Bustin out the XC Skis

Snow is coming down outside just a little bit ;) 5-9 inches or more expected, with the possibility of a Nor'easter this weekend!

I did manage to get out on the bike on monday for some night riding at glenwood. I rushed home and put the supercaliber back together and headed over to the trails with Mark and the dogs. Temps were hovering right around freezing, but it was warm during the day. This meant that the exposed parts of the trail were nothing more than mud and muck. I managed to get close to an hour in then we called it quits.

So it's snowing out pretty good today. Looking like it's going to be a good night for some xc skiing. Road conditions are probably going to be too poor to head anywhere, so most likely going to end up over at glenwood. Lay some tracks down and can most likely get it worked in for the bikes possibly over the weekend.


View outside my car at lunchtime today!

Currently playing in iTunes: Velvet Snow by Kings Of Leon

Glenwood Snow Riding

Hit up glenwood yesterday with Mark, Burt, Cadence and Lizzy. It was great to get out on the trails and ride around on the snow. Decided to pull out the camera and take a little video. Edited it up just now and posted it here for you. Yes, the whole video was taken with me riding 1 handed!! on my Paragon!!... Not an easy task, there are quite a few logs that took me out and you'll notice me hitting the snow/dirt near the end of the video as I tried to navigate a v-ditch.

On a side note, I'm now a Sergeant Grade 1 in Halo 3!! Umm, yah I still suck as my kill to death ratio is .69 (but hey it was .13!!)

Currently playing in iTunes: Down Boy by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Snow

Mark, Suzanne, myself and the pups made an attempt to ride over at Glenwood this morning. We got a few inches of snow last night and figured we'd head out and pack in the trails, and run the pups a little bit. Unfortunately, the snow was a little deeper than we thought making for a tough romp through the trails. We made it down one trail and after a bit of sliding, crashing and walking (well, Mark had no issues as usual) we decided to head home and just pull out the skis. On the way home the rain came down and we had to bail because the snow sucked. So basically we were out and just decided to stick home for the day and chill.

Oh well, try again tomorrow.

Loving your bike a little too much?

Bike sex case sparks privacy debate. Yes, as in sex with a bike (NSFW) - AutoblogGreen: "Robert Stewart was having sex with a bike in his locked hostel room. Robert said he was drunk and his actions misunderstood but when cleaners knocked and there was no response, they opened the door with a key and saw Robert having sex with a bike. The cleaners called the police, Robert got three years probation and is on the sex offenders list. The BBC website says their report on the story has over a million views and there is a legal debate.

John Scott, human rights expert says 'the man involved in this case pleaded guilty to a breach of the peace so these issues of privacy weren't considered by the court. ... This case should not prevent people who want to engage in this sort of activity doing so.' So, it's still legal to have sex with your bike in the privacy of a room. Just make sure to do it in a locked room, where the locks have no duplicate keys and you are able to hear a knock. "

(Via Digg.)

Hmm. I enjoy riding my bike, but in a different way than this guy!

Ya, I've been neglecting my blog lately. What can I say, the weather is crappy and I'm feeling like crawling under the covers and doing pretty much nothing. I'm also back to single again. I know in the long run this is the right choice, but right now; in a way, I wish I could have back what I had. It's my fault though, so I'll accept the blame. I think everyone fears change in some kind of way and perhaps that's why I'm still holding on. With time I'll be ready to move forward, right now though I'll be focusing my energy on myself and improving me.

Currently playing in iTunes: True Love Way by Kings Of Leon

My brother's wife is expecting!!!

Huge news on the home-front. I'm gonna be an Uncle soon!!! My brother and his wife Becky are expecting. They just received the official confirmation from the doc yesterday. So far she is about 5-6 weeks along and is due sometime in early July. This is awesome!! I'm so happy for them. Do you think it's to early to go get the kid a bike? Gotta get 'it' (I refer to babies as it until they can speak) ready and prepped for the big show!! I'm thinking 'it' is gonna have the chance to get an early jump start on everyone else...

On the flipside, I just picked myself up a shiny new macbook. It's pretty slick. Loving having the ability to run XP right alongside Leopard (Vista just plain sucks, so no chance of running that). So far Leopard is pretty slick, but I need to get some more RAM for it to really purr. Took me a few days to get all my info in here all proper, but I'm psyched.

Riding/Training wise; yah been slacking but it's due time. Gonna go get me a gym membership and get started on the whole adaptation process of the weights. Probably gonna have to dust off the trainer and get that setup and working.


~Uncle Jason
(Like the ring to that :)

Halloween at the Hollow

He-Man and She-Ra were the choice for Lindsey and I. Our Costumes are almost entirely made out of duck tape. Loads of fun!

Night Riding and A Muffin Tragedy

Last night got out with the GBC gang and hit up the local trails at Glenwood. I haven't really been on the bike as this is pretty much my rest period before I undertake the full-on training plan that starts up next month. However, the weather was great and it was time to saddle up. I pulled out the paragon and just ripped it up. I still love that bike and it rips around in tighter more tech trails more so than the supercaliber.

We had quite a large group (7 of us) so it was a pretty good turnout. I had hit the road for a short ride prior with Lindsey so the legs were ready to go. (I still gotta work on getting her up for some night riding ;) My overall fitness has dropped of a bit, but my head is crisp and clear so I think that more than makes up for it.

The Muffin Tragedy

Tragedy uncovered at the Alpine Bakery early this morning.

So I went to get my usual cup of coffee and blueberry-yogurt muffin this morning and it was awful. Apparently the cooler was mistakenly unplugged and the muffins *gasp* had gone bad! Man was I bummed. I hat to take a only slightly less delicious chocolate chip (which was supposed to be ginger, so you can imagine my suprise). Hopefully tomorrow everything will be back in order and I can resume fulfilling my cravings.

2008 National Mountain Bike Series Schedule (Unofficial)

Here's what I've come across. A race in NY!! that's huge news!! It's about time they brought a race here. And with the Nationals going off at Mt. Snow (I'm guessing the following weekend) that will be 2 weeks of great racing in the Northeast!!


March 29 - March 30, 2008 Fontana National - UCI XCO C1

Southridge Park

Fontana, California

XC/DH/ST/4X/Super D



April 5 - April 6, 2008 NOVA National - UCI XCO C1

McDowell Mountain Regional Park

Fountain Hills, Arizona

XC/ST/Super D


May 17- May 18, 2008 Firestone National – UCI XCO C2

Ted Chamberlin Ranch

Los Olivos, California

XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D


June 28 - June 29, 2008 Deer Valley National - UCI XCO C1

Deer Valley Resort

Park City, Utah

XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D


July 5- July 6, 2008 Showdown at Sugar National

Sugar Mountain Resort

Village of Sugar Mountain, North Carolina

XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D


July 12 – July 13, 2008 East Coast National

Windham Resort

Windham, New York

XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D

August 16-August 17, 2008 Snowmass National

Town of Snowmass Village, Colorado

XC/DH/ST/4X/Super D


August 30-September 1, 2008 National Mountain Bike Series Finals – UCI XCO C2

Tamarack Resort

McCall, Idaho

XC/DH/4Xor DS/ST/Super D

Randomness

I ate meat yesterday for the first time in 2 months, ever since watching Fast Food Nation just haven't been able to stomach it. But I was hungry for a burger.

I rode this morning at Glenwood, rolled my tire coming over a log and crashed. Cracked my co2 and it blew out everywhere, I limped the bike home as I rode to the trails. To top it all off, for some reason my iPod quit just as I got the flat...

I bought Halo 3 for the 360 the other day, I've played it for maybe 30 minutes. How the hell are those people playing it all day and night? Maybe when the weather gets shitty I'll play it some more

The Bears, WTF?? They better pull something out of their ass soon or they can say goodbye to going back to the Superbowl.

Blackwater; just coming to light now? I went to a seminar at Hobart on this in the spring and everyone who I talked to about it (that wasn't there) said I was a little crazy

My iPhone now has the wireless iTunes store. Its like crack. If I need a new song, I just look it up and download it.

Currently playing in iTunes: Some Crap About the Future by Electric President

130.7 MPH on a mountain bike!?

EDIT: NOW HAVE THE VIDEOWired Blogs: Gadget Lab: "33 year old Austrian Markus Stoeckl has smashed the World Speed Record for series mountain bikes. Stoeckl, nicknamed "Hercules" because of his 6'4", 220 lbs. frame, broke the 8 year old record by 14 mph on a 2000 meter, 45 degree run in the Chilean Alps. Because of the extreme cold, Hercules had to hold his breath for the 40 second duration so his helmet didn't fog up."

Think you're ready for the winter season? Maybe we should hop on board this guys training plan!! You'll be fast that's for sure!!

Panel: Landis guilty of doping - Yahoo! News

Panel: Landis guilty of doping - Yahoo! News: "Floyd Landis lost his expensive and explosive doping case Thursday when the arbitrators upheld the results of a test that showed the 2006 Tour de France champion used synthetic testosterone to fuel his spectacular comeback victory, The Associated Press has learned."

