Busy past few days, but some great riding

My last post was a bit ago. Ever since moving out here to CO, things have been a bit of a whirlwind. It's been a super busy last 5 days, that's for sure. But it doesn't mean I haven't ridden my bike at all. How can one not when the weather is 75 and sunshine (meanwhile it's snowing back in NY!!)

I managed to get myself in gear and do a cross race this past sunday. Nothing like lining up against the pro/1/2 guys having very little time on the bike, at altitude and a lack of fitness. Somehow, I mistimed the start and was spit out the back immediately. I swear I never heard a countdown or anything similar. Chase hard, run up the sand, ride in the sand, run up the sand. It was a tough course, I ended up flatting at the start of my 4th lap and called it quits. At least I wasn't in last place though. So as if that wasn't enough, I went and signed up for the Boulder Super Cup Weekend, 2 UCI races in Boulder this weekend, Running with the big dog's again! Hopefully I'll do a bit better.

Speaking of dog's I managed to get Lizzy out on her first trail ride since she broke her pelvis. I took her over to Green mt. on the singlespeed on Monday. I'm guessing the loop was about 12-14k, but some good climbing. This isn't east coast trails, as she's stuck running the whole time and no place for short cuts. But, she did great! Even when she saw a herd of mule deer, she managed to heed my command and not chase!! Maybe that truck she hit, knocked some sense into her!

Today was a bit of an epic day. I was in Boulder at 8am for the group cross practice ride. There was around 100 people or so! We rolled over to the Elks club in town and did a nice 25 minute or so effort. Mine, was cut short as my tire was soft and I had to steal a pump and get some air in it as I was banging my rim all over the place and didn't have a spare tire. After some air in the tire, I managed to get some good quality work in. Shortly after we re-grouped and headed over to North Boulder Park and did a quick loop on the grass. I felt much better at that then at the Elks course, but I'm still getting used to the high intensity efforts.

The ringer for the day was the road ride with Jeff Kerkove. We met up after the cx ride, and he dragged me up Sunshine Canyon to Gold hill. Head over to his site for a nice video of me suffering in my 39x25. I need a compact.

How Badly? Here's my cadence from the ride



The little town on the top was pretty cool, and had a nice little store with some awesome homemade goodies and a kick-ass cast-iron stove!

Little Village of Gold hill

At least when I was grinding up the hill slowly, I was able to take in some epic scenery

Wasn't the only one suffering though!

Tomorrow night should be interesting, gonna meet a group for a night ride at Green Mt!

Beautiful Weekend

Even though yesterday was an incredible day, by the time I got home from the Coaching Summit, I was wiped out. I caught up on laundry and a few other household chores and generally just lounged.

Though Today, I made up for missing out yesterday. I was up early and took lizzy for a quick run around the reservoir. 2 laps x 2 miles. It's her first real run since she broke her pelvis. She did great, I was on the cross bike and had to work a few times to keep up with her. I ended up flatting and that pretty much took us home.

After that I kitted up and headed thru Bear Creek up to do a quick loop on Green Mt. Just put some time in and rack up the kj's.

From Bear Creek and Heil Ranch

I hooked up with the new boss, Frank from FasCat Coaching for a spin around Heil Ranch. After riding at Green Mt. My idea of Colorado trails was blown wide open today. The trails were frigging awesome and super tech. Super rocky and requiring you to really work the bike the whole time. My pics really don't do the trail any justice. It was far too much fun picking the lines and riding the trail, than to stop and snap some pics. I might need to grab me a helmet cam sometime soon!

Ended up with about 2100kj for the day! And pretty worked over. Hopefully the weather holds out

I have no friggin clue why a blue line shows up on my pics, could be time for a new camera. I'm too lazy to go through each photo and touch up in photoshop. Click the link for tons more photos of the day

From Bear Creek and Heil Ranch

From Bear Creek and Heil Ranch

From Bear Creek and Heil Ranch

Busy, Busy

Been just crazy these past few weeks. Don't even know where to begin here on the blog. This past wednesday I did manage to get out for a good ride with the GBC and Hollow crew prior to my departure.

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

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

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

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

Weekend Wrap (Full Report)

It was a long weekend of racing and driving in the car. Friday afternoon, I set out for the 4 hour drive north to my brothers place in Malone. Giving me about an hours drive to Whiteface Mt. for saturday's race.

