Nice short week between races this week.

 

So the plan for the WORS race in Rhinelander Sunday is pretty simple: start in the back, figure out the dynamics of these races and stay out of other people’s way (and pass people when/if the opportunity presents itself!).

 

This is pretty much the approach I took when starting road racing four years ago. It seems like a solid plan again for off-road racing.

I'm looking forward to the event and its 5 a.m. departure time! Headed up with a bunch of guys from the Titletown Flyers. Should be a fun day.

 

The leap over to MTB racing will be brief. I got Julie and I registered today for the Wisconsin State Road Race on June 7. That will be a longer day too as Julie races at 8:05 a.m. and I race at 3:05 p.m. But hey, it’s summer, might as well make the most of it!

 

It was four days of racing with people from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, South Dakota, Manitoba (to name a few).

 

The Duluth Classic.

 

I survived five trips up the hill at the Lakewood Road Race, got through the massive wreck in the South Range race and managed to turn out one of my better time trial efforts Friday in Wrenshall.

 

Above all, I finished with all my skin, had a great time, and managed to finish in the middle of the Cat. 4/5 field in the overall standings (29th of about 72 riders), a result I’m more than happy with for my first stage race.

 

A short video of images I shot:

  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVHO6ZI1IvI

 

The most vivid memory of the race (and probably one of the defining moments for many people) was the South Range race that saw a wreck that took out 15 to 20 riders late in the first lap. I was sitting a cuple riders behind what I assume was the epicenter of the incident when it happen (never saw what caused it, heard at least two differentish accounts). I sensed something was going wrong before it registered with my brain. That seems to happen with crashes, not sure why.

 

Anyway, I recall the sound of squealing brakes (there was a lot of that for 3/4 of that first lap, real herky-jerky pace) and then carbon fiber hitting the pavement. At that point I saw riders and bikes going every-which-way across the road and into both shoulders -- a few of the people traveling at 90 degree angles from the way they should have been going (again, go figure).

 

I managed to get stopped just shy of a rider who had gone down — actually there was a pile of 3 or 4 bikes on top of the guy (SPBRC rider, if I recall correctly) — and I may have been hit lightly from behind, not sure. I put a foot down, navigated a small gap between the piles of bikes and people (while scanning for the orange and white uniform of teammate Jeff Colbeth) and got underway again when it was clear Jeff wasn’t among the casualties (he had ridden through the ditch). A number of us put together a small group from there and finished out the race, coming in some three minutes behind the winner.

 

All my finishes this weekend were in the 30s — from a high of 33 in South Range race to a low of 38 or 39 in the time trial. Can’t get much more average than that (field started at about 72 riders), and I’m happy with the result. I got some great seat time this weekend (despite finishing two laps down in the crit on Monday — I used that to practice high speed turns on the first turn which was a screamer) and rode some some/challenging courses.

 

Good weekend off the bike too hanging out with Jeff, Christan Griego and his wife Beth, Andrea Potyondy-Smith, and Courtney (“guy Courtney, not girl Courtney”) Guck in the small suite we rented up on the North Shore.  Great group of people to be around and we had more than few laughs (when Courtney was actually awake), and Christan had a good weekend in the “Men’s Open” (that means the fast guys) division where he took either 5th or 6th overall for the weekend — no small feat and one he was pretty happy with.

Roomies

 

Christan and Jeff

 

Courtney in action (white jersey, blue bike)

 

Met some cool people from other teams as well and spent a good amount of time talking to the guys from the Brone’s team who rode a great team race for Lance Niles in the Open division.

 

Thus ends a stellar weekend — I’m already registered for next year.

 

Julie had good weekend too, finishing 3rd in the women's race at the Blue Mounds Classic near Madison. It's a hilly course where she did well last year. Julie hasn't been riding much so far this year and I think she's pretty happy with the result. I would be!

 

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the weekend. The winner is week is the black-and-white photo of Lance Niles. I call it End of the Road. (click for larger images)

 

A gallery of photos can be found here: http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t127/Porkchopwi/Duluth%20Classic%202009/

 

Epilogue: Just in case I didn’t get to see enough carnage in the South Range Race, I saw it on the drive home late Monday afternoon at mile marker 199 on southbound Wisconsin 53. I was the fourth (or so) car to pull up on a one-vehicle-roll-over that ejected the driver in the median of the highway.

 

I didn’t have much to offer but had a pair of medical kits in the car (one I keep there all the time and one just for bike race crashes).

The driver was breathing but unconscious and was being tended to by a pair of women who appeared to know what they were doing. A passing GI and I checked the car for other victims and found no one else while one of the other men’s open riders from the race was one the phone with 911.

 

Eventually emergency personnel arrived and transported the driver from the scene. I can find no follow up information in the Duluth News tribune nor on the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department website.

 

A sobering end note on an otherwise great weekend.

The second of the my “epic” events in May (The other being the 12 Hours of Stump Farm) gets underway Friday night just outside of Duluth with a 16-mile time trial, the first stage in the four-day Duluth Classic.