Dopers Suck!

What to do now?

Well, The Horrible 100 is done and over with. Season is winding down and my original plan was to hit up the Roots, Rocks and Ridges race in Ellicottville on 9/30. That plan has gone down the tubes lately. Last week I had to go away to Philly for work and as a result, no training and some fitness decline.

Now, it's Thursday and I still have the same illness I've had since Saturday evening. I've had a fever and pretty bad sore throat all week. A few times I've either come to work late or left early cause I can't even hold my head up. Shivering in bed with 3 blankets on while it's 75-85 outside is definitely not how I pictured spending the past few days. Yesterday I headed to the doc and picked up some antibiotics. Hopefully those will help a bit.

I haven't ridden since the H100, and there's no chance of a proper recovery for the R,R & R race; this is my official end of season declaration. I'm not hanging the bike up, but I'm not going riding with any purpose other than to have fun and look forward to the next ride. I have some thoughts about hitting a cross' race but I really don't feel like doing any intensity training right now (specially as I'm still feeling like crap). I'll probably wind it right back up though sometime around the start of November.

Don't worry I won't leave you hanging, I'll still keep posting ;)

Currently playing in iTunes: Challengers by The New Pornographers

Horrible 100: Long Version

My apologies for the lateness. I had to head out of town for work; and then I fell ill over the weekend

Full Writeup from the Horrible 100: Went of this past Sunday the 9th with 19 riders who showed up to brave the rainy conditions.

As is usual we kicked off as early as possible and got started just past 6am. The rain came down and was there all day long. The trails were wet, but completely rideable. Thankfully it was a predominately warm day.

The first loop (of 3) had us riding up East Hill right away and into Hi-Tor for some fun fire-road climbing then descending down and hitting the 2nd major climb of the route (Burke Hill). We hit the new section of singletrack across the top and then, Hanggi ended up needing to replace his der hanger. While he repaired that our group ended up re gathering and riding out acroos Pulver and onto the Italy Valley descent. Taylor and Chad had ridden thru and I bridged up to them on the descent. We hit the road together prior to the Wood Hill Climb were Taylor and I picked our way up the thru the loose rocky sections while it downpoured on us. We decided to roll on from that point and we pretty much rode together for the remainder of the day. Thru the Orange trail in Hi-Tor and down the DEC. descent was all that was left at this point. The roots in Hi-Tor proved to be pretty damn tricky but negotiable. I was afraid that the DEC descent was going to be super slick due to all the shale rocks being wet, but it was a tree root that took me out about a third of the way down.

Arrived back at base camp, refueled with all the goodies that the girls provided (huge thanks!).



The 2nd loop was epic. Taylor, Chad and I rolled out to the Griesa rd climb. Taylor and I hit it pretty good up the climb and bombed straight thru Ontario County Park with no issues. Took the road over to Stid hill rd and climbed that. The road was brutally steep but not that bad. Got into Stid Hill where it was a bit muddy but tolerable and picked our way clean to the base of Bristol Mt. Bristol was where everyone cracked pretty much. It's a tolerable climb coming fresh into it. The base of the climb is not bad but it get's long after a while and right as you get to the top you hit the steepest points. Needless to say, I was fried at that point and decided to walk. I wasn't the only one.... Bombed the super loose shale/rocky descent on the backside and started the road climb up to Cutler.

The soggy day took its toll

I hit Cutler feeling ok, but by the time I got on to the Carriage Trail I was out of food. I bummed a bar off of Taylor and headed up the climb to the top of the field and into the Pinewoods (Essentialy riding the 24 hour race course backwards). The bar really wasn't enough food at this point and I had scarce energy left. Taylor was riding strong but I was dropping him a little bit on the descents. Seeing as we had to descend the orange trail and ride mostly road back with a short bit of descent through the closed road, I decided to ride on ahead for fear of bonking. I hit the rest area about 5 minutes ahead of Taylor. I was happy to see Lindsey there waiting for me, but just as happy to gorge myself on anything I could put my hands on. I was soo hungry and ate everything I could. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was, because the next group of riders all came in from finishing the loop and everyone had run out of water and food!

4 soldiers decided to head out together for the last loop; although Chad was shortly behind us after some food and change of clothes. Taylor, Hanggi, Jim and I decided to brave it all the way to the end. I was the only one who forgot my light and I paid for it. The rain started to come a little heavier and the temps dropped quite a bit more as we climbed the final few hills. As we descended off of Flint hill, I almost crashed into the guardrail as I had no light. Taylor and Jim decided to turn and head back to base camp. Hanggi and I decided that we would trudge on and make the final push up Wolfanger. A brutal monster of a climb that was the perfect finish to the route. We slogged our sopping wet carcasses up the hill and had a enough time to take a photo at the top. I had to ride side by side with Hanggi down the descent to make use of his light and we arrived back at base camp.

We were exhausted but happy and picked up our trophy.

The Chart of the whole ride: I lost the last few climbs as my ergomo battery was dying

All the Pics from the season of scouting and the event. Click thru and you can go to the online web album

Update

I've got the H100 post drafted up and ready to go, but I'm stuck in
Philly for work.
I also got a ton of pics from Matt Hanggi who was smart enough to
carry his camera during the ride.

I'll have something up for everyone asap

Sent from my iPhone

Horrible Hundred: Quick and Dirty version

Horrible is all finished. Myself and Matt Hanggi were the only sole survivors who made it up over the top of Wolfganger to put down 108 miles of riding and 11,000 ft of climbing.

Ride time: 11:29, TSS 597.8!!
It rained all friggin day....

Too tired and busy to write a full report.

Pics and full write-up to come soon

Currently playing in iTunes: Yesterday Threw Everything At Me by Athlete

Horrible Hundred Recon

Well, truly back into the full swing of things this past weekend. Spent back to back days reconning the Horrible and clearing sections for next weekend.


It felt good to really get back on the bike. Yes, my CTL is pretty low after having taken some time off the bike, but mentally I'm fresh. My legs felt pretty fresh also after putting some good climbs in them.

Saturday we rode portions of the 2nd loop of the Horrible. Casey, myself and Casey's protege Taylor. Taylor was a virgin to the Naples/Bristol trails and we broke him in pretty well. We started off climbing up W. Gannett and into OCP. I was feeling the flow on OCP and just burned it down the descent. Always seems that when I'm off the bike for a bit of time, finding lines and flow becomes effortless. Everything just simply falls into place. After OCP we hit up Cutler and added some new length to the course, but also keeping some great stuff in there. Finished up the day by heading out and climbing up and over the backside of Bristol and descending the snowmobile trail.

Sunday, Mark, Suzanne and myself hit up the 1st loop of the Horrible. Climbed up East Hill, through Hi-Tor, down Bassett and up Burke. We spent a bit of time cleaning, and clearing the new section of FLT singletrack. After that we came down Italy Hill. I flatted as usual on the descent. My spare was bad, suzanne's spare was bad; finally made it out with Mark's 26" spare tube. After the brutal climb up Wood Hill and through the Orange Trail in Hi-Tor we hit the DEC. Mark and I were killing it on the way down, just flying down the thing. I was riding really close to Mark and could barely make out the trail as there was just a dust cloud to follow. As a result I hit a v-ditch wrong and flatted. I rolled it easy down the descent, Suzanne also flatted on the descent and the 2 of us walked the little section back to the car (but not after a quick dip in the creek to clean up). It was a good ride, and I felt great.

Here's a little slideshow of a bunch of pics from the weekend and some more Horrible Stuff!!



Currently playing in iTunes: After Hours by Caribou

Ain't Dead Yet!

For those that were a bit confused about the last entry, that was written by Lindsey concerning our recent trip to Chicago to move her back :) Perhaps I'll let her guest blog on here from time to time.

After a few days of time off, and 30+ hours in the car, I'm finally back. Just peeked at my Performance Manager Chart, and things are looking grim for me, fitness had dropped a bit. Guess it's time to saddle up and start grinding away again. Just gotta put those beers down and grab a water bottle instead.

On a Sidenote: SUPER HUGE CONGRATS to Mark Hartman!! Mark finished up his 1st SOLO 24 hour race at Hot August Nights in CA and finished 2nd!! Turning 21 laps for a total of 204 miles!!

There was also a podium sweep by Americans in the 4 man division, with Casey/Hanggi/Greg/Bruce taking 1st, the 2nd Park Ave team taking 2nd and a CNY Dirt team taking 3rd!

Horrible Hundread is coming up fast, better get my ass prepped!

On the road

Heading back from chicago. My foot and flip floppy were covered in
vomit from a vodka drinker. My toilet was clogged with a spray can a
drunk flushed. The backyard was filled with beer cans, cigarette
butts, and candy. I had to leave behind the garden gnomes for they
didn't fit in the Subaru station wagon that is caring my life back to
NY. I have forks in my purse. I didn't take a shower today. We are
driving in the terrible land of Ohio. Will we make it or will we both
fall asleep before reaching home. Last night there was not rest as we
rolled on the floor. I sold my bed for forty dollars.