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

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

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

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

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

Now it's time for 'cross

Currently playing in iTunes: Revelry by Kings of Leon

New Bike Day

Yesterday was new bike day! One of the greatest days for bike racers. I got the email that my bike had arrived from the crew at Geneva Bikes and rushed out after work to start the assembly.

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

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

From Cross 09

From Cross 09

From Cross 09

From Cross 09

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

Burning Bike Festival

The first ever Burning Bike Festival was held at Ontario County Park this past weekend. OCP has come along ways, it was once just a stopover as the Finger Lakes Trail ran thru it. Now it's being fully utilized and many new (and awesome) trails have been put in, and are in great shape and ready to ride.

I skipped out on the Friday night festivities as it was pouring out and I had no desire to camp in the rain. I got everything together Saturday am and headed over to the park. While a few were out riding, I managed to get a ride in on the singlespeed (with my new Black Ops Carbon Fork!) with Evil Steve and Andy August. After a few loops they dropped off and I decided to put the SS to the test and descend down off the hill and over to Cutler to climb some hills and do some more descending. The fork and the bike ride great and it's a fun play bike.

After the ride it was chow-time and then over to camp. Original plans were for a night ride, but the heavy rains and beer consumption kept that at bay.

The Burning Bike

Evil Steve's Glow Bike

mmmm...tasty

Schwarty having a Yee-haw contest

Schwarty moments later

It poured all night so Sunday was a crapshoot, but after a good hearty breakfast, and some consumption of non-alchoholic beverages, Casey, Jer-Bear and I headed out for a ride. We did a good loop around OCP on the slick trails, then decided to explore a trail we had never ridden. A top secret descent off the park. It was a great descent with a good mix of tech, super steep, super fast and fun. After that we headed over to Cutler and did a quick loop on the orange trail. It was a good day, a bit humid and windy, but much nicer than the prior day's tremendous rainstorms.

This week will be some short rides, wait for the cross bike and prep for the Whiteface Race and Roots, Rocks and Ridges race. My final weekend of XC racing!

back to laying on the couch.....

08 Humbler Slideshow

Yesterday was worthless. I slept for 18 out of 24 hours. I'm still a little bit tired today, but no where near yesterday. I consumed probably 5x my recommended caloric intake also yesterday, and it was great. Eating is good!

Resting up today, then back to the grinder tomorrow

Wednesday's Moonlight Ride in Naples

This past wednesday saw the band get back together again. Mark, Suzanne, Casey, Hanggi, myself and even Brandon Furber and Chris Frey! We had quite the group. We decided to meet down in Naples and traverse the first loop of the Humbler, aka "dirty thirty". 30 miles of brutal climbing and insanely ripping descents.

We started off attempting to bush-whack our way through a newly built trail that overlooks the Naples creek, but the gang forgot that things grow during the summer and not during winter/spring. It was like Jurassic park, trying to get through a jungle. I nearly ripped my rear der off, and ended up bending the hangar and having a bunch of crap wrapped around my cassette. After we got through and to East Hill, we decided we'd have to skip that section because there is too much work that needs to be done in too little of time. After our usual grind up East hill, we decided we'd do a bomber run down the Hanglider trail (not in the Humbler as technically it's not rideable)

The hanglider is one of the fastest and fun descents around, super steep, lots of twists and turns, mud, jumps, etc. Casey showed us all how not to ride a water bar as he thought the best way to do this was only on your front wheel, with your chest on your stem. He managed get ahold of that bucking bronco, but the trail eventually wrestled him down when a good set of thorns reached out and wrapped around him and tried to drag him into the earth. Luckily; Mark and I were following closely enough and could rescue him. It took some saws and clippers, but we eventually defeated the mutant thorn bush. Casey wasn't the only victim though as Hanggi destroyed a wheel (just riding along!) and Chris flatted.

Our next adventure had us taking the long climb up Italy Hill to clear that trail, and then descend back down. Luckily, the anaerobic olympics had been held earlier this season as we climbed a little easier this time around, but still had quite a few major trees down that we had to clear. At the top after doing some good trail maintenance we managed to catch an incredible evening sunset.

It's awful difficult to explain the beauty, but a nice pine woods backdrop, with a fire engine red, fading to an incredible indigo blue, fading into an inky black, with stars peppering the scene. All this while standing in a tall field of white carrot flowers. It was quite mesmorizing and will stick with me for a long time.

