Mohican 100 Race Report

Wow, it felt good to get back racing. This time I was headed to the Mohican 100 over in Ohio. I left Friday in the Xb with my buddy D. Powers. We would meet up with some other friends- B. Schmalzer, Aaron, and roadie with MTB skills Steeve-O at our motel later in the day. Of course we did go all Underground Rail Road to get Steeve-O in the room, these are (not so) desperate, but fun times. You do what you gotta do.

I'm used to going to many races by myself, and I have to say heading to a race with friends/bike nerds is a way better way to go. It's a good time, makes the traveling cheaper, and really takes the edge off the pre race jitters.

We hit up the not so good, borderline sucking hard East of Chicago Pizza Buffet for dinner, ate bad pizza, admired the pudding eating techniques from the locals, and watched Brad use 3/4 of a jar of hot pepper flakes on his pizza due to a "faulty" lid. Truth be told the dinner sort of sucked, but hey it was good enough for endurance freak/legend Chris Eatough (who was also eating there), it was good enough for 3 really fast guys, 1 super fast Steeve-O and an aging shelp the likes of me.

5 a.m. came quickly, but I think we (at least me) were all glad to get the show on the road, dirt, whatever. After taking our drop bags to the registration, it was a short spin on the bike path down to downtown Loudonville to line up for the start.

On the line I talked to a number of friends and blog mates and readied for the start. There would be a $200 preem for the first racer to make it to the top of the paved road climb out of Loudonville. I had my nuggets set on getting those two bills. I'm kidding of course. My goal was to make it to the top, not puke PB&J bagel and coffee on myself and enter the single track with some of my wits.

After the start and some time on the road the pavement ended, the road to turned to gravel and the gravel turned to dirt and then single track. Here we go! The group I was with seemed to bottle neck as soon as we hit the single track. Not sure what the issue was. Things got sorted out soon enough and we were now cruising at a slow to moderate pace through the woods.

After a few miles I asked for a pass on the left, put the hammer down to get around two guys and promptly got a stick lodged in my wheel and chain stay- FRIG! Now I had to wait as 20 guys passed and I waited my turn to jump on the end of the train.

Soon the trails started twisting and turning down hill. Things were getting fun. What was NOT fun, was the sudden feeling of water being poured down my leg as I descended. For the 2nd time this year my CamelBak bite valve came off during a race. Shit! I mean were not even 15 miles into the race. Thank God I had two bottle with me.

OK, I'm staying calm. Soon will be to the aid station, I can try to fix it and hopefully ditch the two Chatty Kathy dudes at the front of the group I'm in going slow enough to have full on conversations with each other. Yikes! I'm not the type to sit on the back and bitch about the speed we're going or make dangerous passes. I'm not the fastest guy in the world, but I would have like to have been going a little faster. Finally on a section of double track I ditched the group, and got out in front.

At the first aid station a volunteer tried to help me to fix my pack but to no avail. So I filled up the bottles, ate a Three Musketeers and kept going as the cold remains of the failed fix poured into my shoes. I didn't really even care about the pack at this point, because the single track just kept getting better. Twisting and turning through tall trees, perfect tacky dirt, and perfectly constructed trails.

Soon I found myself a trail of riders going up a long hike a bike section. The water in my shoes didn't feel so great against wool socks and Sidis hoofing it up that hill. What also felt not so great was my bike when I remounted, what's up? I check my rear wheel and the skewer had become loose and the wheel was jiggling around like a pair of bra-less 38 double D's. WTF? Once again I stop. Fix, and watch as another handful of riders pass me. I'm loving the dirt, but anxious to make it to more double track and dirt road to make up some of the time I've spent futzing along the single track and futzing with my bike and pack.

On one muddy climb (thankfully mud was sparse this year) I tried to ride a dryer line to the left. Just as I started up, the rider in front bailed and jumped to the left and got out of the way. Sadly, as he was picking his bike up my bar end clipped him and I lost my balance. I fell towards him, knocked him, over and the Dos Niner and I landed full on his Cannondale. We both exchanged apologies and I got hoofing up the muddy hill. As I walked I wondered if this derailleur left and impression on my ass cheek or not.

Once I hit some roads it was time to throw it in the big ring, lock the fork out and get moving. I made sure to keep sucking down PowerGels, and drink from my bottles. I had planned on going with two bottles of GatorAde/CytoCarb II and a pack of water. Now I was down to one bottle of my GA/CCII and a bottle of plain water. No problem though. I just need to remember to drink from them. Pedal, drink, pedal drink, etc., etc.,

My plan to make up time seemed to be working. I was picking off a few riders here and there and found myself shocked at how well I was feeling. When I hit the long flat and dreaded rail trailish section I had more energy and legs than I've had in my previous two Mohican 100s. I was big ringing it, standing a times, and just pushing as hard as I could to end this long section.

I pulled into the next aid station, popped a couple Tylenol, filled the bottles and took a swig of Pepsi that was in my drop bag. The Pepsi was about 125 degrees. Once I got back on the bike I found myself once again doing some dirt road climbing. At this point I finally looked at my odometer. I had not looked at mileage all day, choosing to only leave it on the clock setting, since watching mileage slowly click off is not a motivator for me. All I know is I wanted to finish before 5 p.m.. When I looked, it said 75 miles. NICE!

Even with more steep climbs ahead I was motivated and pretty sure that despite my bad luck in earlier part of the race I would finish under 10 hours. On one steep climb I noticed the the familiar team kit of Mr. Rich Bilson and the more familiar ass end of his Salsa Mamasita. I somehow caught up with him and another rider that turned out to be Rob. We chatted a bit as we headed down a road, then I turned on the gas again to keep making up some time. It was nice to see them and nice to know they finished not too far behind me.

It seemed like the next thing I knew I was at Aid Station 5 and less than 10 miles from the finish. I was starting to get a LITTLE bonkish but more just hungry. Still I chose not to eat too much, just a water refill. They did have Pepsi, so they filled up one of my bottles with Pepsi and ice and I headed towards the final miles of single track and dirt to the finish.

As I hit the bike path I could see the finish ahead... But why is this sign sending me left? Why am I going up hill?? Why am I going AWAY from the finish??? FRIG!! This is soooo cruel! Had I spun my legs with my roomies last night I would KNOW that I had a little bit more pain to deal with before the finish. But I chose to lay and watch The Penguins of Madagascar in the motel. Serves me right!

Who cares? I was near the end, and the next thing I knew I was crossing the line and hearing the announcer totally botch my last name. "Jason Ma-haw-a-kah-taw-iee, is crossing the line". HA!!