Lindsicorn
Sent from my iPhone

Suicide Six

Wrapped up the Suicide Six and the NYSERS series this past weekend. Pretty much wraps up racing for me this season. I had plans to SOLO the Hot August Nights 24hour, but I'm heading to Chicago Wed for a week and a half. Effectively kills that and any type of training load I was working on. I'm turning over to enjoying the summer and spending time having fun and digging into a few other things.

Suicide Six. I pulled a pretty good fast first lap, got a little bit bottlenecked on the rattler, but otherwise came out with the lead. Held it for maybe a lap or 2 till I was passed. Held the wheel for 1/4 of a lap then decided I needed to settle back into my own pace. Terry from Bear-Naked took over 2nd from me a short bit later and gave chase to the leader. I was comfortable where I was and decided to just hold my pace and work on staying consistent in my lap times. I was pretty good and only lost some time when I flatted on my 6th lap. A quick fix and I was back on the go, but still didn't have enough time to turn in 9 laps. Came in about 15 minutes past 4, with the flat put me about 7 minutes past. Effectively 7 minutes slower than last year as I crossed the line just shortly after the 6 hour mark. I'm pretty happy with it though and will take the age group victory and a 3rd.

The 3rd place result effectively put me in 2nd place for the NYSERS SOLO Overall. Pretty happy with that and maybe next year I can give Terry a little better run for his money ;).

Currently playing in iTunes: Rockers To Swallow by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

NYSERS Results

NYSERS Series Results for those looking for them

(Via Epic Peaks Coaching.)

Highland Forest Classic

Oh how I dread normal xc racing.... Having spent most of my season geared towards training for a 24 hour race, their really isn't much room/time in training for the anaerobic and extended periods of time that one spends at threshold during an xc race. Yesterday, I decided that I needed to save cash and gather some form for the Suicide Six so I bagged out on the Wilderness 101 and hit the Highland Forest Classic XC Race.

Pretty much my 1st true xc race this season and a bit of an eye opener. Switching gears from surviving climbs to attacking climbs is a completely different mindset. I pretty much settle into consistency mode when I do the longer events. Focusing on not wasting energy, eating properly, picking clean lines, and proper gearing to save energy on the hills. XC is all about ripping it up as fast as you possibly can handle. Ya, I suffered alot more than I should have. By about the time I crossed the finish line, I was ready to go. I pulled down a 3rd place in the Semi-Pro class, after getting my chain tangled in the spokes and making a seat adjustment on course.

Not that I'm complaining, I chose my own undoing. Hell this used to be my forte...

Next up is Farmall #1, and then hoping to carry some form into the Suicide Six. I hit hollister this past wed night for a few laps. Ripped out 3 laps (including 1 night lap in just over 2 hours, so things are looking good for that place!


Currently playing in iTunes: Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie

6 Hours of Power

Well, the 6 Hours of Power went off yesterday down in Ellicottville. Course conditions were perfect, weather conditions were perfect. My fitness though currently is far from perfect. Having just come off a huge block of family obligations, pretty much had very little training in the bag over the past month.

All Smiles prior to the Race Start.

Once the race was underway, things shook out a bit differently than I would have liked. I felt ok on the 1st lap, but my hr was jacked higher than I would have liked it to be at the effort I was at normally. I had to scale it back a little bit on the climbs in order to keep myself from doing to much. I was sweating hard on the 1st lap, but wasn't feeling anything in the legs. The fact I threw my chain into the spokes a few times on the lap didn't help the mojo either. I slammed my bottle and took some endurolytes and sport legs at the finish of the lap. I started to cramp on the 2nd lap and made sure to take extra water at the aid stations. By the time the 3rd lap rolled around, I was still hanging on ok, but was now stopping at the aid stations to down about 5 cups of water and refill my bottles.

A Silly Crash on Lap 3 left me bloody and bruised >

By the time Lap 4 rolled around I was starting to feel a little better, but still nonetheless had to stop at the aid stations and down as much water as I could stomach. The heat had my stomach doing flips, so I really wasn't eating much of anything each lap so no I was starting to bonk, and bonk I did on my fifth lap. I had caught and passed a solo rider who I was battling with for most of the race and put in a little attack in the singletrack. I put some good time into him, but that pretty much zapped everything out of my legs. I ended up just rolling in the rest of the lap at a walking pace. I was barely turning over the pedals at this point. I ended up with 5 laps completed and for the 1st time at 6HOP I finished off the podium.

No worries though as I have a good 2 weeks to prep myself up and train pretty hard for the Suicide Six! I also can't wait till then cause Lindsey will be here!!!!

Currently playing in iTunes: To the Sky by Maps

...I believe Rasmussen...

...I believe Rasmussen...

(Via Drunk Cyclist.)

Tour de France 2007: Rasmussen pulled out of Tour, fired by Rabobank

Tour de France 2007: Rasmussen pulled out of Tour, fired by Rabobank: "After 10 days in the yellow jersey, Michael Rasmussen appeared to have beaten back all challengers in his pursuit of the top spot on the Tour de France's final podium in Paris this coming Sunday"

That's it Road Cycling and the Tour are Officially Dead. Astana is gone, Cofidis is gone

"Nature culls sick herds of animals. Cycling is just going through a natural culling . . . sad to say, but true. The riders and teams that have chosen to be clean will survive this." -- Jonathan Vaughters, manager of U.S.-based Team Slipstream


"The Tour is Dead, Long Live the Tour!"

Getting Back into the Swing

So my brother got married this past weekend. Poor Sucker! Just kidding. It was a great time. Had lots of fun at the Rehearsal Dinner and at the Wedding. But I sure am glad that it is all over with.....

Time to get the bike back up and running and to get back to some normal routines. Don't have too long to get some good fitness for the Wilderness 101, so we'll see how that one goes. I put a bit of time on the road bike lately. First miles in a long time. Also been doing a bit of singlespeeding and that has been a bit of fun.

Hopefully I'll have Mary Poppins up and running prior to Saturday's Dryer Rd time trial....

Currently playing in iTunes: Give 'Em Hell, Kid by My Chemical Romance

Tour de France - Live Tracker 2007

Tour de France - Live Tracker 2007: This is pretty frigging cool, follow along the Tour and check out the riders heart rate, cadence, speed and power and location.

I was all ready to ignore the Tour this year, but damn if I'm not getting all swept up in it!

FYI: Apparently doesn't work in Safari; use the fox

Drunk takes a free bike ride on car roof - Yahoo! News

Drunk takes a free bike ride on car roof - Yahoo! News: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - "Police officers in the Dutch city of Alkmaar were surprised to see a car passing by with a man sitting on a bicycle on its roof.
The driver and his wife, when stopped by the police, said they heard a noise while waiting at a traffic light, but did not realize they were taking on an extra passenger.
The 26 year-old man who took the free ride was fined for public drunkenness, not carrying an identity card and providing a false identity to the police"

Always wondered if it would work!

Morning Road Ride

Got out for a nice early road ride with Mark and Suzanne Hartman this morning. What a beautiful morning it was. It felt great to get out and stretch the legs, especially after last night Glenwood World Cup. I rode the Single Speed again and Mark was on his new Blur. He was pretty much a blur to me the whole ride as I was pushing as hard as I could to keep up with him. But that's par for the course, especially when Betty shows up beforehand.

Tomorrow is my brothers bachelor party, going to play some golf in the morning then hit up some good food and fun that evening. We'll see if I behave myself completely or not. I have a feeling this is going to be one long week with all the family and friends in town for the wedding next weekend

Sunday hopefully I won't be hurting too bad and can put some time back on the road bike again with maybe a nice century or so...

Currently playing in iTunes: Bones by Editors

Shindagin Hollow

Yesterday, was a nice ripper of a day down at Shindagin Hollow. Mark, Suzanne, Chris, the dogs and I bailed on our original plan of pulling a century around Cayuga Lake on the road bikes and hit the trail instead. It was a cool, crisp and wet day. I rode Mark's Singlespeed (Fisher Rig) for the 1st time. Somehow I lost a crankbolt on my ergomo so the Supercal is down for a bit.

Trail conditions were incredible even though it was pouring. Ripping it up on the singlespeed was just so much fun. Plus going back to a hardtail was pretty cool. I think I might just have to go get me one of those :) . I had a full on blast. I kinda love those conditions where its sopping wet, but the trail is just perfect riding. I haven't had that much fun on a bike in a real long time. I think there was a permanent grin splattered with a little mud on my face the whole ride. Lizzy was having a blast too! She is for sure tired from it today though, as she hasn't moved. Same with Cadence, she never even made it upstairs to bed last night!

My racing is on a little hiatus with my brother getting married on the 14th. But I'll be swinging back in time for the Dryer Rd Time Trial on the 21st. That should be some fun.

I'm out for now...

Highland Hex Data

Here's the data I promised for the Highland Hex Race:
Duration: 6:26:55
Work: 4692 kj
Normalized Power: 235 watts
Distance: 97.3km
Elevation Gain: 3246 meters (10,649 ft)


Red Line Represents the Altitude, Yellow is Power. Click for full size

Too tired to type, here are some pics

I'm crushed from this past weekend.

