Farmall Follies

Last night was the 2nd race of the Farmall Summer Series. A bit larger field as the weather was very much nicer than last weekend. I chose to ride the superfly this week in prep for this weekends race, but seemingly everyone there was on singlespeeds. WTF? I rode mine last week, guess I may have to pull it out for next weeks race.

I felt good and ready for the race. For some reason an hour on the Farmall race course seems much harder than some of the xc or 6 hour races. I had gone out yesterday morning for an hour to pull off a nice easy active recovery ride and settle the legs for the event.

Off the line I felt good and made my move in the fast section to take the lead into the woods, was overtaken after we climbed out, but took the lead back on the longest climb of the course. After that I just got into a rhythm and slowly increased my gap till I had a fairly good sized lead. Halfway through the second lap, I was jamming it up a short little climb and my left pedal suddenly snapped off. Examining it I could see a few of the threads were in bad shape and couldn't hand thread it back in on the trail. I limped out of the woods and luckily the Specialized demo trailer helped me out and got er installed back properly.

I hesitated for what I was going to do, but decided I could use the fitness and jumped back on the course to give chase. I finished out the race and did my seven laps. Even though technically I shoulda been DQ's. It was fun though and the course wore in real nice after last weeks rain storm.

Probably head out tonight either down to Naples for some climbing or over to Spencer for some more laps on the course before this weekend.

Currently playing in iTunes: The Stars Are Projectors by Modest Mouse

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!!