A few new computers

I have two new computers. One is for the bicycle.




It is yellow and is attached to the hub in the above picture. The plan with this is to find more powerz.

One is a desktop PC.


The other is black and is attached to this Sweet 25" monitor shown here next to my new free subscription to Dirt Rag compliments of being a Rays Season Pass Holder. Pardon the messy desk. The plan with this is to post to my blog more often.

Santa left a few bike related items under the tree include a Thomson Masterpiece seatpost, as well as some Continetal tires. GP4000S' and Attack/Force combo.

Boughton farms was really cold.

I lined up back row, and off we go. We hit the singletrack and come to a dead stop. The first few laps I rode through the mud in the field, decided to switch to running afterwards. My fastest part was on the back stretch smooth ride down to the barriers. I was able to close gaps or pass here. The barriers were smooth except for the one lap where my left foot didnt quite unclip. I hit the barriers, but landed on my feet(making this entire years cyclocross race and pratice crash free). Does that mean im not going fast enough? probably.

Thanks to all the racers/hecklers/volunteers/barriers/runups/mudpits/sandpits/flats/mechanicals/beer&cheer that make the magical cyclocross season!


As I prepare for riding in the long, cold, harsh winter fighting my SAD; I just ordered this new light from PDW. The PDW Radbot 1000. PDW has 2 guys that used to work for planetbike, so their new 1 watt taillight should be the next big thing. It has really cool flash modes, and a reflector incase the batteries die.
Heres a video:

RADBOT 1000 from PDW on Vimeo.

hit me up if you ever want to do any riding this winter!

Kirtland Park

Well I forgot to do ksu, so... i raced. and sucked. okay, next.

The weekend all started when johnny P and myself decided to ride down on a little urban ride and then meet up to help out on Saturday. After a few hours, the course was about 90% setup. We set off for the ride home, but have to stop and get some grub. A new joint called Ohio City Burrito looks enticing. It was really amazing. Fresh, gigantic, and they had this 'horatcho' stuff which tasted like cinnamon toast crunch in liquid form. Everything was going well until we decided to try the Ass Reaper(ass-raper) hot sauce. It was so flipping hot, and every pothole on the way home made it want to come back up.

After a night of having some enjoyable adult beverages, I awake to a truly beautiful day. I knew there was a big turnout when I had to park halfway down the driveway.

Line up and next thing you know we're off. Quinlin hits the deck and the entire group swings out, luckily noone else goes down. Getting in the groove of things after a few laps I am doing pretty well probably between 10-12th place. Rudy soon passed. Next up Eric Lesco and Zak Dierenger get by me. I am hanging on Zaks wheel. On the stairs where you ride up the side zak couldnt make it up and I wasn't ready. Got off the bike on the wrong side and had to mount on the left. And I came close a couple times, but could never close the gap. Rolled across in 16th. I was happy with that, ever since Spin's willoughby race I haven't been doing too well. I would consider todays race performance pretty good; as for the 15 that were ahead of me, thats just because I'm slow.

Great Job to Team Lake Effect today! We had some great results(yesterday as well at capcity), and had a ton of people help out with the course. Happy Birthday to Julie! And with birthdays come cookie cake... yum.

Boughton Farms is next. see you there.

Mr. Crappy McSlowpants

Yep. That was me this weekend. I have tons of excuses I could come up with like the typical racer tends to do, but I'll just go with the most probable cause: suckage. The suckage meter was off the charts when I showed up saturday and sunday.

Saturday I was off the back within a lap, Sunday, same thing. I wasn't going to go on Sunday, but a motivational speaker called me and reminded me that I'd be kicking myself in february when theres a foot of snow on the ground, wishing i had been outside enjoying a nice sunny 50 degree day in november.

I am glad I went both days. I got to see my teammates put out some amazing results! With quite a few podiums(including standing in the middle in the B and A races) Great job TLE!.

Hanging with the GCA crew was fun as always, beer hand ups, and chickens on the course were great too.

