Entries from July 1, 2007 - August 1, 2007
Twin Six
So Twin Six, if you don't already know, makes some really fricking cool gear. I learned a while back that you can apply to be on the team by just writting to them. So, I finally wrote them an essay about why I would be a good person to be on the team.
There is a bigger version of it if you feel like reading it with your head cocked sideways. In short, they said, "You sound qualified." I tried to be funny. I can not wait to get my hands on their stuff. I get a pretty sweet little welcome package soon and am excited to pick up some of their other stuff. Here is to establishing a cycling based new world order with Twin 6 and in time total world domination. In the words of a little mouse, "So what are we going to do tonight Brain?"
There is a bigger version of it if you feel like reading it with your head cocked sideways. In short, they said, "You sound qualified." I tried to be funny. I can not wait to get my hands on their stuff. I get a pretty sweet little welcome package soon and am excited to pick up some of their other stuff. Here is to establishing a cycling based new world order with Twin 6 and in time total world domination. In the words of a little mouse, "So what are we going to do tonight Brain?"
BenPopper
Post a Comment
Metro Challange - Dirt Tan
You'd be amazed how good it feels to take your shoes off. 1st Place finish in the 12 hour / 100 mile duo cat. 5th or 6th overall at the WEMS Metro challange, 100 mile marathon race in Franklin Wisconsin this past weekend at the Crystal Ridge Ski Hill.
This weekends race was close enough to Chicago that we were able to sleep in our own bed both Friday and Saturday night. Kisha rented a car and Amanda and she slept over for our 5 AM departure. Kisha, Amanda, Julie and Molly all went in the rented car and Hegle and I went drove in his car up to the race nice and early. Nothing out of the ordinary. Get camp set up, register and start suiting up. Race start at 8 AM and it is 7:15 AM when I realize I only have one of my Sidi shoes. How am I supposed to race on clipless pedals with skate shoes? FUCK! Well, in the end a borrowed pair of cleats and an extra pair of shoes Cale had got me clipped in and off at the Lemans start. Team Polska (4 man open) Maciej Nowak was the only rider in front of me as we all hopped on our bikes and sprinted towards the single track.
Coming off a grueling day at Blue Mound, the course was heaven. Smooth and flowing singletrack was a godsend. The first 1/2 mile was all out in the open, a fast light decent into the woods. Out of the saddle cranking type of decent. The a REAL tight u-turn into the first single track. This first section was horrible the first time through. I ride the first lap as possible, because usually the gap I can create on the first lap sticks all day. Well, this section was switchback after switchback after switchback. 180 degree turns that brought any rider to a stand still. Probably about a 1/2 mile of it, packed into what felt like an acre.
Across a fire road and onto more single track. Pretty flat along the banks of a creek.....along the bottom of an old garbage dump. Ew. Anyway, the first time through I loved this section of the trail. It totally made me feel like I was 12 years old again, on a 24" rigid orange Huffy mountain bike, going as fast as possible along the salt creek single track near where I grew up. By the end of the day it would become the section I liked the least. It did not have as much flow as the rest of the course, but either way it was fun and kept the rider on top of their game.
This section lead into a section that always seemed to be downhill just a little bit. We'd pay for it in a minute, but all day it was the section of the race to look forward to. Pieces of singletrack fire road connected by stretches of regular singletrack. The fire road sections were big ring high speed sprints and the speed would carry straight into the true singletrack. Slightly downhill and trees spaced just wide enough to pump around without even thinking about the brakes. Well, I did think about the brake; about not touching them. It was so much fun, but just a little scary too. Had I clipped one of those trees with my handlebars, it would have hurt bad. The "ifs and maybes."
Anyway, across another fire road or two and another section of twisty switchback single track and it was the start of the first climb. A good 1/8 mile of gravel fire road to a climb around the ski hill. It was not super steep or super long, but it was a good length and decently steep. Slow going is really all there is to say about it. And another section of single track that really was not anything to write home about.