FLT Sugar Hill (Sunday's Ride)



Hollow Ride from Last Sunday (After the Hardcore)

Highland Hex Writeup

Raced the Highland Hex yesterday, much improvement over last season mud fest. The weather was excellent and even with the course was relatively dry, with mud in only a few sections. One major difference this year was the addition of looong climb up to the highest point in the park. The course was really difficult. With the open fire-road descents that were at high speed, it really felt like you were just continually climbing. You would descend immediately and then start the next climb. While there was some great sections of singletrack, this was a really tough course for me to adjust too. I prefer lots of loaded singletrack interspersed with short to intermediate steep climbs.

I started out really strong and felt great the first few laps. I was comfortable on the climbs and really ripping it in the singletrack. I led for the first 4 1/2 laps or so. Soon though, the toll of the climbs and the efforts from last weekend were catching up with me. I could feel some cramping starting to come on, so I backed off a little and had to let Terry Blanchett (Bear-Naked/Cannondale) by. He was ripping it up the climbs and I couldn't follow his pace. He dangled out front by a minute or 2 the next 2 laps, but then climbing as well as he was extended it up to 5 minutes by the end of lap 6. I surged pretty good on lap 7, but wasn't closing the gap so I started to let up a little. I realized that I was still going to have to do another lap so I let off the gas and settled for my 2nd place. I was having a tough 8th lap and just took it chill. Little did I know the 3rd place rider finished 1:45 behind me! I didn't catch word that there were any other solo's still riding. I woulda busted my ass had I known he was out there!

I ended up taking the victory for my age group, and 15 minutes down on Terry. It was a good race, but my legs were no where near where I would've liked them to be. I used the ergomo though and kept myself paced well. Once I upload it to my pc, I'll throw up a graph of the course and some other info. Time to go riding now......

Currently playing in iTunes: Sealings by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Highland Hex

Highland HEx 6 hour race is up this weekend. Thankfully the weather looks quite a bit better than last year's epic slog thru the rainstorm. With any luck, I'll hopefully continue my streak of wins on the course. You never know though, anything can happen. My plan is to just keep my pace steady, hold the HR and power levels constant the whole race and finish stronger than I started

Last night I went with the Hollajeneva Crew to check out the premiere of 24 Solo at the Little in Rochester. It was an incredible movie. In fact I bought the dvd and plan on watching it again tonight as motivation for tomorrow's race. For anyone that is at all interested in Endurance racing you are familiar with Chris Eatough (pronounced "Eat-Off"). He is the man, and this movie captures the glory of his racing and the humility that he is also just a human being. Def go get yourself a copy!

I'm out for now, time to hit some lunch up with Grams and Ma

Hardcore 24

My Prayers and Thoughts are with the Friends and Family of Ben Pritchards. Ben tragically passed away during the Hardcore 24 on June 16th, 2007.

I'm not going to elaborate on the details here, you can search out on the intertubes if you need more.

Friday: I showed up at camp around 3pm or so. Our Camp Manager (Casey) was their to hold things over for us for a while. I headed out for my typical pre-ride, I had Lizzy with me (she wasn't coming to the race) and we climbed up thru the fire roads and up thru the pines into the open meadow. I caught her eyeing some deer and strayed her, but then she got loose and chased a deer I had missed. I yelled for a looong time. I was up there for a good hour plus looking for her. I rode down a fire road in the direction I thought she headed, twice! Finally, frustrated and upset I finished out the course flying down the orange trail and into camp. Where none other than queen dipshit Lizzy was waiting for me. I asked how long she had been there, and the Camp Cook said, "Oh, bout an hour or so..." grrr

Saturday: Awoke to the typical Suzanne special blueberry pancakes and sausages. Headed over to the course, where the camp manager seemed to be worn a little thin. I knew it would take some time to set-up a good camp, but no idea it involved a golf-cart xc race thru the trail ;). I was fired up and ready to go. It was go time, been waiting a while for this one. Hit the run my usual fairly slow self, but made big gains in the singletrack and up the fire road climb. I pushed it solid, eyeing the ergomo and watching my hr. Up and thru meadow and onto the Orange Trail I was battling another solo rider. We swooped thru Whitetrashistan and then away and up the 2nd fire road climb. On the descent on the way down I flatted. Tried sealing it with co2 (using stan's) and it took a few tries but got me back to camp. Once there we tried to use the floor pump to seal it, but finally we just swapped wheels out with the Paragon and I got rolling again.

Laps 2 and 3 were more of the same. I was sitting in 2nd place, but not by too much. I was just tapping out tempo and grinding along. 1000ft of climbing in 8 miles and 3 quick laps and I was starting to slip both power wise and mentally. I re-shifted my focus to the task at hand and grabbed some more endurolytes and some ibuprofin. Lap 5 I swung in for a quick sandwich and a chat with my mother as she had shown up to give some help for the night.

Lap 6 I started to pick it back up, Each lap I was feeling progressively stronger and faster. I was having a blast. In fact, Casey's pal Phil was over from Park City to run the race and tried playing a little downhill domination. In the section of trail that ran thru Whitetrashistan was where we set-up a makeshift feedzone. I came thru on my lap just ahead of Phil and dropped my water bottle. He however, tossed his bottle right at me. Missed me, but I did run it over. Everyone in camp saw and thought it was an argument, but we were just having fun and we chatted and laughed about it up the next climb.

Laps 7 and 8, 9 I was flying and my normalized power per laps was as much as my 2nd and 3rd laps. Lap 8, I pulled off a humdinger. As I was coming back to the start/finish area along the dike, I clipped my pedal. Seeing the pond was so close, I bailed as hard as I could to the right to land on the dirt. Well, the bike was getting a little dirty, and ol Mary Poppins (that's her name 'cause she's 'supercal'ifragilistic) decided it was time for a bath. The bike landed dead in the pond, fully submerged. I reached in an pulled out the "Swamp Thing", she was covered in seaweed, almost every inch. I was laughing hard as I pulled it off, piece by piece
feeling best ever. Lap 9 I just was out there killing it. Each time thru camp I was chatting or singing to the iPod, and telling everyone how good I felt. In fact I was an entire lap up on the field by this point.

Unfortunately that was when I was turned around on the course.

We did have an awards ceremony, where I was congratulated as the Men's Solo Overall Winner. This was an honor and what I had worked for all season. However, under the circumstances, this was not the way I had wanted to earn it. It was difficult today to answer questions to those who had no idea. They would ask about the race, how I did, etc. I filled them in that I had won, and the circumstances surrounding. Each reaction, was of course of shock and suprise.

While honored to have won the race, I am saddened by the loss of a fellow rider.

Currently playing in iTunes: God's Gonna Cut You Down by Johnny Cash

Blah,

Well, last nights race was purdy ugly. Luckily I was pretty much there just to blow the pipes out in the legs and call it a day. Well, the day was pretty short as all I had in me was 2 friggin laps. Something with me and tapering, just never settles right. It always seems that the more I ride the better I feel. When I rest, my legs go downhill. That's why I jumped for the race and then pulled the plug shortly into and just spun out for another lap.

On the plus side of things, the Ergomo is back. Will have that bad-boy back in action for the Hardcore!! I almost felt kinda lost without it. It's especially handy when racing the big events. Having it on board allow me to keep my pace right where I need it without going over the top or dropping too low. It will also be great to see the power levels and how they degrade over the course of a 24 hour race

Currently playing in iTunes: Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups

Love

"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them-" -"You beat them."

I think the above quote from the book "Enders Game" is very befitting for this weekends upcoming 24 hour event. For my enemy for the duration of the race will be a brutal race course and the inner workings of my own mind. The combination of the two factors will make the final decision as to where I stand when the timer runs out. For I must 'love' the terrain and 'love' myself in order to be able to dig as deep as is necessary.

It takes a special devotion and extreme mental fortitude to get through an epic adventure. I've not taken this race lightly, my physical preparation has been strong, but my mental preparation has been the strongest it's ever been.

I truly 'love' riding my bicycle. It will be this 'love' and nothing more that allows me to embrace my enemy, "...And then, in that very moment when I love them-" -"You beat them."

Currently playing in iTunes: THE GREATEST LOVE SONG by The Bastard Fairies

Tonight I will be testing my 'love' out at the Park Ave Wed Night Series. Blowing out the pipes and making sure the bike is dialed in pre-race. Friday I'll head down to Cutler and do some pre-riding and camp set-up. I'll get a post up tonight on how the race goes. I'm pretty psyched cause my brother is going to come out and watch

Weekend of chilling and riding in E-ville prior to the Hardcore

Well, finally home and still wiped out. I hit Buffalo Friday night with a friend for some dinner down on Elmwood. Had a great time and then had some coffee and a good chat. It was nice to enjoy night life in a city. After dinner, I hit up an old friend that I grew up with and we hit the town for some craziness. Really got to enjoy the nightlife then!I awoke a litte razzled and tired on Saturday morning. I spent some more time in Downtown Blo grabbing a quick cup of joe and just people watching for a short while.



