At the start we rolled off the grass and onto the paved climb, I just basically jammed it here to string everyone out.  I knew the 40 seconds of climbing wouldn’t take too much and all it would do is really give me the lead into the singletrack.  From there it was mostly just rolling and keeping the pace high.  Right away, Rob was on my wheel and Doug Rusho was in 3rd (not sure who was in 4th).  There’s not too many opportunities to make a move in the early singletrack, so I stayed tight and let things be.

As we crossed the road and hit the sidehill climb, I really gassed it.  I knew this climb well, practiced attacking here and practiced the roll-out at the top where I would have to keep the effort up as it was still climbing and it was new trail so it’d be nice and loamy.  Didn’t really get any separation from Rob on the climb, but managed to get some separation from 3rd & 4th.  Descending the orange trail I was able to get a few seconds between us, & tried to gas it coming up the Brown trail rooty climb, but Rob was hanging on with everything he had and clawed his way onto my wheel.  Some harder efforts on the Brown trail, but never really shook him at all.

Click Here for the Big Version: Flickr resized it tiny

Coming off the Brown Trail onto the more open Orange Trail, I hit the gas on the slight climb.  Was actually able to get a few seconds of separation here and even more again on the descent.  As we bombed the trail, they rerouted us through a new section I hadn’t ridden and it was quite wet.  My front wheel slipped in the mud as I caught big air coming into it and he quickly pulled the gap right back.  Bummer for sure.  Railed the purple trail with everything I had and still, he was right there at every section.  My last shot was to drill it up the grassy open climb and get some separation.  I didn’t really attack but turned the screws on him for the whole long minute up the climb.  We were both gassed and still no separation, but still had a little bit of climbing left.  I heard him breathing pretty heavy and hit him with the knockout punch.  Drilled it again immediately and finally got the separation I needed.  I had about 8-10 seconds heading down the final descent and knew I just had to get back across the road and keep it together.

Bombed the descent and got a few extra seconds, but coming off the descent, the course was rerouted onto the red trail.  I was set up to make a left turn and cross the road.  But we had to go right on a greasy corner.  I had to pull up, and head down the red trail.  Super tight trail with zero visibility, off-camber, etc and I’d not ridden it in a long time (they actually removed it when the rain came).  As a result I had to lighten up and try not to crash.  This let Rob back on.  At this point, I basically ‘sat-up’.  There really wasn’t too many more opportunities to get separation.  Had a quick chat with Rob, we decided to cool our jets and SPRINT for MAD MONEY!  Regardless of winner, we’d split the cash.

As we came out of the woods, I swung it wide.  This gave Rob the lead onto the pavement.  I’m sure it didn’t really matter, but was nice to sit in 2nd wheel.  He tried to up the pace, but I hung on without issue.  We rolled off the pavement around the bathrooms and back onto the pavement for the final 100 meters.  I scouted the corner just incase.  Super tight left hand turn.  Slightly off-camber with tons of rock-fill everywhere.  You hit this wrong, you were gonna drift and miss a pedal stroke and have to give it some gas on the little rise up to the road.  I set myself up around the corner, Rob took inside a little tight and had to miss that pedal stroke.  I carried my momentum and as we hit the road I was already going faster than him, slammed the pedals with everything and got a few bike lengths for the W!  Official lap time 42:57?? (computer reads 41:54).

9 attacks on my behalf that lasted from 20-90 seconds greater than  120% of FTP.  52 efforts that ranged from 1-15 seconds that were greater than 150% of FTP.  All in all; 15 minutes (36%) of my lap was spent Anaerobic!!  Needless to say, I was spent on my 2nd lap and rolled a 48 minuter as I tried to recover.  Also, not that it mattered, but about 15 minutes into my lap, the nose of my saddle shot straight up.  Making it super tough to get forward on the nose when climbing and forcing me to stand quite a bit more than I would have liked (I fought the saddle issue for many laps and took a seatpost rebuild when Marky-Mark got there to finally fix it).

Thats it for now..

This past weekend was the GROC Fat Tire Festival.  Held at Dryer Rd Park in Victor, NY.  Originally started as a time trial race on the trails, my first race there was abysmal.  But last season I persevered and took home the XC win.  Headed back to the race this year to have some fun & of course to represent the #1 plate that I was given!