I had such a good time sunday, I ended up chilling in the backyard until 9pm with bob, brett, johnny, and gary

Thanks to Brett Davis and company. I will return next year with a vengeance.

a few reviews

1) Race Across the Sky (film) Amazing cinematography. They really captured a lot of emotions and the feeling of the race. Within 15 minutes, I wanted to move to colorado and ride bikes for a living. If you are a hardcore cyclist, weekend warrior, just interested in the sport, or just like a real interesting movie about accomplishment this is a must buy on dvd.
Besides the several pro riders they were following, there were other stories of the amateur riders, which helped give many perspectives of the race. Really cool. Two thumbs up.

2) Rays 09-10 (giant indoor bicycle park) I will only discuss the changes from last year.
First of all, I really miss the kona jumps. I miss the redbull jump.

So, the rhythm room is geared for bmxers. Riding a 26" is really really tight. I still haven't mastered clearing all of the small (kona sized) jumps. It is super tight to keep the speed without flying off of the edge.

I mustered up the courage to attempt the medium jumps (huge), but not as big as the huge jumps (Extremely gigantic). Anyway The 'medium' jumps are also really hard to get through. I am able to clear the first 2 big jumps, but then its a 90 degree turn. With the pro line last year, the kenda hip was really easy to master, no such luck this year. This will be a challenge to clear both of these. As for the big line. not in this lifetime. They are really really really big.

Next up is the pump track- I love how this thing is continuous now, my only gripe before was you had to stop after one lap. They also added a fun little jump in the middle. Only issue now is it is a little difficult to get up and down from the ramp.

The XC changes aren't huge. Only major stuff is the redbull box is now a couple of dropoffs. The sport room has just a few extensions to the obstacles nothing huge. The larger entrance is nice as well. Well, my back is messed up from all the jumping that i haven't done since april. Time to throw on the biofreeze.

I rode my bike and it got dirty

cool pic compliments of RobertS


I rode my bicycle at the Spin Cross my heart and hope to die cyclocross spectacular. It was fun. It was a little chilly before the race started. My belgium knee warmers held up great however. www.madalchemy.com I was the very last person to line up. No biggie. I passed a good few on the sprint to the hill. The hill sucked. It was steep. I couldn't run up it. I had to walk it.

Ended up riding with Chip the Rip Meek for a good portion of the race. The baseball diamond was fun I thought, and that cool little steep 15foot downhill. The last lap I pushed the pedals hard and on the 2 little hills after the big run up, and was able to put a gap on the guys around me. Finished 14th.

Afterwards was cycling related fun and merryness with all the cool kids who ended up going to the willoughby brewing company. My team TLE raced super well today! Great job to all those who put up some good results.


No racing this weekend for me. But I am going to be watching the Leadville movie Thursday night. Contact me if you would like to join.

This posts soundtrack is dedicated to flecher since he got me hooked on the pit.

my new cap

Yup. I'm writing a blog entry about my new cycling cap. It is black with a red stripe. It looks fast. I even got it custom embroidered with 'team lake effect' on the side. And it pretty much fits- hard to do when you have a super small dome. www.walzcaps.com

Todd Field vs me saturday.

UCI3 Wrapup

Day 3 was harbin park. Legs are starting to get a little stale, but nothing to worry about. The course ended up being fun and tough. The field was huge. I ran through the sand everytime- probably a mistake on my part. The slow grinding uphill before the sandpit was just killer- i came to almost a complete stop at the top. I always would make up time on the screaming downhill- brakes are for the weak. The drums and bongos and tons of spectators made it really fun. I ended up with 24th. I think the 'Newports' gave me 1st in style points however.

I can't think of a favorite course. All 3 were different. Friday was a slop fest, and I ended up doing okay in it, keeping my rubber down(somehow) , and riding past the road weenies. Saturdays weather was beautiful, I liked the sandpits, and had a great bunch of people cheering me on. Sunday had a fun screaming downhill, and a sweet mud pit, and the coolest atmosphere.
I will be going next year for sure! I will sign up sooner than the very last minute.

Great job to all my teammates and local riders who raced their hearts out down there.