I was handed my Mohican 100 finishers pint glass, and was pointed to the keg of Great Lakes. Nothing like sipping a beer after a hard effort. My time was 9:43 I believe, which was good enough for 62nd place (if I remember correctly) out of 199 hundred mile starters. That time and placing is not gonna excite too many folks except myself. And it truly did excite me. A lot of little shit at the beginning of the race could have easily f*cked my attitude for the rest of the race. But it didn't. It made me focus and it fueled my desire to push on and do my absolute best. I met my goal of a sub 10 hour finish and I felt great after the race. Tired yes, but not destroyed.

This was one of my favorite race experiences ever. A great bunch of guys to hang and travel with, an amazing course with a ton of spectacular single track, and finishing another hundie knowing that I did all I could with what I had. That's a great feeling.

Now I need to clean up the Dos Niner (which is an AMAZING bike for a hundie) and then get it to Pro Bikes for some TLC. THEN I can start to focus on the next event- The Lumberjack 100 at the end of June.

Later.

Out Of The Office

I will be out of the office until Sunday. 100 miles of Ohio late in front of the Dos Niner. Race goal? Under 10 hours.

I doubt too many folks will read this. I think 90% of everyone that reads this blog will be at Mohican. Check back Sunday or Monday for race report.

Good luck all.

Later.

XXC Mag #2 Has Published

Go to XXCmag.com to check it out. Time to get ready for 100 miles on Saturday and drink a friggin' beer! Hellllll yeah! Hope you like it.

Later.

Closing in...

Closing in the end of the week, race day, and XXC #2. All happening this week.

Got in a short road ride today. Legs felt a little dead, but I think it was more mental (see above). Really looking forward to getting the mag out and to head to oHIo on Friday with Don, Brad, Aaron, and SteeveO too I believe. The list of folks racing Mohican this weekend that I know is just freaking nuts. I hope I can beat at least ONE of them! HA! It's the little things that keep me going. The little things....

Tomorrow is all about finishing the mag an getting my gear situated for Friday's departure.

Later.

A Slave To Mr. Brown Truck

My my anger has now been turned down to a low simmer. It seems that with the cooler temps and rain that has moved in, I just might get a good night's sleep tonight without having to deal with a 4th night of partying from the neighbors. Eeesh. The sad part is that these folks are older than me, but apparently found the fountain of youth via cigarettes, alcohol, bon fires, shouting and all night fiestas. But enough of my madness and my impending nervous break down at the hands of yahoos.

Speaking of anger... went to see Little Ball of Hate at Pro Bikes today. I snapped a spoke. I think I weakened one that day on the mountain when that hunk o'stick got caught in my wheel/derailleur, and then my smooth like chunky peanut butter riding style did the rest of the work on Saturday.

While B-Man and I were there LBoH was working on Don P.'s cassette. At one point he's trying to loosen a sprocket and- kachiiiinnnggg the freaking thing came flying at me and B-Man 30 feet away like it was Chinese throwing star. Since no blood or eyes were lost in the fixing of Don's cassette all we could do was laugh.

Finally after a few hours of watching my UPS tracking on the computer the man in the turd colored truck made it to 1147. Finally, my Ergon gear for 2009 has arrived! Apparently my original shipment never made it here back a month or two ago, and the driver of said turd colored truck's kid probably has a set of GR2 carbon's on his HUFFY. SNOT!
Not sure on the official weights, but there is a HUGE difference in the weight of the carbons vs. my old GR2s. From what I gather it looks to be over 150g in weight savings. Once I have things removed and cut down, I'll do a proper digital weigh in. Don't think me too much of a weight weenie, I mean really if I cared that much about weight it would be easier to cut out the beer.

Also in the box was an Ergon BD1 pack. Super stoked to get my mitz on this thing. While it's not needed for most of my racing, it is going to be vital in my continued exploration and course plotting madness on the mountain. I got it all sized up and looked over. The thing I love about Ergon stuff, is that it reminds me a lot of Apple. They do even little things with the gear that you find yourself saying things like "How come no one else ever thought of that?". Big thanks to Ergon for hooking me up with this gear in '09 and to Jeff K., for taking care of the replacement order.

Not sleeping combined with a bunch of hours last week and fighting off a head cold/allergy has made me a tad bitchy lately. I apologize. So I'm going to go tidy up some mag work and get ready for bed.

Later.

A Nice Start

Today was a nice start to the summer season and a nice start to the week. Nice warm temps, sun, and a nice 2+ hour, 35 mile road ride. Good stuff. Would have liked to have conitued my dirt binge, but some heavy storms moved through yesterday evening, and I didn't know how slick and nasty the trails would be. Plus I figured my bod could use a bit of a rest from the trails.

I'm sort of shocked that I rode as well, since I'm on like no sleep lately. My one neighbor and her hick friends seem to think we live out in the sticks (we don't). They have been up 'till 4 a.m. the past 2 night blasting music and burning a fire pit outside our house. So we all have watering eyes, no sleep, windows closed up on 65* nights, and a f*cking moron for a neighbor. I've about had it. I mean, I like a good camp fire... at A CAMP! Not in my living room. WTF?? But hey, it's America and Memorial Day. Folks died so we have the freedom to stay up 'till 4 a.m. blasting bad music and burning wet wood. Jesus! I hope that they didn't die for such trivial things. Sorry for the rant. But I'm really f*cking on edge lately.

Went to a nice cookout at my sis-in-law's digz yesterday so we were a bit burned out on the cook out type grub. So what does Casa Da Soiled Chamois cook up on one of the biggest grillin' days of the year?? General Tso's Chicken baby! Sans dee frying, but still chock full of broccoli, peppers, rice and spicy chicken breasts. I like to think it Chinese/Eastern European/White Trash American. Washed down nicely with a couple Bell's Oberons. Mmmm.

Sadly I am becoming more of an introverted, anti-social, misanthrope with every passing second. Love me.

Getting real close to finishing up the mag. Should be out this week. Leave for Mohican on Friday, so I have three days to git'r out. Should be good to go. Nothing would help me celebrate the release of the 2nd issue like 100 miles in the saddle.

Later.

A Final Practice

I jokingly call my almost weekly trips to the mountains here in WPA "Hundie Practice". Attempting to hit the wide variety of trails, dirt roads, pavement, and big climbs that only the mountains can produce on such a grand scale. Saturday would be my final practice before next week's Mohican.

