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What an incredible weekend in Naples. Weather was super all weekend long. Big rides, big views, big fun had by all the entire weekend. I’ll skip to it all and let the pictures sum it all up mostly.

Saturday

Saturday, hooked up with Todd and we railed around Naples area. Some super fun climbs and some incredible descents. As usual Todd tore me apart on the climbs (I promise I’ll show up fresh for a ride sometime!) and I taught him a few skills going down.

Ride was great a solid 4 hours with 2 rips down the DEC descent.

Groc Fest

After the ride with Todd, I headed into Naples for some Lunch and some grocery shopping. Had I been 10 minutes earlier I would have caught the group ride. No big deal though as I was already hosed from earlier. Though I did have to go pick up a dozen or so riders from the bottom of the tower drop and drive them up to OCP. They dropped a bunch of crushed stone on Gannett hill and no-one wanted to ride that stuff.

The evening was filled with the usual debauchery that occurs when you mix bikes, beer, bands and brisket. Schwarty’s brisket is good stuff and I think I must’ve eaten a good 5lbs of it. The band rocked out all night long and I even made my debut on the cowbell along with a full on cowbell solo. I may have a future as a musician, if I can only keep some tempo As usual you combine beer and boys and there were a few man-challenges thrown down on the playgrounds and even in the barn (my upper body is sore today!). I dutifully retired so I could get some sleep in my car for Sunday’s ride. I completely forgot my camera and wasn’t about to head back down to camp to grab it and walk back to the pavilion…

Sunday

Well, a little bit too much debauchery had us up late and tired for Sunday’s ride. The route plan quickly got shortened and we even shuttled it to skip all the climbing.

We climbed up the backside of Bristol Mt and hit Radar’s new piece of Singletrack. All I can say is friggin awesome. Rippingly fast fun flowy and long singletrack that shoots you out onto the fire-roads for a 70kph descent!!

After Bristol it was time to head over to Stid Hill

Perfect day, perfect riding. Couldn’t ask for much more. Glad to get out and hang with some good friends for the weekend. Times like this past weekend are the real reason we all ride bikes!

Off to interbike wednesday!! I’ll be updating via twitter (see sidebar) with loads of pics!

Saturday, rolled down to Naples with Todd Scheske. Since he’s going to be my teammate for El Reto next month, I figured I better make sure he can ride a mountain bike . So nothing to do but take him on some of the toughest descents around….

The mountaineer/highlander was also going on down in Bristol so it was quite a busy biking weekend in the area. We decided to meet away from all the hustle and bustle and just get right to it on Stid Hill. A nice fun singletrack climb up Still Hill and Todd hung just fine, climbed up the 4 wheeler trail an then we hit the tower drop. Drops 900 feet in less than a mile, super steep and with it so dry was hard to keep traction on the descent. I decided to give Todd a break halfway down as my tire was leaking air. Stopped to fill it up and in the process, burned the hell out of my arm on my rotor and now have a nice tattoo of my rear disc. We finished off the death wall descent (literally the last 50 meters are straight down, kinda like HELLTRACK from RAD, but steeper and filled with rocks and roots and trees)

We got off Stid and hit the pavement up to OCP via Gannet hill, where Todd rightly showed me what he does best and that’s drop fellas on the road. Up and over OCP, we skipped Cutler due to time, down the road and up and over the Backside of Bristol Mtn for another long loose climb. Then down the snowmobile descent. To be fair the snowmobile descent gets super sketchy at the end, and the whole thing was mostly washed out making for a hairy descent. Todd hung tight all weekend and next saturday I’ll throw some more stuff at him. Rather than super steep, I’ll hit him with some super tech and very fast descents. Todd, how do you do riding Singletrack with 400ft drop offs??

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Chad and I hit up some killer trails more on the East side of Naples and the descents were ripping. I was completely Hosed by the end for sure

A nice crusher of a long climb off the bat up Parish Hill and over to the Hanglider drop got the blood flowing nicely this morning.

The Hanglider drop was in primo condition as compared to early spring and we ripped it up heading down the descent.

The brakes were screaming for a rest by the end and you could smell the pads burning and feel the heat coming from the rotors. I made sure not to touch them today!!

