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Has it come to this? Greg and I will finally beat Dwayne, one way or another. Nah, he still beat us.


Sure was glad I had titanium bolts holding my disc brake rotors to my hubs. Sure was glad I bucked up for the carbon fiber handle bar. Sure was glad I invested more than the cost of an entry level mountain bike in my XTR crankset. Sure was glad when my bike weighed 70 pounds last Saturday at the Bone Bender 6 hour in Kansas City. It rained all night and up to the start on this mostly flat ll mile loop we planned on spending a quarter of a day on. Didn't look so bad from the parking lot. It wasn't so bad for the first few miles.

By that point I was running 5th or 6th and Dwayne was in the top three. I could see their tracks and that was the only way I knew that I was near the top 5 because they were gone! They managed to ride through sections that quickly became a peanut butter fest for the rest of us. Bike stopped dead in its tracks. Walk ten feet spend copious amounts of time and energy cleaning the wheels so they could roll, repeat, repeat, repeat.....Gloves covered in goo, no hopes for a shift from this point on with the Grip Shift. I pushed on and told myself this was my one and only lap, quiting for sure. Conditions improved and then worsened. I found myself pushing my racing sled until it wouldn't roll, cleaning handful after handful of a thick mixture of mud and leaves from my tires. I would try to ride again, slinging huge blobs of mud and come to an abrupt halt. Enough, if I continue to babble about this, I might not sleep tonight.

I finished my first lap in just under 2 hours! The last mile and a half of the course wasn't as bad and it lulled me into thinking,"it's not that bad, I can do another one". Whatever, I went back out. When I neared the section that gave me trouble on the first lap I almost pulled off on the bike path and called it. I didn't. Continued on and what had taken me what seemed like an hour had become a completely rideable section that was over and done with in about 45 seconds. Couldn't believe it! I later came to some still unridable stuff and some that was worse than the first lap.

The third lap saw better conditions and a fourth would have been almost normal. The really "wet" sections got worse, but didn't slow you down much. I finished lap 3 at 5:37 and wasn't sure how far behind me 3rd place was. I lubed my chain and grabbed a fresh bottle and waited. At 5:45 Stephen Carney rolled in. I presented to him that he could settle for third or we could go out and battle it out for second. It didn't take him long to opt for the third place finish. I keep getting second to Dwayne, but in most cases I'm having to ride a lot less than him. Hard to believe that it took me 5 hours and 37 minutes to ride 33 miles. I knew this would be a race of attrition.

We cleaned our stuff for the next hour and a half and then headed south for some food. Dinner was awful, we found a hotel and then assessed the badness that we had put out bikes through. More cleaning and lubing, then to bed. Got up early and headed further south to Neosho for the race #3 of the Midwest Fat Tire Series, Le Tour de Tick. It poured on us for the first hour plus. Then it started to clear off. When we got there it looked pretty wet. Did I mention that I'm sick of racing in the wet? All we heard was how good this trail manages water, OK.

All in all it wasn't too bad. No pre-ride to speak of, just a few sprints down the road to make sure the bike was working and to wake up the legs. Small showing of dedicated racing freaks put me in third going into the woods. I was riding with Dwayne and Jason Stiger, the one from the Rim Wrecker. Just over a mile into the race I had a flat. 1" long cut in the sidewall of my rear tire with about 1/2" completely through, Stan's sealant didn't have a chance. My guess is that it cut earlier and when I bottomed out in a dip, it tore open. That's racing, it's what you do now that will make you or break you. I carry two tubes and a tire lever with about 18" of duct tape wrapped around it for this very occasion. I made up a boot with 3 or 4 layers of duct tape and tried to stick it to the inside of my tire. It fell out when I had the tube in and tire about 80% of the way on. Trying to put it back in the tire came off.........................I eventually got it and aired up my tire. ALL of the beginners had now passed me. I started to ride up the climb I had stopped on and I could tell that the CO2 cartridge I used was insufficient and needed a bit more air. Soon I was rolling. The bummer is after a flat and now riding with a tube, wondering if my patch will hold, I never ride the same. No excuses, just can't trust the thing and constantly wonder if "that root" I hit was too hard and will I pinch flat?

I immediately began my trudge through the beginner field on almost all single track. Most were more than happy to let me by. Larger groups would prove difficult, but would eventually fall to my heroic efforts. Last place, by a long shot after the first lap. It wasn't long before I passed the first marathon class racer. At least I wasn't in last now. One by one I slowly picked off the next and the next. Greg was riding strong and very consistent. Todd Holtman was cheering us on and letting me know of my progress. Not that my goal was to catch Greg, but getting a time check on him told me how I was doing. 9 min behind, 6 min behind, 4 min behind and then seconds entering the last lap. I was pretty sure Greg was in third and I in fourth. For all I knew he was going to put the hammer down like he had on our ride with Dwayne just a week ago and I would never see him. I knew this was my last lap so I was giving it all I had. It took a while for me to catch him. He was climbing way faster than me, but I had more power on the flats and the advantage on the descents. I got by him on a short steep bump that he picked the wrong gear for and had to hop off and walk. Soon I had a solid lead until we came to the longest grunt of a climb. Not much, but given the conditions it was the toughest part for me. When I got to the top Greg was right with me. I think he worked really hard to catch me and it wasn't long and I had a gap again.

