelle bought for me Friday on the way up. I had the pleasure of road tripping to the UP with her. Good thing she was there and paying attention to where we were going. I had no map and didn't even know how to get to Marquette. We got registered and met up with our respective people at our hotels at a reasonable hour so I actually got some sleep for once. Woke up and pounded the complimentary breakfast and headed to the start Saturday morning.
I really suck at race starts. I chased all the way to Ishpeming before I latched back on, passing a flatted TJ on the way. He fixed it and caught back up amazingly fast. Chris P. was on the front at this point after 3 weeks off the bike. Freak. The group was about 50 strong at this point. I managed to move up, somehow and got a huge boost when Marko went by. I latched on to him as long as I could. He got chainsuck, fixed it and then got taken out by another dude (not me for once). So I hit Misery Hill in 14th place or so. Holy crap! How does this happen? Where do all those people go? Over the top, I could see 2 guys 15 seconds in front of me. I decided to chase as hard as I could for 10 minutes and see what would happen. At 10 minutes I sat up and waited for the group behind. It had the guy with the Golden Bike in it and he was pretty strong. The group was pretty much letting him do all the work. I sat in to recover and took a few pulls but it was evident nobody else wanted to help. Bitches. I would put in a pull and pick up the pace but no one would pull through but they would all stay on. I could put in a harder effort and create a gap but with 25 miles to go I knew they could shut it down and drop me at the finish. So I waited and towards the end there are a few big sandy areas. These created some separation and my group was down to 4. So with 4 mi to go some guy who was never at the front (we'll call him smart) attacked and I couldn't go. With 2 mi to go another guy went. I chased him and he stayed 10 seconds or so up on me to the finish. I could see 9th place in front of me in the parking lot but couldn't close that gap for sure. I ended up 13th and pretty happy. Not as happy as Lisa, though. She sat in for the 1st 20 miles of the race, moving up the whole time but not killing herself. Then drilled it the last half and ended up in 5th place overall! Sweet cash and finish. It was funny because Bryan and Meat had both finished and I was commenting on how slow she was when I looked up and saw her in the finish chute. Then I looked at the results board and saw she was 5th. More crow please.
Got to hang with the 212 crew at the Bells Brewery after party. Had 1 too many, molested Chris P., annoyed everyone else and called it a night.
Got the invite on the way home Sunday to ride with the Team Pedal Moraine crew at the Reforestation Camp. Nice recovery ride. Yeah, right.
I also got to see Louis and Paco from GT again on Saturday. Nice guys. I was looking forward to riding with Louis and Jesse Bell on Sunday but some storms came through Saturday night and put a stop to that. All in all a really good weekend. Congrats to Mr. Matter on his win, the first jewel in the triple crown.

It's a start...

And a finish. Hooray for me. That was my main goal, just finishing. The trails at Crystal Ridge are great to ride and make for a true mountain bike race with a bunch of singletrack. Not a stellar showing on my part but it's nice to get more than 1 point for the series. Baby steps. Looking forward to the Ore to Shore this Saturday. Is this the year for someone to claim the triple crown? We've got a pretty big crew headed up there this year to play in the sand. It should be interesting.

That was nice.

The weekend, that is. Quite a few new roads on the trophy shelf on Saturday. We rode the back way to Richland Center the way I had scoped out and arrived at the Cenex for Pop-Tarts and Dr. Pepper in just over 2 hours. I didn't really have a plan for getting back. With no time restraints and beautiful weather we weren't in a hurry to be back. So we made a lap through R.C. and went past the Dirt Churnin' Nationals truck and tractor pull going on at the fairgrounds. We really wanted a T-shirt but were short on cash, being bikers and all. Hit up some great roads and towns like Little Willow, Hillpoint, Loganville and Ithaca. The best part of Ithaca was the Village Pump Tavern located in the front yard of the High School. I wonder if that is considered off campus?
Sunday was another Brefixt ride. We went to Loganville and ate at the Up Front Cafe. We got there at about 10:00. We didn't leave until Noon. It was soooooo slow. The group got pretty, shall we say, restless. The cook was only making 2 orders at a time. We had 12 people and there was another table with 8 people at it that ordered right before us. Holy crap. So in no certain order, 2 of us would get food. Then, 8 minutes or so later, 2 more would. WTF? So, at least it was good. Then a few of the group got in a hurry to get back and strung out the group which goes against everything the breakfast ride stands for. Brefixt Ride Rule #1: The ride is only as fast as the slowest person. Rule #2: If you can't follow rule #1, please don't come on our ride. It wrecks it for everyone. We don't want you on this ride, anyway. If you have time constraints, I'm sorry for you, go on your own ride. Thank you.
On that note, we'll hopefully see you on the next one. We won't be going to Loganville.