We charged up Italy Hill which is a great solid tempo climb all the way to the top and then turned around and railed it to the bottom. Braaap, Braaap, nothing like a 50kph singletrack descent!!

After Italy we climbed up the road, hit some Hi-Tor tech and then blasted down the DEC descent. Another great ride wrapped up and another solid weekend of riding.

Will do some cross practice this tuesday, then probably head back to Naples for some more climbing wednesday night and then back again for the weekend to throw down some big miles at the GROC fest. Then a few weeks of cross and shortly after will be off to Guatemala. So much for the season winding down!!

Had a chance to get out for a decent ride today. Weather wasn’t horrid nor was it perfect. The kind where it’s easy to get out the door, but you grumble a bit every know and then about how it could be just a bit better. There was a constant North-Northwesterly wind at about 15-20 mph. Pretty rough for around here, but I found it to be suprisingly mild as compared to the steady 30 mph winds with 50+ gusts that I got used to in Colorado. It’s also crazy because there are these long tall thin things on the side of the road that sometimes block them (I was told they are called “Trees”)

I decided to head south to Naples to hit up my favorite climb, West Gannet. It’s pale by Colorado standards, but still a good climb. 10k and averages about 5%, but it has a good kicker at the start, and a few small bumps near the end that make it tough. Having a brutal headwind all the way up the climb didn’t help today, but it wasn’t all bad.

Was a nice fast ride down with the tailwind. I felt really good going up the climb and throttled myself waaay back on the start so as not to push too hard. I gave it some gas when needed, but really struggled to keep the power up when the climb fell flat (something I’ve always struggled with), but managed a nice solid effort up the climb fully. Took me 28:10 (PR is 23:30), I’m pretty sure the wind killed me and my power while super high and PB for the season was great, I really never ’suffered’ and held plenty in reserve. I felt really great heading up the climb and definitely this thing called ‘air’ helps one to breathe when going uphill.

After the climb it was pretty much, man vs headwind the final miles home. I finished strong and felt really great. An awesome day of training, so inspiring that I signed up for an actual road race. We’ll see if my Cat 2 license still holds true

Tomorrow, I’ll go play in the dirt on my road bike and pretend I’m chasing some fools down around the Arenberg Forest, then watch it for real on Versus.

Oh, found the results from Ouachita Challenge, 15th place. 36 finishers out of 100, not too bad. Pull the 30 off for the flat debacle and I’m easy 7th overall, some racing and maybe coulda cracked the top 5??? So I’m pretty happy with that.

My apologies for the lateness. I had to head out of town for work; and then I fell ill over the weekend

Full Writeup from the Horrible 100: Went of this past Sunday the 9th with 19 riders who showed up to brave the rainy conditions.

As is usual we kicked off as early as possible and got started just past 6am. The rain came down and was there all day long. The trails were wet, but completely rideable. Thankfully it was a predominately warm day.

The first loop (of 3) had us riding up East Hill right away and into Hi-Tor for some fun fire-road climbing then descending down and hitting the 2nd major climb of the route (Burke Hill). We hit the new section of singletrack across the top and then, Hanggi ended up needing to replace his der hanger. While he repaired that our group ended up re gathering and riding out acroos Pulver and onto the Italy Valley descent. Taylor and Chad had ridden thru and I bridged up to them on the descent. We hit the road together prior to the Wood Hill Climb were Taylor and I picked our way up the thru the loose rocky sections while it downpoured on us. We decided to roll on from that point and we pretty much rode together for the remainder of the day. Thru the Orange trail in Hi-Tor and down the DEC. descent was all that was left at this point. The roots in Hi-Tor proved to be pretty damn tricky but negotiable. I was afraid that the DEC descent was going to be super slick due to all the shale rocks being wet, but it was a tree root that took me out about a third of the way down.

Arrived back at base camp, refueled with all the goodies that the girls provided (huge thanks!).

The 2nd loop was epic. Taylor, Chad and I rolled out to the Griesa rd climb. Taylor and I hit it pretty good up the climb and bombed straight thru Ontario County Park with no issues. Took the road over to Stid hill rd and climbed that. The road was brutally steep but not that bad. Got into Stid Hill where it was a bit muddy but tolerable and picked our way clean to the base of Bristol Mt. Bristol was where everyone cracked pretty much. It’s a tolerable climb coming fresh into it. The base of the climb is not bad but it get’s long after a while and right as you get to the top you hit the steepest points. Needless to say, I was fried at that point and decided to walk. I wasn’t the only one…. Bombed the super loose shale/rocky descent on the backside and started the road climb up to Cutler.