I've done Mohican twice before and I'm anxious to get back. The "controlled adventure" as I call it of a NUE 100 race, makes them some of my favorite races to do. While my body does tend to shut down and want to die at about mile 60, it just makes that last 40 miles that much more of an adventure, right?

Each week on the "practice" rides I try to incorporate a new trail, or a new area of the mountain to spice things up. Saturday's ride was no different, and I'm really getting a feel for an epic of LARGE proportions that will happen this summer sometime. The thought of mapping out such an epic a mere 45 minutes from my house is sometimes more motivating than even doing the races.

This weekend, being a holiday weekend would pose a challenge. I wanted to hit maximum dirt, but knew that the multi use trails would have a lot of hikers and horses. So I edited out some of those trails, added in some extra single track and the result was passing only 3 cyclists and 2 hikers all day. Not bad. The ride started my normal spot on Rt. 31 and headed down Fire Tower to Seven Springs.

After a few miles, and a hop of the
closed North Gate I needed to power up.

Then it up the gradual pavement and to the top of the mountain to hit about 80% of the 24 Hour Course and enjoy some of the new single track that has been put in. Coincidentally, I ran into builder of said single track- Matt Ross. Stopped for minute to say thanks to him. He did a great job. I mean trails don't build themselves, so thank your trail builders people.

After I feasted on that single track, I opted to not climb the slopes back to the lodge and another few miles of trail. Instead I took some gravel road back toward the North Gate so I could let Fire Tower take me to Cherry Trail and it's long down hill.

After Cherry it was climbing up to Red Oak Trail and taking that back to Jones Mill Road and the Lookout Loop and Jones Mill trails. All good stuff.

After I finished the rooty section of Lookout I was back by Rt. 31. Should I hit the car and head for home, calling it a day with almost 30 miles? Nahhh! So I cruised 31 down to Tunnel Road and headed to Auckerman Road. Auckerman is forest road with embedded rock in it. Starts off flattish, then you find yourself heading down hill, but not before doing a small climb. After that small climb things get steep and you do a llllllong descent. I mean this is forest road and my forearms were killing me from the loose rock, and braking.

Once a the bottom I opted to not do the Mountain View trails due to the amount of horse trailers I was seeing in the parking lots. So I headed to Rt. 381 and rolled on pavement down to Camp Run road.

The temps and the sun were pretty warm and my early single track feast left me a little more tire than usual, so when I hit the base of Camp Run Road I knew I was in for a hard climb. The last time I did CRR I did it all in my middle ring "Schmalzer style". NOT this time. I made it about 2 miles in before I took the granny gear bail out and spun up the road.

By the time I got to the top I was spent. While I did have some water left in my pack and a bit of carb drink left, I had nothing that wasn't the temperature of dog piss. I went through 2 bottles and a almost a whole 70 oz. bladder. 1 gel, 1 fun sized Snickers and one full size and close to rancid Snickers Charged bar.

While I sort of wished I would have had a little more in the tank after 4 hours in the saddle, I'm not gonna bitch. The ride was aces and I pushed myself and ended with over 12 hours of time in the dirt this week. I had planned a low key ride at Boyce today, but I think I'm opting to chill, rest, and get ready for next week's Mohican 100.

Hope you all are having a great weekend.

Later.

The Zone Of Dirt

I had no plan to ride today. Just work on the mag, do some errands and hang with B-Man. And I did all that and enjoyed the day. Of course I really didn't enjoy the part where tractor trailer turned in front of me and B-Man and I had to go all Bo and Luke Duke on it's ass with some evasive tire screeching swerving and turning. Holy crap!!

So with that excitment done, everyone in one piece and Wifey due home in a bit I made the ececutive descions to ride. I CAN'T HELP IT! The trails are just pppperfect right now. It's almost how skiers and boarders get all tingly in the nether regions from "powder" days. We get a run of weather like this about once a year, I MUST take advantage of it. And I needed to blow some of that "hey that trailer truck almost creamed us" anxiety out of my system.

It has been long time since I rode in the evening. I've become used to doing in in th a.m.. I really sort of missed it. It was also nice to seem some other folks out on the trails. Today was the first time I saw another rider on the trails all week. I'm really shocked I didn't see more. I think the Penguins are in the playoffs and playing tonight. That could have been it.

For being spur of the moment, today was one of my best rides of the week. I mean, I was like Jimmy Walker on the trails...
OK, that may be stretching it, but I felt good. I am going to lay low tomorrow and rest up for the weekend. I mmmmight be able to get the magazine done by the end of the weekend. Lots of good stuff in the coming issue. Getting anxious about it.

The best part of this week was 8+ hours of saddle time (so far) and none of it has been on the road, and I don't PLAN on any pavement in the near future.

Time for some sleep.

Later.

My Ride vs. Your Race

The nice weather continued here today in WPA, and even though I maybe should have been doing some work and maybe should have taken a day off the bike, I still found myself at Boyce getting in 1:35 or so of single track.

Today was not my best ride of the week by far. The legs didn't have the same spunk, and I was a bit more hurried due to a late start, BUT it was STILL another ride off of pavement and IN the dirt. And I am NOT gonna bitch about that!

Little over a week until the Mohican 100. Can't wait to get racing again. Not that what I do should even REALLY be called "racing". I ride a long time and see where I place. Been like that from the time I started and it ain't gonna change any time soon. Sometimes I'm lucky and place well. Other times you wouldn't even know I was at the race. Either way is fine with me. It's all fun.

Racing can be more than just where you place. Maybe for XC type folks it's not, but I use an example of a race like Trans Iowa. You mean to tell me if you raced for 300+ miles and came in 10th folks would think less of you?? Doubtful. I'm not a person who has a "racers mentality". I know folks who do. I respect and admire them. I don't. But what I do have is an admiration for pushing yourself to do something that maybe you didn't think you could. Or even more rewarding- pushing yourself to do something someone told you you COULDN'T do. Nothing beats the feeling of racing 100 miles or 24+ hours to give one some kick ass smug satisfaction and a nice way of saying "f*ck you".

In various forums and what not, I have used a quote by Eddy Merckx in my signature. It says:

"I got enormous pleasure simply from riding a bike.
So I guess racing was a reason for riding it more."

Maybe that's how I got into this whole thing? I love to ride my bike as often as I can. Maybe doing these races is the only way that I can justify riding so much? One man's "training" is another man's "riding" I suppose. I will probably never be a "real" mountain bike racer (meaning one who "competes" in a race rather than "rides" a race), and I'm not sure how many more races I will do after 2009, but for now I'm just gonna keep enjoying the ride AND the racing.

Later.