Much Like

3 week overdue milk, I left the last race with a sour taste in my mouth. After the super craptastic showing at the WORS Cup, I managed to last a full 45 seconds into the Sunburst Showdown before a flat ended any chance of a good showing. I fixed the flat and had a bad attitude. Then I decided to test the legs anyway. Surprisingly, I felt pretty darn good. I started after the second Comp wave and got to ride through most of the 2 waves in front of me before the second flat ended my day. I was less bitter after the second flat for some reason. I'm starting to resign to the fact that I'm going to have a 3 race mechanical/physical issue stretch every year. So now I have another 2 weeks to wait to test my abilities with the best in the midwest. O2S is coming up. Before I know it the Blockhouse Roll will be upon us. So much to look forward to. And then 'cross starts. When will my house get sided?
Nice job by Lisa to keep some honor for the Krayer's. Yeah, my wife is better than me. I'm ok with that. She's probably better than you, too.

More Filler

Well, this week wasn't as exciting as the last 2. Back to life as a Steamfitter in mountainless Wisconsin. I still haven't ridden my bike since the last stage of the Breck Epic. I did, however, manage to sleep. After 2 weeks of less than 4 hours of sleep each night it feels really nice to actually sleep. Last night I actually didn't feel like just laying around all night and got the bikes somewhat ready for the infamous Sunburst Showdown. It will be interesting to see how my legs respond to this wakeup call. Maybe they'll still be sleeping.
So they gave away some super cool stuff at the awards banquet and I ended up with some Ergon grips and backpack. I didn't win the Iodine wheels or Giro sunglasses or any Easton carbon bits. I did get the belt buckle reserved for finishers. It has BMF'er carved into the back of it. Dig it.
I still think of the stage that we went over French's Pass at least once a day. I really would like to do that again sometime. That was the best trail I've ridden and it topped my old best trail which had been Porcupine Rim Trail in Moab.

Stage 5

The End. Another day of not having "it". This stage was a blast, though. The climbing was not too steep and the singletrack was a blast. With my lack of legs and Jerry's flat, we ended up 3rd on the day but still maintained our 2nd place overall for the race. This stage was a really great way to end the race. It almost made me want to ride my bike again someday.
So it's back to reality now and time to thank all the people that made this such a memorable event. Lisa was more than amazing at taking care of me and the girls all at the same time. Mark Meier for taking care of our bikes everyday and the emotional support. Kristi and Jess for cooking and support as well. GT Bikes for their support all year. Wildside for the food and last minute items before we left. Of course the rest of my family (My Dad, Jo, Niki and Bryan) for coming out to watch and cheer us on. Thanks to those of you who have read and supported with your comments throughout the race as well. Last and least would be to Jerry for doing this race with me. We had our shots and we had a blast. No regrets and a lot of memories, most of 'em good. Maybe next time we can get over this finishing 2nd hump and win something together.
We have the awards banquet tonight and they're giving away a bunch of stuff I won't win. I'll update with what people won.

Stage 4

And the wheels on the bus come flying off, flying off. A little bit of everything today except riding well. At least 40 minutes of hiking up over a mountain after suffering with sub par legs for the first 1 1/2 hours. I took us backwards fast today. Team Koppi was at the front of the train and just drilling it. I got a lot of looks from Jerry today and not of the good kind. Some fun riding after we got over the top but the days just finishing today was an accomplishment for me.
Tomorrow's goal is to finish and have fun riding with Jerry. The stage ends on the Blue River Trail and it's a blast. It should be a fun way to wrap up a great experience.
Sorry the post is a little blah. I'm exhausted. Coasting while hiking is impossible.

Stage 3

Finally a stage win! The stage was unbelievably hard. Massive climb up over French's Pass that had us walking for close to 15 minutes but the view was spectacular! Over the top was a snow field about 200 yards wide that was crazy! Then we hit this super fast singletrack that had some crazy drop in it that I thought was going to be the first trip over the bars. I guess it's hard to go over the bars when the back tire is almost hitting my stomach. Then it was a long climb on fire road up to the Colorado Trail. Seriously, the most fun I've had on my bike. Jerry and I were ripping through that and it was amazing. If only we could've stopped to rest our hands from squeezing the brake levers. Disc brakes rule! The final major climb was, how can I say this, excrutiating. Over the top and down some fast fire road descents when I started hearing the noise I had been dreading. Stopped to check the damage and it was a small leak so we shot some co2 in and hit it. 3 more fills and we made it to the finish. Then it was wait and see how far up we were on the 1st place team. They ended up about 7 minutes behind us, leaving us just over 2 minutes out of 1st place. They had a flat coming down French's Gulch and we had passed them at about 1 hr 15 minutes into the race. That was some serious motivation knowing they were behind us.
Jerry and I are super stoked to have at least 1 stage win. Tomorrow is another butt kicker. I don't mind that at all when it's being kicked on trails like this. There was quite a bit of change today in quite a few categories, I think. The climbing and mechanicals took there toll. Looking forward to another fun day of suffering!