It was a fairly short course, but completely revamped from prior years.  Not much of a roll out, but right onto a singletrack climb, up to the top of the fields, across the fields and into the trails.  A fast technical & twisty downhill and then onto lots of short & steep climbs that just seemed to keep coming.  Back out onto the field around top and then ripped the descent.  Repeat 4x

Evil Steve took the holeshot and pegged it up the first climb.  It was nice as it actually took a ton of pressure off to rip it up the climb.  I stayed nice and steady and then attacked him as we came over the top in the field to take the lead into the singletrack.  By the time we exited Chutes & ladders I had a decent lead that grew when I attacked again coming up the Elevator climb.   I kept the pace up and by the end of the 2nd lap I had a good 30-40 second lead.  More of the same on the 3rd lap, the only real excitement being of course when Bridget missed my feed.  She was afraid of coming onto the course & when I reached out for the bottle, she decided that she’d test my coordination by throwing the bottle to me.  Well, I ride bikes for a reason and don’t play ball sports…  I laughed pretty good and wasn’t worried at all.  I was turning 20 minute laps and it wasn’t too unbearably warm.  The 4th lap I had a solid 45-55 second lead over everyone and stupidly decided to take a look back across the field just as I entered the singletrack.  ….Down goes Igby!  hit the deck pretty hard when I clipped a pedal.  Lost a few seconds, but regained my composure and held on for the victory.

While we waited for the kids race to start, Lake tooled around on the skills area.  The dude can ride the stuff no problem!  I was seriously amazed!

He was so pumped to be out riding!  Just love the Joy the kids get out of it.

I took a video of the kids race… Lake is a Youtube Star again.



This weekend is the Hardcore 24.  Doing it as part of a 4 man team this year for the first time ever!!  Will be nice to sleep some between laps!!

Things have been a bit busy here these past few weeks.  Thought that maybe I’d get a few pictures up and a brief report.  Some are already aware, but a few weeks ago strained my back a bit at the Farmall #2 Spring race.  Not sure what exactly caused it, but damn if it didn’t just shut me down immediately.  Had to pull up and head home.

Took some time to let it heal and thought that I would give the Highland Hex 6 hour a go.  Things were going great at the Hex, I laid down a super fast 1st lap and lead for the first 4/5 laps or so (first 3 hours), then my back started acting up quite a bit.  I took it easy for a lap, then tried to go again, then decided it wasn’t going to happen whatsoever.  I ended up pulling the plug and heading home.  With the back issues I decided to pull the plug on the mohican 100 this season as I was forced to rest and recover a bit and let things heal. I’ve been taking it fairly easy and just hitting the road bike for the past few weeks and letting it rest as much as possible.

Memorial Day Weekend

A few quick pics from Memorial Day weekend. If you didn’t already know, good ol’ Waterloo is the birthplace of Memorial Day! Thus it gives us a great reason to celebrate not only our soldiers, but our families. I took some good bike rides, but it was more about spending time with the family

Park Ave XC

Park Ave has changed things around a bit this year with a new venue for their weeknight mountain bike series. They’ve even added a kids race! What can I say I was thoroughly impressed with the race course. Fairly technical, almost entirely singletrack, 1 steep goat climb, but otherwise super flat and fast. Even the kiddies race hit up some singletrack!

After a big weekend of riding on the road, including a trip to OCP to rip the Hardcore Course on Monday, I decided to test the legs out and see how things went.  A lap or two to warm-up and I knew the course would be super fun.  Race started with a loop around the ball-field & I knew the start would be fairly critical.  Unfortunately mis-timed my pedal clip in and was edged out into the woods by Andy August (on his cross bike).  Flew around the course following him a bit, till he took a bad line along the creek and got stuck in the trees.  I fell into 4th behind Doug Rusho, Andy & Dan Staffo (also on cx bike).  Got past Dan down near the creek where the lines widened up and past Andy when he took a different line after the bridge crossing.

Squeezed past Doug just prior to the bridge over by the ropes course.  From there I hit the grass field with Staffo in tow.  Staffo attacked and took us into the singletrack where I followed for the first half of the course.  Down by the creek again, I managed to pass him in the same spot, put in an attack and because I was able to ride up and over the bridge steps on the 29er, I was able to really establish a gap.

From there on forward I just kept the gas on, stayed patient behind the lapped riders and just ripped it in the woods.  Focused on just staying smooth and fast and having fun!  Not exactly sure how far in front I finished (minute or two), but it was a great race and happy to have such stiff competition out there!

Up next is the Full Moon Vista Friday night crit, then I’m off to the FasCat Training Camp in Boulder for 10 days!!  Gonna be awesome to be back and ripping up some of the fun stuff I rode last year.  Also gonna hit up the Granby course for Nationals Recon!