Half As Fast But Twice As Good

I really think today was too good to be true. I mean as TUESDAYS go. Warm temps, sunny, dry, with 2 hours of single track. On top of that I got a lot of mag work done, a ton of house stuff done and STILL managed to all my Dad stuff like Connect Four and Wiffle Ball.

The ride was just fantastic. I had good (enough) legs and the Dos Niner was it's typical snappy self. I love that bike. I really have to start splitting hairs when I try to think on how to make it better and really none of it comes down to the frame. If the frame was Ti I would be even more completely, head over heels in love with it. I mean it could get embarrassing.

The trail sabotage from yesterday is already on the mends (Thanks Trail Gnomes!) and the dirt is just primo. If I had more time I could ride this shit all day. But I don't, so two hours had to be the limit.

The funny thing, I basically have two hours per weekday to get a ride in. When I do a road ride I do about 32 miles and it takes me about 2 hours. When I do my "go to" loop at Boyce, it's 16 miles and it take me a hair under 2 hours. The road ride is twice as fast, but really... it's the road. So it might be twice as fast but... Lets just say "it ain't THAT fun and it AIN'T dirt". I'd like to say I'm taking tomorrow off, or I might "just ride the road". But I can't make a promise like that. ;)

Later.

Fighting It

Not sure what the deal is, but my bod/mind has been fried the past few days. I wish humans were like computers and when shit gets slows down or freezes up you could just reboot. But we're not. I've had zero motivation for pretty much anything since Saturday. Last night I was in bed at 8:45. F*ck it wasn't even dark yet! AND I don't even have to be up until 7:20 or so (but I'm always up at 6:30 anyway). The alarm went off and I hit snooze. SNOOZE! I NEVER do that.

I'm pretty convinced that all this sluggishness is me getting sick. I fully expect it to land in the next day or two. I hope I'm wrong, but I know the feelings I get pre-illness. I only hope it comes now and clears out by next week and the Mohican 100.

Even though motivation was low, I did manage to get down in the Stankment™ last night and work on the Big Mama, getting her fit more in line with the Dos Niner's. I flopped the stem to positive, adjusted my Ergon grips, adjusted saddle position, and air pressures in shox (front and rear). I was happy with the results. But if you're gonna do all that work you gotta do a REAL test, right?

So today I headed to Boyce and put two hours of single track on the Big Mama. She felt SO much better than on Saturday. I still kept my heavier wheels on, and that was still noticeable, as in "wow these feel sluggish", also noticeable was the XT crank vs. my Dos Niner's XTR crank. I always read this shit on the forums about how XT is as good as XTR. Not sure I buy that. XT is a great crank, but it ain't no XTR. And don't take me for some dude who is trying to justify spending $500+ on a crank, because I didn't. I found a blow out deal a few months ago and paid wwwaay less than that. All I'm sayin' is that I find a BIG difference in how the two cranks preform. The chances I will buy a 2nd XTR crank are slim and none, but that won't stop me from lusting one.

The ride was a good one in some perfect sunny weather. The only downside was some trail sabotage that I found. Not happy about that. F*cking assholes. Two bridges removed and thrown in the weeds, one log pile destroyed and some glass on the trail. It's not enough we can't ride on the road without obscenities being hurled at us, now we can't even ride the trails. I did what I could, and have a post up on the PORC site to see if someone else might be able to get the one bridge. It was pushed down in a gully and too much for just me to lift out. Friggin' frigs!!

Also heard from CamelBak today. They are gonna send me a new waist strap out for my old Blow Fish PDQ. Big thanks to them for taking care of me. I was getting by without the strap but I like the waist strap option to keep the pack from shifting around too much.

Oh well, time for bed. Hey, at least I made it 'till 9:10 today!

Later.

Enjoy The Silence

Later.

A Short Long Ride & Mama Thoughts

Today was just "one of those days/rides". From the get go the a.m. was just mentally "off". I made the best of it, and planned a trip up the mountain for a few hours of dirt. Today I wanted to take the Big Mamma. I hadn't been on the Big Mama since the Bakers Dozen and knew I was hitting some good amounts of single track today. I figured the Big Mama would be a good choice for some East coast mountain single track. The plan was to hit most of what I rode on Wednesday, but add in some additional trails and roads. I hoped for up to 5 hours of saddle time. That never really materialized.

Problem #1: Like I said I hadn't been on the Big Mama since Leesburg. So I had both the front and rear shock pretty much set up for smoother single track riding. Not rocky and rooty single track. It was too stiff, and I had no shock pump with me. Oh well, I'll make do.

Problem #2: My position on the Dos Niners has gotten much better. And I guess now MUCH different from the Big Mama. I noticed it right away and felt all out of sorts, even down to my grips.

Problem #3: My bike computer was f*cked. Stupid Cat Eye wireless P.O.S.. If a chipmunk farts it looses it's signal. I can go without a computer for rides I know, but I'm trying to organize a big ass loop and keeping track of time and mileage is important to me. So the computer not working really chapped my ass.

Despite problems 1 thru 3 I kept rolling along the forest roads, heading towards 7 Springs for some single track. The single track was fun of course, but I was just mentally out of sorts and the bike's issues (PSI/position, etc.,) were getting on my nerves. I knew the ride was not long for this world.

I finished my loop at the springs and hopped on some service roads that took me back to Fire Tower Road and eventually my car. I still got over 2 hours of riding in, but it was far from the 5 plus hours I wanted. What-are-ya-gonna-do? All of these things could have been avoided and were sort of my own fault.

I should have remembered to adjust the air pressure of the Big Mama. I should have updated that P.O.S. computer, and I should have compared my new (better) fit on the Dos Niner to the Big Mama and made the adustments. Shoulda, would have, blah, blah, blah- Didn't!

But a ride is a ride. Better than not riding at all.

Mama thoughts...

This was the first time I used the Big Mama up on the mountain, so it was like Part II of a review/test. It was also the first time I rode a full suspension up there in 3 years, and I've never ridden 29er FS up there. In hindsight I should have taken the Dos Niner. The Big Mama was sort of the wrong tool for the job today. She excelled at Leesburg when it was undulating, on the gas single track, but up on the mountain I found myself wanting my Dos Niner or a hard tail. I know that sounds a bit ephed up. I mean the Big Mama is MADE to soak up rocks and roots and the mountain single track has PLENTY of those!

