Big Weekend

I'm retired to the couch for the rest of tonight. It's been a big weekend of some great riding(for the end of the season anyways). I'm hosed currently, but I'm at least not coughing anymore!

Saturday, I finally finished my first cross race!! I'll happily take my place as the last finisher (at least I didn't get lapped). Last time I finished dead last was the first road race I ever finished. 2 years later, I was a Cat II. So I'll take it as lessoned learned. I rode all the way down to the course as it was just south of c-470. It was a good 45 minute ride down, and then I got in a good 30 minute warm-up. I put on a great show rolling to the set of barriers near the beach. My left foot never unclipped, and I barrel rolled right into the barrier and went down pretty hard. It was a nice display of form for all the fans, that were congregated in the area. After I dusted myself off, I was dusted in the race, but grunted it out and rode hard. The course was more mt. bike-ish with lots of singletrack, some fire-road, a paved bike path and some barriers thrown in for good measure. It was a super fast course. After the race, I rode back home. Within 10 minutes all the food I had brought was scarfed down. It didn't make much of a difference. I was bonking hard on the ride home, as I slogged up a little rise, I located a gas station and filled my stomach full of hostess orange cup-cake goodness and a snickers bar. Man, did it ever hit the spot. Within a few minutes I was back at it and hammered home. All said and done, I managed a good solid 4 hours of riding!

Today, I was up early and decided to grab the road bike and head up into the mountains. It was an awesomely beautiful day, warm and sunshine. I headed up to Evergreen, then decided to switch my route and head up towards Mt. Evans. Didn't make it to Mt. Evans, but made it up to around 10-11,000 feet or so before I decided to turn around.

Elk Meadows From Evergreen to Squaw Pass

Getting Colder as I get Higher From Evergreen to Squaw Pass

I climbed pretty much for 2+ hours till I decided to turn around, I was getting chilly just climbing as it was mostly in the shade. The views were just incredible, and the roads were lightly traveled and super twisty and fun.

Beautiful Views From Evergreen to Squaw Pass

The Rockies From Evergreen to Squaw Pass

There's a bunch more pics so click thru to view the album

The descent down was incredibly fun. However, I didn't expect to head that high up and was only wearing a vest and arm-warmers. Descending at 60kph and 25 degrees in the shade meant instant brain freeze. I had to stop a few times in the sun, take a few minutes to warm myself back up. I made it to Evergreen, teeth chattering and hands numb and hit up Starbucks for a coffee to warm-up. Once the blood was flowing again, I floored it the final 11 miles down to Morrison. It was an awesomely windy descent, mostly in the sun and the lower I went, the warmer things were, which made me happy!

All said and done, I managed another good 4 hours. It was a heavy front loaded ride as I hit 1800kj in the first 2.5 hours and only 400 in the last 1:30!

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

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

2008 Humbler

2008 Humbler is in the books. I'm completely wiped out today.

111 miles, 14,030ft of climbing, 12:19 of riding, 6229kj, 4 finishers. It took us 3 friggin years to finally complete our grandiose plan of ultimate misery.

Mark, Casey, Hanggi and myself soldiered on for the final loop. Spent, exhausted, sleeping in the middle of roads. We surged, we struggled, we finally slayed the dragon.

I'm exhausted today, far too exhausted to do a full write up currently. Pics and more to come

In the meantime, go buy my bike

Great Course...Bad Legs

Headed south to Virginia over this past Labor Day weekend for the Shenandoah Mountain 100. Arrived mid-day on Saturday, it was brutally hot. I set up the tent, registered and went out for my pre-ride of the first climb.

Heading towards the climb, the legs were a little stiff from the drive, so I hit a few openers and was feeling great. I was flying up the climb doing my sprints and was 100% ready to go. The first climb was simply the same thing over and over until the top. Climb a little, left hand bend with a slight descent, tight right hand turn into a steep climb. Probably did that at least 10 or more times over. It made a sharp left got a little steeper and a little looser up to the top. I turned around rolled to the bottom and made it back to the campground in time for the free spaghetti dinner.

Hit the tent around dark for the 5am wakeup. After about an hour a little sprinkle started, then a full on downpour till at least midnight. Did I mention my tent leaks? Every few minutes I had to move to keep from getting wet. Finally it stopped, then the fireworks started. After the fireworks were the bullhorn whoooop-whooooooooop just about every half hour right until 5am. Needless to friggin' say, I really got no sleep whatsoever. Knowing my history of racing after getting no sleep due to jackasses, I knew it was going to be a tough day. Little did I know how tough....

