Farragut State Park MTB Race

So other than Washington Alpine Lakes backpaking trip with Duncan(below post), the whole family hung out in Idaho. A two week vacation, we had a great time! Swimming, relaxing, family fun, some local guided MTB'ing and even family MTB racing. Wednesday we all headed over to Athol, Idaho - Farragut State Park TT race. It was the 4th and final 2008 time trail race. Amy and Duncan had a great ride TT style. My race was very good too. My legs we're still way tender from the 65lbs pack and hiking. After getting beta from Aaron at the Sandpoint bike shop it was a 16t cog to go with the 34 ring. A good move. I started the TT a few minutes behind Aaron (cause she's fast). It worked, was able to catch the carrot and pass her. Motivated and ignoring my sore legs it was all good until my pedal broke 1/2 mile before finish!! With a nub a half inch to limp on finished as fast as possible. By what people we're saying...did I win? Ha ha ha, finally saw results days later, NOT. With pedal and sore legs ended up 2nd of single speeders, 5th of 91 overall. Not bad, quite happy given first time on trail. The trail was flat with a few climbs. Mainly open and very fast through old growth with multiple roads to hammer. 13+ miles. No awards, just shwag, food and very nice folks. I won a park tool pizza cutter but refused it as local racers deserve the goods. Regardless, all kid racers scored lights for their wheels so we we're set swag wise.... Buck Hill up twice this week, then Afton 2-4, Check out Murphy on Wednesdays and Hillside on Thursday's this month. Hillside rocks. Maplag Holiday weekend always the funnest race weekend of the year....

"I'm going to bag that peak"

That's what Duncan said, "I'm going to bag that peak up there". He bagged the peak above or behind him in every picture here. No Duluth, however hauling heavey packs into Alpine Lakes Wilderness ruled over a MN northlands bike race. 4,300 feet of elevation, 7 miles & 8 hours later Duncan and I tromped into the high plateau. The Mt. Stewart Range, Cashmere crags as it's commonly known. We dropped our 28 and 65 pound back packs for camp. The camping under Witches Tower and Dragontail Peak 8,800 ft elevation above was killer. Day one with 1,100 ft more of mixed hiking we bagged said Dragontail Peak. Day two, near 3,000ft more elevation between the Enchantment Ridge and Little Annapurna. We hiked high snow meadow above Witches Tower and camp to gain Little Annapurna (sweet!) 10 years ago I climbed the multipitch Prussik Peak South Face with full natural gear, it was in view. No rock climbing yet a real no non-sense trip for Duncan and I, we both loved this trip!!! My legs haven't been this sore since a ski trip in 9th grade (many moguls a long time ago!)

Stranger Things Have Happened

MNSCS Red Wing and Nationals: What up with this weeknd of racing??? NATIONALS: dnf's, learnings and crashes!! Reading rider blogs it appears none of the fine folks we locals race with around here crashed. Too bad Sam J. (U23 boy) crashed while defending his title. On brighter note Chris P., TJ, Jake, Ben & Zenna all had very good XC races. Sounds like a good time was had by locals regardless of XC strange. Next year I hope to attend the maddness. RED WING was wicked fum yet a bit weird. It was't a relitively high temp day, yet, as prior night rains burned off racing was hot! With all the folks at nationals we looked to rally Luke, Oftendahl's, Dave Meyer, Matt Kurke, Barry, Jesse, Jan and a few others. Dave O, where we're ya? Off the gun my legs did it again, Barry said whaddda doing...? Kind of an on-going joke. Good call, I eased my efforts, Eric & Justin initially led us out. Into the woods we went....Justin, Oftendhl's, Barry, Luke & Myself. Barry led a good pace with Luke talking motivation to kept the Bro's in sight. Soon enoght Luke went after to chase aforementioned Bro's. Then with Anikin & Jesse chasing me, I kept Barry near ahead. Then Barry flatted! Then lap 2 I saw Justin cheering on sidelines! Also lap 2 Luke was off to the side of trail with a flat issue! Jan was walking his bike with a chain issue! Kurke off too! At one point I was in 3rd. After some chatting Anikin and Jesse charged up the woods climb ahead of me. Dave Meyer & another we're catching me fast & basically touched my tire begin of lap 4. Then I got back some fire. Basically standing single speed style the woods became mine. The open corners and roads we're also love for da 29'er. I held strong for a 6th place OA. Sweet. I gotz the "have enough" tire pressure for rigid-rigid figured out. I carried tools and tube yet 30lbs psi worked flawless. My gears: 2x8, 32/44, 11-30 worked fine. Whew. Thanks to LCR & Family cheering. So cool!!! Duncan had to dnf as he wasn't feelling well after one lap. He still had fun. My Dad had one of those bump in's with another racer and attended the crash. Pops is bummed as other party was hurt'n. Later in race he helped clear trees off the course too. We cheered him at the finish line. He was going for 1st in age but the anything can happen, did. Stranger things have happened in a weekend, no?

