Finally a dry race!

Made it through a hot one yesterday at St.Joe state park. Used mainly by atvs and motorcycles St.Joe provided one of the better race courses I've been on in a while. The work that went into this race is hard to comprehend. From what I hear, just last week this trail was not in great shape and flat out hard to follow in places. It was awesome for us. Thanks Mark.

We pre-rode about two miles and then came back. With minimal effort my heart rate was in the 170's, I knew if I went out hard at all I wouldn't finish. So when we lined up at the start line I stayed in the back. I figured I could just roll with the field and not feel pressured to chase Dwayne and it worked. It wasn't long and I had worked my way up and was riding alone, making reasonable time. Drinking as much as I could and conserving on the climbs, I was able to claim 3rd only having to ride four 8 mile laps. Dwayne and Zach both did five for 1st and 2nd. I could have done another but didn't want to.

I will definitely go back and ride St.Joe sometime when it's not 96 degrees.

Aviation Challenge

OK, so this will be my 2nd non-bike oriented post. I know bikes but occasionally I do other things. This past weekend I took Adam, my eight year old to a camp in Huntsville, AL. His interest sparked when his school was having a contest; write an essay on a dream you have and you might be awarded a "Dream Grant"-money to go after this dream. So Adam did.

His dream was to go to a camp Mandy, my wife had told him about. She went to the "Space" camp when she was a kid. He seemed more interested in the "Aviation" side of things so he aimed and scored a direct hit. He was chosen to receive a grant which partially covered the cost of the camp. They offer a pilot/co-pilot camp which we thought at the age of eight would be the way to go so we signed up.

After looking at the maps and choosing a route we headed out Thursday morning. Since we had all day we decided to take a detour on the way down and drive the "Trace" through The Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky and Tennessee. It's a nice road that winds through protected land with no stop signs, lights or houses to be seen. Definitely worth it. It added about an hour, but I had never driven the entire section. Before we knew it, we were in Alabama looking at a horizon dotted with NASA rockets.
The next morning we checked in and took out bags to our "quarters", a small room with seven beds designed for kids under 14, five of which were bunk beds. The other two families had already claimed their beds so we took what was left, both bunks. After a quick orientation we met our instructor "Oz", her first name was Dorothy. We jumped on a bus and headed to "Aviation Challenge", an area used to train future fighter pilots all the skills they will need to survive the flying and the crashing that could go with the flying. We spent hours in real training flight simulators. We practiced crash landing and swimming out of the "dunk tank", a mock of a plane that they lower into the water and you have to swim down and out a window to escape, sometimes with a disability or injury. Practiced a water rescue from a mock helicopter in a basket.
We learned what to eat and what not to eat, what kind of fires to build depending on where you crash land, enemy or friendly territory. We built a shelter out of our parachute(in the rain I might add). We built a stellar fire using only what we could find and the matches in our survival kit and Oz commented that our fire was the best she had ever seen as an instructor-go scouts! Adam rode in a real training centrifuge, not like a ride at Disney. The real thing with its only purpose being G's. I chose not to so as to not ruin the rest of my night. This also allowed some of the kids to ride it twice, yea, that's why I didn't ride it! My favorite part was later that night, "Blitzkrieg"!

