A Big Blur

We'll get caught up here all at once, if people still read these things anymore. Spring training was on track until I got the invite to test ride some stuff in Moab. Double rides every day on gnarly shit with a solid crew of riders. Knowing full well it would make me suck at Iola I went all in and needless to say came back completely smoked. 5 days straight of pinning it will do that to you.

I didn't regret it at all.







A week after returning from the highlands we raced Iola, a total mud fest but not till 1/2 way through. I felt flat and ended up 5th after a mixup at the start. No legs to chase higher than that.


It rained.



I got back to normal leading into Rhinelander and was determined to have a good result. Sometimes when I feel good I can't control myself on the first lap. I did that here and paid for it on lap 2 as Matter and Jesse took turns at the front. I detonated and crawled around for another lap with the hazards on, and decided to pull the plug. Yup I quit. I was pretty bummed and it took a couple days to get motivated again.

Chomping at the bit:



Big D did give a hell of leadout though, look at that teamwork!!



Going to Wausau, same goal: redemption. Felt great on the start, sitting top 5 comfortable, first bumpy section dropped my chain. Put it back on, got passed by 10 guys. Start going and drop it again on the next section. Put it on and lose another 10 spots, get going again. Then,same thing AGAIN. Then I realized I had not moved the chain guide back down after working on my bike. Smash that thing into place, chain back on, problem solved. Except now I'm in around 20th place, so full throttle up the big back hill past about 10 guys. Catch up to big D on some double track and he lays it down for me while I am absolutely crosseyed from the hill effort, back into the top 10. Thanks D!! Digging through the field for laps 2-3, last lap I finally get up to the 5th place, Tyler. Man it is tooth and nail getting in the top ten of WORS, the amount of great riders in stunning! I get up to Tyler Gauthier and suprisingly he lets me by, I ramp it up to try and bring back one more spot before the finish, then: squishy tire. Stop to try and air it, that works for about 20 feet, try again, no luck. No air left for a tube. 2 mile walk in, another DNF. But at least this one I felt good and rode a good race.



So, still result-less we head to Cam Rock and then Firecracker, in the search of that feeling of satisfaction I need from all the hard work and dedication that goes into this MTB racing thing. If at first you don't succeed...

Catch Up - Spring Road Racing

So I thought I'd do a quick couple of posts to recap the last month or so. Lots of traveling, riding and a bit of racing. I like to do a couple longer spring gravel road races to test and build race fitness, beginning with Barry Roubaix in Michign and the LeLand Kermesse here in Illinois. Two very different course, B-R being quite hilly and L-K being mostly flat. You can guess which one I like more?

Barry Roubaix

I had some good miles in before B-R but hardly any intensity, so really it was just a tune-up and to see what I need to work on. I felt good on the start and made it to the first dirt road section at the front, even sitting 2nd or 3rd wheel behind eventual winner Mike Anderson. So it wasn't my positioning, but the first few hills were full gas and exactly what I hadn't worked on and I knew right away I wasn't going to be in the lead group like I had hoped. I tried to latch onto the early chase group but was suffering pretty good and had to try to recover before bridging up. I worked with a couple Bissel riders and we eventually re-joined the chase, but the leaders were still pulling away. We all worked together for the most part but a few guys were itching to bridge up and kept throwing attacks. I was mainly there for a good workout so I covered as many as I could until all I had left was Tempo power and got dropped. I rode with one of the Bissel guys for the remainder of the race and ended up being caught by chase group #3 right before the sand pit and rolled in behind that group, mission shattered legs accomplished. After B-R I headed to Cali for some MTB and upon returning got ready to race the 2nd gravel race I had planned.

LeLand Kermesse

This one went much better. The weather was nice compared to last years' 33 degrees and rain; I helped establish a break of around 6 on the first gravel sections, and we kept on the gas for the first lap to stay clear. We dropped a couple more riders until it was down to just 4 of us. The eventual winner was riding really well and basically rolled off the front while we looked at each other to see who would chase. I was suprised to see him keep increasing the gap even though we were rotating and working pretty hard to catch him working alone. At some point we lost the third guy to a loose water bottle cage leaving the Bissel rider and myself to finish out the lap. We didn't bother spriting seeing how he was Cat 1 and I am a 3 so we just rolled it in. A 300w avg for the 3hr race meant 1000kj's per hr, I was feeling confident that the form was coming along and looking forward to a strong Spring. Until Moab beckoned and sucked the life out of me! But I'll save that for the next post...

Cali Etc...

Made it out to CA to visit Dad & Denise, we were lucky to have good weather all week and it was well spent riding all the trails Orange County has to offer. The one above is the drop in to a gnarly DH in Laguna Beach that had me on my back foot. I haven't done this much solid MTB riding in a long time; my goal was as much time and vertical as possible for the week; I ended up with around 26hrs and 30,000 feet for 7 days which is alot for me, a flatlander! Some trails were easy and others, like the San Jaun trail and some of the DH runs like the above were pretty tough. I used the new Quark MTB power meter the entire time and I must say it comes in handy pacing on the climbs.

