I am Speed

(EDIT: this is a carbon copy of my blog entry on the 29er Crew)

I think the quote from the movie Cars, "I am speed!" is befitting now that I've got my Superfly in hand!! At least that's what comes to mind when I look at it.




I spent the better part of yesterday at the Geneva Bicycle Center playing hookie from work and installing my ergomo pro into the paragon, and doing some swapping on the Superfly.

I'm totally jacked to be rocking such a bike for this season. I haven't yet ridden it, but I can just tell it's gonna be fast, and we are gonna have some good times together. I can't wait to ride er'. My guess is it'll be out in Cali for Sea Otter when she gets broken in.

Naturally, I had to go with the Pink Bonty Cage. I didn't want to be kicked out of the CPBC (Coalition of Pink Bottle Cages). Fellow CPBCers and 29er crew members;Mark and Suzanne Hartman will be out there sporting the pink this season also. Suzanne's HiFi is even pimped out with some super-sweet pink brakes! I'm sure you will be reading some similar posts from us as we ride and train together often.

It was also nice to get my ergomo back. It's been a while since I've had some power data to work with. I used the ergomo on my supercaliber all of last season and found the data invaluable for training and racing. I did run power on my roadie, but now that I'm using the paragon for paved and un-paved adventures; the power numbers will be nice to look at. Below is my ride from yesterday, short and moderate paced. I gave it some gas on a few hills to check some numbers, and things are looking good for this season

Yellow is power, orange is elevation (30 second smoothing)

Back to work, looks like this will be a good weekend for riding. More posts and pics to come....

Currently playing in iTunes: All In It by British Sea Power

08 Race Bike??

Choices?? 1, 2 or all of them ???

Rig, well definitely getting this bad boy

Superfly :( No availability right now, maybe but not likely

Hi Fi 29er, Yup looks like one of these is in the plans unless the Superfly happens.


As soon as the Supercaliber is back and in good shape, she'll be up on ebay helping me out.

2008 NYSERS/ Supercaliber down

The 2008 New York State Endurance Racing Series (NYSERS) is back again for 2008!!

Proud to announce the Addition of Plattekill to the NYSERS!!

The dates for the series are as follows:

Highland Hex: May 17th

Plattekill: June 8th

6 Hours of Power: July 27th

Suicide Six: August 16th

More info available here

Time to get out there and get training, before you know it the race season will be upon us!!!

So the Supercaliber is down and out for a bit. I broke the axle on the ergomo this past weekend. I was getting some odd play in the crank, and every time I'd put some force down on the right crank arm it sounded like I was re-clipping in and felt like it. I checked the cranks and there was some play in the right crankarm. When I got home, I pulled the bolt, put on the special tool and gave it a very light turn on the cranks and snap! the bolt broke right off. I took it to the shop yesterday to have them send it back in for warranty and you could visibly see the original crack in the bolt. No big deal, just be without power for a bit on the mt. bike. I'll just have to estimate my Training Stress Score (TSS) for a bit. Since this is the 2nd time the bolt broke, I'm taking a look into swapping the ISIS version for Octalink.

I also pulled the shock of the Paragon and swapped it with the one on the Supercal and set that on back for an overhaul. The Supercal rear shock is also being sent back to Manitou for an overhaul.

We're getting some really crappy snow/slush mix right now, but hopefully most of it will be gone before tomorrow am. I'm hoping to put in a pretty good weekend of riding. With the conditions of the roads, it looks like the new fen-dars will get some good use. All of next week looks to be in the mid 30's so it might be a good week for getting some miles in!

Currently playing in iTunes: Apocalypse Now by Muse

Another Cold Day this time at the Hollow

Yesterday was cold; 10 degrees F and 30 mph winds. Headed down to the Hollow to hit the trails, managed around 2 hours of ride time. Loads of fun with everyone. All fingers and toes are accounted for.

Loads of pics in the slideshow below:

Frozen toes

Hit up the Geneva Bicycle Center for the Winter sale this past morning. Picked up a few essential supplies. Usual tubes, lube and food, etc.

After that grabbed lizzy and headed over to Dryer Rd in Victor for some riding on the Supercaliber. Ground was nice and firm as it was brutally cold with a nasty wind. Still some snow out there on the trails, but for the most part was dirt. Managed an hour before I couldn't feel my toes anymore. My core and hands were plenty warm, but the toes just weren't staying nice and toasty.

Ergomo doesn't lie

Lizzy Surveys the scene

Climbing up thru Moon Valley

Hope no one was sitting there!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!