We were issued our BDU's, cammo shirts and instructed to put on our old long pants we were told to bring. We headed out near dusk into the woods. Each of us was given three chips and the mission was to deposit the chips in one of the three tins with small flashing lights on them placed in different areas in the woods. The closest tin was worth one point and if you wanted to you could put all three chips in this tin and be done with three points. The second tin was worth five points but required more risk to get to. The third tin was worth ten points and not only was further back in the woods, but was guarded by an instructor. Pitch black now, we crossed into the woods and had to assume an "army crawl", lift your head or move when one of the patrolling officers came by and you would loose a chip. Loose all three and you were out. Adam and I went separate ways but both had our sights set on 30 points, no less. The guard at the ten point tin had a high power flash light looking for movement and was ten feet up in a tree stand. I watched how she flashed the light and figured out that there was a stand of trees that blocked her view and headed for their shadow. I was able to make good time only having to watch for the foot patrols and quickly was past the first and second tins with the third in my view. Soon the guard figured out I was lurking and started aggressively looking for me. I made it right up to the tree she was on and stood up on the back side of the tree in the shadow from her light. She knew I was there but couldn't see me, I don't think it ever occurred to her that I would be standing right under her. I waited until just the right time and dropped my chips in the tin which was an empty coffee can. It made a loud plink and I yelled "Blitzkrieg!". Once safe I looked in the light cast by the guard and saw Adam only feet away. He had circled all the way around the guard and was approaching from the other direction. Soon he dropped in his chips, success! All in all we only crawled about 75 yards but I was drenched with sweat and filthy. Tons of fun! The kids roasted marshmallows afterwards and we headed back to get cleaned up and go to bed.

Before we knew it, it was Sunday morning and time to graduate. After receiving our certificates and a pin for completing Blitzkrieg they awarded one kid the "Right Stuff" medal. This kid being the most likely to become a fighter pilot someday ended up being Adam! Out of the three space camps and our aviation camp, he was the only kid that was picked for an individual award. I think the reason for this was his knowledge of the aircraft. Oz was going over the parts of a plane and the physics behind flying and he essentially had all the answers to her questions. He even added a few details I honestly don't think she knew and was consequently blown away by him. They asked me if I had studied with him before the camp and I told them that in order to do that I would have to know what he's talking about.........he's eight!

Runny Rhetts

Once again, perfect conditions the day before the race and downpours the morning of. It rained a little on us while seeing the trail for the first time on our practice lap and then just a sprinkle during the race. It was a sloppy and slippery start but after two laps the conditions improved. Unfortunately, the damage to the drivetrain had already been done. The first two laps also required much more strength to keep the bike upright and moving forward. Once the trail dried up I lacked the power I wish I had on tap and my chain sounded a little sickly. Now I know why they used grass mixed in with mud to build houses back in the day, that stuff sticks and was stuck in my derailleurs.

All in all the trail surface wasn't that bad. Rhetts Run is a short but demanding course. Lots of trail crammed into a small area. Not to put a cloud over this event, but due to the small loops that this system has which means the trail must come and go only divided by a piece of ribbon, there was some short cutting going on. Most people come out to challenge themselves but some will do whatever it takes to advance. Usually the winners clearly and decisively win and it's further back that the funny stuff can happen. I have no fingers to point, but watched lots of people and heard of other people witnessing the same lameness. All I have to say is that I will outride these folks on a course like Council Bluff where it proves more difficult to cheat. My buddies Chad Brixey and Dwayne both double flatted and chose to walk every inch of the course instead of DNFing. They also noticed some odd time changes going on. After a while it pissed me off and I yelled at a couple of riders.

Past that, this was one of the most fun races I've done in a while. Big field, lots of carnage, rocks, roots and PBR after. I started about mid pack. Slowly picking my way through riders, I had my one unplanned dismount midway through my first lap. No one close enough to see it, I feel I must recap. I rounded a slightly down hill left turn into a small dip/creek and was coerced to one side of the trail by a wet root. I tried to correct and over did it. Before I knew it I was on the downhill side of the trail trying my best to stop while plowing over some poor saplings. I came to rest after bumping into the trunk of a small tree only to find out that there was nothing to put my downhill foot on and toppled over like I was still clipped in to my pedals. I was laughing as I got up and only got passed by one rider. First chance, I was back by him. I figured out half way through my 2nd lap that I had hit the stop button on my Garmin when I crashed so I lost about 3/4 of a lap.

In a while I came by Dwayne fixing a flat. Wouldn't be long before he would blow back by me. Turns out that would not be the case as he had a second flat and had to walk. In a lap or so I caught Nate Means who I chose to ride behind for a while and pick up some sick lines, thanks dude! 3rd place was right ahead of us and soon he and I traded places. We swapped spots a few more times. The last time he came by me I thought that was it, he was flying. It lasted about 30 seconds and I think he blew. I went by him never to see him again. I went into my 6th lap still in 3rd and was caught and passed by a guy on a single speed racing marathon class who was absolutely flying. Pretty impressive to see someone come on that strong that far along in the race. I had no answer. I continued to rail what I could rail and poke my way up the climbs to finish 4th.