5am the gong goes off. I get up with everyone else, bleary eyed and tired. Slam a starbucks mochachinno, and a little bagel. Prepped and to the line. 500 eager racers in the middle of a field behind the lead moto, making a mad dash for a right hand turn onto a road 100 yards later. Announcer makes the pre-race speech and finishes with a "Ok, let's go" Moto wasn't even started yet, half take off, half hesitate, I go. Get to the first climb, feeling pretty good. I'm comfortable in the top 30 or so, perfect where I want to be for my sub 9 hour goal. Climb well, feeling good, yo-yoing in a few spots where I try to keep the effort low if I go to hard, top the climb about 2-3 minutes shy of Eatough and the front group.

Mad fast descent then over to the next climb. Singletrack slogfest, muddy, steep, rocky, narrow. Half are waking a few are riding. I start to feel like crap, no mojo to get going on the climb. Decide to walk, I walk slow and finally get to the top after losing about 50 spots. Start the singletrack descent and saddle snaps out of place. Have to jump off and fix, bolt was super tight, but fixed and got going. Make up about 20 places on the bombingly long singletrack descent. Feeling good and happy about going down.

Hit the dirt roads and picking people off, end up getting into a big group and just roll along. Dump the group shortly after and working with a few riders on the slightly downhill dirt roads and we are flying, picking off tons of riders. Feeling strong, taking good pulls. I'm working with Cheryl Sornson and Trish Stevenson (eventual female 1st/2nd). The 3 of us actually split the group and take off on the road climb and I give them a hand to help chase down Betsy Shogren. I eventually drop them on the road climb and make it to the aid station. They made a quick stop, and I stopped for some food and bathroom break. Never did see them again.

I start the long climb up the 3rd main climb and I'm feeling completely hosed. Wondering if I'll ever even finish. No snap in the legs, barely turning over the pedals. Granny gearing at 50rpm, while singlespeeders are flying by in 32x20. I have to stop and stretch my legs a few times. I finally make it to the top after what feels like forever. I got a sick, insanely fun singletrack off-camber 20+ minute long descent, caught a few people back and I'm having a blast. I hit the road after the aid station, having just slammed a coke. Catch a few riders and as we keep catching the group keeps getting bigger. I realize I feel pretty good on the road and no one else remotely wants to work. I roll ahead without anyone following. Have a good minute lead into the next singletrack climb. I decide to just climb at my pace. I feel good, climbing great. It's super techy and rocky, keeps going and going and going. Continually techy, continually up. I hadn't had any real food in a bit and feel my energy levels low. Decide to sit down and eat a bar. Lose a few spots, but get to the top with a few locals for the descent. According to them it was the best singletrack around. I'm following, riding blind, but not having trouble keeping up. Descent is sick and just a blast of fun. End up getting a little wide in a corner and front wheel washes out. I hit the deck, get up, go back to find the powertap cpu and get started. Get going again, and end up giving a tube to Betsy Shogren as she flatted for the 2nd time (she was waaay out in front early). Even after that, I railed the descent and caught the original riders I had started with.

Aid station, then death march. Long, long false flat on the road. End up pulling the trigger as the coke doesn't settle well. Paved road was forever long false flat, onto a dirt road roller/false flat. I'm feeling spent. I have to stop a few times to stretch the legs and keep from just falling over on the bike. Keep going, and onto a long fire-road climb. It went on forever, literally. I think it was a good 90+ minutes or longer after already having climbed slowly for the past 45 mintues. Make it to the aid station, spent. Looking forward to the descent. Refuel with pizza, and a few bites of food. Get ready to bomb, hit some fast double-track down. Then climb, and continue climbing. WTF! where's the downhill. Keep climbing for the next 45 minutes. Now, I'm seriously dead meat on the bike. I walk for a portion to gain some energy.

Finally the descent starts, feel great, flying down it. Pass a bunch and get to the road, feeling good and flying, final climb. We've been over this already, but the legs again shut down. Don't know what's wrong but keep going as slowly as I can. Finally over the top and hit the fireroad descent. It's almost over. I end up catching another rider, we're riding and chatting. Pretty much all downhill, he suddenly takes off. No idea why really so I follow, we quickly come off the road into a congested area, shit we are super close. I'm following hard on his wheel, into the campground. Whoa, he just railed a crazy jump in the grass, so I nail it too, get some good air. Can hear all the people cheering about the jump. Have to land and start sprinting hard, I pull right up next to him, but carrying so much speed, I can't swing the corner and have to go wide.

79th place 9:46 official. 9:02 ride time. Considering I felt like absolute death, I'm fairly ok with that.

Click thru for full size

Immediately grab 2 beers from my cooler and head to the creek under the bridge and just chill in the ice cold rain water from the night before. I'd been thinking about the water and beer for 99.5 miles!

Naples vids

I was able to get out this weekend and head down to Naples for some more of my favorite trails. While I'm researching proper helmet cams, I took my regular camera and took some video of the stuff I could ride one handed.





The above image is the Altitude graph from the gps on my iPhone. That's right for $2.99 I know have a full fledged gps that I can upload and review in google earth

Also, while I managed to have a great and fun day, I managed to be in the right place at the right time and caught a few guys going off the hanglider jump. It was insane and fun to watch at the same time.



