Hoo Hoo Hoo HAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Virginia is always a great place to ride a bike.  Their trails are world-class, and the people there are great.  The Massanutten Hoo-Ha, near Harrisonburg is one of the best race courses in all of mountain bike racing.  It is a true mountain bikers race course; long climbs, rocks, technical singletrack, and ripping fast descents.  Even though I had such an aweful race last year (I definitely finished last... literally), I wanted to come back because the course as so great.

This year, the Hoo-Ha was part of the US Cup Triple Crown, a new thing that promised big money for the overall winners.  But to get that money, you had to prove your metal at three different locations in three different disciplines, Super D, Short Track, and regular old XC.  I didn't bother with the Super D or STXC (even though its my favorite) so I could concentrate on the XC.  It was a good race.  I started strong, rode a strong middle section, and finished strong and at my absolute limit.  Finished 3rd in the Cat. 1 19-29.  Unfortunately I did not stay for awards, because we had a long drive back and it was going to be an undetermined amount of time before the awards began due to some results issues caused by some idiots who don't know that you can't walk near a chip timing system wearing your chip once you have finished your race.  I hate idiots.  So now I have to negotiate for my medal and prize or whatever.  Anyway... here's some pictures and video taken with my fancy new Droid Eris.

Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge in Charm City, not DC

Kids watching movies

Huge frikin spider/traveling companion in the back of the truck. At about 2.5 - 3 in across, making it probably the biggest spider I've ever seen outside of the zoo.

This should never, ever, ever, EVER exist... ever

Perfect trails

Perfect views

Next, I'm off to the all important Marysville Stage Race and Festival for some 8hr long solo silliness.  You should come too.  And speaking of coming...

REGISTER FOR THE LONG PINE CLASSIC!!!

It's the best of Michaux, squeezed into one great day of racing!

Killer

Photos (c) A.E. Landes Photography

For TSE updates...

See the Fast Forward Racing Blog cause I'm tired and don't feel like writing two posts.  This place is great, though....

Danger! Adventure Ahead!

So I graduated college...

Diploma

Success

And now I get to have a life for a year or so, then probably go back to school for a masters in rocks.  It will be awesome.  Now I have to do that lovely thing called find a job.  Hopefully the lessons I learned in college can help me out.  Lessons like:

1) How to not set a building on fire with lava

2) Before orogeny, comes subduction

3) Stress does not equal strain

4) Don't drink anything that was made in a tub

5) Riding your bike in Michaux makes you a real man (or woman)

Point number 5 is critical.  The other points are important too, but in the next week, Michaux will prove its worth.  As a nice break between college and "real life," I'm participating in the Trans-Sylvania Epic.  Yup.  Leaving tomorrow.  Starting Sunday, and for 7 days after that, I will be racing my bike around Rothrock and Bald Eagle State Forests in Central PA.  It is going to be the best of fun.  I have some stiff competition (JB, Mark Weir, Vegan Rob, Mike Y, Brandon D, etc.) but I'm hoping to do as well as I can overall.  Since there will be interweb access at the TSE base camp, so I may be updating you mid-week if I don't feel very hurty.  And yes that is a word.

So that's the adventure.  First TSE, then life, because folks, no matter how much life sucks, we have a good thing going.  This shit is an adventure.

Races beginning with G

Greenbrier and Granogue... Two classic mid-Atlantic races.  Always on back-to-back weekends.  A smart racer's only choice is to race them both.  Anyway...

I had some fancy wordy thing I was going to write here, but that was a week ago, and now my brain is fried from my calculus II final.  But it's done so that's good.  That's right internet, I'm halfway through finals week in my last semester at Dickinson.  It's kind of weird, but in a good way.  Things are changing.  I'm graduating college with a B.S. in Geology.  I'm racing my bike a bit, and just hanging out.  My birthday is tomorrow.  Life's pretty good.

So about this bike racing thing.  I had a pretty good race at Greenbrier raced singlespeed and ended up 11th.  I don't why but I just can't race SS.  It's a lame excuse for being slow.  I had a better race at Granogue.

Photo by Dennis

I raced my first endurance race of the year.  The start was fast.  The first lap was fast.  The whole race was fast. I ended up 5th after cramping up and falling apart during lap 4.  I did feel pretty good about the day though.  So as for now, I'm feeling like a bike racer and graduating college soon.

See ya'll at Cascade Classic this weekend!  I'm looking forward to it.  I've heard a lot about it and I think it should be fun.  Plus I may be able to pick up some cash in the Elite field.

Boo...

Did my first (well technically second) road race today.  The weekly Shippensburg Tuesday night race.  Only about a dozen people showed up.  I was supposed to be doing some off-the-front-type intervals.  I got popped off the group after my second go.  Sucked.  Hurt lots.  It will be good later though...

Whirlwind

The last month or so that I haven't posted anything has been a whirlwind.  So many things have happened, I probably don't even remember them all.  Snow happened, in mass quantities, and like most other places in the mid-Atlantic region, shut down all mountain biking.  It shut down road riding for a spell too, so my training ended before it began.  Then, all the sudden, it as March.  I attended two major professional conferences to present my research.  One in Baltimore (Hello C^3 folks!)

and one in Harrisburg (the capitol building is beautiful, you should go if your haven't).

The conference in Baltimore was a hardcore geology meeting, something I had never been to before.  It was nice not having to filter my usually jargon-filled vocabulary for a change.  I got to meet some of the people whose papers have influenced my geology career, as well as the man whose paper is guiding my research.  It was an amazing experience.  The Harrisburg conference was the biannual Undergraduate Research at the Capitol presentation.  I was by far the only geologist there.  It was nice to have to really filter my usually jargon-filled vocabulary as well as to have to explain my fairly complicated research to the masses.  We got introduced, as a group (see above) in the House of Representatives; I now know why government takes so long to do anything.  I also spent a week in Philly with Ms. Geology at a teacher conference of hers and visiting old friends.  Basically conferences are fun.

Biking life began soon after that. With no trails, road riding became the daily norm.  There were a few team training camps and things like that.  All the sudden it was now, and the first race of the season was upon us.  You were all there. You know it was fun.  I was riding Juni (the orange SS thing).  My gearing was too low for racing but with a lot of spinning I made it through with lap times a few seconds faster than last year.  It would have been nice to have gears, but it was not to be.  Last weekend was my last Dickinson College Jazz/Symphonic Band concert, a kind of bittersweet experience.  We sure went out with a bang.  It was the most fun show I have played (musically) and the audience (or at the very least my best friend, girlfriend, parents, professional-musician-uncle, and professional-musician-uncle's girlfriend) enjoyed it immensely.  Now I look to important things in the future:

-Job Search (need a job to pay for this dirty bike racing addiction)
-Thesis Defense (want to graduate with honors)
-Graduation (yes)
-Trans-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic (so excited)
-Moving out and up (I can't wait)

Until then, some other racing, a bike with gears (although not the one I wanted), and trying to pass Calculus II.  I'm looking forward to it.