While it was cool to get cheered on by Chad and Dwayne each time I passed them, it was a bummer that they nor myself had any idea that you could change out parts on your bike back at the "pit" area. We all thought racers were self sufficient, meaning you use what you carry. Pretty sure those guys would have picked up a spare tube and continued to race had they known the rules. Now we know! Jason Stiger tore it up for the win, nice job! Paul Krewet made a guest appearance and announced official retirement, maybe. Jay Strothman rode a strong race, dude flies on a mtb, flies on a road bike. Greg Ott got another top 10 finish. And Todd Hecht made his debut into marathon racing, don't give up.

Syllamo's Revenge 2009

To start off I have to declare what an idiot I've been for not doing this race before now. You hear 46 miles and it doesn't seem too bad. This place is real!

The race starts off with a mass start(352 pre-registered,294 started) with less than an eighth of a mile before the start of a nearly mile long climb up a soft gravelish road. From there almost all of it was single track.

Syllamo is located in Arkansas near Mountain View. The "hills" are much bigger than we have in Missouri and there are lots more pine trees. They have done an excellent job building these trails following the contours of the peaks and valleys. There are tons of climbs, but most are manageable. The trails are broken up into separate loops; yellow, green, blue, orange and red. We followed the outside of these loops to make one big loop.

The weekend before this race I started having symptoms of a head and chest cold. I told myself it was allergies and tried to get over it. By Tuesday I barely had a voice. I was coughing up green/yellow stuff but still wanted to go. I decided to take my own tent to sleep in so I wouldn't keep Greg and Jeremy awake or infect them. We pre-rode a little Friday and I felt OK, not great, but OK.

I'm no climber so even on a good day I wouldn't want to be at the front. So I wasn't worried about my starting position or hammering to get to the climb. I just cruised and tried to survive. I'd say I was in about 60th place at the top starting the single track. Not 5 minutes into the trail I saw the first casualty, broken chain. Soon the first steep up and off the bike we came. As far as I could see ahead of me, bikes being pushed or carried. I rode behind Scott Davis. He's the promoter for the Berryman Epic. Dude does not like it when he has to walk something he could potentially ride. We passed some other riders in the technical stuff and soon found a reasonable pace.

We came around a ridge top that had been devastated by the winter ice storm. There was barely a tree standing, looked like it had been logged. There was a small tree, say 5 inches in diameter laying flat on the ground. Would have been an easy obstacle any other day of the week. We picked up quite a bit of speed approaching it and all of the sudden Scott was over-the-bars and on his back, bike flipping through the air landing about 30 feet down the trail. I did my best to slow down but still hit the same rut Scott had hit and even knowing it was there almost did a header myself. My front wheel disappeared down nearly to the axle just when you would normally load the suspension fork to assist with the needed loft to clear the tree. I seriously thought Scott would be hurt. I've never seen anyone go over that hard, that fast. He said he was OK and told me to go on, so I did. He DNF'ed, but never heard if he went any further after his endo.

It wasn't long after that when I had my first sign of cramps. From that point on I had to nurse my leg muscles by backing off on the pedal pressure and stopping to stretch, frequently. I started to think about quitting, I mean I was barely past the 10 mile mark with 35+ miles to go! With it happening that early I knew it wasn't nutrition, it had to be over exertion from being sick. I had come too far to quit yet so when I came to the first checkpoint I decided to go some more. I knew we came right by this same point after riding the green loop. I drank a ton, used my gears to my advantage and lowered my heart rate. I started feeling a little better.