After that I packed up and headed down to E-ville. Casey was late, so I spent some more time in another coffee shop, grabbing some quick lunch. Once Casey arrived we set up camp, I packed the 'cabin' bag in some pine trees for a lil bit of privacy, and the fact that I forgot my bedroll. The nice soft pine needles made it like a pillow top mattress back there!


Saturday; Val, Casey and I rolled out and put some time in the trails. Conditions were pretty fair considering the rainstorm that swept through the night prior. We had some fun rocking out together.


Val had to head into town for a minor upgrade, while Casey and I headed out for the forest of Endor. Climbing up and through the trails we felt like and Ewok or an Imperial Speeder were going to fly by us at any moment. It was a surreal moment as we were plodding up this climb and suddenly realized that the entire forest undergrowth was nothing except ferns. Lighting was too poor to grab a good pic, but it's banked in the internal SD card for a long time.

Mark and Suzanne showed up later that evening. Mark and I and the dog's headed out for a night ride. You know it's gonna be a good one when the trails have names such as; Rim, Bent Rim, and Pale Ale. It was crazy fun, and super, super tech. Loads of rocks and roots everywhere. Some crazy lines just up and over everything, stuff that would be brutal to even walk on. I probably would've taken some pics, except Mark was his usual self and just blasting off through the stuff while I was left to fend for myself. Back to camp, we found the crew had dug into the Sam Adams Summer Lager's and were having a grand ol time. I was wasted and headed to the cabin, where according to Val I fired up my generator to turn the heat on, watch some TV and cook a quick meal before I grabbed some shut eye.

Sunday, was a perfect day for a nice group ride. We climbed up the road to the backside of the mountain then hit the famous descent down to the bottom of the race course. Val and Casey headed down to Burger King to pick up Dave. I think they had a few whoppers and some fries while they waited.


Dave was a no show, so we decided to climb to the top of the of the race course and hit some of the fun stuff. Once on top, it was all coming back to me. I've ridden a ton here for the 6 Hours of Power races and loved every minute of the course. It's amazing how once you jump on a trail, it's similar to re-reading a good book. Each new rock, root, corner is similar to reading a new paragraph. There is some familiarity, it's recognizable and enjoyable to be re-acquainted.

Casey and Val dove off and headed back for camp, the rest of us took the scenic route and slowly made our way back, hitting some crazy fun stuff on the way. The trails were plenty packed with quite a few riders and it was nice to see so many people out having some fun on their bikes. By this point the pups were getting a little tired and I had no more water for Lizzy so we let them cool off in the stream crossings.



Once back at camp, we packed up and then headed over to Golden Hill for some riding on some new trails. The trails were nice and ripping fast and very flowing. Speeds were constant and ripping. I tried a funky set-up to grab some video from my camera and it came out pretty cool. Once I edit it down, I'll get it posted up for you to view. After Golden Hill, it was off to the Ellicottville Brewery for a burger and a nice brew. Great way to wrap up the weekend



See all the pics from the weekend here!

I know it's tuesday and no weekend writeup

Well, I have a rough draft that I'm working on...hopefully have it up during/after lunch.
Like my dog, yesterday all I did was lay around........

Weekend in E-ville

First before, I even dig into this entry, Here is pretty much the funniest thing I've ever heard of! Dude took a ride in a wheelchair at 50+ mph for a few miles on the front of a semi! Afterwards, the guys said he was unfazed! Unfazed! Looks like Johnny Knoxville needs to be taking some notes for Jackass 3.

So I'm heading out tonight to Buffalo to meet a friend for a night of fun. Then tomorrow morning heading down to Ellicottville for a weekend of camping and riding. I'm meeting Casey and Val to shred some trail during the day. Mark and Suzanne will be bringing the pups down and we'll be pulling off a night ride once they arrive. I'm sure we will have a boatload of fun. I'll have the camera in tow for the weekend, and maybe even grab some video too!
I haven't been down to E-ville since the 6HOP last year so it will be good to get down their and put some time in.

I've replaced the seatpost on the Supercaliber, but I think when I get back from this road trip I'm going to swap my SRAM triggers and Avid Juicy 5's for my '04 xtr dual control set-up. I had visions of grandeur to run the '07 xtr this season, till I saw the price of the gruppo. Costs more than the down-payment on a new home! I think the dual control will be super sweet for the Hardcore 24 and just make things enjoyable.

Speaking of the Hardcore 24, I'm all registered up for the Solo Class. Going to be a long race that's for sure. I'm feeling pretty well rested after having taken the past few days off after the Mohican 100. Legs are good, head is good. It's go time!!

We're all Stars Now in the Dope Show

So it looks like some more big names may come tumbling down from the high peaks of cycling society. Seems that the Quick Step team has been raided by the Belgian 5-0.

Quick Step denies police raids focused on team

Quick Step, which employs 2005 world champion and one-day specialist Boonen, as well as Olympic and reigning world champion Paolo Bettini, had been plunged into controversy when ex-rider Johan Museeuw, a former world champion, admitted that he had doped in his career.

Well now, pretty much the house of cards has come tumbling down. With all the riders getting popped left and right. I think my dog has some pretty good odds to win the Tour as much as Vino or Levi.

Speaking of Vino, him, Ullrich and Kloden are now under scrutiny

Valverde and Operacion Puerto again

Gotta love the ProTour! How about all you fellas out there with your pro kits mail them back to the respective teams and show them you no longer support a system that is clogged with cheaters!

Bagging the Park Ave Race

So I'm skipping out on the Park Ave Wed Night series, tonight. I'm just adding some more recovery time and putting some money in the bank for the Hardcore 24. Most likely I'll hit it next week and flush the legs out.

Last night, I hit up a Yoga class in Seneca Falls. I'm working on getting some "extra" in prior to the race, loosen up the muscles and center my mind prior to the race. I've also hit up the chiropractor quite a bit lately to stay nice and loose. I'm going into thise race guns blazing. I want to make sure that all my ducks are in a row and everything is lined up proper. I feel really ready to go and wish the race was this weekend!

This weekend I'm heading down to Ellicotville, with Mark, Suzanne, Casey and a few others. Should be a good time as we will be doing some camping and just having some good ol fun hitting the trails down there.

Casey is back in the saddle after his injury and seems to be coming along quite well. Glad to be seeing that.

Currently playing in iTunes: Goin' Against Your Mind by Built To Spill

Long time family friend, Steve "Bear" Johnson was killed in a car accident last night. My condolences to his family. He will surely be missed.

Mohican Results are online

Go Here

Mohican Wrap-up

Just sitting here on the the couch, surveying my bumps, bruises, cuts and scrapes after yesterdays efforts. I'm wiped out. We got home last night around 3 am, and Mark knocks on my door this morning at 9am asking me if I wanted to ride. I laughed pretty hard at that.



Race Highlights:

The first 20 miles of Singletrack was incredible and Mark and I were ripping it up, just super flowy, fast fun stuff

My saddle popping off the rails at mile 25, then riding standing up for the next 10 miles till I found a guy with a road bike on the side of the road that was willing to lend me his

Spending at least 35-40 minutes trying to figure out how the hell to attach my saddle to borrowed seatpost

Realizing the saddle nose was pointed way to low and having to sit on the nose for 65 mile, ugh

Pegging it for the next 20 miles trying to take some time back

Riding for 15 miles down a dead straight, slightly uphill muddy rail trail, wishing it would change or end so I could stop pedaling for 2 friggin seconds

Face planting on said rail trail for no reason other than I was riding no handed and messing with my camelback

Climbing a gravel road at about mile 75 and thinking how comfortable it would be to lay down in the middle of the road and sleep

Putting the most technical piece of singletrack at mile 95 and it was packed with hikers

Almost dumping a family of 5 into the river while cruising the singletrack as there was no where for them to go when I came thru the trail

Saving myself from a 10ft drop into the river after crashing on same piece of singletrack

The 1 mile to go sign

All in all I was pretty happy with my race. I'm thinking I probably shoulda been around 9.5 hours or so, pending I didn't have all the saddle trouble. Like every long endurance race, one goes thru peaks and valleys. In the low points of the race, you contemplate what the hell you are doing this for, and then 5 minutes later (after some sweet singletrack usually) you are contemplating doing this a bunch more cause its so much fun. After the race I think I'm feeling pretty confident for the Hardcore 24 in 2 weeks time.

Eatough takes the W

Chris Eatough wins at 7:09!!
We bagged sleeping in our ghetto cabin. Sleeping on the floor and no electricity didn't sound appetizing so we are heading home.

We beat Tinker!! (dnf)

Finish time

mark 9.56.39
jay 10.27.07

mohican card

Entry feee: $145
lost sunglasses: $125
busted seatpost: $99
finishing the race and with the phoenix waiting for you: priceless

Going in circles

270 miles and we're back were we started. The phoenix has risen!

