It’s mountain bike season! Sprague Brook this weekend!

The past 2 editions saw warm temps and dry & dusty race course. It was only fair that this year was 50 and rain. Turning many of the long dirt road climbs into quicksand. It certainly felt like the brakes were on while climbing for sure.

The race started off with a new section this year, that I was totally unprepared for. Right off the bat we climbed rt 53 and Ramone gunned it hard. It drew out the pack and I was quickly gapped (need a better warmup) but we hit a new fun and muddy descent that I was able to use to my advantage to bring the front back to me.

Once we rolled back through town a 2nd time and started the first climb we were a small group of 6. Staffo, Ramone, Duncan, Andy August, Jonah D and myself. Staffo and Ramone turned up the heat and slowly our group split. First Jonah, then me then Andy & then Duncan. Duncan managed to rebridge & the 3 rode the rest if the race together.

I started off in pursuit of Andy & Jonah soon bridged up to me. I dropped my chain in my spokes going up the next steep climb and he slipped through my fingers and ended my chase of Andy.

For the next forever miles, I chased Jonah. Up and over Canen hill, down Ridge road descent and up Hungry Hollow climb. The whole time Rob Dietrick was chasing me just as fiercely as I was chasing Jonah. I managed to finally catch Jonah on Hungry Hollow just before the steep pitch at the end. For a moment it looked like we were a group of 3 as we were diamounted and running up the super steep and loose climb. But I managed to get a good gap and hold em off. At least until after the descent and passing by the onion fields. Jonah rebridgend and we hit the singletrack together. I led, and managed to have a great cartoon esque faceplant on the descent, but still kept my lead. I got out front at the exit of the singletrack with a small gap and less than a mile to go. But the forever tenacious Jonah continued to pull me back in setting us up for a Mano e Mano sprint showdown. It all came downtown the last 50 meters where I narrowly edged him out by about a tire width for 5th place!!

All in all it was a killer race! Conditions were truly epic and hopefully I’ll have some pics from the moto crew soon to post.

Been riding the cross bike on the snow covered roads. Much more fun with the new powertap on her. Put in 3 hours Jens factor 4, on Saturday. It was snowing pretty good all ride. Even found a super fun deep snow seasonal road to play on.

Did a whole bunch of mtb snow riding Sunday & then again Monday night. Was good to get out on the trails and ride with the GBC crew. Plus lizzy loves it.

Last night I buried myself on the snow covered roads on the cx bike once again. At one point thought I might get buried. Was riding uphill into the blowing snow, road covered about 4 inches deep & wind howling. It was only about 1k long, but felt like an eternity climbing the thing. Much better than the trainer any day!

Weather is looking to be the same as usual. Looks like more time on the cx bike.

Hit up some snow covered roads on the cross bike last night. Way more fun the rollers. Super serene & peacefull out there.

The lack of sleep & fatigued definitely sucked en route to the cross race the next morning. Short warm up was all that was needed then off for a muddy hour of racing. Legs were suprisingly good and after a rider crashed, I has moved up to 4th. A lead group of 3 had escaped and I was stuck in no mans land giving chase. Let up a bit work with local crosser J-ro and proceded to rip off my rear dérailleur immediately. Thus ending my race and making for a long bike portage back to the car.

Oh well, that’s the theme of my racing this year. En route to Guatemala, let’s hope it goes better!!

Yeah, yeah, you want to see all the cool photos of bike stuff from interbike. Well I’ll try to get those uploaded tonight. In the meantime here’s some quick video clips of cross vegas. Had a great time watching the race and hanging out. The part that sucked though was the 90 minute wait for the bus afterwards!

Video clips I took from Cross Vegas

More stuff to come later, I’m still decompressing from it all and tired from the cross race yesterday.

Tuesday am I did some solo cross practice at the local rec center. Cornering in the wet grass, dismounts/remounts and even some sand pit/loose gravel riding. Lizzy even got to run along with me. Though she figured out my loop wasn’t very big and started short cutting and realized there was no reason for her to jump the barriers. Some more cx practice and maybe I’ll kick off my season next weekend!

Night riding and having fun on the trails is what Fall is all about. Heading down to Naples area and shredding gnar when the trails are in primo shape is the greatest part q out bike riding. When you share that with your buds, nothing better. Hit up a solid night ride with Chad and Hanggi this past Wednesday night. I don’t think HiTor has ever been in better condition. We railed it and had a blast. Though no pics cause my camera turned some kind of shake fix or something on and all my pics came out blurry.

I’m heading back down tomorrow for an early am ride and will be down there all weekend for the Groc fest. Some good times on and off the bike to be had. I’ll be packing the camera and vholdr for some footage. Will try to get an update Saturday afternoon, but no promises!

Finished 3rd overall, was in the front group but got dropped on the Hungry Hollow climb and never was able to close gap the over the top. No chance of me closing it on the roads to the finish with all the wind. Course was super fun, super warm and a blast.

Here’s an fun video of me slamming it down the Ridge Road Descent…

Prattsburgh Rambler: Ridge Road Descent from Jason Hilimire on Vimeo.

Marky took loads of video out on the race course today with the vholdr, so I’ll be sorting through the 1.5 gigs and trying to get something together this week.

Little more detail here…..

(sped up a bit, because who really wants to watch 30 minutes of Hanggi’s rear!)

Prattsburgh Rambler Recon from Jason Hilimire on Vimeo.

Hope to see you all there this weekend, temps look to be great and the course will be super awesome,

Online reg is over, but you can still make it to the race!!

Cross bike is the weapon for this course!

Loads more to come tomorrow (including videos)