Now in survival mode, I just wanted to try and finish. I had no idea what the remainder of the trail had in store for me but pushed on clicking away at the miles. I was still having a blast riding all of the rocky, ledgey stuff. I was also having major issues with chainsuck. Not only while shifting, but whenever I applied much power. It seemed like if the trail stayed dry and the chain had time to "clean" itself, it got better. I was off walking a bunch of stuff that I would normally ride. May have done me some good, a little walking.

I soon came up on the last check point which was the start of the red loop. I knew this was supposed to be the fastest and most flowing section, but I had forgotten how long it was. If I had been fresh I would have mashed this thing out like nothing. Too bad I was on my last leg. There was very little descending and required near constant pedaling. This made it hard for me and brought on more cramps. I must have stopped 20 times on this loop if only for a few seconds each time to stretch. I was watching my elevation and had noted what it was at the check point knowing that I would be returning to that same spot. It gave me and idea of when I would finish the red loop, I was that desperate.

A quick fill of a bottle and I was back in the woods on the last leg of the yellow loop. I didn't think it was very far and I was right. One little bump and I popped out at the top of the climb that started all of this craziness. Mach 5, a near miss on the way down and I was done.

If you had asked me right after if I would do it again I might have said no way. Now, I can't stop thinking about next year. Dwayne rode looking for his own revenge and finished in just over 5 hours for the win. He was over 24 minutes ahead of second place. Fuhrmann, Zach and Gino with a flat, were right there. Matthews took a header but still rode well and Ploch stayed with John. I lost at least half a dozen spots on that last loop to finish in 22nd. I'm happy to have finished and know that there was some awesome competition. Only 132 riders finished and several were taken to the local hospital and hopefully are doing fine.

Double Header

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!

Lost Valley Luau

Thanks to Mesa Cycles for hosting the first official mountain bike race of the year. And a special thanks to Gorc and it's volunteers for all the hard work that went into the new trail section that now bypasses the defunct bridge and washed out hill. It took two work days and a ton of man hours to make it happen. We pre-rode the new section before the race and I raised my eyebrows with concern. It was very soft in places, rough in others and the bench cutting in some places was not "cut in" yet. At speed it turned out to be just fine and I looked forward to it(get me off those gravel roads!). It was funny, as we encountered traffic-riders in other classes and some lapped riders, I heard a lot of moaning and cussing especially in the long "soft" section. All I could do was smile, chuckle to myself and motor on. Here is a shot of Nico rounding the switchback near the old bridge.

The Marathon class races until 3 hours passes by and then you finish what ever lap you are on. Last year this class was the bastard class. Today it was THE class. Not to take away from Cameron Chambers, Mike Best or Chris Ploch which in this order, put the other Experts to shame, but we had 31 in the Marathon class today! What's cool about this is that a lot of these people just wanted to try it for the first time and see what they could do. Compare the times of the top three Marathoners and they aren't far off from the experts and we still had two to three laps to do. Yes, I had the pleasure of ending my day in this top three. Dwayne won, Dave Breslin took a convincing second and I pulled off third.

The race started at a pace that I could handle, which was surprising. I was way behind a few, but still with the bulk of the riders. I passed several riders on the first climb which again, surprised me. Dwayne looked like he was shot out of a cannon, gone. We formed small groups for the next gravel road section but I knew I wanted to be ahead of these groups before we got to the first single track. Near the end of the gravel I stood up and attacked. Dwayne, Dave and Brad were out of sight by now. I entered the new trail GORC built and just tried to "flow" through it. It wasn't long and I caught Brad and then I was following him into the older single track, which I am very in touch with. I requested a pass on the left from Brad and he obliged. Swoopy descent over, I found myself on Dave's wheel. He bobbled and I was in front of him. Knowing that we had a moderate climb ahead I suggested that he go around me, so he did. I kept him in sight and was able to bridge back up to him on the next descent. We rode the double track together and stayed close until the creek crossing near the end of loop one.