If you’ve raced this course you know it’s lots of steep killer grunt climbs, and essentially no recovery between the efforts.  Seriously, check out the training zone distribution 30% of the race (25 minutes) was spent going anaerobic!  Pretty much either going full gas here or resting on the downhills!  Not sure how I did it, but the legs came together and I felt like a million bucks, as compared to the Bristol mt road race where I felt like a wrinkled dollar bill..

I felt really strong and comfortable off the start and got into the woods with a small gap on the Pilato Brothers. I was feeling good, but not quite as painful as the prior week and ended up the first lap 12 seconds faster than I was the week prior. Perfect, I was right on track and feeling good!

2nd lap was some more of the same. The Pilato brothers were still chasing me hard and in the chicane grass section, I started yelling at them to encourage a little brotherly ego race. After the second lap I had turned another 10 sec faster lap than the prior week and was still feeling really good and working the course well without really suffering (well I was suffering, but not nearly as much as last week). This set me up nicely and I realized that I really could push for the course record (even though the new course is slightly longer). My 3rd and 4th laps stayed constant and consistent, lap traffic was there, but never really became an issue as I was able to get around everyone.

After the race Lake asked me how I went down this hill so fast

On the 5th lap in the woods on one of the fast whup-de do’s somehow I was on the rear of my saddle and I heard a loud ‘pop’ and the saddle had kicked nearly upright on the rails. I stayed calm, carried my speed up to the top of the next climb and was able to hammer it down with my hand into a position I could at least sit on the nose of the saddle. I lost probably 15 seconds or so on that lap, but wasn’t scared. I stayed calm and focused and worked on making the time up. The next time around on one of the climbs, I dropped my chain and thought it had jammed into my spokes, but realized it had just jumped down the cassette, I was able to run out the climb and get the bike back into gear, losing only a few seconds in the process.

By the time the final lap hit, I realized I was still on pace even after a few mishaps and was pumped. I pushed it pretty hard and made up a few extra seconds and crossed the line right around 1:03:10. Super pumped to have a really solid race and feel great. My form and fitness are right on track and I have a few more days of really good training left before it’s time to rest up for the Suicide Six and Shenandoah 100. Hopefully everything falls in line and I have some great luck.

If you’re looking for pictures of Farmall Series you can go here

I felt really good warming up, I was slightly concerned as I had to buy some new shoes, which meant new cleats also and I’d come unclipped on one of the descents and almost ended badly. My sidi’s blew-out and apparently all 4500 pairs that were being imported were stolen of the docks. I ended up with a pair of Louis Garneau Montana XT’s, quite comfy (I don’t like carbon soled shoes), but much wider shoe (and a much grippier sole). Will probably rock them until I can get a pair of Sidi’s. Also new was a pair of Bontrager XR1 Team Issue tires. I wanted to see how they would hold up in race conditions as they rocked out over the weekend (see link for my post on their performance ).

Race went on as planned, got to the front off the start, established my gap on the first 2 laps and then slowly slipped away continuing to build up my lead. Felt good and I turned about a sub 1:05 total time (link has my time listed wrong as of now). Pretty solid and def the fastest I’ve turned on that course and I think I would have been sub 1:04 and on the old course before the re-route. So things are lining up good for the SM 100!

In other news, this weekend was a boatload of riding. Put in some big miles on the Superfly down in Naples doing some prep work and getting in loads of climbing. Sunday was nothing more than a death slog in the rain as I was hosed from Saturday.

Starting it off on Parish Hill

Headed down with Hanggi for some Dawn Patrol. Climbed up Parish Hill, descended Wood Hill then back up Bassett and into Hi-Tor and down the DEC descent. Here’s the video below

DEC Descent Naples, NY 8-8-09 from Jason Hilimire on Vimeo.

After dispatching Hanggi, I hit up Wolfganger and down Sunnyside, over to Griesa and up into OCP for a loop on the Hardcore course, descended down the Orange Trail and up and into Cutler for some more singletrack shredding. Took the old road down into Naples, then climbed up East hill, descended Basset Rd, climbed up Wood Hill and back through Hi-Tor and the DEC descent to finish things off. I didn’t have my power-tap on for the day, but somewhere around 70 ish miles in 5:45-6 hours of riding with 7 major climbs! I was whooped and def payed for it on Sunday as I could barely turn the pedals!

The man with the magic fingers, Mark Hartman, rebuilt my powertap hub up to a new set of Stan’s 355′s. So looking forward to a repeat of this past weekend’s workout again, but his time with some power numbers to chase around on the climbs!

This lil’ guy below has been putting in more miles than I have. He tells me his bike coach make him do all this training. When Bridget asked him who his bike coach was, he couldn’t tell her because Lake and I are supposedly in ‘competition’. Frank, did you pick him up without me knowing?

