Slow Week

Well it has been a slow week after the Flat Rock Race Sunday, I quickly ordered another seat from WTB this time I am riding the Rocket V SLE another Gel Seat I am pretty fond of those. WTB did offer to replace the seat I broke at 15% under invoce but since I had already purchased the new one I passed on that. Went out to Thompson on Wenseday had a good time did a single lap and rode with my son and wife before that. Planning on doing a run tomorrow at PT and then it is off for a fun filled week in MI with the in-laws(good thing the wife doesn't read the blog huh?!). Anyway I am planning on doing a couple of good road rides there and hitting a trail out there called Eygpt Valley which should be pretty good training for Carters Lake on the 8th. Plan is to leave MI on the 7th drive back stop in Ellijay that evening and race the next day and hope for a wreck free lap! Congratulations to Charles and Stephanie on the birth of their Son all are doing well. So that is what is on my schedule for the next week I know I will see Mark and Ron at the Carter Lake race and if I have any readers from the Grand Rapid area and your out there at Eygpt Valley this week I Will See you on the Trail!

Deja-wreck

The new "Stealth" saddle from WTB so light you won't even realize its there-Caution when using this seat make sure your shorts have a chamois!


Well it was off to Columbus this morning for the GSC#6 FlatRock Race. I met Rick at TBS at O-dark 30 and headed out so we could get in a preride as neither one of us had run the course before. We arrived about 7am and set up the pop-up, talked to Bruce and headed out for our lap. It was a good thing we did because more than one rider would get confused about were the trail went and how many laps we were doing due to some of the changes that were thrown in. It was definitely a big ring course for the most part - fast and twisty with some sweet single track and just a bit of climbing thrown in for good measure. The start was tight we had two short sprints with a tight turn in between before we all bunched up on the single track. Being the "explosive" starter I am I decided to be smarter than I was at Dauset and wait until I got openings to make my passes and just settled in near the back of the pack. Well apparently that strategy is no good for me either, about a mile in there was a 3 foot tall ant hill- for lack of a better description, which caused a back up and as the rider in front of me stopped abruptly at the top of it I was stuck nearly vertical with nowhere to go but over - which I did. In the process I caught something with my seat which promptly snapped off the rails, which is better than breaking my seat post. I think I also tweaked the new XTR crankset because that was creaking from that point on thru the race, Charles is going to love seeing me this week. Anyway it takes me about 4-5min to figure out how to improvise the seat back on as well as put the chain back on meanwhile I get passed by the two waves that started after me before I get back out on the trail (this should be sounding familiar to some of my avid readers!). Surprisingly the seat stays put fairly well and I manage a half way decent pace, I finished the race sprinting it out with two other riders from the group and came back to finish 11th. The bad part was my time for the second lap we did was good enough to be top 5 and had I not wrecked I feel pretty confident I would have had a first lap within that group as well. Ron "The Phenom"Fields took mercy on us mere mortals and succumbed to technical difficulties I was looking forward to seeing him podium again, Rick took 9th in the beginner 40-49 age group and Jesse and Mark where both on there second lap on my way out. Jesse was looking good when I drove by clearing the rock wall with ease. Well I have a busy week ahead of me will probably only get one ride in this week before I head up to Michigan to spend the 4th with the wife's family. Plan on doing some riding up there at a place called Eygpt Valley, good trails kinda like Dauset. On the way back we will be coming down by Ellijay so we are going to time it so I can hit that race on the 8th of July and see if I can't get a race in without a wreck! So more than likely it will be a Wednesday ride at Thompson for me this week so if your out there I Will See You on the Trail!

1st Annual Fathers Day Trail Ride (unoffical)

Like Father....
Like Son!