The problem was with the climbing. I felt sluggish. This could have been my legs, it could have been the wheels (I had my heavier Bontrager/Hope wheels on), or it could just be my riding style. But I felt like I was using a lot of power to get the Big Mama up to speed on the climbs and in no way felt like I could move the bike around like I can the Dos Niner or my old Mamasita. Some folks would have no problem with the sit and spin right over stuff approach that worked today. To me it just made me feel slow. God knows I'm not the fastest, so if I feel slow, I'm feel sllllow.

The Big Mama is an incredible all day ride bike. That was proved to me at Leesburg, but for THIS style of all day riding- big forest road climbs, double track, single track (think NUE Hundie type riding) I will stick with the Dos Niner (at least until I get the Big Mama re-sorted out) and save the BM for single track with less big climbs.

There were some spots today in the single track that I indeed felt like I was cheating! I mean she was rolling over anything in here path! Rocks be damned! It was just when those same trails went up and I wanted to flick the bike around a bit more that I wasn't thrilled.

I was also thinking more about 29er FS bikes in general. I've heard some folks talk that maybe a FS bike is best left to 26" wheels or more interestingly to me- 650b wheels. Not sure I could ever go back to 26" wheels and I'm not 100% sure that the mountain bike world needs yet another wheel size.

There was some 26"/29"/650b talk from Bike Radar editor Steve Worland about the various wheels that I thought was interesting:

"There's a long term test feature on 26" vs 650B vs 29er waiting in the wings," Worland said. "The main part of my conclusion was 'from a purely personal point of view, I’ll happily admit that I would like to have been convinced that a classy 650B build is the best of both worlds. But I wasn’t. There just didn’t seem to be enough real world advantages over 26-inch wheels'.

"The Pacenti tamed the bumps very slightly better than a 26er, but quite noticeably better when I slotted in a 29-inch wheel up front," he added. "And when I slotted a 26-inch wheel with a 2.55-inch tyre in the back it felt better than with a 650B wheel with a 2-inch tyre. A big tyred 26er would be a far cheaper and more choice-happy solution too.

"At the end of the test, and after a lot of conversation, we were left thinking that a 650B bike is a great choice for riders who are too short to fully benefit from a full blown 29er… in other words sub 5ft 11in riders who like the idea of the rolling advantages of a 29er but find them a bit gawky to ride, or look at."

I agree with him. Part of me wishes there was some happy middle ground that the 650B wheel could help attain, but it just doesn't seem like it offers enough. Anyway, I wanted to jot down these thoughts while they were fresh in my head. I need to make some adjustments and then try again I suppose. I had a lot on my mind today and I hope that that didn't play too much into my observations today. Don't think I'm all hattin' on my Big Mama. I love the bike. She just wasn't the right choice today's ride.

Later.

A Bee In The Bush

Dear God, we had FULL ON SUN SHINE here today. I'm not even talking the normal WPA Gray/White stuff that we like to CALL sun. SWEET! There was some fog this morning and then that burned off and my ass was soon encased in lycra and ready for (as Liam would say) axxxxx-sheeeee-on.

All the blogs/FaceBook/etc., were lit up this a.m. about Bike To Work Day/Week/Whatever. Since I my "job" is 12 steps up from my living room, I figured there was no need to kit up for that. In fact I even drove to my road ride today. That doesn't make sense does it? Well I'm the sort that likes to avoid confrontation with assholes, and I know full well that just riding the few miles from my house to the "sticks" I would have my share of assholes in my face, and not in a good(?) porno sort of way. I choose to do this to avoid having a half full pounder of Old Mill thrown at me and being called a fag. Some folks can deal. I like to enjoy the ride, not have to deal with assholes for which 51.5% of people are (it's a fact).

Once out on the road I knew things were gonna be good. The fog was burning off, the sun was peaking out and there was some slight humidity. I LOVE riding when it's just a little humid. I'm not into fat man ball sweated up underwear type humidity, but jjjjjust a tad of stickiness makes me all spanky in the nether regions. Of course by "nether regions" I of couse mean my legs not the crotchial area.

Soon the sun was full on out and I felt like all school girl giddy inside. I avoided some flat sections today, embraced the hills and the climbs, and enjoyed the sun. It was as perfect as a road ride could get.

So far a nice week in the saddle and looking forward to getting my cheeks atop one of my Salsa's tomorrow for some dirt miles. I still need to figure out the wheres and whens, but it will happen. Especially since I saw the soccer field are prepping for some sort of fetival/tournament, so my back roads will be FILLED with mini van soccer moms hell bent on making the kick off for little Jimmy.

Time to make some food and enjoy a beer or 5. Wifey in hurling herself towards me from D.C. and ending my two weeks of Uber Dadness.

Did you ever realize that a bee hitting you in the face at 20 mph is like being hit in the face with a paint ball? I did today. Ouch!

Later.

Humpride The 13th

B-Man was going to hang with Papa-O' today after school for a few hours, so a whole new ride opportunity was opened to me- THE MOUNTAINS! Hell yeah!

Sweet to get up there on a weekday. The plan today was to ride from Rt. 31 over to Seven Springs, climb up to the Tahoe Lodge and do the 24 race course and then head back toward Hidden Valley hitting some single track along the way. It was damn fun. After 5 miles or so of crushed stone and road, I was on top the mountain and anxious for some single track.

I hadn't been up to Seven Springs since last year's race, and it was great to hit those trails again. What's even better is the new stuff that has been built this year. Great googly moogly, it is just classic East coast riding in my opinion. Loose rock, rocks, roots, dirt, mud, etc., If you're thinking about a 24 this year, I have to say the Seven Springs course is PRIMO. I would say I like it even better than Big Bear AND Seven Springs is cheaper with free camping. The only bummer is that it's always the same weekend as the SM100. Not good.

The downside of riding the course was not knowing what is up with the last quarter of the loop. The course climbs to the top of the mountain and then used to go to what has always been just sort of referred to as "the rock garden". Well the entrance to said "rock garden" has been bull dozed shut with debris, making room for new condos (I though we were in a housing crisis?). I'm sort of unsure if the rest of the loop will be part of the course or not? And if so how they'll have us.. err, I mean others ;) getting to it. I'm sure it will sort out in the coming days/weeks.

Since I didn't feel like wasting time, I just took a SSSSTEEP service road down to the main lodge and then hit County Line Road for a few miles to Jones Mill Road. Then it was down Ridge Trail where I promptly crashed on some ruts near the bottom.

There looked like there was some "controlled" burning going on recently and there were some tire ruts that were half mush/half dry. The front tire slip from mush to hard and down I went. All that rocky single track without a dab, I crash on a wide double track trail. Nice. Real nice.