Next up, Spin's Cross my heart and hope to die cyclocross spectacular.

UCI day 2 Java Johnny's

Todays race was awesome. Much nicer weather! Great spectator weather. The 2/3 race had a LOT of people in it.(i heard a rumor of 100 people starting) The pileups started as soon as we hit that first grain of sand. Soon enough things got spread out a bit. I felt good again. I only made one mistake every single lap, which was running up the short steep hill, while most everyone else rode it. I don't know, it seemed slippery, and I wanted to make it all the way up. Not sure how I ended up at all! I will let you know when the results are up.

It was great weather to cheer on Bill, Rudy, Julie, and Matt in their races.
Some highlights from watching the races:

I bought a cowbell for $3.
Jeremy Powers bunnyhopped the barriers almost every lap for the crowd.
Ryan Trebron is 9'13".
People were getting beer hand ups.
I got sunburnt.

Harbin Park tomorrow.

UCI3 day 1 - cyclo stampede

Me and Johnny P line up in the last line- what we get for waiting till the last minute to pre-reg. We go. Oh yea, did i mentioned it rained inches and inches of rain last night, and today. I have never seen so much mud. There were people falling all over the place. Somehow I think I was the only racer in our race to never fall. I passed alot of people on the techincal stuff. Yea, seriously. I did good on it today.

My remounts are way better than my races last month. Only issue I ran in today was landing back on my seat, it moved and pointed up. Seeing as I didn't want a saddle up my ass, I slammed down on it and temporarily fixed it. Ended up 14th out of 50 or so. Nice job to teammates Johnny and Tony who raced real well. 7th and 6th respectively. Matt Weeks who raced with the real big boys, and put up a valiant effort versus an insane group. Scott Marut, and Nate Szabo also raced real well.

XC & CX

picture stolen from roberts flickr.

Last weekend was the Reagan park TT. 120 or so riders came out. By the time i first hit the singletrack i thought it was going to be a bad race. I passed 2 or so on the old reagan side. I got stuck behind one rider as well for way too long. Asking to get by didnt really work, and when i was told to go by, this rider moves over and i almost biff. I won't mention who it was, but I heard after the race that I wasn't the only one who had to deal with that issue. Coming up out of the one trail I put the hammer down to pass 2 riders on the hill leading up to st.route 3. Right before the gravel path leading to the huffman trail, my tires slide out. The ground is soaked. Why?.... I don't know. But I get up and continue on my merry way to pass another 1 or 2 people, ended up 3rd in my group(sport 19-29). Won a michelin tire, and had plenty of monster energy drink.

This weekend was the Stark Velo Cyclocross race. Weather.com's radar showed no rain in the canton area, so I left my rain jacket at home. Bad idea. It poured, and it poured, and it poured some more. The B race was even cancelled due to a few thunder clashes and some lightning. Luckily, it had calmed before our race. Line up in the 2nd row, as I learned last week, I'm not 1st row material. That start was FAST! The course was fun, and was made of 99.4% grass. A few technical sections, which I think I did fairly well on. The 'pain' hill, I actually passed some people on this section as well. Ended up 16th, but I think I raced pretty decent. Hope to be up near the top soon.

Kind of bummed I have to work next weekend, and miss out on Kevin's cross race. On the bright side, that will give me a few more hours to pay off my bike.

New road bike

2010 Specialized Tarmac Pro SL
Threw on my Bontrager Race X Lite wheels, ultegra pedals, and a Selle Italia SLR kit carbonio. This bike is insane.

whiskey island

What a beautiful day! Heading east on the shoreway, i could see the sailboats a moving, and the kites a flying. Line up in the front, and start off pretty well. The fast guys made a group, and then it was strung out. I was in a pretty good position (within latching on to the group distance) for the first 2 laps or so. Then I slowly lost probably 4-5 places because I am wimpy. Then I get a flat. Dean from snakebite got me a wheel, but i had some issues getting the brake back on. I probably lost a 1/2 a lap there. FInished.

Reagan park TT next week, just for fun. should be horrible.

bikecation

I am going on a bikecation in pa for the holiday.