Horrible Hundred Update

So this past Monday, to celebrate the holiday, Matt Hanggi and I headed out for a little ride down in Naples. We wanted to scout and collect some of the tidbits for the upcoming Horrible Hundred Race in September. We chose to cover the last 40 miles of the course. For those of you that are climbers or those that just want to enjoy the suffering, there is good news! This course is going to have tons of hills! The 40 mile ride that we did had 8500ft of vertical!

Horrible Hundred

*I'm going to update the graph a little later and segment it out, but here it is for now



The Route: Started at the DEC and climbed Griesa Hill to Oakley to Gannet. Hit Ontario County Park and descended that and followed the road down to the backside of Bristol Mt. We climbed up and over the backside on the Dirt road and then descended on the snowmobile trail. At the base of the Snowmobile we hit Stid Hill and then climbed that to the Ridge Trail where we hit the tower drop (mile 24, drops 900 ft in 1.2 miles!). From there we took the road to West Gannet and climbed up to Ontario County Park again and descended the same trail. Headed across the road to Cutler, up and down the Orange trail then took the road down to the closed road that drops us in right next to Bob and Ruth's .



If I can ever figure it out I will get the google earth stuff up and we can all have some fun browsing over where we will be playing!



I rested up on tuesday and last night Hanggi and I hit Dryer Rd for a few hours of some good fun. Conditions there are great right now, even getting a little bit sandy in the corners. We both had a good time ripping around that place. For some reason we were a little more accident prone than normal. Perhaps with the dry conditions speeds were a little higher than normal and we just pushed it to the edge. I think both of us left our fair share of blood and skin out there yesterday. It's all in good fun. The great thing is that place is really turning into a mecca for area riders. There had to be at least 2 dozen riders out there on the trails including about half a dozen females getting their sweat on!



Mark Hartman and I are heading out tomorrow mid-day for the Mohican 100. I'm feeling pretty ready to rip this one up, but I guess we will see how the head feels 40+ miles in. I've been getting some great sleep and I'll be taking some sleeping pills with me to ensure that I sleep the night before! I cannot wait for the race, I've got those nervous, excited , scared feelings kicking around and just want to grab my bike right now and go!



I'll post from my phone a few quick blurbs from our road trip and our results after the race!

Epic 8 hours...err the Epic 4

Well, for my first endurance race of the year, things didn't go as well as I would have liked them too. Headed up to Canada for the Epic 8 hours this past weekend. Trails were in great shape and conditions were perfect for race day.

Started off pretty quick and settled into 3/4th place hanging with the eventual race winner for a few laps. We chatted for a bit, discussing our racing plans for the season, etc. For some reason my small chainring was jamming up and caused me to have to grind up the singletrack climbs, using quite a bit of extra energy when I shouldn't have been. With not using the small ring, I took my time getting up the climbs to not use the extra energy and ended up riding by myself for quite a bit of the race. Continually catching and passing riders and being caught and passed by others. I still need to get over the fact that it's ok to be passed in these types of races. After so many years of xc, I just don't like to be passed by riders and willing to fight them for position. I need to curb that quick so I don't waste too much energy. After a few laps, I stopped on the side of the trail and made a front der adjustment so that I could use the small. I was churning out pretty good lap times and holding steady, but there just wasn't any fight in my body. I stopped around the 4 hour mark and just hung up the bike.

The course itself, lacked any real long climbs. There were some short steep singletrack sections near the end of the laps. Laps were fairly short (~9k) so lap time were quick (30-35 minutes). It was a very fast and demanding course and I took in a bit too many calories early on as I was stuck in the mindset that I needed to finish a bottle each lap.

Being away all week for work fired up the stress levels and the lack of sleep time during my trip and NO sleep the night before did me in pretty well. I'm not big on giving up in races. In fact I was pretty furious with myself, but I guess you gotta know when to hold em and when to fold em.

This week I will be resting up big time for the Mohican 100!!

Epic 8 hours coming up

So I missed Farmall the other night, but apparently still won the series. Not sure how as I only made it to 2 races. And I took 2nd and a 1st, but I got relayed info that it's because my victory time was 4 seconds faster than my competitors. Little odd, but I'll take it.

Been away here in Southern PA for the last few days. Got to hit some trails in DE last night. Lil bit of fireroads and some nice singletrack. The singletrack was super-buff and flowing. I think they run a zamboni on that stuff, I coulda ran the road bike! I was able to open the legs up a little bit and they are feeling good and ready for this weekend.

The Ergomo is down right now :( so I put the Bontrager Carbon x-lite crank on the Supercaliber. So I'll be running blind for the race. No big deals, I don't need a 'puter to tell me to go fast! Plus it lightens the bike up a lil bit too. It will be nice to work out all the kinks for the upcoming Mohican 100 with Mark and then the Hardcore 24. Running thru the tests with some new nutritional supplements (Hammer stuff).

Back to work for now, but I'll get a write-up for the Epic 8 as soon as I can.

Away for a few days

Looks like i'm not gonna get a chance to fight for the farmall title tonight. I'm out of town for work but will be back andy ready to rip it up at the Epic 8 hours

Farmall Victory!!

Well, Tuesday night was a great night at Farmall #2. Bagged the first W of the year for myself and the first W for the Supercaliber. It was definitely a hard fought race.

Off the gun, I settled into 3rd place and then slipped into 2nd up the first climb. Giving chase to the leader, keeping on his wheel and catching him on the 1st climb. About ready to make the pass up the grinder climb and my chain slips up. The leader slips away, maxing out to around maybe 35 seconds or so. I chased with everything I had, I think my hr was pegged around 185 for the 1st few laps.

Heavy chasing ensues for the next few laps




I finally caught him near the end of the 4th lap, put out a nice little attack up the steep climb and opened a decent size gap. I was able to maintain and hold the gap for the duration. I extended it to a max at the line of around 2 minutes. The bonus was I took almost exactly 2 minutes off my time from the previous week.


Raising the arms for the Victory!!

Next week is the showdown, Winner takes all for the series!

For the full collection of photos (Taken by the lovely Tif) Click here Huge thanks to my Grams and Tif for the support. It's always awesome to win in front of family!

Naturally though, as form is up high, health comes down. I paid big for the victory as I left work early yesterday with a nasty head cold and cough. Rested up yesterday and today. Tomorrow will be a night ride (probably short though as my light is not working properly, grrr) Saturday another big one and Sunday 1 more big ride. That should max me out nice and ready for my taper into the Hardcore 24

I'm super digging the Supercaliber. The machine just rocks, climbs like a rocket and descends like a downhill demon. Next weekend at the Epic 8 hours is going to be awesome! Plus it will be Tif's 1st time running support crew, making sure to work out all the kinks before the hardcore! :-x

Farmal #2

Race #2 of the Farmall Training Series is again tonight. It's downpouring outside right now. I'm hoping that the conditions at the course are still good, as the radar doesn't show any rain up the way of the course. Hopefully the legs are still able to put something out tonight. I haven't been feeling top notch, and think a little cold is on its way out of my system right now. I'll get up a report asap tonight after the race as I can. I do plan on hitting MPH again and putting some xtra time in after the race for a little night ride action.

Highland Hex is postponed until the middle of June, so it looks like this is going to be my final week before the real events start kicking off. 2 weeks until the Epic 8 hour race in Canada, looking forward to that one. Followed by the Mohican 100 a few weeks later

Dawn Patrol

6:33, 115k
TSS: 280
2700m climbing
4673kj

Just a little ride :)

Farmall #1

Well, tuesday night finally got that first blowout of the legs out. Those ones always hurt. The course is so short and with so many super-steep climbs you are pretty much on the rivet the entire race. At least they re-routed the very first climb, but the course is still really brutal. I pulled down hard fought 2nd place finish to a shifting gears racer from Buffalo. I'll take it. XC isn't my game anymore so throwing down for an hour or so hurts a hell of alot more than it used to.

After the ride, I decided to put some more time in so Mark, Suzanne, Casey, Hanggi and I headed out to the MPH. We were flying around that place, the legs were a little rough on the climbs, but overall not bad. Then disaster struck. On a gnarly descent, I'm following Casey down, I see his light flop around, then his bike. He was laying a few yards away and in some serious pain. I jumped off and ran over to him and he had a nasty puncture wound in his shin about the size of a half-dollar. There was stick in the bushes, that snagged his leg and catapulted him. Loads of blood everywhere! We worked our best to calm him and used the 4-wheeler to pull him out of the trail. Mark and Hanggi took him off to the ER. There he found out that it almost went completely thru his leg! Bummer dude as it looks like he is off the bike for a few weeks. Best of luck and a speedy recovery!

Last night; Mark, Jer-bear and I pulled off a nice little ride down at BirdsEye Hollow off Keuka Lake. Put in a good barn-burner of a day. A nice little out and back for a good 3 hours. Although the woods were pretty upset at us. I took a nasty spill in the 1st 100 yards, 2 flats in the 1st mile, Jer-bear ripped up his jersey on a spill, and Mark flatted again on the way out. But the trail was some awesome stuff to behold. Cannot wait to go back and rip it up again.