After the single track there was a short climb that lead into the super fast and again crazy switchbacked decent to the bottom of the ski hill. You'd have to go from screaming fast to a screeching halt to make the turns. And as the day went on the turns got more and more washed out, resulting in one of my only two falls. At the bottom there was a 100 yards of single track and then the climb to the finish / lap tent. It was hard the first lap and even worse on the 8th.
We finished first in the 12 hour duo team category by a huge margin and in the womens open class, Team Pegasus finished first and second. The team is definatly making a name for itself. It was a fun race and a great day for it. Mid 70's, partly cloudy. I have been talking with the Team Polska guys a bunch at these races about the cross race they are putting together for the Milwaukee Cyclocross series this fall. The Polska guys are fast and this weekend they told me that I was really fast. They "knew I was quick, but we didn't know you were that fast." This felt good coming from those guys completely unprovoked. I finished my first lap only 40 seconds behind Maciej Nowak which was much attributed to my first fall, but really brought attention to my speed. I go back and forth between feeling like i will be competitive in Cat3 cyclocross this fall and this weekend made me feel better about it again. Enough so that i told Cale that if this season goes well enough I will upgrade and race the main event in Kansas City this fall with all the pros. We will see how that all goes. Training has started and it feels good. Rides on Monday and Wednesday, weight lifting on Tuesday and Thursday. At the end of the month I am making a big change to my diet. It is coming down to it and no matter how it goes I am racing to have fun and that is it. Did I mention I am thinking of going to San Fransisco in November to race in Golden Gate Park. It would be fun.
Across a fire road and onto more single track. Pretty flat along the banks of a creek.....along the bottom of an old garbage dump. Ew. Anyway, the first time through I loved this section of the trail. It totally made me feel like I was 12 years old again, on a 24" rigid orange Huffy mountain bike, going as fast as possible along the salt creek single track near where I grew up. By the end of the day it would become the section I liked the least. It did not have as much flow as the rest of the course, but either way it was fun and kept the rider on top of their game.
This section lead into a section that always seemed to be downhill just a little bit. We'd pay for it in a minute, but all day it was the section of the race to look forward to. Pieces of singletrack fire road connected by stretches of regular singletrack. The fire road sections were big ring high speed sprints and the speed would carry straight into the true singletrack. Slightly downhill and trees spaced just wide enough to pump around without even thinking about the brakes. Well, I did think about the brake; about not touching them. It was so much fun, but just a little scary too. Had I clipped one of those trees with my handlebars, it would have hurt bad. The "ifs and maybes."
Anyway, across another fire road or two and another section of twisty switchback single track and it was the start of the first climb. A good 1/8 mile of gravel fire road to a climb around the ski hill. It was not super steep or super long, but it was a good length and decently steep. Slow going is really all there is to say about it. And another section of single track that really was not anything to write home about.
After the single track there was a short climb that lead into the super fast and again crazy switchbacked decent to the bottom of the ski hill. You'd have to go from screaming fast to a screeching halt to make the turns. And as the day went on the turns got more and more washed out, resulting in one of my only two falls. At the bottom there was a 100 yards of single track and then the climb to the finish / lap tent. It was hard the first lap and even worse on the 8th.
We finished first in the 12 hour duo team category by a huge margin and in the womens open class, Team Pegasus finished first and second. The team is definatly making a name for itself. It was a fun race and a great day for it. Mid 70's, partly cloudy. I have been talking with the Team Polska guys a bunch at these races about the cross race they are putting together for the Milwaukee Cyclocross series this fall. The Polska guys are fast and this weekend they told me that I was really fast. They "knew I was quick, but we didn't know you were that fast." This felt good coming from those guys completely unprovoked. I finished my first lap only 40 seconds behind Maciej Nowak which was much attributed to my first fall, but really brought attention to my speed. I go back and forth between feeling like i will be competitive in Cat3 cyclocross this fall and this weekend made me feel better about it again. Enough so that i told Cale that if this season goes well enough I will upgrade and race the main event in Kansas City this fall with all the pros. We will see how that all goes. Training has started and it feels good. Rides on Monday and Wednesday, weight lifting on Tuesday and Thursday. At the end of the month I am making a big change to my diet. It is coming down to it and no matter how it goes I am racing to have fun and that is it. Did I mention I am thinking of going to San Fransisco in November to race in Golden Gate Park. It would be fun.