He has me yell “Lake is the winner” every few times he rides up and down the sidewalk. Cracks me up, also when he says, “I’m dancing on the pedals” and proceeds to stand up and pedal…somebody watched waay too much Tour de France this July.

Since I dropped out of the Hardcore 24 last weekend, I was still fairly fresh and decided to hit up the GROC Fest XC at Dryer Rd. Ripping around on my old stomping grounds where I’ve put on plenty of miles was going to be fun. Though it was going to be a tough course with all the twisties and narrow trails, it was gonna be plenty of hurt.

I took the holeshot off the start and around the fields, heading into the woods. Up the steep gravel climb, I was pulled in and settled into 2nd. Heading into the woods was comfortably on the wheel and then right down the wrong trail a few of us followed. After realizing it, I ran back up the hill and jumped back on the trails. I was now in 6th or 7th place behind a long line of riders in some super tight trails unable to pass. When and where I could, I clawed my way past riders into 2nd place. Coming out of the woods and onto the perimeter I jumped off the front and rolled into the next lap in 1st.

I relinquished the lead up the gravel climb and took 2nd heading into the woods again. I was able to overtake the lead though, heading into Owl’s maze and hold it. I was putting the gaps into 2nd on the perimeter (he was on a SingleSpeed). The 3rd lap, heading into the woods with a comfortable lead, but 2nd and 3rd were hot on my heels. I knew that they wouldn’t make a pass in the woods and would have to make it on the perimeter before the final downhill. But I had opened up a huge gap each time once I hit the perimeter and the final time was no exception. I floored it and headed into the final descent with a comfortable lead of a solid 10 seconds or so. Crossed the line and finally got the coveted “W”. Legs felt great during the race and was super happy with the performance.

Sunday after feeling good on Saturday, I decided to head down to Ellicottville for the 6 Hours of Power. From the half mile LeMans start into the 1 mile opening climb, I knew I didn’t have much after racing so hard Saturday. Oddly, as soon as I hit the woods my front brake lever was flopping all over the place, causing it to be a little hard to shred on the super fun singletrack. I managed to zip tie it up for the 2nd lap, but that lap was just as tough as I broke 2 spokes. After figuring out how to wrap em up and get rolling again, the fun factor was dwindling. I decided to ride a 3rd lap for fun and fitness then head home and spend the day playing with Lake. It was a wise decision.

In the end, I was quite happy with Saturday’s race. However, I keep breaking bike parts! WTF, I’m just a poor amateur…. it’s getting ridiculous the amount of stuff broken this season and it’s all been without actually crashing. Maybe I need to hire a competent mechanic? (I do my own wrenching, and the breaking has all been total failures, not mechanical) Quite odd, but that’s what happens when you ride and ride hard.

Thankfully, I’m in the middle of a full on mid-season break. Will give me plenty of muster so I can rocket come September/October. There’s not much going on in August as I’m taking it low key and will get some training done.

On a side note, more training, means a less hectic schedule and that means more time to blog and have fun. I promise the pictures and videos and many more entries are coming over these next few weeks! Until then..

MPH

Yesterday, was one of the perfect seasonal days. Made it perfect to go for a bike ride, 86 degrees and sunshine in Mid-May, I’ll take it.

Headed over to MPH to ride some trails and then headed out from their via some old-moto trails and hooked up on the Erie Canal and rode over towards Newark/Palmyra area.

Here’s a quick video of us ripping it at the MPH!

MPH from Jason Hilimire on Vimeo.

Was a fun day on the bike, got some miles in and some great sunshine. Weather is looking good for this weekend. Hoping to get in some good epic rides this weekend (and I’ll be sure to get some pics)

Jump on over to the 29er crew site and read all about it!

http://29ercrew.com

Highland Hex 6 hour up this weekend!! Super psyched and ready to rock and roll!

My legs really felt like crap, not that they hurt or didn’t work. It was weird, they didn’t hurt. But I also just couldn’t push them to my max, like I was kinda stuck in 3rd gear. No matter how hard I tried the engines only fired at 75%. It was still a good solid hard effort.

My guess is I’m still paying for Saturday’s effort and the fact that I’m in a big final push for the Shenandoah 100. MY CTL is ramped up high and so is my ATL, but my TSB isn’t super low. Usually if my TSB is in the low negatives, my legs feel like dog poo.

At least my lap times were consistent, almost exactly the same every lap and I did manage to bring home some more hardware. Guess it’s been a good week!

In the meantime I want one of these, badly!!

Also, here’s a few cool pics from my easy ride on Saturday

Rolling along the sunflowers

The way my legs felt, I should just went swimming in the lake!