Stage 2

We made it through stage 2 pretty ok. The nuetral roll out was pretty hard and separation occured within the first 8 minutes. We managed to hang on and hit the first singletrack in good position. About halfway through the first descent we saw the first place team on the side of the trail with a flat! So we kept on it and managed to hold them off for almost 2 hours. They caught us on a fast downhill right after Jerry drilled a fence and later he found he bent his derailluer. He figured it out when we hit the next hill and blew threw the last aid station while 1st place stopped. He only had 5th to 9th gear and we had some steep climbing to do. They caught us again and we weren't able to respond and they ended up 1:30 or so ahead of us. So we're now 9:01 in arrears overall. We almost cracked the top 20 overall. The trails were amazing, the climbs lengthy and the weather was perfect. If only the creeks were a little warmer. So tomorrow is going to be tough. 43 miles and one climb over 12,000 feet and another close to that. We even get to ride through snow.
Well, it seems as though we're always the Bridesmaid and never the Bride. Hopefully we can pull off at least one stage win while we're here.

Stage 1

So, that was hard. The stage ended up being only 37 miles instead of the 45 they told us last night. Thank you, Jesus. 8 more miles would've been very not good. The opening climb was, at least in my hazy memory, about 25 minutes long. That created quite a bit of separation. We ended up getting shelled from the lead group but stayed towards the front of the race. Long climbs were the name of the game. Then came the descent down the Colorado trail. Wow! It was soooo fast! Then it would go directly into a blind switchback and on to more of the same for about 15 minutes. Then back to climbing. We came out into this amazing open area on the side of a couple mountains and the tops were so far above us and the valley so far below us it made me dizzy to look. So I didn't. I really wanted to but I didn't want to end up down in the valley. I came close once early in the race. We were flying down this doubletrack and the trail decided to go hard right. I made it and Jerry is screaming at me to turn. It was pretty steep of to the left. Jerry even commented that I was really moving down that trail. That made me feel good.
Anyway, I digress. So we ended up down 7:31 to the father/son team. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for us. No matter what, the riding is phenomenal and we're having a blast. Maybe riding with Jerry will help improve my skills so I can salvage my WORS season. So it's off to the nightly meeting to see whats in store for tomorrow. Ciao.

The Prologue

So the Prologue is over. There ended up being 7 teams for us to race against. We ended up 25 seconds behind the leading team which happens to be a father/son team. That's pretty cool. It was supposed to be quite a bit longer but there was some prettty serious weather that rolled in and they shortened it up by about 2 miles. A horrible 2 miles. So it was nice that it was shorter and the stage is over. Tomorrow is a "real" stage of about 45 miles with a lot of singletrack.
Jeremiah Bishop is the overall leader and about 6 minutes up on us. I'm sure we'll make that up tomorrow. That was supposed to be funny. Travis Brown is 19 seconds back from him. Should be a good battle between them.
Hopefully tonight involves sleep for me. 4 hours a night just isn't enough.

Addendum

I'm not sure how I forgot but I did. We got to hang out at the GT tent all day at the Firecracker. Lucky for us as it rained on and off a lot. Plus we got to meet Louis, Paco, Mick and the Gold Diggers. The girls had a blast entertaining and got branded with GT stickers. The GT crew were all really nice and very accomodating. I wish that they were at all the WORS races, that would be so "pro".
Lisa rose from the dead and went back to Carter Park and got her free beer, pint glass and BBQ chicken samwich. I guess it was delicioso but she didn't share. Something about 6 hours of suffering and hating me for making her do the race and I didn't deserve any among other reasons. Oh well.
I also saw some people I knew. Cam Kirkpatrick and Landon Lueck and a few random people that recognized the Moosejaw Brew Pub logo. The beer is legendary. Well, it's off to get registered and find out how this race is gonna' go.

T minus 1 day

So Lisa did the Firecracker 50 today. She swears she'll never do this race again. Well, she says that now but I'll have to talk her into doing it again. She ended up 4th in her age group, 1 place from a medal with no real long rides or training for this race. She finished in under 6 hours, and she hadn't done a ride of more than 4 hours yet this year so I think there's plenty of time to be made up if she focused on this race. Anyway, JHK and his wife won their respective races, him by 12 minutes, her by 16. A good weekend for them for sure.
Jerry and I rode a little singletrack after the rain finished up. Tomorrow is the day for us. It'll be nice to have the prologue out of the way. Hopefully I get more than 4 1/2 hours of sleep tonight. Not sleeping really blows. Lots of answers to a lot of questions tomorrow. Please send all your extra legs.

Groupo compatto

A rather low key day. We got to see Babe the Sheep Pig today at the Breck Theatre. We even met Babe's parents. Then Lisa rode the last part of the course she hadn't seen yet while I took the girl's back to the condo to try and nap. That didn't work. The Long's showed up and Jerry and I rode most of the Prologue. It's still difficult even with Jerry there. A little post ride hot tubbin' and then supper at the Long's place. The Meier's show up tomorrow and Lisa gets her shot at the National Champions jersey. Then it's game on for me and Jerry. 6 days of some sweet singletrack action. Stay tuned, kids.
IMPORTANT!!!!!


Remember to do your monthly breast cancer self exam. It could save your life and it looks cool, too.