Saturday- mountain biking
Sunday- road race - tour de tamarack
Monday- mountain biking

should be fun.

final westlake of 09

I arrive and get a different colored jersey and shorts thrown in my face. I decide to put them on and get comfortable. I was part of a 4 man break for a few laps with Brian Batke, Zak D, and Bob Martin. We were caught with 5 laps to go. With 3 laps to go another break formed. I bridged up to it. It dwindled down a bit on the last lap. I of course had the worst sprint of the 7 guys left. But, I'm happy with a 7th at that race.

Afterwards was food and drink and merryness. Fun times were had by all.

So now we have cross, and also soon to be Rays season. I just had my good old buddy Steve throw on this RockShox Argyle 409 mint colored fork on since the RST crap that came with it blew a sea,l and is impossible to contact the company.

I would like to do one last hoorah on the road bike at the long street tour if possible.

See ya'll round

Mohicaning

I went down with Gary B, to meet up with Jim N, Ray H, Derek W, Dave S, and Dave's friend Mike. We broke up in a few groups. I rode with Derek for most of the ride. That is until mile 21 or so when I just endoed on the rock garden. I got up again and tried to haul ass to catch up. Bad idea, 30 seconds later my back end slips out. Now I am so out of the ryhtem, I am just crawling along.

The worst injury i have is my knee is swollen, cut, and brusied from nailing it on my stem. I also have some good dirt rash, and a rip in my nice giordana bibs. Hope the knee can move tomorrow- going for a nice ride with some co-workers

Everybody knows that red is the fastest

Introducing my 2009 trek xo2

not pro

I have decided my wheel set up for cross. I will be running clinchers. I know; not pro. But a very wallet friendly setup.

Pit wheels: Xero XSR-3
Pit tires: Bontrager CX jones 34mm
Pit cassette: something cheap or lightly used

Race wheels: Bontrager Race X lite
Race tires: Michelin Mud 2 w/ challenge latex cross tubes
Race cassette: 11-26 sram og-1070

see you at westlake, unless its pouring.

road ends here

This was my introduction to racing last year. Its what got me hooked. I had to make it down to this one. The Dr. always puts on a good show. Only gripe was I wish I knew that there were KOMs. I would have gone for one(now it makes sense why dan quinlin kept looking back). I'm sure i am not the only one who didn't know about these.

The race had 41 starters including the 11 1/2's that joined us. The hill was tougher than a lot of people thought. The road of gravel made for a lot of stones to the face. 5 laps went by, and then it was the finish. That long false flat finish was tough. I felt good heading up, and was in good position, but slowly the legs were pleading for it to stop. I ended up 8th in the cat 3 category, not sure how far back overall.

Road season is pretty much coming to an end. I have gotten a lot stronger than I was last year. I plan on continuing to grow with my riding, and have a stellar 2010 season. I already have some goals in mind. Also shopping around for a new kit.

With the end of road, comes cross.

Our attempt at no-tubeing my cross wheels was a failure. I have bontrager race X lites which are super nice wheels $900 msrp, dt 240 hubs, etc. But, do I purchase a tubular wheelset?? Like a williams cycling cross wheelset. I need a pair of pit wheels regardless. Maybe I could make the race X lites pit wheels, and run williams tubulars. But running 370 wheels and having 900 wheels sit on the grass seems odd. I need some direction here.

2 more westlakes, and maybe marion.

anyone notice?

Did anyone else notice the Freakin' SLR 722 Roadster today that was half in the street at westlake??!

Shoot, the most expensive cars i have seen while riding have been just 2 different Maybach 57s. I won't go into the boring sub 200k gallardos, db9s, GTC's etc. that have passed my eye while peddaling around.

According to wikipedia that is a $711,000 car. The little area called ranney park that we have ridden through have only netted me a Bentley GTC, and a 997 TT 911 until tonight. I made a mess in my shorts.

hot milk

It was hot at the milk race. 2 bottles wasn't quite enough for me. I struggled to stay with the field at times, but didn't get dropped. Finished 29/5x. And I was toward the back of the main group, so it looks as if there were quite a few that dropped out. Not too happy with my performance, but it could have been worse i guess. Yea. Hot. and windy! I'll remember this one.

