Wausau

Is it still the Big Ring Classic if you don't have a big ring? This was a seriously fun race. I prerode saturday with Jesse, Jeremy, Nate and Justin. Then it was back to Green Bay to hydrate for Sunday. With forceasts calling for temps in the upper 80s and a heat index of upper 90s it seemed like a good idea. I wasn't sure how I would do, I spent Friday Afternoon cutting down trees and clearing brush from lot. So my legs were sore. Sunday morning did the swim and hot tub combo and started feeling better. Got out there in time to start seeing how dusty conditions were in the sport race. Warmed up and tried stay zen at the start line. I didn't get a good spot at the start but, with such a long leadout it didn't matter. No one seemed to want to go to fast on the leadout so I moved up to about 10th and sat in. On the first big hill I moved up to 4th and after the wood chips I moved up to 2nd in my wave. Was doing ok in the singletrack until I bounced my wheel wrong and stopped. Boom 10 guys go buy including j-vog. Jump back in and start chasing like normal. Seemed to be doing ok on the climbs just have to work on my over the top effort. Tried to ride with other people but, for the most part I was busy passing people. I rode with the leaders from the 35+ wave for a while on lap 2 until I screwed up in the singletrack again. I didn't even put a foot down on the third lap. In hindsight I should have prerode more. I can learn singletrack but I have never been a natural at it. So I finished 15th overall and 5th in my age group. I am pretty happy with the results and I caught all but 2 of the guys that passed me. On a day that hot its probably the best I could have done. Want to say a big Thank You to my team mates for the cheering, the bullhorn and, the handups. Seriously whoever put my bottles in the cooler deserves many beers. When I got the first cool one on lap 2 I was in heaven. Congrats to the rest of my Team Mates on their great finishes too. Hope for clouds at Kewauskum. See ya outside...

Crystal Lake/Rabid Porcupin Attack/Low Water/Short Track Hurts/Lazy Weekend/Camelbak Issues

So very belated update. The Rhinelander Race went very well for me. I felt good during the leadout just tried to follow wheels and not blow up on the leadout. I started moving up after the first curves and sat around 10th climbing the hill. The nice thing was I knew I could have gone to the front if I wanted. In hindsight I should have because we started catching traffic at the hill. Did a nice pass on the super fast flowy section after the hills. Wish I had been first into the singletrack so I could use my superior single track Blocking skills. Rhinelander is awesome because there are so many easy places to pass. This was the most passing I had ever done during a race. efinitely helped the confidence. End of the firsst lap I was hammering so hard I almost hit the yellow tape across the doubletrack guiding us into the fresh cut single. Guess I should look up more? Fried my low back on the doubletrack lapping through but, I moved up quite a few spots. Caught one of Schiewsows and rode with him for a while. Got over excited at the end of the last lap and wiped out on the wood bridge. I got lucky and didn't get any splinter though. I was happy with my effort. As you can see by the pictures i also got charged by a angry porcupine. Had to slam the door in his face. He then got stuck between the screen and the door. There were quills everywhere. It was his fault for eating our deck and waking me up at midnight. The water was super low. The boat was almost hanging from the dock. The drought up there is really starting to show. So nice weekend. After that I didn't ride much. Did the wednesday ride at the camp. Which Shoe managed to subvert into a Short Track race. It was fun, the soil was so dry my tires weren't hooking up and I wiped out on a corner. Barrel roll with face plant. Got back up and started chasing. Caught the other Jesse after he hit a pole. Kept pushing and caught Tyson right before the end. Glad I kept pushing even after I couldn't see anybody. Good workout, if you want to max your HR. Didn't do much the rest of the rest of the week. Three trips up dickinson rd on Sunday. I think that must be the longest hill in our area? Takes me about 8 minutes to the #4400 mailbox. Rode my bike to the Bike Hub last night to have Tom look at the rear Hub. Disassembled the whole wheel and decided to order the new free hub. Trek kinda sucks with their warranty, they think nobody ever sells their bikes? It definitely is a design issue. The wheel is in good shape otherwise. Saw the Shoe last night rollerblading with his other of significinze. It was a nice night to ride on the trail. And I got to introduce the Top Fuel into the ways of a bike Path Ninja. Tonight if its dry I am going to Wausau to preride. Thats if I had remembered my cycling apperal. Sigh, with so much going on its hard to remember everything. Its too bad it was perfectly sunny over in wausau today. So I realized that my camelbak was actually forcing my head down while riding. And I was straining my neck to keep my head up. Has anyone else had this problem? Its too bad I like the camelback. I probably will be looking for some handups at wausau instead. See ya outside...

Funny Noises

So anyone who has ridden with me lately knows. My MTB has been making some loud clicking/pinging noises lately. As it turns out it was the pawls on the rear hub not releasing properly and slipping occasionaly. This was correctly diagnosed by the wonderful and friendly staff at the Bike Hub. So after figuring out how to take apart a press fit free Hub I cleaned and it up and relubed it with some new stuff. Hopefully that takes care of the problem. Had a nice weekend of riding. Saturday was out at the camp for some WEMS practice. Remember the race is only 5 monhts away! The sucky part about that is several groups of people came all the way from Minnesota thinking there was a race. Sunday was Hill Climbs out at scrays. Tried a new Route out. Old Martin to Sportsman, it took me about 6 minutes to climb. Dickinson road is still the best though. Sorry about the blurry photos my phone isn't good with close ups. Hopefully that solved the problem. See ya outside.

Iola...Sigh

Another beautiful sunday to ride my bike. And, another great event put together by the Don. I started the day with a few hopes of sucess but, these were quickly dashed after the first lap. I felt fine on the climbs, I just felt like I couldn't recover after them. I think this was mostly due to being off the bike for 2 weeks. It will be interesting to see how I do in the coming weeks if I can get more/any saddle time. It was still a fun and challenging course. I was standing in the start chute next to Bryan Frazier and remarked I was going to have to race my way in to shape. I guess he was right but, it is definitely painful. Well however my day went it was still better than this guys. Hopefully you'll see me outside training.