Dave put a small gap on me before starting lap two. He kept that gap until the new single track again where I caught him again. Then right where it ends, he flatted. Sounded like a cut sidewall to me, but it turned out that the bead popped off and after remounting it, a blast of CO2 got him going again. Lucky! I had no idea, so I pressed on. I finished lap two in second, by myself and rode all of lap three alone. I didn't look back but Dave and Brad were closing in on me at the start of lap four and caught me after the first climb. I first saw Dave and asked him if he knew where Brad was and he said,"he's right there!". I turned to see Brad only a bike length behind me. I could tell Dave was on a mission so he was gone, never to be seen again. Brad passed me but I didn't let him get too far. I caught him on the new single track and we rode together for nearly half a lap. I could tell he had worked really hard to ride with Dave and I had backed off and felt a second wind approaching. I led into the last bit of single track. Another racer crashed right in front of me at the "waterfall" creek crossing but I managed to hobble past him and keep going. I guess Brad ended up crashing also.

I cruised the downhill and began the push up to the end of the lap to start lap five. Brad was only seconds behind me. I knew this was it, the last time up the "prick-of-a-hill" gravel climb so I gave it what I had. When I got to the top I locked out my fork, put my head down and "mashed". I blew by a group of five in a pace line and I think I startled them. When I got to the end of the gravel I looked back and could not see Brad, it worked! I rode carefully the rest of the lap for it was raining a little and I didn't want to crash. We were riding through tons of other riders now, which slows you down a bit. I crossed the creek at the waterfall climbed up the other side of the valley and looked across the valley and no Brad. At this point I was pretty sure I had it. Nice easy pace back to the finish for third. Third to Dwayne and Breslin, I'll take it! Nice job everyone. Greg did awesome also taking 6th and a few duckies too!

Secret playground

Yesterday was a ball buster. Greg Ott and I poached a group ride made of real men. Mike Best, Nate Means, Doug Davis and Jason ?, don't know him. They came down from Columbia to camp and ride in the Mark Twain National Forest. Where else can you go out and ride all day and only scratch the surface of what is possible. The Ozark Trail is an expansive system of trails mostly open to mountain bikes and is managed by the Forest Service but mainly by the Ozark Trail Association of which I am a lifetime member. While I can't get down very often to help, I figure I'll at least support it with my membership.

*Edit*The handsome group of guys and gals that volunteer for GORC have a hand in this trail system's sweetness. That hand went to work on Sunday and re-routed a section of North Trace that had become the path for the nearby creek. Looks like I now have an excuse to venture down again to see the fruits of their labors. Thanks GORC!

This group then became "manlier" when joined by Dwayne Goscinski and Chris Ploch. We planned a banner ride consisting of a teasing of the Berryman, a chunk of the Courtois section of the OT and the entire North Trace section of the OT. While only about 26.5 miles one way, it's a tough ride with tons of climbing and lots of creek crossings. The trail surface was stellar for most of it. One section in the middle of the Courtois section has been "horsed up", holes poked in the soft earth that then collect water and never dry out. In all fairness the trail design in these sections contributes to this problem with a less than ideal choice of routing the user through lowlands. The equestrians still could make better decisions to stay off of trails when wet. Other than that, the trail was nearly perfect. Only a small number of trees down. When you cover this much ground and see the miles of dense forest of primarily deciduous trees, to have half a dozen trees down is not a problem.

Of course this was not enough, so we continued down past hwy DD on the South Trace section and rode the Telleck connector over to the Council Bluff loop and stopped there. Then it hits you. Over 28 miles from where you started, no place to get water or food and you're more than tired. Only thing to do is reset the Garmin and go. I thought it would be cool to get an out and back, recorded separately so I could compare all the data. This ride is definately harder on the out than the back which can be seen in the elevation profiles. Greg and I thought about cutting out many times but opted to finish it and I'm glad we did.

I was happy that I didn't walk ANY part of the ride except for the large trees and I had the exact average heart rate, out and back. This tells me that I accomplished my goal to stay smooth and meter my efforts even though the group full of testosterone was dropping us at the beginning. I've never had to worry about having enough daylight to finish a ride when said ride started at 10 am, holy crap! I finished my last bit of food with about 6 miles to go and ran out of water with about 3 miles to go, no big deal. Greg and I had no tubes left between us, I used one of mine and Greg's only tube, and my second tube had a bad valve stem. It just became more and more epic as each minute passed. I can't wait to do it again, but next time we stash food and water and do a loop at Council Bluff!

