And so it begins...

I will admit straightaway: I had almost forgotten why I love cross.  About a month ago, it was just seeming like another thing I was going to be spending money on in order to switch my Van Dessel from road to cross mode.  Nittany reminded me why I love cross.  It was muddy, something we haven't seen for a solid year.

It was good.  Very good to be back in the cross ring.  I definitely came into it without any practice since I hung up my skinsuit last year, so I think I was a little rusty on my "cross skills." The good old Holeshot was definitely up to the task, as I think I've finally found a build that is both low maintenance, and light weight enough.  The only thing I could see changing are the wheels, but who has money for a fancy new pair of carbon hoops anymore right?  Lord knows I don't...

I think I enjoyed Sunday's course more than Saturday's, even though I failed to successfully ride the run-up/log combo during the race (rode it twice during practice).  I am happy with this, even though I was riding very slow.  I definitely don't have the top end speed I had at the end of last cross season.  Hopefully I'll be racing myself into that kind of fitness this year since I'm probably not going to be sticking to any kind of formal training program.  Just cross practice once a week (work permitting) and whatever other rides I can fit in during the rest of the week.  Work schedule is definitely picking up more as we are getting near to the end of the year as out timetable for submitting out yearly monitoring reports has been moved up to the end of October.  All the sudden, the end of the year is in October now.  Whouda thought that...

Making the Best of Things

Recently I have been working a lot.  I have been riding as much as I can, and actually felt good coming into my first main event, the Mohican 100.  I was ready, so Ms. Geology and I set out on a sunny Friday for Ohio.  It was a fairly uneventful drive all things considered.  Other than a bit of mid afternoon traffic through Pittsburgh, and the awful interchange where I-70 merges into I-76 (seriously, whose idea was that?) we made it in good time.  The last part of the drive, through the Ohio countryside, was the best.  We got to the venue, checked into out campsite, drove up the mountain almost to the top and set up our campsite.  I went to ride, and was greeted to some pretty sweet singletrack.

Money...

It was this, plus some cool rocky sections, so I was stoked.  I got my bike ready in the dark while Ms. Geology read by what little light was left from the sky.

Didn't feel like making a fire... we were just going to go to bed

Most legit number plates ever. 1/8" thick plastic with a timing chip on the back.  Mid Atlantic Timing, take note.

We were camped right on the course.

The next morning, we were up early for my pre-race breakfast.  I rolled out to the start (about 2 mi away in the center of town) about 45 min before the race just to be sure I wouldn't miss anything.  I imagine that this is how many European races start.  A few hits of the horn of an early 90s Chevy pickup and we were off and running.  It felt like an XC start.  Very much not like the 100 milers I was used to with their controlled neutral roll-outs and all.  I did really enjoy starting in the center of town.  A lot of townsfolk were out watching even through it was 7:00 on a Saturday morning.

Rassin...

Needless to say I didn't get very far.  About 9.5 mi into the race I stood up to power up over a little rise in the singletrack.  Two pedal strokes, a loud crack, and I was going nowhere.  Confused, I looked at my chain.  Not broken.  I stood on the side of the trail for a bit wondering what happened, then I spun my crank.  It spun forwards and backwards.  My race was officially over.  I debated my options.  I could either walk backwards on the course to my campsite, then kill myself to make it to the first aid station by 11:00AM (the cut off).  At this point, it was 9:00AM, which left two hours to walk back 4.5 miles on trail, through traffic.  Not happenning, since it took me 15 min to get back to the last intersection, which was less than a quarter mile away.  I decided to bag it, rolled down a trail, ended up on a road, and scootered myself a mile down the road until I came to a check-in building for the state park camp ground I had popped out in.  Using their phone, I called Ms. Geology and she picked me up and brought me back to race HQ to officially DNF myself.  I'm not bitter at all.  I'm glad it happened in the first 10 mi, instead of at mile 60, or even worse 80 or 90.  Hell, then I would have probably attempted to run the last 10 miles.

We made the best of it though...

Mini Golf across the street.

Hiking and spectating.

It seemed like he was moving a lot faster at the time...  A LOT faster.

We pretty much had a good day hanging out at a bike race, watching the leaders, watching the awards and drinking a few free beers.  Next day we packed up and left after a quick bike ride in the morning into town.  Considering I didn't get to race, it was a pretty good weekend.

I spent the next week in the field for work, and came across this little gem on the Surly Bikes blog.  Pretty funny...

Last week I hitched up my car and struck out on my own for the Lumberjack 100 in northern Michigan.  It's the longest drive I've ever done on my own, and for my health, I decided to break it up into two days.  Leaving after work, I drove until midnight on Thursday, woke up, and was on the road by 7:30 the next morning.  It was a pretty much uneventful drive.

When I reached the race venue, I stepped out of my car and was greated by a swarm of medium sized mosquitos.  Welcome to the North Woods (cue stories from my Grandfather and his brother).  The course was wonderful.  Just miles and miles of flowy, sandy singletrack.

Saturday's race went less well than expected.  I was feeling great, and racing hard for the first 50 miles, then my stomach decided it was quitting time and sent me into a downward spiral of feeling like I was going to throw up and "find the brown speed" at the same time which eventually ended in dehydration and me finishing the race in 10:45 instead of the eight-something I was planning on.

No pictures because I didn't have any cameras and I was racing.  And a special thanks goes out to the guys at Twenty20 Cycles who fixed my broken bike up from Mohican just in time for me to leave for Lumberjack.  Also to Ergon for making everything but my hands hurt during races.

I'm gonna chill for a while now, then hit up the Fair Hill 50, Iron Mountain 100k, and the Wilderness 101.  Since I can't really do anything towards an overall in the NUE series, I'm going to refocus on cross and just do a bunch of mountain bike races I enjoy for the rest of the year.  Who knows, maybe I'll be more successful that way...