Then it was up to the long grassy double track of Red Oak. Once down to Jones Mill Rd. again I did some exploring on the Lookout Trail loop. Some of Lookout is SWEET and will be put into future loops for sure. Other parts are a bit soggy and not worth the effort of putting them in right now. At this point I was closing in on 3 hours of ride time, so I finished out LT and head to the car. Ending with a little over 3 hours of riding and a tad under 30 miles.

Had I had the time to add in the rest of my loop I think I would have hit over 5.5 to 6 hours and over 50+ miles of riding. I like them numbers!! I mean "LIKE" like. So many options. Too bad the Roaring Run trails are closed to bikes now, or we'd be looking at an epic with a capital HOLY F*CK!

I will say I think the Big Mama will be called into action for the next loop. It might be slower on the climbs, but will make up for it with cushion for my ass with more single track. So many times today I wished for the Big Mama. Hindsight vs 20/20.

Is this bad luck or good luck?...

I went to hop a log and the next thing I knew I'm locked up, not able to move. A big stick/small log made a surprise attack on my rear derailleur. It sucked that I nearly crashed (again) but LLLLUCKY that my derailleur didn't get snapped off or bent. So I guess I'm going with GOOD luck. Why is it that stick know EXACTLY where to go?? Damn!

Not sure if I'll get out to ride tomorrow. Weather looks shit, and I have a TON of work to get done. There's gonna be some pretty cool features in the next XXC. Looks like Issue #2 will come out later than I hoped (the end of May, rather than the beginning), but I'm still pretty happy with the content. That's one good thing (I guess) about having ZERO advertising- I can adjust the deadlines as I need to. When I make my first cent, THEN maybe I'll need to get more serious, LOL!

Food Lust: Made up some SWEET Turkey Burgers tonight. I'm LOVING mixing ground turkey, A1 Bold & Spicy, black pepper and some Goya Adobo spice together and them slapping them on the grill. Not to mention corn on the cob and baked potato. Damn it was good food tonight. All this food lusting, you'd think I was Allison ;)

Speaking of food, beverages and lust... I've not had a beer since Sunday (GASP!!) Looking forward to Friday. Me thinks I need to pick up a 90 Minute or two to welcome Wifey home and usher in the weekend. It's sort of funny how I still look forward to the weekends, even though I really don't have to be anywhere during the week. Oh well, I'm enjoying it now, I'm sure it will change soon enough. Come next winter, look for me behind the counter of a Wendy's near you.

Later.

Fonts, Crossish Loops, Utilitarian Bike Porn & M.I.A. Straps

Took the day off the bike today, and that was fine by me. I was mentally zapped after yesterday's wind blown road ride, AND I needed to get some work done on the mag. I would have got more done but I've been having some font compatibility issues. Not sure if it's a OSX 10.5.6 issue or what. Font loads, font works, go to make an EPS/PDF... and the program shuts down. But that's a whole other issue.

So in between some work, house stuff and B-Man activities I've been obsessing about some potential mountain rides. I am real close to a pretty sweet 50 to 65+ mile route that has some real potential as a kick ass mountain bike epic. F*ck, I remember a day when I thought a 20 mile ride was an "epic". WTF?

For some reason, right now I'm more interested in routes that fall in between a mountain ride and a road ride. I guess because I KNOW the mountain trails, I want to give myself MORE options for fun on the mountain. The only real name I can come up with is a "Monster Cross" course. Very similar to the ride I did the past Saturday to avoid the rain soaked trails. Right now my first attempt was a bit under 30 miles with well over 4,000' of elevation gains.

Some of the inspiration for gravel/dirt/pavement loops are:

The Three Peaks
Iron Cross
The Rouge Roubaix
The Dirty Kanza
Trans Iowa
Barry Roubaix

Even though my time in the mountain is pretty much limited to only on weekends (for the most part), I need to give myself as many excuses as I can to NOT ride my road bike. And as many excuses as I can to buy one of these, these, these or THESE! ;)

I also spent much of the day trying to find a replacement waist strap for my CamelBak Blow Fish. I like my Deuter M2 for shorter (longer) rides and for racing, but for those rides that are just short of all day epics, I need a few more items and end up cramming stuff in the M2. Then it gets all cattywompass on my back. The Blow Fish works well, but can slide around without a waist strap to help the sternum belt out a bit. At some point I removed the belt and now can only find one side. FRIG! I have a lead on one from a fellow rider, so I might be cool. You would think C/Bak would after market sale an item like that. But... they don't.

Time for bed. Need to rest up. Back on the bike tomorrow, and the "necessary evil", the ROAD! ;)

Later.

Handed To Me

First things first- Happy Mother's Day to Wifey, my fave baby maker. She cooked up a good one with B-Man and kicks ass as a mother. Thanks for all your work babe.

Now on to Sunday... I was able to get a ride in before Wifey had to head back to D.C., but sadly it was on the road. I am so burnt on the road. And today I got my my ass handed to me by some left over 20/30 mph winds, church go-er traffic, and wave after wave of SUVs and mini vans getting Jr. and Little Sally to their soccer game.

I've ridden thousands of miles on my mountain bikes over over the years. High altitude Rocky Mountain epics, suburban park single track, race courses, etc., and not once have I really thought that I was "risking" anything. But there isn't a time I ride on the road that I hear a car coming up behind me and don't think "this might be the one".

In today's talk on your cell, text your friend to say "wha-sup?", drink a Skinny Grande Mocha, put on make up, eat a donut, smoke a cigarette, "I only had 8 beers", while driving at 50 mph on a twisty back roads culture- I can NEVER fully relax. Some days I do, others... not so much. And to be honest, when my legs are good and the ride is fun, I rarely think about those things. But on days like today when the wind was howling, and the back roads had unusually heavy traffic, I was glad to safely finish my 2 hour ride and come home to hang with Wifey and B-Man.

Not a good weekend for WPA amphibians/reptiles. Thanks Don ;)

My God, have you read/seen the reports from Dirt, Sweat & Gears?? Jeeeezus!! Thank GOD I did not spend coin on a trip to do THAT one. Yikes!!! Mud, mud, mud, and MORE mud. 3+ hours to do a lap? WTF? Of course it WOULD beat the road. ;)

All in all a good week of riding. Well into double digits and some nice miles. Hoping that this week allows for more dirt and lest pavement. But you do what you gotta do to scratch the itch that is cycling habit.

Later.