Hopefully this rain doesn't do too much damage to the trails. I'm in need of a nice little epic ride down in Naples this saturday morning. Mark and I are gonna pull of some dawn patrol around 5:30 am so he can lay down some time in the am before work. I'm gonna add some x time. Working on the big build for The Hardcore 24. All is looking awesome for that as my CTL is reaching some of the highest scores I've ever seen.

Out.....

Naples: Just a small day....Farmall Kicks off tonight

Saturday was an easy day in Naples :P

• 4100+Kj's
• TSS: 266
  
  
• 83k
• 2268m of climbing (7440ft for you that can't figure out the metric system)

Wolfganger, Griesa, OCP, Cutler, East Hill, DEC, Parish Hill, DEC. Trails are in awesome shape. It was a perfect day. The supercaliber was ripping everything up and spitting it out like it was pavement. Man do I love that thing. She will get her first test tonight at Farmall...



After Naples, I headed down to the Hollow for Val Pal's birthday party. Some good eats, with some free range chicken and some free range beef from Sweet Meats down in the Naples Valley (I wish I had a website or number). Followed that up with some campfire action and then some barn badminton.



Sunday I watched the Sabres clinch and move on in the playoffs.



After that I hit up dryer rd. Right now the trails are so super perfect there, just spun the legs out and headed home.



I'll have a report on Farmall tonight!!

Dirtbag!

Basso Admits Involvement in Puerto

I continue my abstinence from road cycling. So much so more that I may never purchase another road bike again and just ride my mountain bike. Forget it, they no longer have my support. The power-tap wheelset is going up for sale. Email me if you want it, pre-ebay pricing for local yocals. I won't be buying anything related to road products or supporting a profession that encourages rampant doping.

I love my bike and pushing myself to the limit. If I can't do it within the rules, I'll work harder not pick up a goddam needle. WTF, how do you look yourself in the mirror?

That's my rant for now. I'll get a nice post up later about this weekends epic in Naples...

What a great week!

Man have we lucked out with the weather. It has been perfect these last few days. So nice in fact, I took wednesday off and we headed down to Naples. Rolled out from Bob n Ruths along the rail trail to the monster of climbs in the area. Wolfganger, 3.3k long, rises up 325+ meters and avg grade of 10.5 %. With the first section averaging 17%, a few kickers in there that top 22%!! It is one tough SOB. After suffering up that we had marked a trail at the base with the gps so we pretty much bushwacked our way to the bottom to see if we could locate it. On the road back to the next climb, Suzanne had a major blow out, tube and tire blew completely off the rim at 30kph and she pretty much destroyed her bontrager race xxx lites. What a bummer that was as it was early in the ride and we just fetched the car and she headed to the hollow to chill. After that one we headed up Flint hill, descended Sliter rd on the mt. bikes (max spd 85kph!). Then it was over to climb and descend Italy Hill. Naturally both Mark and I were attacked by the vampire rock as we both flatted in the same spot!



Climbed up and over Brink Hill for the granddaddy of all descents! The DEC, the nastiest descent around. Drops 330 meters, 7+ minutes of super technical descending. We all made it off safely as usually it is so gnalry that it doesn't let someone down without having to make a bike part offering. The supercaliber was definitely rocking on that thing, I haven't felt that smooth, fast and flowing on a descent in a loong time. Damn, I love that bike!







Last night, headed over to GBC to pick up a new WTB Rocket V saddle for the supercaliber and some new kenda tires (as the vampire rock destroyed a sidewall). Also snagged me a pink bottle cage. Now I am officially part of the pink bottle cage coalition! Put the Rocket V to the test out at MPH with Mark and Casey, it was an awesome night. Nearly full moon, just glowing orange on the horizon and lighting everything up perfectly. Trails were in great shape too!



This weekend is shaping up to be another great one and hoping to put in a nasty big day down in Naples tomorrow morning! Cannot wait!!!!!!!!

Hallejuneva!!

Noun: pronounced "Hollow-Geneva": indicates excitement, enjoyment, similar to Hallelujah.

That was the choice word of the weekend.What a great one it was too!

I busted out the Supercaliber for a brutal ride with Casey on saturday. After getting the sensor for the ergomo dialed in, we decided a nice dirt road ride in the mud and rain would break her in. We assaulted Schultz hill a nice 500 ft climb right off the bat, only to realize Casey forgot his pack, descended and did it again. That opens the legs up quite nicely for sure. We blasted around the area, either doing 15k or 65k. It was up or down all day. We drilled it pretty goddamn good to because my legs were killing me afterwards. The evening was great as we had some homemade spanokopita and played some barn badminton.

Sunday was an awesome day. After a brutal fight with the race x-lites to put a set of skinny tires on and the usual killer breakfast at the Hollow we rolled out. The fellas rocked the mt. bikes while the ladies hit it up on the road bikes. We pulled off a nice 100 miler with loads of smiles, sunburn and sweet views. We rolled into Corning and took a nice little break at Wegmans, filled up on a "real" lunch for once and continued our journey back to the Hollow. It was a welcome return to the 3 bumps with several cries of "Hallejuneva" , for the journey was over, but only temporarily.

Slowly coming along...

The Supercaliber is almost ready to rock, she's about 90% finished right now.Snipping cables and getting the ergomo up and running and swapping the saddle out are pretty much all thats left.Hopefully get that done this afternoon and have her ready for tomorrows ride.A little bitty weekend in store for her, a few back to back dirt road centuries should have her broken in pretty well. I think that will do the trick?



Pretty much running her stock, except swapped the wheels for some race x lites, the ergomo and a sweet set of polished chrome race face cranks. Those things are rocking and so pretty. Stay tuned for a full set of pics and the addition of her to my rides page...



Will be down in P-burgh to put all the miles in this weekend and will try to get everything up and posted bu Sunday night.

MPH and the arrival of the Supercaliber

Gotta love MPH.; Mark, Suzanne, Casey and hell even the Fry guy himself made an appearance for the first time in a while. We hit the trails for a nice little night ride. Conditions were pretty much perfect, a little slick in muddy in a few spots from the thunderstorm the other night, but all in all it was great. We hammered it out for about 2 hours or so. The legs were actually feeling really good after Sunday's effort. I was ripping the paragon around the trails while Casey was riding it's twin brother the Rig. I think we mighta converted someone to 29ers ;)



Looking  forward to ripping it up down in Naples this afternoon.



On an awesome note the Supercaliber has finally arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope to get her built up Friday or Saturday and bust her cherry this weekend.Not sure If I'll be able to run the ergomo on her just yet as I need a good ISIS crank so might run the crank of the paragon so I can ebay the stock. But damn, I can't wait to ride that bad boy.



Well, I gotta get some work done so I can head out early and ride. Look for a nice long post after todays ride with some pics and recap

Paris Ancaster

Well, the first effort of the season is down and out of the way.  Thank god, it was only a little over 2 hours.  That was painful for sure.  I was pretty happy with my performance in the first half of the race, but I cracked about 50-55 minutes in.  Just haven't been training for that type of power output.  My back started aching really bad and I began to not even be able to hold a single wheel at any point.  I under-estimated the water I would need and suffered pretty bad on that point also.  It was quite a bit warmer than I thought it was going to be so that didn't help.



All in all it was good to get out there and lay it down, even if it wasnt the result I was looking for.  There are always plenty of other events out there and second chances so we will see at the next one........

Time to check the form

You know, I just had this whole post typed up and then lost it, wtf!?!

Paris Ancaster is coming up this weekend. A nice 60k with a mix of road and off-road. I'll get to test the form out in the first real race of the season. We'll see how that goes, as the first one usually hurts the most. Plus it will give me a good gauge on where I sit so far in my training. I'm still a long ways from top form, but in reality Hardcore 24 is only 8 weeks away. That seems alot sooner than I thought when I type it out.

The paragon will be handling the duties for this race. Set her up with a nice pair of skinnies and let her rip. Handled the course quite nicely last year, and besides have yet to receive the supercaliber.

Brandon, Casey and I will be embarking for this adventure so I'm sure we will have a good road trip and some funny stories.I'll be sure to bring the new camera along to capture everything the best that I can...

At least the weather is looking fairly decent for this coming weekend....

Michaux Video

Here you go world premier of my home movie!

Lessons learned

Sometimes life just hits you hard. Sometimes you have to take it, sometimes you get to fight back. After a pretty crappy week full of mishaps, grams in the hospital and other crap; I'm not gonna go down without a fight!



I was away for the week and got to hit up the trails at Michaux State Forest as I was down in Gettysburg for work. Weather was great, trails were super dry. The shop in Gettysburg hooked me up with a trail map.



Headed up the mountain and into the trail. Man was I having a blast, rolling around and hitting the dirt. Then the rocks came, damn it was super tech. Loads of fun and I was on my game. Never dabbed and cleaned every section. Hell yeah. I got a new digital camera so here are some pics!



If I can figure it out I took some cool video clips and might piece em together

Weather is freaky, but that's not all

So, I had to bail on last night ride at MPH, somebody grabbed the wrong shifter without looking (me) and it was 7 speed, doh! I was pressing for time and the bike was in pieces, and didn't feel like recabling the paragon to go back to the old shifters.