After that, we got to firebomb down the trail with our lights. Descending at night, on high speed tech is just incredibly thrilling. Your reaction times need to be ninja quick at high speed, because you have a flash of a second to react as most likely, you really can't see what's coming up on the trail. Suzanne fell victim to Italy Hill and managed a pinch flat on the way down, after a quick fix it was time for the last climb.

Basset/Brink hill would brings us up to the top and ready for the DEC descent. Our non-chalant group ride quickly turned into a testosterone fest on the final climb. Hanggi took off early and established a gap, while Casey, Brandon and I rode tempo. Upon seeing Hanggi no longer increasing, I started to up the tempo to catch. Brandon followed and we caught Hanggi and accelerated up Brink Hill. As we climbed the steep pitch of Brink, Hanggi dropped off the pace leaving Brandon and I to ride side-by-side down the road, neither of us able to drop the other, nor willing to provide the shelter of a draft. In the end it'd have to be a draw.

The ride finished off with the DEC descent, bone-jarring, cliff-traversing, super tech. All at high speed in the dark. Mark decided to take the lead and I followed. At such high speeds and the light bouncing around, I was truthfully riding completely blind. Working only on instinct and the feel of the rubber to the dirt. After having followed Mark's wheel for the past 10 years or so, one has a good feel for the rider. I trust his lines and followed him and can read his body movements perfectly and adapt to the trail just by watching him and never looking at the ground. We all managed to make it down and out of the trail safely.

It was an incredible ride, and I'm bummed I forgot my camera :(
Best of luck to Mark/Suzanne and Ej and Jimmy this weekend at the Hot August Nights. I'll be finishing off my final weekend of prep work before the Shenandoah 100

Mount Snow Pics and some Road Riding

Here's the pics of the men's pro XC Race. Enjoy the slideshow



I actually have some pretty cool pics of my road ride that I did while I was there, but they decided to save to my camera memory and not the SD card so I can't get them off.

This really cool chicka I know, just hooked me up with a nice pair of DOT Orange Oakley's. I'll for sure be sporting them at the 6HOP this weekend!

I got my powertap wheel back on the whopper. I really haven't been doing much training on the road bike this season. I really need to. It's just so much more fun to go for a long mt. bike ride. But the Superfly can only handle so much and the parts are starting to show their racing and training age. I replaced a bunch of stuff on the whopper and she actually shifts to a gear when I do. I can actually see the teeth on the cassette rather than just a solid block of grime! To celebrate the tour and all that is road worthy, I'm gonna join up for the Thursday night road ride!

Hopefully a few show up!

Currently playing in iTunes: Kids by MGMT

Mount Snow

Back from Mount Snow, VT. Fresh from the green mountains of vermont. A bit tired and still not fully unpacked from the whirlwind that was the past 2 weeks of racing.

Ej at Crankskins was gracious enough to offer me a couch in exchange for working and helping out at the booth. I certainly hope it was a success for him. It's a great product and I think with some time it will take off.

We arrived Wed Night, set up the booth then hit the course. I laid down 2 laps on the new style course. It was ok, nothing super special. But I preferred the older "original" course. This one just seemed a bit watered down. The climb was just one long climb to the top, and the descent was shortened up and missed out on some of the fun stuff. I rode the course a bit over the next few days and even managed to get in a decent road ride in.

I did end up signing up for a race. I forked over my $75 for the pro Super D. I ended up climbing up to the top of the mountain with Chris and we hit the course, it was a blast and not super technical. So on early sunday am, I got in line for the lift and headed to the top. On my practice run, I was feeling awesome and killing it. Then a few people were standing on the trail in a tight section, I torqued it and broke my chain. Luckily some guy in a Giant Jersey that won the race where you ride up and down the mountain gave me his tools (I didn't have a chain breaker). I fixed the chain and finished my run.

I got in the huge line and got to move to the front as they were waiting for me at the top. On my way up, I chatted it up on the lift with the chick who would go on to win the really hard race where you ride for only 20 minutes. Funny, I didn't even know who she was. As I was the last rider to line up, I had a crappy starting spot. The run sucked and I was pretty much fighting it out for last place. Running, especially with your bike uphill is not fun. Seeing as I was so far back, I basically just sat in and didn't try to kill myself or anyone else by trying to make some crazy passes. On the homestretch, I was fighting for 3rd to last and managed to just stack it around 35mph on a huge waterbar. I landed on my head, and bounced a few times. It was right in front of everyone. It was awesome. I haven't had a crazy crash like that in so long. I wish I woulda crashed a few times in practice, I kinda enjoy being sore from a good crash (I'm a sadist). Anyways after a few people came over to see if I was still alive (or just working on an audition for superman) I got back on and finished up. Dead last! Awesome. Did I mention I did this on a hardtail, while everyone else was pretty much on 5-inch dual squish? I gotta get some street cred for that, right?