Mountain Bail Out Ride Option #1

I had no idea what to do this a.m.. I'm burned out on the road, dealing with cars and the jag offs that drive them. The wind was also howling like a bbbbeotch. I knew I wanted, nay- NEEDED time on my mountain bike. Since its rained like 19.95 out of the past 20 days or something like that I knew the trails would be the consistency of baby poop. So what to do....

Well after much deliberation and map consulting I thought it best to head to the mountain and piece together a little road/forest road loop to work on my climbing and get the f*ck out of Dodge. And there is NO better place to ditch "Dodge" and all the fecal matter that comes with it than the mountains!

I got all the climbing from my normal mountain loop ride, but ditched the would be too muddy trails for some road connectors and a couple damp double track snow mobile trails. The loop was about 28 miles and about and hour shorter than the full loop. But it was FUN and the best part was other than the 4 miles (total) of pavment that I had to do, I only saw TWO vehicles the entire ride. I like them stats.

With the lack of single track and REAL dirt, I had a bit more energy, so I tried to do a Brad and middle ring the climbs rather than resort to my granny. It WORKED! I had never even tried these never ending climbs out of my Granny before, but the middle ring got my ass up those climbs a minimum of 1 to 2 mph faster than the Granny. I knocked HUGE chunks of time off of the final Camp Run climb. I'm talkin' double digits.

The cool thing about today's loop was that I think it would make a killer Monster Cross loop. Granted I WAS on a soft tail 29er with 100 mm of suspension up front, but I totally believe with the right Cross set up (fatter than normal CX tires) this loop would make a killer course for a 3 Peaks-ish/Iron Cross Monster Cross race. Double the laps and you got yourself 90K of fun. Stay tuned for more info.

I was also able to solidify incorporating Seven Springs trails into the mix of my regular loop. My standard loop can now incorporate more single track AND lengthen the ride a good 13 miles or so, for a loop close to 45 or 50 miles.

The ride wasn't the longest, or the toughest, but it was WWWWWWWAY better than riding the road and WWWAY more fun. I love having shit weather options. I hope to return soon to get the new "real" loop going.

Not much else going on. Enjoying my new oven and all the options it now gives me for cooking up food. Might skip riding tomorrow so as to get maximum Wifey time before she has to get back to D.C.. I guess it all depends on what time she wants to leave, etc.,

Later.

Super Short

I've realized today, that although my body needs the rest from racing, I mentally miss it. I was in the zone with two races in 4 weeks and now.... NOTHING until the end of the month! FRIG! I'M chomping at the bit to get spanked and not even Wifey is around to do that. I asked my neighbor but she frowned deeply than called for her husband.. DOH!!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm missing the idea of doing a 24 Solo this year. There I said it! I planned on not doing one in 2009, but it just seems very strange not to attempt one. That's what I do. I race one to two Solos a year, get spanked, feel like shit and then get through a nasty bloody ass hump WPA winter thinking about redeeming myself the next year. Hmmm, not sure what to do???

For now , I guess I'll just force B-Man to watch some vintage bike documentaries and wait for Wifey to get back from D.C. Week One.

Later.

I'm Trying... Really.

Time was slim today. I couldn't go too far away from home today due to the fact that stove guys had me on a super short choker leash. But I still squeezed in a quick road loop this morning.

Legs felt pretty spanky and I think much of that was due to a solved breakfast issue that I've been having. What breakfast issue you ask? Well, I've been finding that my breakfast has been sort of sitting in my belly and not digesting quickly enough before my a.m. ride. Natural peanut butter is a real gut buster, Jeeezus!! So today I mixed up a Vanilla Whey/CytoCarb II/Skim Milk Shake and felt nice and light on the pedals come ride time. This just may have solved my weekday breakfast issues. Or at least I hope.

I must say I'm a bit burned out on the road, but with the massive amounts of rain we've had I don't see quality saddle time on the mountain bike until we get a few dry days. Frig!

I'm like the king of roadside peeing anymore. With the chilly a.m. temps, the coffee, and the hydrating, I spend half my ride just trying to get to the next secluded spot to drain. I really have NO idea how chicks do it. Eeesh. BTW, be glad I didn't use the "stream" pic. That one I sent in to some Pee-Porn site and made some quick cash. Did you know there is a whole porn genre called "talentless road side peeing cyclists"?

So I got nice 2 hour loop in and never had to abort due to the stove guys calling my cell. Unfortunately said stove guys did not call until after 5 p.m. today. Again I say... FRIG!

B-Man and I sat around the house most of the day waiting for the guys to finish installing my stove and breaking down the old 2 ton Chambers stove to haul away. All went good (enough) until they went to install the gas line and of COURSE my 1920's era house has some out-f*cking-dated gas line and the new one will work without a new adapter which they did NOT have on the truck. So NOW I have to go through the whole deal again tomorrow. One more time.... FRIG!!! Sure old houses are cool, UNTIL you have to get shit done. Then they are a pain in the f*cking ass. I would kill a horse for an apartment about right now. Home Ownership- The Big Lie.

Might try to squeeze another quick road loop in tomorrow, OR I might just save it for some longer miles on Saturday and try to get max XXC work done in the a.m.. Who knows?

Gotta spit, B-Man beckons.

Later.

1-2-3 CONNECT FOUR!

Rather than blather on about how it continues to rain (is it now 5 out of 6 or 6 out of 7 days now??), I'll just pretend like it didn't rain AGAIN today and talk about bike shit. After all this IS a bike blog NOT weather.com.

I had about as much mental mojo as castrated, retarded pig today. BUT I was able to ride, and once I got out on the road, I upgraded that status to "retarded pig". And I'd rather be a retarded pig on a bike than a... Oh I have NO idea where all that is going, F*ck it.

I hit some new roads today and while it was a nice change to hit some new pavement, it really didn't add THAT much time or mileage onto my ride. Sort of a dissapointment. Not knowing what was coming next made it "interesting" for sure.

Round a corner on a slow as shit on wall false flat and BAM! A steeeep ghetto farm road that went straight up. I guess doing some suffering on unknown ghetto farm roads is good for me, in SOME f*cked up way.

Once out of the sticks it was into the rural neighborhoods of WPA where I got to view native cement deer in their native habitat.

The legs were dead when I started the ride, but the incline of those new to me roads helped put some burn in them and wake them up. And as a bonus the sun came out! OK, it was only for about 3 minutes of a 2:25 road ride, but hey, these days you take what you can get.

