Was suppose to be 4man, but changed to duo due to fears of a weather repeat if last years monsoons. Casey & I manned up & got ready to rip.

Raced my ass off & won the first lap. Gave everything I had and won the 2 up sprint. Will do a full power/lap review later.

After that settled in. Rain & fog & night came. Took a break & so did everyone else. Got up early ripped out some laps. Had a huge lead and were able to stop by 9:30 when the next round of rain came.

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

Trails were in great shape and I ripped around the course. It seems the ‘backwards’ course is plenty fast. In fact I spent most of my 3 laps ripping up the fire roads and singletrack in the big ring. Other than a few steep grunt climbs (and a new switchback trail that reroutes a steep climb) it’s just wicked fun to blast it there.

Last year Dirty Bruce baited me with a shiny trophy for the fastest lap. Naturally I wanted it, but mostly cause it was shiny, so I ripped out a 39 minute lap. Then some extra suffering and I averaged about 43:30 for the rest of the laps. Well Saturday I turned 44,42,41 min laps without really pushing myself too hard (also included some stops to give some directions). I didn’t push it on the climbs & conditions were pretty similar. I just ripped and felt great.

I’m looking forward to this weekends event. I feel great and is 10 laps possible??? You never know . It’s the final tune up before I head off to Virginia for the Shenandoah 100!!

Hope to see you this weekend!

Felt good on the ride, odd as this was my 6th day in a row of riding. Glad to be taking today of and resting hard.

Debating racing the Highland Forest Classic this weekend. Probably not going to go, I’m tired of breaking things on my mt. bike and I could use a good weekend of training.

Shenandoah 100 is the only thing on my mind right now

Saturday looks to be a nice day. It’s raining (as it always does) means a long road ride in the hills of Naples most likely, will add some dirt roads to keep things interesting…

5 weeks to get in some heavy training and bring my form up in time for a solo effort at the race. Currently form is a little on the low side but that’s purposeful so I can do the work necesarry.

I did pick up a new road bike! Trek 5200, 06 closeout that the Geneva bicycle center hooked me up with. Haven’t swung a leg over it yet, but will be putting some heavy time on her over these next few weeks. I’ll get some pics up when I return.

Currently en route to NYC to visit my sister and do a little xc race in central park. Should be fun and crazy, shredding singletrack with skyscrapers. A long ways from colorado.

Got out this am and did some openers on the mtb. Took lizzy along for the ride and she was super happy to run along as usual. Feel good and ready for the race tomorrow, so we’ll see how it goes.

While Glenwood isn’t exactly the mecca of mountain biking. It serves a great purpose. There’s about 3 miles total there, but there are dozens of trails and loads of space to work on your tech skills. It’s pretty much the trails where I ‘learned’ to ride my mountain bike. Lots of super tight corners, steep ups, logs, roots, off cambers, etc., everything you need for some great skills work

With the tighter trails it’s a little easier to stay together as a group, but makes for some super fun and fast riding. Ripping trail when you inches away from the person in front of you and having to adapt to the terrain and correct on the fly is the quickest way to learn skills. We’ve termed this ‘world cupping’. Add to the fact that we usually get in some night riding, and know you have no idea what’s coming up, you’re forced to learn or slide down the ladder to the end of the group.

Over the years, the trails have slowly been formed and reshaped by the winter fall and new developments, but the enjoyment of the ride and especially the group ride never changes. I think I’ve ridden more miles on the Glenwood trails than anywhere else and I still enjoy coming back each time and the challenge the trail offer.

Farmall #2 is up tonight. I think my cold has finally released it’s nasty grip as I felt really good last night and I feel great today and ready to rip. It’s go time!

We hit up Shindagin Hollow for a few hours of play. The night prior we had played hard at the Hartman’s. Suzanne served up some great chili, then it was time for some pool and mod racing. The mod crit quickly grew into a who could do better donuts. With that, we preceded to open the garage door and try to do them out on the wet driveway.

Needless to say, there was some fun that we had. Wednesday down at Shindagin was a great day. Fall foliage was in full bloom and the trails were in perfect shape.

We managed a huge crew (Jer-Bear, Casey, Der-Kaiser, Hanggi, Fry Guy, Marky Mark, Suz and I) for a wednesday afternoon. Mark was kind enough to lend me his Hi-Fi 29er. I made sure to put it to work hitting some gap jumps, riding 6 ft high skinnies, north shore bridge drops (and subsequent crashes) and tearing up the trails. Could a dualie be in my future?