To add insult to injury, Super Dwayne thought the planned route sounded a little "weak" so he took it upon himself to show up in the morning while it was still dark and do a warm up ride. What would that warm up consist of but a loop around Berryman! I cannot even imagine! Freak! So my 8 hours and 46 minutes pales in comparison, whatever hurt I thought I had going on......

Got Wood?

Been a little busy lately, hence the lack of posts. Busy with what?, you say. Pinewood derby of course. Adam is a Bear this year and we have fun with the derby. We like to go fast, but more importantly, look cool. With this being his third year and building our seventh car.....yeah I said seven. See last year my wife and I had a bright idea to suggest we have a parents race the night before to raise money for the pack. Since we suggested it, we had to enter it. So that meant a car for each of us last year and the same this year-seven total. So here is his first car which won best design in his den. Lightning McQueen, of course. Ka-chow!

Last year he wanted Jeff Gordon. It was all NASCAR. For some reason that year I had the urge to sit on the couch, eat Doritos and drink Busch beer. I gained lots of weight and had to have therapy to correct my reduction in vocabulary. After peeling off the life size 24 stickers from the sides of my truck, I moved on. This car also won best design is his den and raced to 6th place in the pack which meant a trip to the district races. This is a much more intense crowd and we went from top amatuer to bottom pro. This year has been all Legos all the time. So when I asked him what he wanted to make his car like he handed me a Lego rescue truck. Off we went! I told him that to make it look more realistic we would have to shorten the block some and make it taller so the proportions would be closer. Both of these changes theoretically will cause your car to run slower, theoretically. We didn't go crazy but tried to make it look like his Lego truck. I liked this one alot! It's simple, but cool. Turned out to be a pretty fast car anyway. Didn't win any design awards, but got 6th place again so districts here we come.

With my first car I wanted to try something different. The block of wood they give you is 7" long, 1 3/4" wide and 1 1/2" high. You then place the wheels on either side of the block and the 1 3/4" sets the cars stance and cannot be changed. How many cars do you see driving down the road with their wheels outside the body of the car? So I did some measuring and figured out how wide I could make the block and then bore wheel wells and maintain the correct width. An easy way to do this would be to glue pieces onto the sides, but I wanted a seamless body so I went to work. I ended up getting second in the parents race to a car with totally modified wheels. While this is allowed in the parents race, my car was legal to the kids' rules. Dig the attempt at the neon down lighting?

This year I wanted to something other than a car, truck or anything I had seen before. It took a while to come up with an idea and then it hit me. A racing pinewood derby track. Enough said, it was good for second again and the guy who won raced the same car as last year! The committee(my wife and me) amended the rules for next year so he won't be doing that again.

Now onto the most simple and best ideas. Mandy is truely into it for the fun, not competition. This car took about half the time to make that mine did and I think it's just as cool if not cooler. How many bitten watermelon wedges have you seen with dual exhausts and seeds made out of lead?

And now for this years best parent car. We first ditched the "factory" wood block. In search of the perfect chassis, we looked in the back yard. Mandy took special leader training this year and is working on the last steps of her Wood Badge training. It's pretty involved and it's been a ton of work. Her car is the Wood Badge symbol, on wheels. Yep, it's a log with a hand carved hatchet, river birch in case you're wondering.

The way I see it, if we both enter a car in the parents race for Adam's remaining two years and do the same for all of Eric's five years, then I'm looking at another 21 cars! Sounds like I might have to buy some more wood working tools.

Thank Steven for the egg nog!

This is what my bottles looked like after I got home this afternoon. What is it that causes us make totally stupid decisions that go against all the good stuff we've been taught? It was 12 degrees at Klondike Park in St.Charles this afternoon which was the site of Team Seagal's CXmas non-race. For whatever reason I decided earlier this week that I was doing it no matter what. Even when the predicted highs dropped from 28 to 16, I was in. Even when I started to feel the effects of a head and chest cold starting, I was in. So back to the real bad decision.