We-viewz

So now that I've spent a good bit of time on my new stuff, I figure I should write about it.  Really, I'm just super bored at work and need a distraction during my lunch break.

The Bike: Specialized Epic Expert 29er

First of all, this bike is amazing.  Huge thanks to Auer-Power at Twenty20 Cycling for hooking me up with this ride.  I'm glad we were able to make it happen.  Super-great bike shops are just that.  If you're in the Baltimore area and need anything bike-related, they'll hook you up.  The bike is Specialized's new carbon-framed full suspension 29er.  This specific model actually has a carbon front triangle with an aluminium rear triangle.  A good trade off to take a thousand dollars or so off the price.  Specialized is pushing the technological limits by making the dropout spacing 142 mm (as opposed to the usual 135 mm) and including fitments for a 12 mm through axle (a.k.a. the Syntace X12 system).  Their goal was to increase the "lateral stiffness" of the rear end of the bike, whatever that means.  I was initially a little put off my the rear through-axle, thinking that it would be burdensom during races when trying to change a flat.  It's definitely not.  You unscrew it, and the wheel comes out like usual.  Plus it includes alignment tabs so it is impossible to put your wheel in out of alignment.  No more franticly fixing a flat, throwing your wheel back in only to find 10 feet down the trail that your wheel isn't in straight.  Very good addition.

The rear suspension it dampened by the Specialized/Fox Brain shock.  Active when you want it, locked out when you don't.  I'm running mine at "fully firm" which means that the bike feels like a hardtail when your up on the pedals, but like a smooth full suspension rig when your in the rough stuff.  The trade off is less response on smaller and slower-speed hits.  I am fine with that, because I, you know, know how to ride my bike.  Plus everytime I stand on the pedals the speed and acceleration I get washes away all my concerns about lack of plushness.  Travel and dampening is matched on the front of the bike with the Specialized Reba Brain fork.  It's a Reba with a Specialized tapered crown (mine is aluminium, the top end is carbon) and the Brain damper.  I'm runing that at fully firm dampening as well, with equal air pressure in the positive and negative chamber.  The result is a fork that is rigid fork-firm when you're on smooth terrain and wide open and smooth when things get hairy.  The Brain in the fork is tuned slightly softer than on the rear end, meaning that it opens up for a smaller hit even when both are set to firm.  It works very well; much better than I expected when I first got the bike.  The only complaint I have about the bike is that I wish they had included a through-axle up front to match the stiffness and rigidity of the through-axle in the year.  You can't have everything right?  Maybe next year's model will include such a thing.

The rest of the bike is just parts.  Durable, reliable, light (enough for now) parts.  X0 rear derailleur, X7 front derailleur with X9 shifters.  2x10 drivetrain with a Specialized specific 24/38 chainrings, and a regular 11-36 cogset.  Personally, I could care less for the 24/38 rings and would rather have the standard SRAM 2x10 26x39.  Unfortunately the removable spider kit is not available aftermarket yet.  C'est la vie.  Maybe I'll pick one up once they exist.  The other parts on the bike were stock Specialized stuff.  I haven't changed much, just dropped a cut to 660 mm ENVE Composites Sweep Bar on the front end.  It's super pimp.  Subtle, strong, and light.  Eventually I'll put a full set of ENVE cockipt stuff on there (stem and seatpost), which will drop some static weight off the bike., which weighed 26 lbs 2 oz when I picked it up.  With the race wheels as pictured it's probably 1 - 2 lbs lighter, although I have not actually weighed it yet.

The bike rides very well.  The first time I jumped on it (a singletrack ride on packed/unpacked snow) it felt like I had been riding it forever  The geometry is very neutral feeling.  Snappy when you need it to be, and super stable on long fast descents.  Once the suspension opens up, the bike just floats over everything.  I had a bit of a learning curve while I readjusted my riding style to doing certain technical moves such as logs and rock-overs on the full suspension (adding about 10 psi to the rear shock helped a lot).  At speed the bike is a dream.  It's like riding on a cloud.  Going slower, the bike (probably because I have the Brains set on fully firm) actually feels awkward.  You can actually feel the brains opening up and hear the definite "clunk" coming from the rear end.  It's not a problem; it just means that I have to go faster, and since this is a race bike faster is better.

New Ergon Stuff: GS-2 grips and GX-2 backpack

New Ergon stuff is always appreciated.  I grabbed myself a pair of the new GS-2 grips this year.  They are a cross between the GX series, which fit my small girly-hands very well, and the GP series, which are a bit more comfortable.  The result is a grip that is still small and light, but offers a bit more padding for the long haul.  They also have the new GFK bar-ends, which are much more comfortable than the previous carbon ones that I had, although a little heavier.  Meh.  I'll take slightly heavier for more comfortable hands.

The BX-2 pack is Ergon's newest pack.  They're other packs are very comfortable (I also have a BC-1), but because they have a plastic frame and are meant for carrying a day's worth of gear, are too big and too heavy for racing.  The BX-2 fixes that issues.  No frame.  Light weight.  8 L capacity as opposed to 14 L on the BC-1.  Now I can hear you now.  8 L is still pretty big for a pack I plan on racing with.  Yup.  But the pack is pretty light and from the one time I've ridden it, super comfortable and stable.  Plus I can carry 1.5 L more water than my previous pack I wore for long races as well as all the tools and flat stuff I need.  Hey if Brandon and Rob can rock packs this size for 100 milers, why can't I? 

Heading to Danville this Saturday (not Friday, mind you) to race up some mountains.  Should be fun.