Once home I had to deal with the issue that my old stove will not fit through the kitchen doorway. There was much cursing, and heavy breathing from both me AND the delivery guys. NOW the delivery guys need to come back tomorrow with more tools and a third guy to get the stove out of my kitchen. The new stove sits in my living room. Nice, reallll f*cking nice. That would be stranger if it weren't for the fact that a Salsa Campeon ALSO sits in my living room. It's all class here at 1147... ALL class. Tomorrow- a couch on the porch, a dog tied to a tree, and a shirtless toddler with a dieaper full of feecus in the front yard playing in the mud.

Being a "single dad" this week has been challenging. The weather has not provided B-Man and me with ample outdoor time, and I've about had it with Connect Four. I've played about 45 games of Connect Four in the past 3 days. I shit you not! I'll be glad to have Wifey back on Fridy night for more than a few reasons.

This week I envoked a "NO BEERS UNTIL FRIDAY RULE". But after the stove issue, more rain this afternoon and Connect Four game #45... I caved. I had a few Bell's Kalamazzo Stouts tonight. I'm a weak, weak man.... But hey, they were goooood.

I spent some time watching the newly aquired movie "The Greatest Show On Earth". This still from the movie is unreal-

I've seen team mechanics do this shit before, but this one just freaked me out. Dude was WAY out of some ugly ass 70s car, and doing it all whilst some serious 70s porn muzak played. Hope to watch the whole movie tomorrow sometime.

More rain on tap for tonight and tomorrow. If I can pull my head out of the oven in my living room long enough, there will be more road riding, more XXC work, and more Connect Four playing.

Later.

Dodged

Squeezed in a 2 hour ride today before Dad duties called and the rains moved BACK in. Jeezus the ground is sssssssssssaturated and there seems to be at least a chance of rain in the forecast from now until July I think. Holy crap! I haven't seen any blue sky in a long time! Frig.

B-Man is spending some time with Papa-O' tomorrow, so I mapped out a new hunk of road miles that I hope to try out during tomorrow's session so as to add some climbing and miles in. Steep and narrow from the looks of it. Real potential to end up as a hood ornament on a John Deer. I can't waste too much time though, gotta be back in the afternoon to meet and greet the oven delivery guy. Sadly we're bidding farewell to our old Chambers stove. Too old, too hard, and too expensive to repair. And too much wrong with it. It's time.

I need sleep.

Later.

Edit: Nice.

Beyond Wet

Pissed down rain ALL day here today. The ground is now like soaking wet sponge. We'll need ddddddays of dry weather to get the trails back in decent shape. Frig. Looks like mucho time on the road in the coming days.

I spent my pre B-Man day alternating between working on XXC and getting the Dos Niner and my gear cleaned up and back in shape from last Saturday's mountain mud fest. Later it was off to Tee-Ball practice #2. 4 and 5 years olds learning how to play baseball in a gym. Sometimes I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I think I laugh at the kids and cry because of the parents. There are some real whack job parents out there. Not me of course!

Today was also spent reading post race e mails and race recaps from my Pro Bikes teammates Aaron, Don, and Chrissy. They raced the WVMBA Challenge At Mountwood XC race yesterday in some piss poor conditions. In my buddy Aaron's race report, he has one of the best paragraphs about mountain bike racing I've read in a while, I hope he doesn't mind but I'm gonna share them here...

"The great thing about mountain biking, as with cross, is that your result in every race is limited purely by your own ability to push yourself. There isn't any of that trying to make a break at the wrong time, or chasing down a break without any help, only to have other guys blow past you in the sprint. There is just you, and your willingness to push yourself. There is a little of knowing when to go hard versus when to rest, which is something I'm still learning, but that comes with time."

Those are the kind of words that leave me insanely jealous. For two reasons: 1. That I wasn't there with racing with them and 2. That I didn't write that. In my opinion, that's some serious Velo-Gospel shit right there.

Time to get some sleep, and HOPE that I can get a road ride in tomorrow without becoming a soggy mass of human apathy.

Later.

Low Profile

Kept a low profile today bike wise. I had a lot of family type responsibilities, so I figured I'd just end this rest week doing just that- resting.

Spent the morning watching the Mens World Cup XC from Houffalize on Freecaster.tv. Good stuff. Nice to be able to watch a race and not just some YouTube snippets.

Knee highs and big ass neon glasses are all the rage now. The best was hearing the German announcer (speaking in English) say: "zime notz zure vie Fumic iz varing za zilly glahsses". I almost spit my coffee out. I'm diggin the knee highs though. I wonder if he got that idea for rocking the knee highs from me?? [edit] OR from Aaron?? HA!

Back to business on the bike and on the mag tomorrow. Only a little over 3 weeks until Mohican!

Later.

Forest Road-ish

Headed back up the mountain this weekend for more hundie practice. Don P. joined me again as did Aaron & Brad. I love this little loop I have up on the mountain, but I always feel uneasy calling it a pure mountain bike ride (even though I think it is), since most of the ride is on wide snow mobile trails, double track and forest roads. Some folks poo-poo double track type riding, so I always sort of dummy down the ride by saying it's more forest road type riding, so folks don't think they are gonna be doing 3.5 hours of single track.

Yeah, I might wanna stop doing that, since Brad and Aaron almost brought cross bikes for the ride today! Yeah, that would have been bad. Real bad. Barring a few road sections (as pictured below) the ride is best done on what is sacred and holy-- a mountain bike.

When you add in thousands of feet of total elevation gain/loss, rocks, and PLENTY of mud, what we had was one sweet time on our mountain bikes.

Even though these guys are on a whole other level of fitness and ability, it was still great to ride with them and I was more than happy to show them around the mountain. Plus our relationship is pretty incestuous- All T6 brothers, Don, Aaron and I all ride for Pro Bikes, and Brad rides for my old team, the good folks at Bikeman.com. And 3 of us ride Salsa frames to- Dos Niner (me), Mamasita (Don) and Brad rides a sweet Moto Rapido.

We had one crash (Brad and Don on a slick wooden bridge), one flat (Brad) and one minor mechanical (Aaron). Some of the trails resembled shallow creeks rather than trails and there was a ton of mud (in fact I think I removed a small salamander from my anus during my post ride shower). But it was all a good time.

One good thing about 90% of today's trails, is that riding in the rain/mud sucks for the rider, but trails don't take to too bad of a hit. Barring one section of Mountain Streams Trails that the horses have ripped to shit (and shit on) they hold up pretty well to rides like this. Now my bottom bracket is a WHOLE other story!

I felt much better on the bike today and my back held up great (or at least 91% great). The Dos Niner is such a great choice for these rides, I'm glad I'm getting closer to getting it RE-dialed in.

Time for few beers and some Mad Mex.

Later.