I'll have some pictures up later tonight.

Happy Birthday America!

It's been a long past few days of bike riding. Nothing really over the top insane, but just some random adventures and fun with friends.

This past Wednesday, Mark, Suzanne and myself put in a good 57 mile mix of road, rail-trails and cinder path, with a mix of some ATV trails for good measure.

Cruising along the Erie Canal

Rail Trail Express

Thursday, I headed down to the hollow for Casey's big birthday bash. The usual shenanigans occured, including a fireworks war and a 3am night ride occured, but I have no recollection nor evidence that it happened. I have some mysterious bruises and had a hangover the next day. I'm pretty sure we rode and rode hard as is the usual.

Friday was some more tooling around the Hollow and then heading over to the "bog". The ride came to a great end as Mark, Casey and I had a dogfight down Hungry Hollow road. 40+mph dirt road descending and 10ft 2-wheeled 3-wide drifting was a blast. Someday we'll catch that fighter plane style descent on film in all its glory.

War time Relics

Dogs and Bikes

Climbing up Shultz before the carnage down Cannonball Run

Casey and Val rolling along

Sunday was an epic day at Shindagin Hollow. The hollow-geneva (pronounce hallejeneva) crew spent the day bombing descents, jumping roots, hitting doubles, crashing in creek beds, cartwheeling through the woods, power sliding, catching air of bridges, listening to the casey cackle, world-cup racing, flat-tire fixing, smiling, and have a grand ol time as we put in 30+ miles. We pretty much took it easy up the climbs then just ripped it as hard as possible down the descents, racing the whole way and having a blast.

Chasing Casey and Mark through the woods

Gorrila Bear?

After a while we decided to take breaks on the descents (fixing Jer's wheel)

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Prep work before the downhill assaults

Hardcore 24: Long Version

The Hardcore 24 was this past weekend. I raced the solo category for my 4th SOLO 24 hour event. I finished 2nd overall at the even 2 years ago with 16 laps and last year had turned in 9 laps before the race was called. My goal this time out was to turn in 20 laps and keep consistent.

The first few laps, my energy was good and strong. Even with the poor weather and amounts of rain, I was still motivated and ready to race. I ran consistent and actually geared down on the climbs so I wouldn't exert a tremendous amount of energy early. I kept myself in check even though, I really did want to race like it was a 6 hour event. I turned a good first lap, and was the first solo to cross the line and one of the top 5? riders. I grabbed my first feed and kept on moving. I banged out the next few laps and early on was hesitating to take a feed at the midway point of the course. I was using sustained energy and my bottle still had plenty, but after a few laps I wasn't making it to the end of the lap and started grabbing feeds swinging through the pits.

Turning and Burning

After I finished my 6th lap, I came into the pits for a short break. I ate a delicious turkey and mayo sandwich, grabbed some advil, got the drivetrain cleaned and headed out after a few minutes of my feet and the saddle. It was somewhere around this point that 2nd place had closed the gap on me. I saw him in a few spots and pushed it in the singletrack, but eventually he managed to get a gap and get away from me. After running a few solid night laps, I had pulled him back in and eventually passed him. My plan at 10 laps in (10:30pm) was to take a solid rest, change into some dry clothing and give the bike a good overhaul. The muddy conditions were taking it's toll on the bike and a fresh set of clothes and the iPod were what I was looking forward to. I managed to break my front brake lever when I hit a tree a few laps prior. It was functioning, but needed a few zip ties to hold it together properly. A cleaning of the bike made a huge difference in the shifting and dry clothes never felt better. Another turkey and mayo sandwich and I was back out on the the course.

Grabbing a feed at the midway point

I was feeling great, I swapped to coke and water for my feeds. Was eating gels and clif bloks and my energy levels were up. I buried myself for a bit as I had been overtaken during my long break. I ran a bunch of consistent laps and held strong all through the night. I pulled back into 1st and was keeping tabs on my time checks. Sometime around 4am, I pulled into the pits to take a quick 5 min break, get the bike cleaned and eat another turkey sandwich. I emerged feeling great and still had a decent gap on 2nd.