Things are perfectly on track for the SM100, cannot wait. Time to pull out all the stops and throw down!

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

Poor Lizzy

I was all prepped up Friday afternoon and ready to head to the God's Country Marathon at Ski Denton in PA. I was dialing in the Superfly, ready to put the pedal back on and all would be good. Then disaster struck, literally. My dog, Lizzy, who was sitting next to me took off suddenly. Darting for the end of the driveway at full speed. Mind you, she's a hound mix and in that short distance she'll top out at 30mph. As soon as Lizzy took off, my spidey sense went crazy and I took off after her. I was a bit late as she entered the road she plowed into the side of a vehicle. Yelping and barking, I managed to get her to calm down. An overnight stay at the vet with some major painkillers and she was back home on saturday am, limping and sore. She's still yet to put weight on her right hind leg, but all seems ok from what could have been a major disaster. Guess she is gonna be laid up for a bit and that means no more riding for her for the rest of the summer :(

On a good note though, I did manage to get out saturday after I made sure she was home and settled ok. I headed down to Honeoye Lake where this weekends NYSERS finale, the Suicide Six will be held and put some laps in the newly modified course.




The course is completely changed for the 2008 race. I'm not in agreement with the changes as I thought the course was one of the best ever the original way it was run. The infamous "rattler" 800ft super technical descent has been completely removed and the course is run backwards. This essentially makes it an entirely new course as the trail is hardly ever ridden backwards as the 8 mile loop is almost always run in the original course direction.



I can't complain though, it's going to be an awesome event and after putting in a few laps I was able to get the flow of the course.





Naturally though as I was onsite, I had to take a run down the "rattler" for old times sake.

Sunday, I pulled out the road bike and headed for the hills. I don't think I've pulled of a road century this season? So it was a good time to put in a nice hard one with ginormous amounts of climbing. Having saturdays efforts in my legs left me a little tired and weary, but I managed to drill it for the majority of the day. I headed south to some of my favorite hills into Penn Yan then over Naples for even more climbing.

It ended up being a great day (no pics as rain was forecasted) and by the end of the ride the legs finally loosened up. I was quite a bit tired post-ride, but damn excited as my newborn nephew was in town and I got to hold him for the first time!

Here's hoping the legs are good and the rain holds off for tomorrow nights Farmall XC!!

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

Singlespeed to Superfly

I headed down to Hollister-Spencer on Saturday to burn some laps on the singlespeed. Conditions were typical Spencer. Muddy in sections, but fully rideable. I felt a little sluggish on the SS. I went out and did a road crusher Friday after work and was still feeling the effects of that. As a result, I only spent an hour on the trail as I was having a hard time and struggling just to turn over the 33x19

My prize for the 24 hour Victory


Sweet Singletrack at Holister-Spencer


Lizzy Enjoys the Run

At least I got lizzy out and she enjoyed the the run and subsequent puddle baths that she could find.

Naples Solo Session

Yesterday I headed down to Naples on the Superfly. After running a rigid steel singlespeed for a week, the Superfly felt like a cushy dual suspension. I ripped it climbing up Stid hill and trailed the tower Drop. (I need a helmet cam to capture how cool that descent really is).

After that I climbed the road up to OCP. I took a nice little lunch break, then dropped the Finger Lakes Trail. I railed the descent again, and climbed up to Cutler where the 24 hour race was a few weekends ago.



Worked up a good sweat climbing up to OCP


Dry, Fun, tech awaits


The Pallets sections (yup I cleaned it)

Cutler and pretty much all of the trails all day were in awesome shape. The rainstorms hadn't hit yet (it poured later in the evening). I had a blast and cleared my head and readied myself for the upcoming month of hard training.

View from the Orange Trail in Cutler


This downhill looks 19x familiar


Looking back at Cutler (what I just came down)

After ripping down the road to the backside of Bristol, I chugged along up one of the tougher climbs around. Gnarly, rocky slate greets you after the first 1/4 mile of off camber, ultra-steep, 1 line climbing. The climb seems to go up and up forever, but nonetheless it's one of my favs.


Climbing the backside of Bristol Mt


About halfway up...

Still Climbing


This looks like the top

Once at the top I hit the road and down to the snowmobile trail. A nasty wide open fire-road descent. Lots of shale, incredibly steep and fast swoopy corners. A little too much speed here = instant cheese grater style crash. I managed to make it all out safe. Had a blast and felt great.

After that I headed up and visited my nephew at the hospital. Little buddy is doing awesome!

Currently playing in iTunes: Back to Your Heart by Dinosaur Jr

Finger Lakes Times Article

Finger Lakes Times Online - Sports: "Plenty of pain and plenty of gain"

I was lucky enough to get my recent win at the Hardcore 24 written up in the local paper. I thought I'd share the article.

(Via Finger Lakes Times.)

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!!!