Filler

Yep. Didn't do much today. Tried to ride the alpine slide at Breck but the weather came in and they shut 'er down. A little shopping. A nap. TV. Then we went to this little bakery in town called Clint's, I think, and had a piece of chocolate cake. Started talking with the girls behind the counter and they are just getting into biking. Then they started trying to talk us into moving out here. It keeps getting harder to find reasons not to. Then I think of what it takes to actually move all the crap I own. Yeah, that's a deal breaker right there. That and they don't have a bar you can buy guns at in town.
On another note, I've been meaning to mention my experience with directions while riding trails out here. I've been on the receiving and giving side of them with about the same result. Everyone means well but most of the directions I've been given must make sense to who tells them, much as they do when I give them, but the end result is the same. Not getting where I(they) wanted to go. It's crazy. The bad part is that it's not like were in Wisconsin where a wrong turn may cost you 15 minutes or so out on the trail. Here it may cost you an hour or more of some serious suffering. The saving grace is as long as you can go downhill you'll eventually end up at or near Breck but it's still a little unnerving if a storm is brewing, or if the last drink of water was an hour ago.
Well, we get to see Babe the Sheep Pig tomorrow. Should be interesting. I think we get free bacon with paid admission.

It finally happened

Today was the day the altitude set in, I guess. I felt horrible! I was working so hard up the hills and my heart rate was really low. I tried to ride the Firecracker course but messed up the start and only rode half of it. It is gnarly. If Lisa even finishes it will be a pretty huge accomplishment. Seriously. 2 laps of wicked climbs and there is one super loose, fast and crazy rocky descent that is tough with no other riders. Throw in a couple hundred friends and it will be even better. I did manage to not flat today coming down Barney Ford. Hopefully the legs perk up over the next couple days. If not, Jerry will have to switch to solo.

Very Nice

I tried to ride most of the Gold Dust trail stage today. There are so many trails and with my lack of where they all are it's tough for me to find the correct route even with a map. I do know that the trails I was on were Sweet! The Blue River trail was really fast and flowed really well. If your not grinning at the end of that it's probably due to some head trauma earlier in the stage. Baker's Tank was also really fun.
I ran into a dude at the ice rink that new the Curtes Bro's. Their fame is spreading quite rapidly. I rode down Barney's Ford and Moonstone (acquired my first flat) and then down the switchbacks to Carter Park. A great way to end the ride, other than the flat. More time in the hot tub after eating some food. I'm beginning to really dig the hot tub. My back has felt pretty good so far.
I'm still trying to dial in the hydration. Getting up to pee sucks. I guess maybe cramping is worse though. Tonight we're hitting up the pizza joint recommended by Mr. Larson. Another tongue in the ear hot day.

Good Morning

So here are a few random pictures. When we were in Idaho Springs we saw this unusual fountain. The charebs look so real.



The prologue climbs up most of this mountain. We stop right about where the chimney is except we're actually on the mountain, not in Breckenridge.


Vacation Mode is in full effect. I don't even know what day it is anymore. Ahh, to be independently wealthy and live this lifestyle wouldn't be so bad. Well, I guess I'll go ride now.

Relaxation

Spent the day lounging around. A little bike maintenance here, family walk there, tried to nap but 2 little girls would have none of that. I did ride around Breck for a while with Kylie, ended the ride with ice cream and some playtime at the park. I guess this is how most people spend their whole vacations. Back to riding tomorrow. I think I'll try and get hopelessly lost. Actually I can probably do that without trying.

Re-con

So I prerode the prologue today. It involved some climbing. Topped out at an advertised 11,800 ft. It was cold up there. Saw a few other folks out preriding, too. Holy crap. I'll be dreaming of that climb until the prologue is over. Dreams can be scary, right?
So when I got back down to the Firecracker course part of the prologue there were a whole bunch of people preriding that course. I ended up riding with some other folks for the next 3 hours. We were supposed to be riding the Firecracker course but ended up not on the course after French's Gulch. It was still a lot of fun. 2 of the guys are doing the duo for the Breck Epic as well so we chatted about that for a while. Jeff saved me and shared some water as I was all out. I guess 90 oz wasn't enough for me. We found a couple other lost souls and one of them had an IPhone. He had GPS on it and it showed him his exact location and which direction he was facing. Amazing. That saved us a lot of suffering. Another good day on the bike.

It's been too long

since I was mountain biking in Colorado. We got settled into the condo (which is AWESOME) and then I set out for a ride. Breck is kinda' tore up at the bottom but after about 10 minutes of riding around I found Gametrail. So I rode that up to the top and then continued climbing up to where the lift stops. Elevation was 11,200 feet. Nice. Took Pioneer trail down to Dwight's back to the bottom. So fun. I had the first tracks through the snow going up Gametrail, I couldn't believe it! I've had first tracks skiing or boarding before, but never on the mountain bike. I really need to get a camera. At the bottom I met up with some locals who took me on some trail that goes from Breck to Frisco. Rocky, rooty sweetness. The hardest part of this first week is going to be to not ride too much! Got back to find supper made and chocolate milk waiting for me. I'm not sure what I do to deserve such royal treatment from my lovely wife. She's amazing. So I gave her the lowdown on the trails and she headed out for her ride. I sent her up Dwights and down Gametrail. I hope she likes it as much as I did. The girls and I hit the hot tub and then we plopped down in front of the tube so far. They love it here, too. We may not come back. Gramma could use some more dogs.