The past few days were spent at a Coaching Seminar in Ypsilanti, Mi. I learned how to go real fast, and learned boat loads of info. It’s going to come in real handy. Next week I have the Coaching Summit in Colorado Springs and plan on learning even more info. Believe me, if you want to be fast for next season, hit your goals, and have fun, there’s nothing better than a coach

Got there with plenty of time to play with my nephew Peyton, eat some gnocchi with homemade sauce by Grams and watch a movie. I managed to get a great night’s sleep in and then get the the race right on schedule. However, I didn’t really get a great warm-up in. Being as the race was new and recently scheduled it meant a small field (3 of us in the pro class), but it did mean we were all gonna get paid! That however didn’t mean I didn’t race my ass off.

The race started with a little prologue section with a climb, then onto the main course and up the access rd. Suffered a bit on the start and was struggling on the first lap, trying to get the legs together. I ended up losing sight of 1st place as he disappeared in the 1st section of singletrack. I surged hard, started to feel better and raced well over all. Race was a bit short at 1:40, but every one of my 4 laps was within 30 secs of each other, so I was at least nice and consistent. I did bag $250 for 2nd!! Everybody better hit this race course next year as it was one of the baddest and best ever!

Sunday (after a long drive home saturday) I headed down to Ellicottville for the Roots, Rocks and Ridges race. I think the last time I managed to do this one was about 5 years ago. There was good number of people and it was a great day for racing. Course started with a road prologue while we were lead over to Holimont and the start of the climbing. Didn’t mean it was truly neutral though as we were clicking off a good pace on the road. Knowing the climb was coming up, I got near the front and stayed there trying to shake the legs out from the prior days efforts. Hit the climb and when it turned to dirt a small group of us split the main field. I was sitting at the tail end of the group around 4th/5th and came off on the climb prior to entering the singletrack. I was busy closing the gap to the rider in front of me, when I felt my rear tire was real squishy. I jumped off to throw a co2 in and didn’t do much. I decided to tube it and it took me forever to get the valve stem out. Finally go the valve stem out, tube it and the co2 barely puts any air in, WTF!?! I spend forever hand pumping my mini pump (luckily does both), while getting passed by everyone. I got the tire up and ready to go and ended up behind a large smashed together group near the back. It was tight singletrack and I really wanted to get back to the front. Riders were dabbing and falling all over the place, I ended up having to use the “pro” lines to pass quite a few of the riders. After a few minutes being stuck behind them, I finally got free and clawed my way back up. I was surging and flying through the singletrack.

I was actually feeling really great overall. I managed to catch a bunch of riders. I did have to stop at one point and put some more air in my rear as it was still feeling soft. I shot up again and was catching more riders. Any chance I got, I was doing the Big Ring Challenge and hammering through the singletrack. I was creeping way up in position and just was catching 2 more riders when I realized I had a broken spoke. Took some time to get it out of the rotor and bend it around so it wouldn’t get caught on anything. I managed to catch and pass back one rider, but ran out of trail catching the other.

Total time according to the powertap lost by flats and spoke: ~8:30. Unofficially according to mom, I was about 9 minutes down on first! I finished in 10th place, which I thought was incredible considering how many riders initially passed me. It was a great course and good ride and was happy to end my season on a strong weekend of racing!

Now it’s time for ‘cross

Currently playing in iTunes: Revelry by Kings of Leon

While Mark was finishing up his work, I did the unboxing, prep work and light assembly, aka I was the “fluffer” for Mark to come in and do the real stuff. I managed to do this 2x somehow as we grabbed the wrong size box originally and I had the bike assembled before we really noticed. So the 2nd time around I was quite good and a bit faster.

I’ve yet to give her a real ride in the dirt, but she sure is purdy’ and I’ll guess I’ll have to get her dirty next week. For now though, here’s some pics!

From Cross 09

From Cross 09

From Cross 09

From Cross 09

Today is some fast and furious openers, then head up to my brothers place in Malone and visit him and his family as they are all coming down to cheer me on at Whiteface in Lake Placid tomorrow (click the link for course pics). Looking forward to putting the number plate on this weekend. I’ll have to be fast as I need to wrap up, drive home and get up early again to drive the opposite direction for the Root’s Rocks and Ridges race in Ellicottville. Looks like its going to be an early start!

Resting up today, then back to the grinder tomorrow