 

This is my first foray into a stage race, so it should be an interesting learning experience. In essence, the race is scored on total combined time for all four events — the rider with the lowest time wins.

 

It breaks down like this:

Friday (Wrenshall, Minn): 16.2-mile TT

Sat (Parkland, Wisc.): 36-mile road race

Sunday (Duluth, Minn.) 49-mile road race

Monday (Cloquet, Minn): 35-min. criterium

 

I’m really looking forward to this format. That by no means means I’ll do well (I’m racing in the 4/5 category, sorta the bottom of the ladder for USA Cycling skill rankings), but the idea of doing four events in four days is a really exciting.

 

I may change my tune on this (meaning other things could be harder), but I think my biggest challenge will be Sunday’s RR. It’s got a nasty looking climb (note upward swing in last mile) in it that we’ll do four times.

 

 

I’ll update this page via Twitter (right middle of the page) throughout the weekend. If I have computer access I may chuck a blog or two up, but I wouldn’t count on that. Look for a re-cap, photos, and likely a video early next week!

Chad Carter and I hit the trails Saturday night for our first attempt riding off-road at night and I brought all my toys:

— Bar- and helmet-mounted lights

— Video camera (bike mounted)

— Video camera (handheld)

— Infra red flashlight (batterys were dead, so I didn’t use it)

 

I chucked together a short video of the ride and I have to say it’s pretty underwhelming.

Glad I didn’t spend much time editing this. The bike-mounted camera makes it look a lot darker than I remember it being and it just doesn’t capture the ride at all (that camera apparently works much better in daylight!). I guess pushing the limits of my video/photo gear is also part of the learning process (in other words... don't bother with the bike cam at night).

 

This is what Julie had to say about the video in an e-mail: "Hate to say it, but that was really lame... Every great artist has a bad movie from time to time. Just look at Gili."

 

So that raises the question, do I post it? Why not. It’s done and it’s only 1:22. I promise more exciting video in the future (and all of the races this weekend will be in daylight).

  

 

Anyway, the night ride was pretty cool. I had decent illumination from my lights (see photos in previous blog entry) and found a few blind spots but nothing serious. The biggest challenge was not being able to see as far up the trail as you’d normally look when preparing for turns etc. I could actually see more than I expected, but debris on the trail I would normally avoid (like sticks) was a bit of a challenge. 

 

I suspect by the time we hit the night section at 24/9 we’ll each have a lap or two (or more) in and have a decent idea of the trail. July nights also don’t last long, which will be a bonus.

 

Looking forward to our next night ride.

 

 

 The Rib Falls Time Trial hurts.

It's a lot of rolling hills with a few longish grinders in there that take a toll on your legs (I think there's something like 1,500 feet of climbing over 25 miles. Add in a 23 mph to 35 mph head/crosswind on most of the course and you're in for one heck of a day.

There's not much you can do about the weather other than deal with it (I left most of my heavy winter riding gear at home. “I won't need it.” It was 39 with flurries when I got to Rib Falls....). So at 11:21 it was off into the wind and hills for me.

 

I opted to ride the course differently this year, riding in my smaller front gear on on the hills regardless of size (ok, I big ringed one or two, or three or four) – the idea being I'd save my legs for the long slog into the wind. I don't remember much about the course other than I kept digging and the few glances I took at my speedometer showed as I was moving at less than blazing speed.

Oh well, the weather conditions were the same for everyone.

There was one nice tailwind section to the east and the last 40 percent of the course had a cross/tailwind, so that made the finishing stretches a little easier (despite a pair of grinding climbs within five miles of the finish line).

I finished the 25-mile course in 1:17:00, about five minutes slower than last year. Word is most people were five to 10 minutes slower this year (a few were faster... go figure). I finished 17^th overall and managed to eek out a 3^rd place finish in my age group over teammate Vince Meyer by 20 seconds.

I tried a new angle shooting at the start line (see below). I think I like the low-angle stuff I shot a few weeks ago better. I tossed a few other photos in here too that I like.

 

Look for a few blogs this week as we have more stuff from the weekend to catch up on – including a video of my night trail ride Saturday night.

 

Call it cycling Nirvana.

Go ahead, do it.

I have been.

The way I look at being laid off this week is the state of Wisconsin is paying me $383 to ride my bike for seven days.

So ride I have.

Monday was one of the best rides of the year. No wind (yes, NO wind). So I took advantage of the day to finish a route to the new “destination city” of Seymour (“Home of the Hamburger,” allegedly). That's a nice 38-mile route for when the winds are out of the west/northwest. It adds to my other destinations of Freedom, Kaukauna, and Scray's Hils (and beyond).

I then went on a small group ride at Reforestation Camp that afternoon. I finally rode “The Berm.” That's nothing more than a berm of dirt about 4 feet high you can ride across – it looks very X-Games (well, X-Games for people who aren't really all that X). It took my four tries, but I eventually got it.