Well it wasn't a announced event but if it gives me a excuse to use on Fathers Day to go ride, I figure why not? Myself, Charles, Gregg, and Rick all met out at Thompson at 7am and headed out for a good morning of riding. After a casual first lap and a reverse direction second lap I had to do a little motivating as some people where ready to call it a morning and go home - "Get me out here at 7am to do 2 laps?" So with a little motivation we headed back out and put down a pretty good lap time which I figured might have been our last lap however Charles turned the tables on me and piped up "lets do another one" so out we go for the fourth lap. During this lap Charles decided to redefine the phrase "just cruising" either that or me Gregg and Rick might have been a little tired. It was a great way to spend the morning and a good ride effort overall. This was the first time I had run the trail in reverse since they had made the changes to the trail and it makes for some good climb efforts going in reverse might have to do that more often just for the training effort it provides. I did manage to jinx Gregg on the second lap after he made a nice move to get a branch out of his rear wheel while continuing to ride as soon as I said "nice job" he wipes out after that he dumps it about 3 more times and then identifies a flat tire so I will refrain from saying that the next time we ride! To all the Fathers out there Happy Fathers Day and I should be back out on the Trail Wensday so if your out there I Will See You on the Trail!

Super Excellent XTR!!

Now if that doesn't say Happy Fathers Day I don't know what does! Saw a smoking advertised deal in the Performance Bike sales add of $333.94 for the XTR-970 crankset I couldn't get on the phone fast enough - only to find out that the add was wrong! However, now follow the logic here, since the sale did knock $50 off it and then I got 25% back on my performance Team Card and a additional $25 at the time of purchase. So started at $550 knocked off $75 and then get 25% back($125) and now I am only paying $350 - nice math huh? lol. Of course no crankset would be complete without the XTR-970 rear derailluer which was actually the inital Fathers Day present from The Bike Store. With all this XTR Charles will be busy at the shop putting it on the ETSX, which will make it a tough decision whether to race that or the Vertex this weekend at Flat Rock - so any reader input hardtail or FS with XTR for the race?? Well I am meeting Charles and some others out at Thompson at 7am tomorrow so if your out there I Will See You on the Trail!

12hrs of Tsali Pics

12hrs of Tsali Pics

Well they are a little late but here they are,(I had to get them developed at Walmart)

Full Suspension and Trails again!

Boy did I miss that! Wow, I hit Thompson today around 4:30pm Jesse and Mark(new guy) were out there already doing a lap. It took me a little to work the rust out since it had been nearly two weeks since I rode the trail last. I managed to work out the kinks the first lap and still catch some air over the creek and the drop out at the end, maxed out the travel on the fork and rear shock though might need to check the air pressure just to make sure. Second lap some more people where showing up me and Jesse headed out to hit the trail for our 2nd time and ran a pretty good pace, got the big ring working through a couple of the sections felt pretty good. Work schedule is a little hectic this week but planning on hitting the Pig trail with Charles on Thursday for a few laps in the morning so if your out there I Will See You on the Trail!

Hardtails and blacktop

Charles new helmet.....
Will go well with his new ride!

Well got out there this morning on the Vertex-70 and met Charles on his CycleCross bike for about 40 mile ride. It was good to get out there and stretch the legs I needed a start point to get back riding again as that was only my 3rd ride since I raced at Dauset. Felt pretty good we kept a fairly steady pace so it was a good base ride with a 16.4mph average for the ride which was probably a little slow for Charles but worked up a pretty good sweat for me. Ran across two good cycling stories on the AP that the wife found. This one will redefine when people say "I am to old for biking" and the next one adds a new "view" to the ride. Well the plan is to get in a couple of laps out at Thompson tomorrow and to hit the Pig Trail with Charles on Thursday so if the plan works out and time allows I Will See You on the Trail!

What a week - NOT!

Well started out this week ith early mission planning on Monday, Early sortie on Tuesday, early mission planning Wenseday, early simulation trainer on Thursday with mission planning for a sortie on Friday, which was the earliest day with a 4am rise and shine not only did I not ride I got no training of any kind all week! So Sunday I will be riding with Charles who will undoubtedly put some muscle failure on me. However tomorrow I am planning on sleeping in until at least 9am and I am riding some trail at least twice this week and will get some eliptical time in as well to get prepared for the ORAMM anyway short post tonight watching some movies. See you on the Trail!

