6-14-2008 Clemson TT
The high temperatures broke and for the first time in a couple weeks it had dropped below the nineties. With the start of the time-trial rolling closer, the threat of rain became stronger.
With a good warm up I lined up for the start. My legs felt tired and sluggish but the course was a little shorter than what I had originally thought. The only draw back was that all the major climbs but one had been removed. More »
This past weekend was the Hardcore 24 in Naples, NY. Just a short drive from where we live and on trails that we love to ride often. The race started on Saturday at Noon in the rain on wet, slippery, and muddy trails and ended on Sunday in the sunshine and dry trails. Mark and I raced as a two person male/female team against two other co-ed teams. We won our category and also took a 1st place overall against all two person teams - winning by an entire lap! More »
This was a real tough weekend. I did the Pescadero road race (75 miles) on Sat then round #8 of the CCCX series on Sunday….
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.
Although he didn’t know it, this is about the best Father’s Day present Dax could have given me… He’s the short one in the middle… 1st Citizen’s Youth Race. Cut off jeans should be mandatory for the youth races… More »
Campmor H2H race #4, The Darkhorse Gallop
Today was stop #4 in the Campmor H2H series, The Darkhorse Gallop, put on by Dark Horse Cycles. Today’s race was held at Stewart State Forest, which features some of the best singletrack in the series and this course was especially good because it had some awesome brandy new trails! Dark Horse also gave out special prizes to those who carpooled with 3 riders or more, it is awesome to see a shop doing it’s part to make these events a little greener! Of course there was the dreaded #69 curse, and today it claimed another victim… More »
“Sure Lance what should I do?” How about race your bike on a single track course with 18 of Michigan’s finest riders using Bontrager Dry X tires after a rain storm. The key words are “Dry X,” “rain storm” and “single track.” I suppose I should give credit where credit is due. Michigan, with more home foreclosures than anywhere in the country and an obesity problem like no other, is actually home to some of the best trails in the United States and Bontrager makes good tires.
Jones AC X modified without knobs for semi-muddy condtions (bottom) and the orginal Jones AC X for perilous condtions (top). The wider spaced bigger knobs shed mud yet grab the earth. If you are new to cycling, just try different things. More »
I have quite a few voices in my head. All suggesting various options. Choose wisely they say. The morning started off early with tornado sirens at 2:30am. Mother nature spared us so with only one race under the belt this season we headed down with the rest of the Nebraska wrecking crew to Kansas City for the KC Cup at Landahl park. The fatal flaw was questioning myself. My pre-race spidey sense said 36×19, my pre-race conversation with Cam Chambers said 36×18. Choose wisely? I chose wrong.
Landahl is known for epic rock. But the course was void of the gnarliest sections. hence the 36×18 decsion. With all the Semi-Pro/Expert gents lined up, I found myself a meager third row. Managed to maintain a decent position after the horn and settled in just outside the top ten with fellow SSer Brad Sullivan in tow. We freight trained through the opening lap breaking into the top ten. I could here Brad’s heavy breathing behind me as I muscled my slightly bigger gear through the turns. All was not well though. By the middle of lap two, my oversized gear had me backing off as I went into recovery mode. Brad cruised away quickly and by the end of the second lap I started coming back around.
Lap 3 saw me team up with Josh Taylor and we were on a mission to keep those behind at bay. My recovery was short lived as the fourth and final lap was catching up with me. The legs weren’t feeling so good as my over geared Ferrous was feeling sluggish. With about a mile to go, Wes Bierman had caught me up from behind and was looking to pass. Luckily we were entering the last high speed section of the course followed by a slick rocky decent. I decided it was do or die and drew on what little I had left. Sprinting on a SS is interesting but I was able to pull it off by a mere 3 seconds coming in 7th in the 30-39 expert race field and 11th overall.
A sixer gave me time to think about the day. Lesson learned
Elsewhere around the course, teamates Liz and Tom brought home the podium rides, 2nd and 2nd. The 29er Crew was in full effect. More to come fo’ sho’. Tom was only bested by Steve “Real Deal” Jarret who flew his Superfly to not only the 40-49 win but the overall win as well. My wife Anne worked over the sport women’s field and climbed the top step aboard her Paragon.
Post race grub at Gate’s Bar-B-Que with KC Rep Patrick put a Damn fine finish to a damn fine weekend.
This weekend was stop #2 for the NYSERS 6 hour series at Plattekill Mt.. While Platty is traditionally a downhill mecca, they have a great capability to put on a few xc races per season.
The 6 hour course would be a true return to the roots of Plattekill racing. No more taking the easy way out and riding the lift up to do the loop. This time we’d be riding the 1300′ ft plus of climbing all the way up, but that also meant coming back down.
Temps were unusually high for early June (mid 90’s, heavy sun and high humidity) as it was throughout most of the US this weekend. That meant hydration and staying cool would be the key to the race. It would indeed be tough to do both as the opening climb was a mile in length with hardly any shade, only to tuck you into another .5 mile of singletrack climbing.
My race started off great, the run was a little weird as it was only about 100 ft to get the bike. I didn’t jump hard right away as we had a long climb and I slowly paced myself to the front of the group. I was chasing down a singlespeeder and caught him about 1/3rd of the way up the climb. I chugged on feeling great and into the singletrack where I had a few minutes lead. Once into the rocky and technical singletrack, the Superfly matched with the Bonty Dry X’s were rolling along awesomely.
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