Buck July 17th

First off, GOOD LUCK to all the Midwest folks racing out East!! Reading Jay, TJ, Kyia, Lalonde's blogs sure makes me jealous. Looks like fun, charge it!!! Buck Hill: Computers down at race, all manual tally so no score sheets available..... You must wait until Penn Cycle updates their site. I'll share what I remember. Advanced Men: I led the first lap on the SS 34x18 29'er pushing it pretty hard (for me anyway). Boy those 2.3 tires sure are nice w/rigid set up. Tom, Barry & Dave went by at top of hill for start of lap 2. I was in 4th and stayed there for the rest of the race. The 3 stuck together until lap 4 then Dave pulled out the win, Tom 2nd and Barry 3rd. Although recovering, reeling and could see'em, never caught back up! My time was 54 minutes. It was a really fast lap course as many sections we're cut out. Advanced Women: Jen Fisher 1st, Janna Krawczyk 2nd, Rebbecca Sauber 3rd. Not sure if Beckie raced, saw her out there. I saw Allison hammering on the single speed. Nice work all! That's all I know. I only saw the handwritten advanced results sheet. Red Wing next, gears for me.......

Buck Birthday

What sort of parents go to a Mountian Bike race on their kids birthday night! I guess that's us. Leo wanted to go to Buck Hill. He has a great time at Buck as do the other kids. The 5 of us and the family dog headed to Thursday Night at The Races for Leo's birthday. Leo wanted to race his new bike and knows extended family b-day event is Friday night. Needless to say we all had a great time! Mom and Alta didn't bike as they have bruised bodies. Thats ok they had fun talking to friends, cheering and doing artwork. Duncan, Leo & I all rode bikes. Duncan was happy with his race as he finised 2 laps under an hour. He scored a jersey and other fine swag too!

My Race: always wanting more, race went quite well. I never go to the gym & really don't do interval training...wish I did! Anyway, off the gun my tires slipped a bit on rocks but charged ahead with leaders. Into woods 3rd behind Brendan and Dave. It was surprising becuase my effort was quite slow nearing the woods. Barry, Chris & Jeff we're behind as we hammered through the woods. I really went hard to not hold up Jeff and try to bridge Dave and Brendan ahead. Brendan was gone, couldn't catch Dave. After Jeff flew by the next few laps went the typical game. Recover then charge ahead of who ever is around, then get hammered back. We did have lap traffic where Chris got hung up, and we waited for him to catch back up. Later, Chris finally charged hard on final water tower climb. Barry & I really didn't respond so we duo charged the end of Lap4 again until final sprint effort where came in just ahead of B for 5th. Buck is my interval training. Results in pic or visit Penn Cycle site for official results soon.

WORS Firecracker Almost Perfect

The whole family took the jaunt over to Eau Claire Saturday. The kids we're pumped about camping. They we're not dissapointed as the bouncy dome thing, food, & kid friendly enviroinment ruled. We hooked up w/LCR team and Horner's already there. Too bad I didn't take a picture of the camp set-up. The highlight for me Sat. was pre-riding w/Amy & Duncan then cooking marshmellos on our pitchfork that night (that's what city folk do w/pitchforks ya-know). The movie was a bit boring for Leo, mellows good. Speaking of lil'Leo, he did Citizen youth finishing a fairly tough course. Great to see him out there. No picture of him on course, but see picture of Amy edging out competition at finish line. Amy did awesome in Citizen women placing 10th of all 30! Not bad for only doing a few races each year without training. Duncan had a good race. So fun to have them out there!! Alta had a sprained thumb and bummed we didn't let her race. My race started off great. I was able to hammer up front, top 10ish for much of the lead out. Went into the woods near 15th, perfect. Then mid-though lap 1 Todd, Barry, and two got by. I caught and followed Barry and aforementioned group torward end of lap1. Followed them right into a straight-over-the-roots steep uphill, a good line, yet wham! Nailed my rim a bit. Sure enough the tire was letting out air. Finished lap, replacing tube with two air cartridges in the most retarded way. Not a good time to learn. I spend second lap figuring out what g-force would cause tire foldovers. One time ended up running w/one handed bike flying like kite beside me. You know right hand air turn before first creek, yup, not good w/20lbs psi. So went 2nd lap. Decided racing half speed around corners risking americlassic rim wasn't worth it. Called it a day. Funny, I was thinking after pre-ride 2.3 up front w/rigid would be nice.... Hard way to learn tubeless and/or more air is required on some courses. I blame myself....2nd dnf in 4 yrs. Last time was a torn tire at Steeple Chase......

MNSCS#4 SINGLE SPEED 29'er

Good times for My Dad, My Son, and I at Mt. Kato. All three of us finished our races to help team LCR get points!! We took off near 7:00am to ensure pops and sqrl jr had time b4 their race. No problem, it was quicker to get to Kato than I remember. Anywhoo, Grey Squirrel and Squirrel Jr. said the citizen course was slippery and fun. I had a good time cheering, hydrating and taking pictures. Finally after two years, raced a SS at an MNSCS. Buck, no big deal but just couldn't go there at MNSCS. Scared of muscle failure. Mankota was it!!! Single Speed rigid 29'er 34x19. I was nervious but it ended up A'OK. Off the start I was comforatable in 15th or so up the first climb. It was a bit of a grind. I settled in near Tom, Jesse and a velo guy. The hills and short climbs wern't too bad, but after most of lap fell off Tom's pace to ensure race success. Lap 3 & 4 started getting real good at pacing before, then, hammering small inclines. Funny, mid race I was nervious about muscle failure. It never happened, in fact I started pushing it faster during lap 5. It was sweet. Never walked, hardly regretted it and definetly enjoyed!!! 14th of 38 Expert, 3rd in age behind Cam and (Jan only-18 sec) on rigid 29'er SS. Later....