The soggy day took its toll

I hit Cutler feeling ok, but by the time I got on to the Carriage Trail I was out of food. I bummed a bar off of Taylor and headed up the climb to the top of the field and into the Pinewoods (Essentialy riding the 24 hour race course backwards). The bar really wasn’t enough food at this point and I had scarce energy left. Taylor was riding strong but I was dropping him a little bit on the descents. Seeing as we had to descend the orange trail and ride mostly road back with a short bit of descent through the closed road, I decided to ride on ahead for fear of bonking. I hit the rest area about 5 minutes ahead of Taylor. I was happy to see Lindsey there waiting for me, but just as happy to gorge myself on anything I could put my hands on. I was soo hungry and ate everything I could. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who was, because the next group of riders all came in from finishing the loop and everyone had run out of water and food!

4 soldiers decided to head out together for the last loop; although Chad was shortly behind us after some food and change of clothes. Taylor, Hanggi, Jim and I decided to brave it all the way to the end. I was the only one who forgot my light and I paid for it. The rain started to come a little heavier and the temps dropped quite a bit more as we climbed the final few hills. As we descended off of Flint hill, I almost crashed into the guardrail as I had no light. Taylor and Jim decided to turn and head back to base camp. Hanggi and I decided that we would trudge on and make the final push up Wolfanger. A brutal monster of a climb that was the perfect finish to the route. We slogged our sopping wet carcasses up the hill and had a enough time to take a photo at the top. I had to ride side by side with Hanggi down the descent to make use of his light and we arrived back at base camp.

We were exhausted but happy and picked up our trophy.

The Chart of the whole ride: I lost the last few climbs as my ergomo battery was dying

All the Pics from the season of scouting and the event. Click thru and you can go to the online web album

Horrible is all finished. Myself and Matt Hanggi were the only sole survivors who made it up over the top of Wolfganger to put down 108 miles of riding and 11,000 ft of climbing.

Ride time: 11:29, TSS 597.8!!
It rained all friggin day….

Too tired and busy to write a full report.

Pics and full write-up to come soon

Currently playing in iTunes: Yesterday Threw Everything At Me by Athlete

Well, truly back into the full swing of things this past weekend. Spent back to back days reconning the Horrible and clearing sections for next weekend.

It felt good to really get back on the bike. Yes, my CTL is pretty low after having taken some time off the bike, but mentally I’m fresh. My legs felt pretty fresh also after putting some good climbs in them.

Saturday we rode portions of the 2nd loop of the Horrible. Casey, myself and Casey’s protege Taylor. Taylor was a virgin to the Naples/Bristol trails and we broke him in pretty well. We started off climbing up W. Gannett and into OCP. I was feeling the flow on OCP and just burned it down the descent. Always seems that when I’m off the bike for a bit of time, finding lines and flow becomes effortless. Everything just simply falls into place. After OCP we hit up Cutler and added some new length to the course, but also keeping some great stuff in there. Finished up the day by heading out and climbing up and over the backside of Bristol and descending the snowmobile trail.

Sunday, Mark, Suzanne and myself hit up the 1st loop of the Horrible. Climbed up East Hill, through Hi-Tor, down Bassett and up Burke. We spent a bit of time cleaning, and clearing the new section of FLT singletrack. After that we came down Italy Hill. I flatted as usual on the descent. My spare was bad, suzanne’s spare was bad; finally made it out with Mark’s 26″ spare tube. After the brutal climb up Wood Hill and through the Orange Trail in Hi-Tor we hit the DEC. Mark and I were killing it on the way down, just flying down the thing. I was riding really close to Mark and could barely make out the trail as there was just a dust cloud to follow. As a result I hit a v-ditch wrong and flatted. I rolled it easy down the descent, Suzanne also flatted on the descent and the 2 of us walked the little section back to the car (but not after a quick dip in the creek to clean up). It was a good ride, and I felt great.