Oh well, looks like I'll have to put some time in the wind and rain today.



Was down at the Geneva Bicycle Center the other day and I ordered myself up an ergomo pro for the Supercaliber, hopefully that will arrive pretty soon.  Gonna also attach a sweet set of the Bontrager Race XXX Lite Carbon cranks to her. Probably going to go with the Rock Shox Reba, but the possibility of a Fox fork is exciting. Because I'm dropping the dough on the ergomo, I'm going to run my older dual control xtr set-up and hopefully upgrade to the new stuff as the season goes on. I can't wait to rock that bad boy.



Weather looks to be dropping off for the next few days, acting all freaky. But for some reason today, there are some really freakish stories in the news

• WTF? Keith Richards snorted his dad?
• Lady on horse arrested for DUI
• Saved by a pile of poo?
• 102 yr old man takes out 25 yr mortgage?

Ok, my pc is asking me to reboot...

I am still here :)

Yah, I know.Holler at me all you can. I can't hear you. I've been swamped with lots of stuff going on in my personal life.



On a positive note, Epic Peaks Coaching is doing well!



Also spent alot of time on the mountain bike lately. Hit Dryer Rd up wednesday afternoon, then the hollow on saturday and sunday.



I'm riding the dirt again tonight at the MPH and I swear I will get some pics up and a decent writeup!!

Friends, food, views and happiness

Finished up a huge bloc of training with a killer ride down at the Hollow yesterday. Truly couldn't have asked for a better day. We met up at the hollow early and were treated to a killer spread for breakfast. After filling our tummies with all kinds of deliciousness we rolled out the door. My legs were zapped from my tt effort yesterday, but it wasn't really a big deal. It was actually quite cold out in the morning, but turned into an awesome day.

It was a great time chatting with friends, soaking up the sun and enjoying the day. The highlight of the day was our stop at the gas station. But I'll send you over to Brandon's blog for his writeup on that and a picture; You better update it quick!



Had a little misadventure where Mark, Brandon and I rolled off the front and missed a turn. We were just chugging along and chatting, about 5 miles later we decided to stop and wait as we hadn't seen anyone. Shot the crap and realized no one was coming so we headed back to where we last saw people. Of course they weren't there.Here we are in the middle of nowhere and no idea where to go, so we just pointed it towards Bath and buried ourselves till we got there. 10 miles later we picked the group back up downtown.



We pulled back into the hollow and were treated to another huge spread for dinner this time! Huge thanks to Wendy for hooking us all up with such good vittles!! :)



Here's some pics enjoy...

Naturally weather calls for 60's all week and this is a recovery week, wtf? Always works out that way!!

Rainy Day...

So I headed out for the giro today, was running a little bit behind and I wanted to ride there. No big deal, I had erin drive me to the other side of town. From there I would roll out and everything would be chill. Got to Park Ave with a few minutes to spare. They apparently were doing a demo event with Cannondale and Specialized. I milled around and gabbed with the reps a little.



Rolled out and headed out to the course. There were a few off the front, but otherwise everything was chill and relatively easy paced. An attack came in the usual spot over by Parish hill, I jumped with the group as usual and my wheel came out of the dropouts. So I pulled off to the side and fixed er up. Looked up and the group was stretched out single-file blowing people out the back left and right. Freakin yay, I gave chase for about 30 minutes picking up stragglers, but no dice. I wasn't going to regroup. At least it gave me a chance to throwdown and do some threshold work. As I hit 251 it started sprinkling so I headed home. The closer I got the harder it started to rain. I picked up the pace as I was getting pretty cold fast. Got home as it was really coming down and jumped in for a nice hot shower.



I made some changes on the site (again) not visible, but hopefully there should be no more problems for you people still stuck in the dark ages and using IE. I had to remove a javascript file that was causing problems, especially when you clicked around. Seriously though? Get Firefox! Also fixed the problem with the slideshow from the other day not working out.



Looking forward to tomorrow; should be a good one!

Epic Peaks Coaching Launched!

Epic Peaks Coaching is Official!!!



I'm super proud to announce that I can now offer coaching services! To those that are interested hop on over to EpicPeaks.com. Take a look see and let me know if you or anyone you know are interested. Feel free to email me if you are want to chat or have questions.



Also if you haven't noticed I re-did the site. Hope you guys dig it. If things are a little out of whack, please let me know

Vernal Equinox and a nasty climb

Happy First Day of Spring! Mark, Hanggi and I celebrated today with a ball buster of a ride. Mark and I picked up Hanggi on the way out of town and pointed our noses south to Naples. We fought a brutal headwind the entire ride south and east. With out legs already fatigued a little bit from that effort, we undertook a daunting task. One that no man has tried before, probably because we were far too smart to attempt. I had tried several years ago, but gave up after a brief effort that resulted in my defeat and me on my knees cursing the world. What was this task? Wolfganger climb, a brutal dirt road that rises 1500' right out of the valley of Middlesex. The road is pretty much straight up. If I were to guesstimate I'd say the average gradient is around 23%. For 35 minutes of climbing, my average cadence from my power files was less than 40rpm! The road was steep, nasty steep and being Spring, it was muddy. With the wet soil it made the effort twice as hard as you were sinking into the mud and also trying to keep your pedal stroke smooth. We ended up walking several sections. Let me just say that speedplay cleats are not made for mud. It took me a long time to get my pedals to engage again. After what seemed like eternity we hit a short flat section, only to turn the corner and realize we weren't even close to finished and the worse was just beginning. (Many curse words followed that corner).




As we finally crested the top we were exhausted, and relieved that it was over. But like any good dirt road climb, we had to go down. And down a loose, wet dirt road on skinny road wheels is best left to... us! Damn, we bombed that thing! Descending that road leads to an incredible view of the Naples valley. We were going to fast and I was having too much fun to pull out the camera. Diving in and out of the tire rutted corners, dodging potholes, sliding around on the mud and snow, all at 45 mph.

After a short break for some fuel up at the arrow mart, we headed home. Much to our enjoyment we had a nice little tailwind. It barely helped though, we were pretty crushed from the efforts of the climb earlier. We just buried our heads and plodded along. Once we got closer to home though, our legs started to show some signs of life and lead us to the promised land. We narrowly escaped the oncoming rain this time and arrived home totally wiped out

For those wondering if I was a good boy or not over the weekend; I was!!! I did a little xc skiing on saturday with lizzy at dryer rd; followed by some trainer time. Sunday was some trainer time again, but was cut short by a power outage that left me with now visual or even any fans. After an hour of that I threw in the towel


Digging Fire It Up from the album "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" by

Modest Mouse

Course Creator

I just came across this a few moments ago and it looks really cool. It's called Course Creator. Just sign up for an account and right away you can start mapping out distances, elevation, and if you have a garmin gps you can get waypoints for your ride. This looks real cool and I'll be playing around with it a bunch for sure.



Ol' man winter looks to possibly be coming back tonight and tomorrow ; Really sucks as all the snow right now is pretty much gone. It's been real cold overnight so I'm hoping to hop over to dryer rd and maybe get a mt. bike ride in this evening before the snow comes. As far as tomorrow goes, I'm probably going to have to suck it up and do a little ski time and trainer time. I hope by Sunday they can get the roads cleared back up and I can head out for the gvcc giro.



I'm sure a few people are caught up in this weekend's training dilemma, How do I train and still celebrate St. Patty's Day?? Well don't have an answer for that one. Check back Monday for a wrap-up and see how I rolled. Will I be good or bad??



Back to work....

Blame it on the Rain

So today as is usual for a wednesday, our usual group of slackers hit the road for a ride. Mark, Suzanne and I hit the road around 8 am (an hour late due to an alarm clock fiasco ;). Rode over to pick up Hanggi and Chris and then head South to Branchport to meet up with Casey. It was a pretty mellow and relatively flat route heading south, but we did have to fight a stiff headwind down.



We picked up Casey in Branchport then preceded to bury ourselves on 3 climbs in a row. I'm feeling pretty good on the climbs so far as I haven't done too many, but the super steep stuff (aka Yoder Hill) is killing me, or is it that everyone had compact gearing? At least I redeemed myself on Sid Vicious, I got dropped on the second kick, but reeled everyone in with a super effort.



After we wrapped up the climbs we headed north back to G-town. Our basic strategy was to get the ride in before the rain came as the temperatures were super awesome in the morning (50+). Pretty much as we got in our pace line and started moving the rain started coming down. Boy did it ever come down. It was absolutely pouring out and coming down in buckets. We were lucky though, and managed to have a decent tail wind. We pretty much just put our heads down and drilled it all the way back. We dropped Hanggi and Chris off and Mark, Casey and I slogged the last few miles together. Somehow miraculously we got green at every light and pulled into the driveway just in time. I think another 500 meters or so of rain and cold would've caused the 3 of us to collapse.



No photos today though due to the weather.



Listening to: Welcome To The Black Parade from the album "The Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance