Hillside Race

I was able to join the Hillside fun last night. Le-mans start. Great turnout, fun course, beverages, lot's of lcr/farm folk & after bar made it good fun. Race as expected. Sam, Luke, Tom & I hit woods in that order. I kept them in sight for a bit. My 2 yr old Bonti Revolt tires had me sliding. Need to switch tires. I went down on a right hand corner w/shelf rut. The rest of race went quite sketchy, some falls, some rain, fun sliding, & Colbert chasing in distance. On sec4(?) in hilly area put hammer down, that's it. 4th place.

MNSCS#9 MAPLELAG

GREAT WEEKEND AT MAPLELAG !!!! Everyone shows for the fun and the awesome course. The best MNSCS weekend of the year! FAMILY ROAD TRIP (spot all 5 of us ?) ALL 5 RACED.....LOTS OF WORK Duncan and I both did all three events! STX, TT and XC....awesome fun!!! LOTS OF REWARD MAPLELAG sure was fun. We swam, ate great food, biked, hung out with friends, and as always really love everything about Maplelag. We already booked next year. Early in 3rd lap I was sill holding off Jan, Bill & others. That was then. By end of 4th I went from 1st to 4th age (13th oa). So goes the typical mnscs race for me. Good learning.....look out next year....I have it figured out now!! Maybe. In pic I'm on top, Doug out walking....both Swanson's not on results rouster but I count both in my 26 total XC Expert racers!! THE FAMILY RESULTS: -Amy 3rd in age Citizen(only -1m to Dunc) -Duncan 2nd in age Citizen, all 3 events 9th oa, he moved up to mid-pack! -Leo finished another Kids Comp race -Alta 1st in age Kids Comp -Heath: 13 of 26 OA ExpertXC (made top 15 payout!), -58sec TT, -1:16 STX (full 20 min MTB STX!!) 10th OA all Expert events. Some pictures are from skinnyski.com.

24 Hours of Afton (LCR RICOH!)

Great time! Nothing like a 24 hr ordeal. On LCR team of 4 we camped w/Farm gang. They have special set up each year, 10 yrs in a row out there. Somehow Goat got the draw for last lap at 4:45pm, did the deed, nice! 31 laps for our LCR team, 4th in vet. 7th oa? Not sure. Didn't care just glad to be there. John ski area manager made sure we had wood & everthing needed. Thanks John! Good job Larry & LCR on trails. Duncan, Leo, Alta & I didn't find time this year. Feel guilty about perks. Anyhow trail is harder, LOVE IT! Duncan was able to get official, "crew" nod to ride. On cash bet with sir Goat, Duncan did 3 full laps. As Goat put it, "Duncan made the money round." Duncan had a great time with his friend Branch who came out to camp too. Sean Nelson (The Hub) won solo w/18 laps? Congrats. Chris, Brendan, Ben & Paul laid out win w/34-36 min fast laps, slow laps near 40. My 2 fast laps 36 min each! I had a few 39's, few 40, perhaps slowest @42m? Anyway, super freaked bout my speed. http://www.24hoursofafton.org/results/ Later...

MAVIC REBUILD post LEADVILLE

Ok, relube of rear CRmax hub is standard. I was told do it every few months to be safe. My Dad eager to repair, said it was already lubed but out of spec, had some grass in it? Should'duh serviced b4 Leadville. Freewheel stick is common on CRmax. See pics, damage done. Anyway, remember "DUH" word. It almost cost me big Leadville buckle! I did bike last Wed & today. Wed was slow going to start then HR seemed back! Today went for 1hr & continued another 30min in heavey rain. It poured big time on Dad & I. Good ride. Will commute this week to get willies out b4 Afton. Then Maplelag & finally St. Cloud. A few Hillside too, Wahoo! Start school again soon, blah! Last 3 pics: on course, post glee, & find the CREW! Anyway, since Leadville I've returned to work, went to Vegas on business, bowled, baked cookies, hit game works & forced kids to help clean basement. Amy went to Cable, WI to ride this weekend!! She loves her new clipless pedals, YES!!!!

More Leadville 07

In previous post I shared my 2007 finish time and mechanical issues! Anyway, here's more 2007 stuff I wanted to remember...

fyi- my big 2006 story, my first leadville

THANK YOU DUNCAN & DAD!! I COULDN'T HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOUR CREW SUPPORT. SEND THOSE PHOTOS. Thanks Alta, Leo and Mom at home too....all season. I'm in blue on left behind Floyd & Dave (in front box). Thanks UltraRob for pics.

Weins wins, new record 6hrs 58 min. Floyd finished about 7hrs flat. Lot's more articles. My Dad & Son saw Floyd, with scrapes, and Weins fly by at mile 25, 40 & 60.

It was fun to be on course with them(course map). With my top 100 start, I actually rode in lead pack for about 5 miles. I had to hammer to stay with lead pack of 20 some after control car left, but was able to stay on train easy once on. You can actually see me in blue/white helmet and LCR blue/yellow jersey on left by guy with rain looking gear on. Click to enlarge. LOOK at the masses!! Once we hit St. Kevin's settled in at pace, up up up. The first 25miles hurt a bit, but recovered fine. The worst part was my freewheel sticking issue mentioned in previous post. I stopped on Haggerman pavement downhill to inspect! Sucked. Raced all day with cassette chain suck issues. ANYWAY, at thier 51 mile point, I was treeline going up, Floyd & Weins flew down past torward Leadville. That was my mile 49? I gave up on catching them then, ha ha ha (I was 45 min back then). Race Results LT100 Report

Leadville 2007 Complete

8 hrs 58min xxSec!!! Gold Buckle is mine!!!! Had to really dig deep. Raced the clock big time. My freewheel kept sticking on downhills, wrapping the chain around chainstay, cassette and tugging derailuer level with ground. Horrible wrrrr noice whenever I didn't pedal fast enough. It even stuck and wrapped on fast flats, for example drafting, whenever I stopped pedaling. Pauls or bad spring? I braked and pedaled a lot more than I wanted to keep from rear cassette chain suck and wrrrrr noises. Who cares. DONE. Gold buckle is mine!

Here's my big story from last year my first leadville

Buck 8/2 Flying Headless Horsemen

MORNING. Last night I was superman without a head. It wasn't a shoulda, coulda, it was all DUH!!! My power was on! Lap 1 at water tower I charged past Chris and Paul. Then Paul beelined into woods just in front, showing me a pro move. I let Chris(right on his wheel) and Eric follow him in. Barry and I held for most of the lap. Lap 2 the three of'em got away a bit. However, as Barry calls it, I was the engine. By start of lap 3 near top of road climb Miller said, get'em, get'em now and I powered by Paul and Eric for 2nd. Chris was heading down torward single track looking over wonder where we were. I knew it wasn't Paul's night(I hear food poisening, ya ya). Of course Chris just did 24x9 but still fast. Eric never came back after the start of 3rd lap pass. Anyway, Barry, Paul & I went back and forth plenty in last lap. Dave worked hard to catch us and was finally on for lap 4. Here's the kicker. I was in 3rd right on Barry for downhill before finish line climb. I thought there was one more lap so I paced up the hill. DUH!! Barry charged up, people we're screaming, Paul & Dave went by.... I noticed them all exiting to finish chute..DUH...I rolled in for 5th. Very close finish for top guys. I was there and gave up two spots. Honestly I was so pumped to be charging that hard all night, my head wasn't in it (dream state), all body. Duncan did two laps no wipe outs. Amy decided last minute to race, got 3rd! Yeah Momma! Good times. Duncan & I head to leadville soon with my pops. Last night results attached. Un-official, official link on right side of page. Looks like results are posted! Oh by the way Barry got over-all series, I got 2nd, Chris 3rd.