Here’s a little slideshow of a bunch of pics from the weekend and some more Horrible Stuff!!

Currently playing in iTunes: After Hours by Caribou

My Prayers and Thoughts are with the Friends and Family of Ben Pritchards. Ben tragically passed away during the Hardcore 24 on June 16th, 2007.

I’m not going to elaborate on the details here, you can search out on the intertubes if you need more.

Friday: I showed up at camp around 3pm or so. Our Camp Manager (Casey) was their to hold things over for us for a while. I headed out for my typical pre-ride, I had Lizzy with me (she wasn’t coming to the race) and we climbed up thru the fire roads and up thru the pines into the open meadow. I caught her eyeing some deer and strayed her, but then she got loose and chased a deer I had missed. I yelled for a looong time. I was up there for a good hour plus looking for her. I rode down a fire road in the direction I thought she headed, twice! Finally, frustrated and upset I finished out the course flying down the orange trail and into camp. Where none other than queen dipshit Lizzy was waiting for me. I asked how long she had been there, and the Camp Cook said, “Oh, bout an hour or so…” grrr

Saturday: Awoke to the typical Suzanne special blueberry pancakes and sausages. Headed over to the course, where the camp manager seemed to be worn a little thin. I knew it would take some time to set-up a good camp, but no idea it involved a golf-cart xc race thru the trail . I was fired up and ready to go. It was go time, been waiting a while for this one. Hit the run my usual fairly slow self, but made big gains in the singletrack and up the fire road climb. I pushed it solid, eyeing the ergomo and watching my hr. Up and thru meadow and onto the Orange Trail I was battling another solo rider. We swooped thru Whitetrashistan and then away and up the 2nd fire road climb. On the descent on the way down I flatted. Tried sealing it with co2 (using stan’s) and it took a few tries but got me back to camp. Once there we tried to use the floor pump to seal it, but finally we just swapped wheels out with the Paragon and I got rolling again.

Laps 2 and 3 were more of the same. I was sitting in 2nd place, but not by too much. I was just tapping out tempo and grinding along. 1000ft of climbing in 8 miles and 3 quick laps and I was starting to slip both power wise and mentally. I re-shifted my focus to the task at hand and grabbed some more endurolytes and some ibuprofin. Lap 5 I swung in for a quick sandwich and a chat with my mother as she had shown up to give some help for the night.

Lap 6 I started to pick it back up, Each lap I was feeling progressively stronger and faster. I was having a blast. In fact, Casey’s pal Phil was over from Park City to run the race and tried playing a little downhill domination. In the section of trail that ran thru Whitetrashistan was where we set-up a makeshift feedzone. I came thru on my lap just ahead of Phil and dropped my water bottle. He however, tossed his bottle right at me. Missed me, but I did run it over. Everyone in camp saw and thought it was an argument, but we were just having fun and we chatted and laughed about it up the next climb.

Laps 7 and 8, 9 I was flying and my normalized power per laps was as much as my 2nd and 3rd laps. Lap 8, I pulled off a humdinger. As I was coming back to the start/finish area along the dike, I clipped my pedal. Seeing the pond was so close, I bailed as hard as I could to the right to land on the dirt. Well, the bike was getting a little dirty, and ol Mary Poppins (that’s her name ’cause she’s ’supercal’ifragilistic) decided it was time for a bath. The bike landed dead in the pond, fully submerged. I reached in an pulled out the “Swamp Thing”, she was covered in seaweed, almost every inch. I was laughing hard as I pulled it off, piece by piece
feeling best ever. Lap 9 I just was out there killing it. Each time thru camp I was chatting or singing to the iPod, and telling everyone how good I felt. In fact I was an entire lap up on the field by this point.

Unfortunately that was when I was turned around on the course.

We did have an awards ceremony, where I was congratulated as the Men’s Solo Overall Winner. This was an honor and what I had worked for all season. However, under the circumstances, this was not the way I had wanted to earn it. It was difficult today to answer questions to those who had no idea. They would ask about the race, how I did, etc. I filled them in that I had won, and the circumstances surrounding. Each reaction, was of course of shock and suprise.

While honored to have won the race, I am saddened by the loss of a fellow rider.

Currently playing in iTunes: God’s Gonna Cut You Down by Johnny Cash