Good Day

And a good week too.  Ms. Geology and I spent the week looking at apartments in Maryland because of her new teaching job down in that area.  We settled on this

View from the back of the complex

No, this isn't the view from our porch (we have one though), but if you walk out the front door turn left (east) and walk a mere 50 m or so, you'll see this.  I'm pretty excited.  We're pretty excited, and there will definitely be more on that in the future.

Today was a day filled with sports.  This morning was the first mountain stage of Le Tour, then I went for a ride, and although I didn't put out as much energy as Andy Schleck on his perfectly timed attack for the win today, but I can take solace in the fact that I felt good during my sprint intervals.  Small victories... small victories.  After that was the final minutes (probably more like the final hour) of the World Cup.  Good job Spain.  Good job Netherlands.  See ya'll at the Fair Hill Classic this weekend!

Bottom of the Barrel

I hit the bottom of the barrel hard last weekend at the Long Pine Classic. Didn't even finish the race. I've been excited by this race for a year now; it's my "home" course, it has classic trails, it's raw, just like racing in Michaux should be. I really love this course, and Michaux in general, so needless to say I was a bit disappointed that I didn't finish the race.

How didn't I finish the race you ask? Well, coming down the descent after the last Beginner/Sport split (on Ridge Rd.) about half way through the steep, rocky ATV-width trail, I hit something (no I wasn't riding the front brake) and ended up catapulting off my bike. I landed perfectly with my head tucked, on my shoulder and right palm and rolled over my shoulder right to my feet. My bike was six or seven feet behind me. I think that's the furthest I've ever flown. So, time to assess the damage. Little cut on my knee, brush burns on my shoulder, right palm swollen a lot. Can I move my fingers without pain? Yes. Can I move my wrist without pain? Yes. Good. Not really any worse for the wear, I went to get back on my bike, which as usual had a bent dérailleur hanger. As soon as my right hand touched my bars I knew my race was over. There was no way I could put any pressure on my hand. Cringing, I made it down the rest of the descent and onto the long road climb to the last checkpoint. Pickle caught me on the climb after flatting before, and he rode with me until the checkpoint. When we got there, some adrenaline had kicked in and I could put a little weight on my hand, so I decided to continue for the last 2.5 miles of the race. As soon as I hit the singletrack after the power line, I knew I was not getting back in a reasonable amount of time, so I turned back to the checkpoint, hitched a ride back, and began icing my swollen hand.

Since I crashed pretty hard, I spent today pulling every single part off my bike to check for cracks.

Stripped Flash 29er frame... ~3 lbs of awesome (includes BB and headeset bearings, dérailleur hanger, front dérailleur and some stickers)

And to perform some Lefty maintenance.  I think I was only running about 1.5" of my 3" of travel at the race (bearing reset time!)

A fully extended, reset Lefty.  Exactly 140 mm of travel.  Switch the damper out and you could put this on a RZ140 and I think that's pretty cool

So.  My Lefty's back in tip top shape.  I'm going to do some experimenting with the travel to see if I can squeeze another 10 mm out of it.  90 mm of cush up front instead of 80 mm could be cool.  I also picked up some new wheels (No Tubes 355 29er's with American Classic hubs) from a very nice person in Boalsburg (thank you very nice person) so now I have a set of race-only wheels to make my bike the proper weight!  I'll post more pictures of my bike once I have it built up again in a few days.  It's going to be shiny as hell, just so I can get it dirty again!

What do you love about the Tour?

Why do you love the Tour? A bunch of pros weigh in...

That Old Time Feeling

Sometimes when you do a race you've done a bunch of times before, it gets boring.  Well, no matter how many times I do it, I don't think the MASS Festival and Stage Race Weekend in Marysville, PA will ever get old.  It is by far, one of my favorite races out there.  The course is not rocky, does not include long climbs, or epic views of stunning landscapes.  It's not blazingly smooth, fast singletrack with perfectly built corners.  It is a wholly different thing.  It is Marysville, and that's it.  And I love it.  I think this past weekend was the fifth or sixth time I've done the race, and it was definitely the best.  The stage race format was back for the first time in a while.  Friday night was the usual Night TimeTrial, Saturday was the main event, the 8 hour two or three person relay and solo race, Sunday was the solo short track and team off-road madison.  It was a fairly amazing weekend.  I of course raced solo; solo NTT, 8 hr solo, and solo STXC.

The NTT was, as always, fun.  I don't think I've ridden at night since about March, so it took me probably 15 minutes to "remember" how to do it.  But the race was over in 19:30, so that didn't amount to much.  I finished in  10th, about 2 minutes behind the leaders time.  I can live with that.  It was, though, only a warm up for the next day's adventure.

The solo race went really well.  I had a solid race for 8 hours; no cramping even though it was freaking hot out.  Strangely, I kept getting tired.  Not physically tired (well, that too), but sleepy tired, and I kept loosing concentration.  I had to hit that lovely Espresso Hammer Gel (it's caffeinated) about once an hour, then had to bring out the Coke (the soda...) to keep me going for the last two laps.  My last lap, I hit that point where I was having trouble riding clean, so I hit some more Espresso Hammer Gel, and made it home.  I finished 9 laps in 8:35, an effort good enough for 5th place, and the bottom step on the podium!  Pretty exciting.  Definite props to Hammer Nutrition for making the caffeinated gel.  It's a pretty good thing to have around.

Also powered by apple sauce

And cold water dumps

Rewarded by solid riding

Sunday was equally fun.  A standard short track, started by a very big gun.  Thirty minutes of pure pain, quite a nice change from the previous days fun.  I had another good race, fortunately.  On the second lap I got pooped out of the lead group, which included people lots of fast guys.  I had them in sight until I tried to make an inside pass on a tight corner and took an one of the women out.  It didn't affect anything, and she went on to finish 2nd in the women's race.  I went on and finished 6th in the men's race, so I did pretty well.  I'm really happy about my racing this weekend.  It may be some of the best I've ever done.

Short Track start

Rob went off early and held on for the win

Racing fast is good

Anyway, next up is the Long Pine Classic.  A race you should Register For!!!  Seriously... It's a lot of fun.  See you ALL there!

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....