Tuesday night I went down to Madison and rode a practice crit (criterium – think of it like NASCAR on bikes, except the course is a street course and is usually more square than circular). I rode a nice 25-mile loop to Kaukauna during the day. Nothing eventful on that trip.

Wednesday was out at reforestation camp hammering out some sweet miles (about 22) on the mountain bike trails. Saw a bunch of turkeys.

Today I popped out for a nice 35-mile group ride with the Bike Hub (I do this ride weekly) and was supposed to do some night trail riding but my light wouldn't work.

 

Of course it worked after we scrapped plans to hit the trails. So I rode around the yard with it chasing the dog. It was very much like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”

 

Not sure what tomorrow holds, but Saturday is a time trial in Rib Falls (that course hurts. HURTS I TELL YOU.) And it's suppose to be windy which will only add to the pain.

 

Than it's back to work next week for four days and then I'm off to the Duluth Classic for four days of racing!

Julie just got home and brought me a t-shirt that sums the whole week up:

 

 

 

 

After almost 11-and-half hours of racing it came down to a window of about three minutes as to whether or not I would ride a fourth lap and the team would do 14 or 15 laps of the 9-mile circuit.

In the end, we missed the cut off to finish our last lap by just a few minutes. I would have had to have left at 7:17 p.m. To have any hope of finishing before 8 p.m. when the race ended.

Our co-ed team finished 6 out of 12 in the open team division – a result we were all pretty happy with. None of us had done an endurance event like this, and this was my first competitive mountain bike event.

I hand off to Beth Peterson

 

I've learned a lot in the last few months from the people I have been riding the trails with, but the learning curve was pushed further on Saturday and came away with a whole new set of lessons -- and more importantly gained a ton of confidence on the mountain bike.

I was a lot less tentative on downhills and fast turns and more aggressive in the single-track. I guess racing (as opposed to riding) will do that. I didn't want to let down the rest of the team!

Deep mud was the main curve ball tossed at me, and while I managed to make it through (very un-gracefully and very out of control at times) I made it and learned something from it.

 

  

Gotta give a big thanks to the team who all rode their hearts out, had a great time and supported each other during the day. I'm pretty proud to have ridden with BaRF (a variation on the abbreviation for Big Ring Flyers concocted up by Beth Peterson) for this event.

Me and Bean Linzmeyer

They've all said they'd like to do another of these events this season.

 

Beth finishes her last lap

 

I suffered the worst injury of the day when I fell in the parking lot during a warm up for my third lap. My front tire went flat while I was turning and sent me to the ground. Could have been worse -- like flatting out on the course!

 

Here are a few of my favorite shots of the day (click for larger images):

 

A small gallery can be found here: http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t127/Porkchopwi/12%20Hours%20of%20Stump%20Farm/

 

 

 It's the same story every year at Willard, only the temperatures and precipitation values change. In other words, it's always windy for this time trial.

The National Weather Service reported west winds 21 mph gusting to 32 mph at Marshfield. That meant cross and head winds for ¾ of the course. Yep, typical day at Willard!

That aside, I was 45 seconds slower this year over the 16.2-mile course compared to 2008. I went out a little easier than normal, and have no idea if that made a difference or not. Needless to say time trialling is not my strong suit (ha, but what is!).

When it was clear I wasn't going to beat my 2008 time I told my self to keep digging as I may eek out a place by just a second or two.

 

As things shook out, that's exactly what happened, I beat Jamie Haag by one second for 47^th place (almost dead center of the 95-rider field). My total time was 44:22 – well off the winning pace and slower than I would have liked (and last place in my age group -- ouch! -- by 11 seconds), but all things considered I'll be more than able to live with it.

The number of riders was up this year too, 95 or so. A good sign!

I left my wide angle camera at the starting line to get photos of the field, here are a few:

Women's winner: Joan Carlson

 

Bob Barabe

 

 

I also shot a pair of photos by request (well, sorta, I guess?)-- one is my “ad-hoc” TT bike (a road bike that I stuck a set of Profile Design bars and brakes on, along with Shimano shifters and a Profile Design seat post) and the other is Mike Buelter's new (for 2009) Cervelo TT bike – a proper TT machine I might add! (and a hell of a lot more expensive than my band-aid approach).

 

Mike has his “training wheels” on in this photo os it doesn;t feature the deep dish carbon front and disc rear wheel.

I have neither of those... SO SEND DONATIONS!

 

Nate's ad-hoc TT bike

 

Mike's TT bike

A surprisingly full month of riding in April (into a lot of wind).

 

Ended up the month with 756 miles, about 130 more than April 2008, and about 32 miles off July ’08 which was the high point of mileage last year.

Not sure why the increase. I suspect I got in a few more rides on “marginal” days did some longer rides both solo and with groups.

 

I singed up for a 5k in May and another in June. I should probably get a run or two in before those. Running miles for 2009: 0.

 

I call this one "Too fast for the camera." If only that was why it's blurry!