Bling, Bling!

Well the new Diadoras came in today and dang if anything producing light hits these the people around me will be blind! These are the same style as my current shoes just a step up to the carbon team shoes, suppose to have a better energy transfer thru the sole and heel cup is more secure. I continue to find new ways to cause my LBS headaches with the Hope Mono M4's apparently the pads are not easily replacable with other pads and are not kept well stocked either so Charles is having a time trying to get me some replacements for me. Hopefully I will hit the trail tomorrow on the hardtail time permitting I am going to try to hit the Pig trail and then get a Sunday ride on the road, the second set of wheels comes in handy so I can switch them out depending on what I am riding. Well heres to hoping I make it out there tomorrow and if your out there I Will See You on the Trail!

Back to work again

Well this sucks, early into work, ugly weather in the evning(I am not as high speed as Gregg riding in the rain). I haven't worked out since Sunday - riding or otherwise these styling running shoes are sitting in the closet collecting cat and dog fur and I am getting a spare tire where I don't need it. I don't miss the desert but I miss the time I had to train, I know then quit my whinning and get up off my butt and get busy! I am trying just have to work out the timing is all so I can get my schedule in order-new priority is to make sure I am in good enough condition to have a good competative time at ORAMM and be at a minimum a top ten finisher in the GSC races I do compete in. Anyway hopefully I will be riding with the ETSX on thursday as well as a new pair of Diadoras so if I your out there I Will See You on the Trail!

Sunday Rides

Is that a picture of my Bike or my But??
Oh yea thats a cool pose look for it on the cover of next months Mountain Bike Action!
One of the few times I was in front of Charles - Notice the styling Pink helmet Charles is sporting
Now is this a)A shameless promotion of The Bike Store. b) A styling pictures of my pale white legs. or c) A picture of what slicks look like covered in mud?
Yes that little red spec in the distance of that red muddy road is me trying to cach up with Charles


It was a B E A Utiful day for a ride after the rain cleared out the Morning was nice and cool and there was hardly any traffic at 8am when we started riding. Charles took us out on a 35 mile loop the Perry-Robidouex(sp) loop down some dirt,(MUD) road and down some other roads that were lightly traveled I think for most of the ride we saw less than 10 vehicles it was great.

I am planning on doing the Off Road Assualt on Mount Mitchell (ORAMM) in July I heard about it from Monte anyone else planning on riding it from the area? I think me and Charles are going to make the Sunday MTB Bike road ride a regular event for a while at least it felt good to stretch out the legs on a long steady pace with some good climb efforts thrown in. The longer I ride the more I realize that the trails provide the good technical training and sprint efforts for the races but the road riding is definitely a necessary part of a overall training aspect if your going to race competitively(hopefully someday I will be competative!).

Anyway The wife is now riding with some Candy Bros pedals on her new hardtail and wearing the Specialized Body Geometry shoes I had that seem to fit her better than the Pearl Izumis she has so we will have to see what we can do to get her into a pair of her own shoes that fit.

I am planning on doing some trail riding this week once the brake line is fixed on the ETSX Bonfire not sure where but if your out there when I am I Will See You on the Trail!

Let it Rain

Well for the good of the rest of the state as well as our area heres hoping it rains pretty good today even though I might have to reconsider trail riding tomorrow if it does, might have to get a road ride in with the CGC group tomorrow if that is the case. Charle got my new wheelset Mavic 223's with Shimano Deore hubs and a set of Maxxis Detonators for the tires so I can road ride the Vertex-70 with a quick switch of the wheels when I feel like it. Well my apologies to Dean and others for not being out there on trail maintenance but B-Day parties and Grocery shopping took precedence today. Speaking of which I need to get going so if it is Dry enough tomorrow I Will See You on the Trail!