Dawn brought newfound energy and resilience. I was motivated and hungry at this point. I still was feeling great and working hard. I was getting consistent time checks at the midway and end of each laps. I was putting almost 10 minutes per lap into 2nd. My pace was holding up and I wasn't losing time. Adrenaline was flowing and I was feeling great. Around 10am, I was up somewhere around the 40 minute range and disaster struck. Horrible pains in the tendons behind my left knee. Top of my calf and lower quad, were burning. I was babying my left leg and having trouble putting power down on the climbs. I gritted my teeth, pushing my bike up each steep climb and trying to make the time up on the descents.

Consistency is key, while hr was dropping each lap, my power levels pretty much remained the same. I averaged 1:07 per lap!

Hoping my time gap would stick and I could grind it out till the end. I crossed the line and headed out for my 19th lap, knowing I could finish it, but could I finish a 20th and could I 'race' for position? My gap was still in the mid 40's at the start of the lap. Suzanne actually caught and passed me, knowing I was in pain, hoping it wasn't going to be a "24 Solo" incident. I focused everything I had on finishing that 19th lap, and when I came through the halfway point, 2nd placed had conceded and was no longer on course. Man, was I exalted at that point. I lagged up the long climb and walked a few portions of the trail to ease the pain in my leg, but slammed it on the descent and back to the finish line. I checked to make sure I didn't need to go out for another and headed to the pits, only had to wait an hour and I could cross the line 1 final time for victory!!!

Victory!! My eyes are closed because I had been sleeping the last 30 min

Post race chatting it up with 2nd (white on the right)

Ma works the zoom a little too much on the podium

I had an excellent pit crew to help me out. My mother was there for every need for all 24 hours, at every lap and midway point when we swung through the pits. Jeremy (camp manager) took care of setting up the camp on Friday and taking care of my bike along with Dave the mother-f'in man. Special thanks also to Wendy, Val, Doyle and everyone else that was there and helped out.

Ma hands off another feed as I ready for another lap

Also a Huge thanks to my sponsors! Gary Fisher for making the best and fastest bike ever, the Superfly. Who says you can't race a hardtail at a 24 hour race? The Geneva Bicycle Center, taking care of my bike maintenance and accessory needs. EJ at Crankskins.com for pimping me some fat 29er Crew Custom Crankskins. Jeff at Ergon Grips for Keeping my hands comfy the whole race. Also thanks to Ay-Up Lighting for making some bright and lightweight lights, making it easy to see at night and not having to worry about carrying any extra weight. And a big thanks to Park Ave Bikes for putting on the race!

Huge Congrats also to Mark and Suzanne Hartman of the 29er Crew for not only taking the mixed doubles win, but the doubles overall!!! Also Congrats to Casey Conte and Matt Hanggi for taking the doubles win and 2nd doubles overall!!

Hosed after the Race

I won a nice 29er rigid Singlespeed!!!

More time in Naples

Naples, NY is just too much fun to stay away from. Trails are about 45 minutes away give or take and offer multiple routes, incredible scenery, lung searing climbs and bike busting descents. With the trail building going on at Ontario County Park (check the map for the gory details), the trail network in the area is getting even better.

Last night, I headed for another go with Matt Hanggi down in Naples.

Yup, we climbed up to the top of that overlook and we are heading down into that valley!

The plan was to get down, do a few sections, grab the lights and do a little bit more. I've been doing a ton of riding lately and getting a little dis-satisfied with the constant intake of gels, liquid supplements, bars, etc. Last night I decided to go a whole different route:

The dawn of a new age in riding nutrition

We managed to pull of a nice little ride. Stats: 3:15, 52k, 1350m of climbing.

First 10k was a nice little road climb to the trail head

Right of the bat we hit a nice little 10k climb. I noticed I was feeling quite good and decided to test myself a little bit. I climbed about as well as I could. I wasn't ever really suffering and I toiled along on the flats not pushing it as hard as I could've. After a bit I realized I was on pace to set a new PR, so I started grinding away the last 2-3k to set a better time. I managed to climb it in 29:30, a good record, the usual 'decent' time to climb the hill is around 40 minutes. A far cry from my PR on the road (23:30), but I'll take it for sure.

At the top we dove into OCP where Hanggi has been spending plenty of time, marking manicuring and ensuring the existence of the trail network. Got to ride a few new sections. It seems every time I head to Naples, I'm treated with a new trail. Kinda like Edmund's turkish delight heading down there. Can't ever seem to get enough.

