Race Report: 3 Hours of the Northern Kettles

I headed down to The WEMs race with my fellow The Bike Hub/Specialized rider Jesse Shoemaker. We were looking for a little challenge and some new trails. $30 entry fee and it was time to get ready. A little warm up and it was time for the race meeting. We set our bikes at the top of a medium sized hill and walked down to the start line. It was a Le Mans style start and we had to run up a gravel road to our bikes. I keep surprising myself with my running ability on these starts. By the time we got to the top of the hill I was in 3rd place. I jumped on my bike and started trying to recover as I spun down the hill. After the hill we went back thru the start/finish area and immediately in to single track. I was in 4th place behind John Lirette, Nathan Guerra and Glenn Krist. Jesse Shoemaker was right behind me. We were hammering pretty hard and Glenn kept putting little gaps on me and I kept waiting for Jesse to catch us. Eventually the pace slowed down some and Glenn and I started riding together. I was feeling good and decided I would ride with him for awhile. Second lap about a mile in Shoe caught us I decided it was time to pass Glenn. Shoe passed him too and the three of us rode together for awhile. Then I screwed up in a slow rocky corner and had to dismount. I was pushing a little too hard. I hammered again and caught Glenn and passed him and rode with Shoe for the rest of the second lap. About 3 miles into the the 3rd lap I hit my front wheel on a rock turned it sideways and endoed. Hard! I slapped my left palm on a rock and bruised it pretty good. Plus some scrapes on my leg and a bent seat. And I derailed. Glenn came by, are you alright? Grunt and nod. And I'm riding again. Hammer time. Caught Glenn again. This time I said I'm not even worthy to pass you. He said, well you keep getting up. Go ahead. So I passed him and tried to catch Shoe again. I caught a glimpse of him before the finish but, wasn't that close. Then right before the end Greg Krieger caught me as I was getting held up by some lap traffic. So I had to put in a little squirt of speed to keep my 4th place. Gotta say the trails there were awesome. The rocks were everywhere but my full suspension made it easy. I only did 3 laps. Nathan Guerra managed to go out and hammer in a 4th lap under the time cut. I won a cup which was fine with me. Shoe still owes me a $10 bill tho. :)

Boom goes the...

http://tosh.comedycentral.com/video-clips/web-redemption---boom-goes-the-dynamite?xrs=share_copy Tosh.0Tuesdays 10pm / 9cWeb Redemption - Boom Goes the Dynamite

Tosh.0	Tuesdays 10pm / 9c
Web Redemption - Boom Goes the Dynamite
<a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://

Crystal Lake its a Classic

My family and I loaded up our boat and headed up to our cabin friday afternoon. Luckily it happens to be only 30 minutes away from Camp Tesomas. I drove over Saturday around noon to preride. I noted the dark clouds but, headed out anyway. Not 2 minutes in and it started raining hard. With a small block tire on the rear it made for a interesting ride. I'm glad I prerode though. There were some significant course changes. The outhouse detour was interesting? So I cleaned up my bike and heade back to the cabin. I got a good nights sleep listening to the rain. Sunday morning was relaxing with a walk in the woods and cleaning up the cabin. Went fishing with my daughters and helped my oldest catch a bluegill. Heading to the race I was kinda confident I had a good nervous energy. I forgot my bottles so my Teammate Shoemaker was nice enough to bring me two. Also thanks to Justin Piontek's Dad Butch for getting me some gatorade in the Bottles. So Don said go and we went. I had bad placing on the start (no callup). But, I usually have a good start so I ended up about 10th after the first corner. I worked my way up to 6th by the end of the gravel. I wish I had worked a little harder tho so I could have been first into the singletrack. The leadout wasn't that hard. After hitting the singletrack I was on the rivet the entire first lap. Chasing the leaders, I passed one guy and he passed me back. I knew I was going ok because I was passing quite a few people. It didn't start raining on me til the end of the 3rd lap. By that time I was happy for it. So I ended up right where I started 6th place. I got 11th overall in comp. Which is my best result so far. Though there are smaller fields up nort. I think I could have ridden slightly harder on the second lap. All in all it was a good race and a great weekend. Really looking forward to Wausau. See ya there...

Great Hub Ride

Picture of our Cabin in the woods.




This was near the end of my ride.

Big smile getting close to home with tired legs and a hungry belly. I was working in town so I decided to hit the Bike Hub ride Tonight. I tried to leave home by 5:00 so I could ride there. I left about 6 minutes late and it turned into about a 10 minute TT down the trail to make it on time. Everybody had already left so I had to keep going but, I caught them before the Roundabout in De Pere. So I was already tired at the start of the ride? I hung out near the back and rested for awhile. There were about 30 guys. Pretty good turnout. No Rebecca though? So no real suprises after that. It was a fast ride. Shoe flated in Wrightstown so I waited. Ended up with 50.5 miles in jusy under 3 hours. Getting the boat ready tomorrow. Then its time to go up to Sugar Camp for the Weekend. See everyone at the Race Sunday.

Stump Farm 30

Today I went to race out at the Reforestration camp. Its the home course gotta race it right? I was contemplating racing the 60 miler but over 5 hours on the bike in the rain didn't interest me. If it had been drier I might have? The camp is really wet this year. So entire sections of the course were closed off. It was pretty low turnout probably due to the rain. It was a Le Mans style start. The bikes were set up about 100 yards down the trail. The lady from Trike to Bikes said go and we took off running. It seemed slow so I started sprinting. I was the first to reach my bike but, by the time I got there I was tired I couldn't jump on it. I just kept running with it for a little while. I got on the long leadout and realized I was way over my LT. So I pushed it a little and tried to recover at the same time. I was second on the leadout and caught the leader but, then 2 guys squeaked by me right before the singletrack. I rode with one of them for the first singletrack. Then he another guy rode away from on the next section of double. SO I was in 4th while riding with Vogels and another guy. We 3 rode together until the quad hills. I was feeling better and started to ride a little faster. I got a gap on the 2 of them and kept riding. I saw Vogels a little later and he said he broke his shoe. So I learned a new Tactic, attack when your Oppent breaks his $300 shoe. He probably would have beaten me if his shoe hadn't broken. SO after that I rode solo for the second lap until the middle of the third. Two guys caught me toward the end of the third lap. It was disappointing but, I didn't have anything to chase them with. I finished 6th and managed to not to freeze to death. The high today was 47 and it started drizzling at the start of my 2nd lap. Definitely need to clean my bike. Those quad hills are easier backwards. The race course was ok. The shouldn't have inclued the really wt section near the end. There were other options. Results will be here.
Good job to the other guys on The Bike Hub/Specialized. I know Jesse Shoemaker finished 2nd in the 60 miler. Not sure where Jesse Sharpe finished. Good job to Tyler and Ben Welnak they were both riding strong today.

I went to Iola and all I got was Frostbite

It was a good day. I had more fun seeing people I hadn't seen in a while, then I had racing though. Really looking forward to the next race to see how I do. I took my wheels in to get trued up today. So hopefully no more brrp noises as I climb out of the saddle. I have a few more things I need to do to my bike. Hopefully I can get that all out of the way by the weekend. Surprisingly I felt good in the singletrack. I'm sure I was slow. But I felt good and didn't have too many problems in the singletrack. See ya...