Unlike the Bone Bender, the conditions worsened as this race went on, we were just trying to stay upright. I was no where near catching Jason and Dwayne was out on his 6th lap by himself. I can take pride in the fact that I didn't quit. Would I have caught Jason without the flat? Don't know but I'd bet if I came up behind him near the end he would have done what was needed to stay away.


All in all a good weekend. Thanks to Greg for driving and thanks to Craig Basler for kindly loaning us his car rack so we didn't have to destroy our top tubes. That's a ton to do in about 39 hours.

Snow, mud and beers

Seems odd writing about a race five days later, but I just haven't had time. I'll keep this one short(maybe). We thought Council Bluff had missed the brunt of the snow and it would be "OK". Turned out they had several inches of wet snow. It was sure perty for the start of the race. Lots of snow still on the trees, seemed cold and was really really wet, everywhere. We didn't even warm up, how could you? I figured I had a certain amount of life in my bike and planned on conserving it.

Marathon class took off with a spray of water from the rear tires of the leaders as we sped up the campground to the entrance. We made a wrong turn and did an extra loop-de-loop and laughed. Hey it prolonged the inevitable, muck mayhem. Dwayne led us into the woods with two other riders between us. I wanted to capitalize on my heightened ability to succumb to the forces of gravity, but was unable to. Uh, I was at the mercy of 2nd and 3rd. Once we hit the main loop I was able to get by and soon caught up with Dwayne. We "rode" together for a while and chatted. It was cool making the first tracks in the snow. This don't happen too often. I was redlining and Dwayne needed to be set free. So I jumped into the lake and pleaded for him to save himself. Not really.

He rode away from me after we crossed the torn up spillway. I needed to back off. I'm pretty in tune with where I need to be when and at that time it wasn't racing with Super Dwayne. Jason Stiger was the only rider within sight when I looked back and he was making huge efforts to close the gap. I almost stopped and hid from him as it was very intimidating. About 2/3 of the way up the big climb near the halfway point of the 13 mile loop, he finally caught me. It wasn't long and he had a little gap on me, Dwayne was gone. I looked at my timer on one of the open climbs and Jason was about 40 seconds up on me, still no one behind in sight. Now it became my race. I pedaled on up the hill to start lap 2 and shed a layer exposing my perfectly clean Ghisallo jersey. At least I'll get my ass kicked in style! I figure it's like those tear away goggles for your team kit.

I didn't see another Marathoner on lap 2 and it was becoming painfully evident that I was going to have plenty of time to start a 3rd lap so I pressed on. Not knowing how many would do three laps I couldn't waste any time. I was sure at the very least Dwayne, Jason and I would have the good fortune to finish off what was left of our brakes and drivetrains. On my second and third lap I was passing some racers and getting passed by others. Those doing the passing ended up being Chris Ploch chased by Dave Breslin, 1-2 in the open experts and later Greg Sandknop, singlespeed winner, chased by John Mathews dominating the 35+ expert class. I just kept telling myself, "you're doing three laps, they should be going faster than you!" I have long conversations with myself.

Oh, one of the racers I had caught and passed was Jason Stiger. The efforts he had dished out earlier had taken their toll. I closed in on him not like a cheetah, but more like a Komodo Dragon. Here's how they hunt.
"Animals that escape the jaws of a Komodo will only feel lucky briefly. Dragon saliva teems with over 50 strains of bacteria, and within 24 hours, the stricken creature usually dies of blood poisoning. Dragons calmly follow an escapee for miles as the bacteria takes effect, using their keen sense of smell to hone in on the corpse. A dragon can eat a whopping 80 percent of its body weight in a single feeding."

X x 80% = 172lbs You fugure it out. I wonder how much Jason Stiger weighs???? Sounds like I'm in the wrong skin!

Anyway, I've been there, I felt sorry for Jason. That had to be a rough last lap. Still cool that he was guaranteed 3rd place as we were the only three that did a third lap. I just rode conservatively and finished in 2nd, 15 minutes behind Dwayne and 25 minutes ahead of Jason.

I bought a set of Hayes Stroker Trail brakes last February and still have the original pads after a lot of riding and racing last year. The bike I rode in the Rim Wrecker had a 3 week old set of the same brakes. The rear pads are down to bare metal and actually wore a grove in my rotors once the pad compound was gone. The prize money covered my entry fee, two sets of pads and a chain, that's all! Not complaining as Andy Gibbs put on a great race. It would have been really easy to call this one off.

Greg Ott, LUCKY, did two laps which was good for 8th place. Dwayne is leading the series with 48 points, I've got 2nd with 42 points and Greg is in 3rd with 30 points. It's going to be a fun year!