Did that really happen?

So we're traveling with the whole family to Breckenridge and as most of you know, that includes 5 and 3 year old girls. Sounds like it could be the trip from heck, no? It was pretty amazing, actually. We made it 3.5 hours before we had to make the first stop. Lisa's walnut sized bladder was seemingly much larger today. We got some food and made it another 3 hours before stop number 2. 3 more to stop 3 and then we got to the Colorado/Nebraska border and the tornado warnings and severe weather. It was pretty sweet. The lacal radio station DJ was taking calls from people about what they were seeing. We laughed a lot at all the contradictory calls. One lady said the wind was blowing so hard she couldn't see. Another kid called and said he saw "a million funnel clouds." Josh the DJ said "We're getting some heavy wet rain right now." We missed most of the heavy stuff and unfortunately didn't get to see a tornado. So we ended up in a motel in Idaho Springs. 14.5 hours of driving and only 1.5 hours of not driving. Pretty solid. Eat us some Beaujo's Pizza tomorrow and then head into Breck. The acclimitization has begun. We're all anxious to get on our bikes and get into the mountains.

Oh Crap!

I was that guy. You know, the idiot that caused the crash. Believe me, it was no good for me either. Not only did I pay for a race I got to be in for 2 seconds, the extra points for the stage race don't happen if you DNF or get DQ'd which I did since the chainring that gashed (I said "gashed") my tires sidewall and gave me 5 little punctures in my back caused me to have to go to the car to get a tube gave me an automatic DQ. Nice run on sentence, I know. So that made Sunday a little less meaningful. I did do 2 laps of the course because it is super cool riding at Mt. Morris and who did I run into but my Lovely Bride Lisa who had crashed out and was just riding to ride as well. Great weekend. Kylie crashed twice in the kids race and swore she would never race there again. We'll see.
Sunday was a little better. I managed to get just over 18 minutes into the 20 minutes plus 2 laps of the shortrack before being lapped by the leaders. The course was fast and fun with the laps being about a minute and a half long. I'm not sure why I like that event but I do. All in all not a great weekend but I did get to race my bike and I can still ride tomorrow so it's not all bad.
Friday we leave for Colorado. Should be sweet!

Lookin' good

just comes natural for some people.



I'm pretty sure the Milk Marketing board will be knockin' on the door soon.

Lisa,Bryan and I did the Time Trial at Blackhawk last night. Great course! Lots of fun. I got to ride singletrack with Kylie. Roots are tough on a 10" wheel bike.

Good times

It's been a good run for biking lately. Saturday I got to ride new roads down by Mazomanie and I would like to get back in that area again soon. Lots of good riding there. Sunday was our 2nd Brefixt ride. The response was overwhelmingly good. We had 20 people show up to ride from Baraboo to Lyndon Station where we ate at Martha's. The pace was low and the chatter was high there and back. The food was great and Sam and I scammed everbody's extra toast or anything else they couldn't eat. Lunch legs were in full effect after the gorge session. We are going to try and have this ride on the non WORS weekends and we're going to visit a new diner each ride. Again, the pace is easy and everyone starts and ends together is the goal. Then on Monday I got my first massage ever. Although Lee is a fine figure of a man there was no "movement" or "happy ending". Whew. Schedule for the Breck Epic is getting dialed in. Mark Meir is going to wrench for Jerry and I and I can't thank him enough. Sounds like Kristi and Tori are coming out, too. Should be Epic.

Double flat?

Wausau is my kind of course. Long stretches of gravel double track and fast flowy singletrack. In the past I've done pretty ok here when I can keep my tires inflated. Last year at this race I was well into the top 10 and I flatted. For 24/9 we were in first place by a lot when I flatted. 2 years ago I was doing pretty well and I flatted. So this year I did my best to prevent that from happening and put 38 psi in front and back to give myself a fighting chance at not flatting and it worked. No flat tires, just flat legs. Very disappointing. Oh well, at least I had a kit to wear. We got to the race and I was out socializing when I happened across Lisa and she says " you better work on finding something to wear." Huh? This comes as no surprise to those who know me, but we left our duffel bag at home with all our stuff in it. I did have shoes and a helmet so I coulda' rocked the jeans and t-shirt like I used to. However, after a bunch of pleading and soft caressing, Melcher finally let me get into his shorts and I flew the Pedal Moraine colors. It was tongue in the ear hot for sure. The race itself was pretty fun, mud like peanut butter, sweet singletrack, just not the result I had hoped for. At least I made it through the race with all the air in my tires. I'll use that to build on for next year. Baby steps.
Thanks again to Melcher for the kit. I wasn't looking forward to wearing jeans.