Deal of the Century?
at least the week.... So I was extremly fortunate to be offered this bike at an unbeatable price.
With it came a return trip to the lake house in Whitewater Wisconsin with Julie and Dan, and Dan's parents' who graciously let us stay there time and time again with Molly. We left Chicago with grand plans of road and mountain biking riding. When we got there significantly later than we had planned, the sun and water beckoned and we spent more time on the boat and in the water than on the bike in the saddle. Dan and I did get a moderately paced road ride in. 9.5 miles with hills, it felt great. The bike is nice. Going from the SRAM to this old Campy stuff is like heaven and hell. Regardless, it is a great bike.
Dan is in training, or so he is enjoying saying everytime he refuses a beer. Which I applaud him for if that is what he wants to do; I personally have never been able to make training stick. As it so happens, Dan live 8 blocks from me now and has a weight room in his building (mine will eventually too.) We are going to help eachother*. Tuesday and Thursday evenings we are going to do some weight training and the two of us are going to start doing some training rides together on our road bikes. So, hopefully, I will be riding with the team Wed. nights, weights on the "T's" and riding with Dan and whoever else during the rest of the week.
*In my lust for everything cyclocross i have started reading blog after blog after blog. I am starting to happen upon the elite level international racers blogs and am realizing if I really want to be fast, I need to start putting a little added effort into my cycling fitness. I was born predisposed to being able to pedal hard, but if I really want to upgrade this year to Cat2 and be competitive, I think I am going to need to try.
With it came a return trip to the lake house in Whitewater Wisconsin with Julie and Dan, and Dan's parents' who graciously let us stay there time and time again with Molly. We left Chicago with grand plans of road and mountain biking riding. When we got there significantly later than we had planned, the sun and water beckoned and we spent more time on the boat and in the water than on the bike in the saddle. Dan and I did get a moderately paced road ride in. 9.5 miles with hills, it felt great. The bike is nice. Going from the SRAM to this old Campy stuff is like heaven and hell. Regardless, it is a great bike.
Dan is in training, or so he is enjoying saying everytime he refuses a beer. Which I applaud him for if that is what he wants to do; I personally have never been able to make training stick. As it so happens, Dan live 8 blocks from me now and has a weight room in his building (mine will eventually too.) We are going to help eachother*. Tuesday and Thursday evenings we are going to do some weight training and the two of us are going to start doing some training rides together on our road bikes. So, hopefully, I will be riding with the team Wed. nights, weights on the "T's" and riding with Dan and whoever else during the rest of the week.
*In my lust for everything cyclocross i have started reading blog after blog after blog. I am starting to happen upon the elite level international racers blogs and am realizing if I really want to be fast, I need to start putting a little added effort into my cycling fitness. I was born predisposed to being able to pedal hard, but if I really want to upgrade this year to Cat2 and be competitive, I think I am going to need to try.
Use the Force Luke
Yeah, the cheesy jokes aside I have geared up for this coming cyclocross season. And at this point I am starting to feel like I am under a little pressure to live up the the hype that has been built around me and the gear I have bought. And then I get a phone call from Dan asking if I want to go for a road ride late on a Monday night. Last week, Sam came over and made sure all the pieces we installed correctly and my bike was set up with SRAM's Force component group. Last night was its' first ride. And let me say I am very impressed both with the group and my legs. All this mountain bike riding and racing is making me strong. I really feel ready for the coming 12 weeks of pain that is only 12 weeks away. The SRAM stuff is so very smooth and spot on. Shifting up hill under stress was no problem. I am comfortable riding it. And light was shed on exactly how much punishment those wheels can take and I no longer have any worries about racing them. My mind is slowly being consumed about thoughts of cyclocross. Anyone want to take an Amtrak ride with me to Kansas City in mid-December?