Superfly is rocking and rolling as usual

After the awesomely fun OCP descent, we headed over to Cutler to ride the Orange Trail. It's a main staple on the Hardcore 24 course coming up next weekend. I've ridden and raced the trail numerous times and it never disappoints. Besides I'll need to know it inside and out as I'll be half asleep riding it here in a few weeks. We were greeted by the Wednesday night Crew at the parking lot for Cutler. 20 or so fellas, out escaping from the wives, riding and sharing a few brews. We chatted and hung for a bit, but the lights were at the car and dusk was approaching fast. It's nice to see a large group of riders like that out and having fun.

After a brief pit stop at the car to mount the lights, we headed up the Parish road Carriage Trail climb. I was still feeling pretty good so I was able to gave it a little bit of gas there as well. At the top we jumped into the Hi-Tor section and had fun negotiating the slick roots and rocks from the short and light rain that we had just ridden through. It's always fun to work on the tech skills, even more fun at night!

Luckily we emerged from Hi-Tor unscathed and were ready for the finale, the DEC descent. Blasting down the descent at night is a little hairy. High speeds, singletrack on the edge of a ravine, shale rock gardens and some good drops keep you on your edge. The first section, I might as well have closed my eyes. Hitting the shale river bed, my light was bouncing around and creating all kinds of funky tricks on the eyes. I just pointed the Superfly straight and kept moving forward. Ate up the trail with ease.

I'm feeling great and ready for this weekend's Plattekill 6 hour race. round #2 of the NYSERS.

Currently playing in iTunes: Step Right Up by Black Lips

Amar-Ricaaaa

So I backed out of the Mohican 100, hopefully I'll get my entry fee or at least part of it refunded. I'm looking to save the legs for Plattekill and the Hardcore 24.

Tuesday night was the final wrap-up of the Farmall Series. I finished 3rd overall, and 2nd in my age category for the series. Congrats to Corey Knowles on taking the series win! I felt really great racing and the power numbers were pretty good for the event. While short course racing isn't my forte anymore, I actually felt great and worked the course to the best I could. I had it handed to me fair and square.

Memorial day weekend was a great time to get loads of training in. Saturday was a little short due to Lake's birthday party, but I snuck out on the road and got some time in the sun.

Sunday was an awesome day. Jim Hogan joined me down at Bristol to kick off a nice killer ride. We climbed up Stid hill and then dropped the tower drop. We both managed to make the final chute (straight drop!) and headed over to OCP. At the Ontario County Park, we ripped up the new trails. With some time those trails are going to be great and can't wait till a race is hosted on them. We crushed the Orange trail descent and headed over to Cutler. There's still a few trees down there, but hopefully they'll be gone come race day for the Hardcore.

Jim ventured on with me into Naples, where I made the mistake of not picking up any water or taking any of his. As he headed back to the car and I pointed towards Parish, he offered me water, but I was sure the store in Italy Valley would be open, right? Climbing Parish was fun, but not nearly as fun as dropping the jump-off/hanglider trail into the valley.

From there I climbed up Burke and that was a good suffer-fest, and started to get really low on water. I was rationing it out as much as I could. I blazed it down past the outback inn and up to Brink/Basset, where I managed to run completely out of water. Still having to charge on through Hi-tor and then down the DEC, I finally made it into Naples 40 minutes after running out of water and nearly 2 hours after rationing. Needless to say, I was a bit dehydrated. I grab some refreshments and got an immediate "ice-cream headache" from the gatorade it was so cold.

After fueling up and re-hydrating I turned and climbed Griesa-to Gannett and back to OCP. Descended off that and headed towards the backside of Bristol. I really love that climb and I was flying up it and putting out awesome power considering I was nearly 7.5 hours into my ride at this point. I wrapped up the ride with a killer descent down the face of Bristol. 8 hours/135k, somewhere around 10-11,000'ft of climbing. 8 major climbs......

Monday was a tempo day on the roadbike, plan was to ride around Seneca Lake. After 60k of fighting a massive headwind I decided to turn around, only for the wind to pull a 180, 20k later and give me another headwind the whole way home, ugh!

No mohican= time for another epic this weekend.

I leave you this pic that sums up our society: Amar-Ricaaaa

Soul Session in Naples

This past wednesday headed down to Naples and met up with Casey, Jeremy and Hanggi for a nice soul session. Trails were incredible and I'm planning on heading back down this coming sunday for an all day session.

It was a good ride and I felt much better than I did the day before at the Farmall race. Loads of climbing and some epic brake pad burning descents to match,