Still no time

The days are absolutely flying by. A lot has happened since my last post. Lots of riding last week capped off by the Crystal lake Classic on Sunday. I was really happy with my 10th place finish. The race started off bad with a crash at the front on the first corner. I was just off to the side of it and got ran into a little bit, but the gap was formed and I chased for the whole lengthy lead out. Managed to catch on at the base of the first climb and got shelled again. Oh well. It still turned out OK. Brian ended up 3rd overall in his 2nd Sport race. That's amazing. Lisa was rockin' as well sitting in 2nd place halfway through the last lap when she cut the sidewall on the back tire. Very unforutnate. She wasn't very happy. Niki had a great start in her race and d finished pretty well. We took my 8 year old cousin up and he did his first race. I think he's hooked. His name is TJ so his biking future could be bright. Jordan finished better than ever as well.
We hit Levy road last night for another 25 minute all out effort. The power is coming around, now I have to figure out how to use it in a race.

Time?

Pretty busy riding lately. Lots of pedaling, little typing. I guess that's the way it should be. Prep for the Breck Epic is the focus right now. I never thought the day would come when WORS was secondary for me. I'm sure the results for the first few races will reflect that. Hopefully it will pay of big in July. I don't want a repeat of the 24/9 fiasco from last year. Bad post, no time, not independently wealthy, gotta work. Why can't I just retire?

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Yet another WORS season starts. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of racing a WORS race or being at an event, it's the closest thing to a Super high end race I've been to. Not that I've done a World Cup race or anything but it's very well run. Don's on the microphone, timing is well run, results are quickly posted (at the event and online) and the race starts are on time 99% of the time. The music at the start is nice, too. Anyway, My main goal of being able to finish the race was accomplished. I wasn't sure if the body was going to let me so I was erring on the side of doing less during the race knowing that this race will hopefully be a 5 for points at the end of the year. The start was crazy as usual with my last row slot. Didn't make it to the front. Went as hard as I felt I could and had a pretty good race. Ended up 16th overall and 1oth for Cat1's. Iola is a great place to race. Lots of fun trail and plenty of room to pass. Now I just have to figure out how to stay on Melcher's wheel.
Saturday's plan is to race the 6 hour race at the Northern Kettles. New trail for me so that should be exciting.

You can't win a race at the start....

But you sure can lose it. Why is that so hard for me to figure out? With as many races as I've done and how many times it has happened to me it should be obvious. At least it was a WEMS race and not at the WORS opener. Melcher was definitely faster today anyway. The course at the Reforestation Camp was awesome and had very little mud after all the rain. It was fast and fun as the races here usually are. I apologized to my bike for not finishing as well as it deserved in it's first race. It was the rider's fault but 3rd place is ok, I guess. Of course with Lisa winning the women's field she's already one up on me. She finished up with 4 laps and came across with a few minutes to spare. Very nice. A special thanks to the rain for not showing up. Another to John Lirette for breaking his chain twice.
It was good to see some more Summer Friends at the race, too. Hibernation termination is almost complete, as it ends next weekend. Hopefully I'll have both legs working.

First race?

Hopefully the rain holds off and we have a nice day for our first MTB race of the year. We'll roll the Mothers day festivities in with the race festivities and call it a weekend. It will be nice to race on the dirt and finally sport the GT Dirt Coalition colors.

Finally

A Tuesday Night Ride with shorts and short sleeve jersey vs. arctic wear. Gotta like that. I rode to the ride and met the group en route to the La Rue Denzer La Rue race course. This course ROCKS!! I would do it and sacrifice Iola but Kylie's dance recital is at 2 pm and it wouldn't be prudent. (Thank you, Church Lady.) Mark needs help working the course anyway, so I'll do that. Back to the ride. Sam, Erik and Meat were in full effect and the pace was perfect. I tried helping Mark as much as possible and stayed back with him up Freedom Rd. He was breathing so hard I was getting a little randy, then I thought I heard and "uh-oh" between gasps. At the top I asked him about that and he did have an "uh-oh" moment. He felt pain in his chest and thought the big one was coming for a second. Turns out it was his chest complaining about all the gasping. So we kept rolling and had a great ride. I flatted in La Rue and the tire did not want to come off the rim. I was about ready to indulge in some New Glarus Coffee Stout and call it a ride when Mark succeded in ripping the tire off, and we were on our way. We managed to get the first mosquito bites out of the way, too. I'm glad to see they're back. Back to Meier's to finish up the night with food and wine. That's a great capper to a good night.

Circuit of Sauk Episode 3: The End

So it was pretty good. Saw some familiar faces like Nathan Guerra and Seth Lens, Melcher and the regulars. A beatiful day! There were 302 riders, some from Thunder Bay Ontario, Pennsylvania and other exotic locations. By exotic I mean not from Wi, like the way Zebra Mussels and the Emerald Ash borers are exotic. So the race was sweet, I followed Mark's advice and it turned out pretty ok. I achieved my goal of staying on Melcher's wheel although I added my own twist by putting him in the ditch. The first time up Golf Course Rd. I was pretty sure the Subway was on time for a stop in my mouth but it stayed down. Managed to stay on the whole race and finished somewhere in the top 10 of the Masters 1,2,3 race.
Sunday we said goodbye to the weekend guests and headed to Devils Head to do some more trail maintenance. Got all the trees cut out of the way and even added some trail! A nice technical trail between mid mountain and the top. Now it will be easier to do a loop and brush up on sketchy descents. Kylie put on another couple miles riding around the parking lot. Another A+ weekend.
Looks like maybe we'll hit up the Stump Farm race next Saturday if the rain isn't excessive. Sounds like it could be a WORS reunion up there.

Circuit of Sauk Episode 2: Meat Attack

I feel like I got hit with 200+ lbs. of Meat. I let the group go a couple of times to see if I could catch. The first climb up Golf Course wasn't bad and I reeled everyone in and kept on it. Then I let them go again on Summit while I talked to Lisa and Helmi. That wasn't as smart. There were some guy's who can really flex their descending muscle in that group. I passed most everyone on the climb just after turning on to Pine Bluff, everyone but Meat. I knew if I couldn't catch him before the descent it would be really tough to reel him in. I didn't catch him. He was still 50 meters ahead at the bottom and I was doing all I could to catch and he was coming back oh so slowly. Anyone who has raced here knows how the finishing straight is. So with not much to go I launche a painfully slow sprint(?) on him. He looked back and saw me stand up, he tried to go and Cracked, like an Egg. Thank you, Jesus. We rode down Deadman's Hill into Rock Springs and then I left the group to go home. Nice night, great ride.
Meat is murder.
Well, for most people.

The Spin Zone

Unlike the O'Reilly factor, blog's seem to be full of spin. I'm sure mine is no different. I suppose that's what blogs are for. That and fulfilling contract obligations. So my spin on this weekend goes as follows. I went into the weekend with no real goal other than staying on. My first ever Cat3 race was the Masters 1,2,3 and featured Andy Crater and Jeff Melcher, and I finished well behind both. I tried to bridge once, which happened to be the first time I ever went clean in a road race, and failed. Oh, well. Back to being pack fill. Managed to stay on and finished the race not last. Immediately lined up for the 3's race. The pace was a little slower, more sitting in and trying to help Sam, same result as the first race. A good day, I guess. Although after almost 2 hours of going around in circles did become a little, shall we say, less than exhilerating. Anyway, day 1 was over, no crashes and I stayed on. Pretty ok.
Day 2 started out dry and with about 5 laps to go in the 1,2,3 race it started raining pretty good. Pretty uneventful but I did start to see things happen in the race. Seeing and doing proved to be completely different and the end result was the same as day 1. The 3's race started in the rain and stayed that way. Pacholski attacked at Go and no one responded. I tried to tell the pack he did this all year in 'cross and he could stay off but they didn't seem to care or just didn't believe me. So, no one worked to pull 'em back and no one elses attacks worked and it was pretty lame. You should have seen everybody respond when 'ski came around us with 3 to go. It got faster until the end. For me, same end result. Nice win for 'ski.
All in all, a good weekend of training. Plenty of intensity, all my skin and some minor increase in knowledge of how to race on the road.
In other news, Meat stayed on in both his races and Bryan did his first races as well. I think he stayed on for the whole second race, very nice. Lisa also did the women's open race on Saturday and did pretty well. Kylie was in her cheerleader outfit and yelling "GO DAD GO!!!" every lap of all 4 races while jumping up and down. I'm pretty sure I was the only one that thought that was super cool all weekend.
Now, time for a rest week.

Spring

Isn't it wonderful? It's nice to see the people not seen since the last group ride of last year. It's almost as nice as seeing the work done over the winter pay some small dividends and feel good about them until being brought back to reality at the first race. Test 1 comes on Saturday at the GDVC crits.

Circuit of Sauk: Episode 1 The Pre-Ride

Today we familiarized the new people to the course. We only had 2 juniors show up today, hopefully more next time. Jordan was there and rode a full lap. That more than doubled her longest ride ever and probably was 10 times more climbing than she had ever done. Everett was rockin', too. Niki showed us she can climb now as well. It was a nice, mellow first lap and a good time was had by all. 2nd lap started out pretty hard and pretty much stayed that way. Meat was pounding out some serious power. Bryan was climbing like an animal but in the end, I had to take the 2nd lap win. 3rd lap was just Bryan and I. We kept the pace pretty steady and plenty hard. I started the lap off by drafting Meat in his van at 39 mph most of the way to Golf Course rd. That was fun. I love drafting. Manure spreaders, tractors, those little 3 -wheeled epi's(sic?) in Italy, cars, whatever. Anyway, we rode the course to the top of Shortcut rd then ended at LaRue for beer and pizza. They have the New Glarus Coffe Stout. That was delicioso. It may have been better than the deep fried cheese curds.
See y'all at the GDVC races next weekend. If I may make a request. PLEASE don't crash in front of me. Happens every year. I don't want to run anyone over or get crashed out this year. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

It's just watts

Zone 5 is so much fun. The efforts are more like riding through a tunnel that you can see the light at the other end. It's kinda' hard but short and much like Lisa has to, I can deal with that. I finished up that block of training and ended it by riding with Jordan the neighbor girl for a half hour real easy. 2:45 and today my legs are telling me the effort was harder than I thouight. Towards the end of my ride I came across this guy pedaling about 17 rpm into a headwind. I saw him come to a stop and start again in the same hellacious gear. I chatted him up for a bit and he never shifted. Maybe his "comfort bike" wouldn't shift. He can't ride a "race bike" like mine because he gets too stretched out. He does the same 12.3 miles 3 times a week. ?!... Well, at least he rides his bike.
On other news, we got our check back from Chequamegon. First time I didn't make the lottery. The 6 bastards in front of me that kept me from the automatic entry hopefully got in. Maybe next year. Of course I probably would have won the fat tire this year had I gotten in. We'll never know. So the O2S becomes the race. Oh, and the Breck Epic of course. Anyone who would like to come out and wrench for Jerry and I would be welcome.