I made up two bottles with the intent to use one an hour, hoping I would finish in two-BAD IDEA- read on. The non-race was 30 miles of mostly gravel road, Katy/Hamberg, pavement with a hint of trail and unimproved gravel. We started in Klondike, rode down to the Katy, then made a left on Terry Road, Oh Terry Road. That thing is a hell of a climb! Not as steep as Matson Hill Road but certainly longer, more rollers. Then we turned onto Duke Road, a paved and also rolling road. Luckily we then turned and descended Matson Hill Road which led us back to the Katy. Miles into what seemed like a headwind brought us to the Hamberg turn off and soon our first check point. Long before this I realized that my bottles were frozen solid(effect of said bad idea), I thought about dumping them somewhere where I could retrieve them later so I wouldn't have to carry the dead weight, but never did it. Approaching the first check point I saw a table with cups stacked half-time-at-a-soccer-game style. Behind the cups I could see Pabst 12 packs and expected to have to down a cup of beer. Instead it was egg nog! If we could have a Tour De Egg Nog much like the Tour De Doughnut(which I want to try sometime), I think I would win. Not that I'm an egg nog fan, but I put that mofo down! It turned out to be my only hydration for the event which was fine. Up the Hamberg to turn into the back side of Lost Valley, I finally put some time on the fella, Ryan Heine I think, that I was swapping places with for the last 10 miles. He was on a fixed gear cross bike, I rode this. My Retrotec "Classic" that I picked up about three years ago. You know how when it's really cold all your components seem to operate "slow like", my whole bike felt slow. When I got home, I noticed my rear hub has a bearing that is locked up, done. Don't think it would have made any difference in my finish, which happened to be 4th. One place away from a coveted CXmas hat, dammit! Back to Lost Valley.

After bombing down the rough gravel downhill and suffering up the big gravel climb I approached the first "detour". It was supposed to be the "mud pit", but given the temps was the "rutted field of ice". About a mile later I came to detour #2. This one forced a dismount up onto an old foundation, over several old steel I-beams and down a couple of steps. Didn't even know that old thing was there. If you have it, click on google earth once you've opened my GPS recording of the non-race. You can see the foundation at the upper left corner of what looks like the northern loop, pretty cool! One more descent out of Lost Valley and the advantage for the mountain bike was over, all smooth from here. We crossed Hwy 94 back to the Hamberg trail. Another check point loomed ahead. You may have trouble believing this, but we were given a large, wrapped(like a Christmas present) box and told to carry it all the way back to the Terry Road and Katy junction. WTF! over. So I did. It was empty, but still a pain in the ars to carry. When I finally made it to the drop off point we also had to do a series of barricades in tall off camber grass. I was spent by then and started to cramp at the thought of lifting my heavy legs over the obstacles. After lumbering through I got back on the bike, stretched and pushed into a wicked head wind all the way to the finish. I was glad to be done, toes and fingers numb. The people with face masks had ice from frozen breath, the guys with facial hair had ice beards.

Felt ok after a half hour in Michaels Jeep with the engine running and the heated seat on. Michael did it on his urban road bike with mountain style handle bars. He only had 28mm road tires and ended up flatting once in Lost Valley and soon after a second time. He was able to nurse the second one all the way home to finish. I can not imagine changing a flat in that cold, it kills your fingers. Greg Ott did it on his only bike, a Niner One 9 single speed. Good job to both!

Thanks to Team Seagal for putting this on. It's one thing to get dressed up and ride in this weather, it's another to come out and put on an event for free. They stood out in the cold for registration, taking pictures, manning check points and waiting for everyone to finish AFTER marking the course-very well(plus clean up). Was run as well as most sanctioned events I've been to, even the "floating finish line" was cool, you had to chase it down! Mark it down for next year all youins that stayed home and ate bon bons.