Here's Dad and Denise on the Tandem riding out at Wheeling Ranch:



One of the many tight steep switchbacks on the San Juan trail climb



Cocktail Rock at the top of San Juan



We opted to ride the Wall after topping out on the San Jaun. I decided to try for the Strava KOM and got it by a minute, 1000 feet in 12min. Ouch!



I did take one day easy so Chimene and I could explore LA, here is some classic 50's Googie diner action courtesy of Norm's



The Hollywood Strip at Sunset



We stumbled upon the Deus custom shop in Venice, very very cool



Tiki time! Don the Beachcomber in Sunset, the home of the original Mai Tai. That's a great recovery drink



Back to riding on the Laguna beach trails. A pretty technical little rock climb here getting the best of Pops



Back on the Wheeling climb for round two, we came across the scraps from some mountain lion's lunch...makes you think twice about stopping



Can't go wrong with blue skies and miles of trails



Chimpy exploring the tide pools




Final sunset of the trip...awwwwwwwww



After a week of getting back up to speed with life, my brother Jon rolled through his weekend and we were out and about, which made for some squeezed in rides followed by tired walks sightseeing around downtown. Here's Jon and Chimp at Big Star, home of the 3hr wait for dinner!



Twins?



Pool Shark



I wrapped up the weekend with a hard Judson group ride to prep for next weekend's LeLand Kermesse, a 125km gravel road race down here in IL. After that a suprise trip to MOAB has appeared on the schedule?!? This has been a crazy busy spring so far but a whole bunch of fun. Really looking foward to the first group of WORS races, I have a feeling they are going to be FAST...


That's all for now!

Maiden Voyage

Taichung

Some images from a work trip to Taiwan a couple weeks ago.

This is the mascot for the best roadside espresso on the island.



We did lots of driving. These trucks are everywhere, I think they would make a sweet race vehicle!



Another common sight. Millions of scooters darting every which way...



Lots of these as well :)



In the espresso shop, some vintage..



Outside the espresso shop, some more vintage:



Taichung night market in full swing. Stinky tofu pervades the air!



Headed out for a morning ride before work with some fellow SRAMmies..



After a bunch of climbing we were treated with some nice views..



Tropical!



Up next: a Barry Roubaix report...it hurt.

Tough or Just Dumb?

As this past weekend drew near it was obvious the nice weather was not going to continue for the miles I had planned. But as usual, I am stubborn and decided to ride anyway. Saturday was the worst, with the temp sitting at 17 and an icy 15 mph N wind; it was time to break out the snowboard helmet and goggles like the old days, along with a big pile of assorted lycra, hand/foot warmers, DZ Nuts Hot Embro for the knees, and a roll of duct tape for selective windproofing.



The helmet, connected to an iphone full of metal



Taking a pit stop to get some feeling back into the hands, even with the Bar Mits, lobster gloves and 2 hand warmers in each glove they were going numb! Think they use a little salt here??



Hanging out by the soda stack in the gas station will get you some funny looks. All illusions of looking stylish go out the window when the temps drop.



Before the ride was over I double flatted and had to walk to bike shop for a tube (the one time I didn't bring two), and later on managed to crash sliding out in a salty corner. Still, got 80mi in even if it took me five hrs with all that nonsense!

Sundays ride was less eventful, warmer, 5 mi shorter and ended with these little guys waiting for me at home courtesy of my awesome wife.



Now time for a rest week, starting with a nice Monday morning commute along the lake path:



Thats all for now...

Misc.

I should post this quick before it's the weekend again already. Chris, Michelle, Sarah and Phistopher made it down last weekend. Chris and I went for a nice spin then headed out to un-do all the hard work with massive amounts of tacos and beer. It was a great time, just wish I had a pic of the dualing pianos. Then we could continue to make fun of them.



Sunday was a nice long one to burn the previous evenings excess. Wound my way up the N shore on the Judson route, taking a few detours to look at cool houses. There are a ton of mid-century Keck & Keck homes, and I also stumbled upon the house used in Ferris Bueller where the Ferrari goes crashing through the window (it's for sale if you have around 2 million). The structure on the left was the one they filmed in, the car fell into the river ravine on the left. You can see it way better in the winter when the leaves are down.



Keck home in the Forest Crest subdivision, Glencoe IL. 26 originally, some of which have been demolished and replaced with McMansions.



Can't beat 45 degrees in Feb!




One more big weekend and then a rest week. It feels good to be doing the winter training thing after not for a few years. Time flies and spring will be here before we know it. That's all for now..