Home Trails

The weather last Saturday was awesome. Got to ride the Zaskar Pro on trails I had ridden before and it was awesome! Then we were supposed to race on Sunday but the mysteriously transparent 7" of snow we got cancelled the race. Oh, well. This weekend we are pre-riding the circuit of Sauk course if anyone is interested. We'll meet at the health care center at 2pm and ride followed up by supper at the LaRue tavern. Try the deep fried green beans. You won't be dissappointed.

We got wettened

The past two days have been a learning experience for sure. In Wisconsin when it rains it is almost impossible to ride. Here in N.C. it stays very much rideable and really fun. Other than the fact it was only 50 degrees and just a little bit chilly if we weren't riding it was great. The water was running down the trail and the bikes were making all kinds of ugly noises from the grit in places that should be grit free. We rode in the Dupont state forest yesterday and checked out some waterfalls. I almost became one of the many casualties that occur from falling in waterfalls every year in N.C. The first crash on the Zaskar was a wet one. Today we rode the Trace Ridge Trails and had some sweet climbing and super cool descents. Rocky, rooty and wet. Lisa was amazing. At one point she was ahead of me and just rippin' these drop offs and rocks and roots and I was actually getting kinda' nervous at the speed. Then I hear her say " no brakes!" and I was all like quit bragging. Then she finds a somewhat level spot and throws herself at some small trees. Then I realized she had no brakes. Regardless, it was cool. A minor brake adjustment and we were on our way. Probly' the most fun I've had on a rainy ride ever. Great trails. Looks like the last ride on this trip as rain is in the forecast tomorrow and we have to head back. Hopefully some pictures to follow. I still have to get to the Hot Dog King.

Mt. McKinley

We rode to the top of Mt. McKinley today. We started out in Marion, NC and it was 59 deg. At the summit it was 45 deg and windy. Most of us were not adequately clothed for that. Luckily we had some extra stuff in the sag to make the descent tolerable. The Blue Ridge Parkway was a nice ride up and down. The road up to the summit was sweet. Melcher was pushing the pace all day and that made the ride even more enjoyable. I rode to the top of the overlook and I would like to call that 6700 ft. There's even some guy buried up there. I forgot to read his story. The descent was nice. Hwy 80 was a blast. Lots of turns and we all kept all of our skin. Finished up and ate at a little "Italian" joint on the outskirts of Marion. All in all a good day.

Tsali doesn't Tsuck

Another day of riding on the Zaskar. I like the bike more and more. It really handles well. I think I saw that daledadick guy today while we were riding at Tsali. He was kinda' far off the back since I forgot my sandbags today. Oh well, maybe we'll see him again tomorrow. Almost 4 hours worth of riding today. The guy at the bikeshop was really bagging on Tsali because it wasn't technical enough. He said the locals all don't like it and HIS trails (Pisgah) are waaay better. I enjoyed the trails today. Fast and flowy with plenty of stuff to keep the focus on the trail. A lot like home with longer climbs. And warmer weather.
Tonight we found a super good restaurant and I learned a lesson. The half a rack of ribs is waaaay bigger in North Carolina than in Wisconsin. I shouldn't have gotten the pulled pork with it. Or the sweet potato fries. Or the red beans and rice. Don't worry, Mark. I took pictures but I don't have the usb cable along. I'll make sure you see them. I'm hoping to hit up the Hot Dog King one day soon. They advertise 10 for $10 and $2 footlongs after 3pm! Delicious. The talk is attacking Mt. Mitchell tomorrow on the road. I guess it's a 30 mile switchback climb up. We'll see. That may just equal 10 hotdogs worth of climbing. Yes, Jerry. There is a direct conversion from kj to hotdogs. I worked the math.

First Ride

The view from the deck of the place we're staying isn't too shabby. Riding was great, too. It was the first time I turned the pedals over on this bike and I immediately felt like I was at home on the Zaskar. The bike handles so good and is truly fun to ride. The fork was absolutely lovely. 1oomm of travel is very nice. Acceleration is so different from what I'm used to, I didn't feel any flex in the bottom bracket. My nervousness about this bike is completely gone. It's a keeper. Thank you, GT!

Hey Summer, Wanna' play me?

2x20min Z4 followed up by 1x10 at Z4. I love the trainer. Not as much as my buddy Sam, though. He has done 4 hour sessions on rollers. Sick.

Is this thing on?

I just popped my blog cherry. I guess it was ok. Will I think less of myself tomorrow? Probably.