See you all at shreve next week! Last year, shreve was my first race. Seems like ages ago. Pizza party afterwards too!!

I have an $84 chain

So apparently my chain was 'completely wasted'. So I replaced my pc-1030 with a 1090r. I think it will make me faster.

Work was boring, so I came up with a list. Before next season I plan on adding:

White bar tape to replace my mummywrap
New white SLR to replace my ragged SLR
thomson stem and new bars to replace my oem giant garbage
Red crankset(standard) to replace my compact truvativ
Carbon wheels if I find a money tree.



I have a taste for milk. And by milk I mean victory at the milk race. And by victory, I mean I plan on going and having a good time, and maybe race decent.

The year so far

After reading Roberts >Factory Rider
blog about this years racing, I decided to count my numbers:

30 races as of today in 2009. This includes 1 mtb race, 1 tim tyler race, westlakes, and the usac races starting with deer creek back on april 13th. I wonder what the final total will be by December? Still bummed I can't make the races this weekend. I was hoping to try the 1/2/3 race at zoar.

I still have a few races in August that I would like to do. On the really want to do list is the Milk Race, and Shreve. On the if i'm available, I'll do it list is The Garret Wonders Crit, Milford Crit- with Frankie Andreau as the announcer up in michigan, and the Big Valley Mtb race- which due to my craptacular technical skills I would be attempting sport class.

zoar no more - but atleast a good tuesday nighter

'The Man' has me working all weekend. So that means no rubber city crit, and even worse- no zoar. I was really looking forward to this race. So atleast I was able to get over to Westlake for some racing. It was warm, and humid. I got my normal quarter mile warmup in compliments of working till 6pm. The race started and my legs felt like crap. I drifted all the way to the very back with the intentions of just sitting on the back for the rest of the race if not drop out and become a spectator.

My legs must have received a proper warm up after those few laps. Mitch looks like he is going to move up in the field, and maybe go catch the breakaway, I decide to join in the fun. We work hard to move up to them (it was mostly mitch towing me) as we make our way onto the breakaway group. Long story short, I actually stuck with the break until the end of the race. By far my best westlake this year.

Now I really need a standard crankset. Because when the sprint came, I was in my 50x12 and got passed like I was standing still. Hope all have fun this weekend at zoar.

Troy Classic & Tour D' Burg

I wasn't able to find anyone to join me for the trip down to southwestern ohio. But, off I was saturday morning down to troy ohio. As soon as i get out of the car the ambulance squeezes by me and takes someone out on a stretcher. Well, thats not very welcoming. But, what was welcoming was the Whacky Wavy Inflatable Flailing Arm Tube Man that was awaiting for me at registration. Onto the race.

The ref was just talking, saying it will be a few mins until we start, etc. Then all of a sudden blows the whistle, while half of us are just standing around not even clipped in. The race had about 4-5 crashes. It rained for a little bit of it, and that probably helped contribute to some of it. I was near the front for a lot of the race with Brent Martin, and a National Engineering rider. Nobody else seemed to want to pull through. The bell rings, and I am slowly moving my way up. Coming around the final corner I believe I was in a decent position to get in a money spot, but I got stuck behind the final crash on the last turn, and had to pretty much ride onto the sidewalk to avoid running someone over. Blah.

Troy Ohio is not an interesting town.

Sunday I arrive at Miamisburg to some nice, warmer, sunnier weather. Whistle blows and we take off. Few laps in, and I took off attacking out of the final 2 corners before the straightaway. I ended up on a solo breakaway for about half of the race. After winning 2 primes with no contest, I need to slow it down a bit if I want to finish the race. 1 rider bridges up, so thats enough recovery for me- I jump on his wheel. First turn on our 2 man breakaway and he goes down in the corner for what reason I don't know. I slam on the brakes, skid, somehow clip out and land on my feet, and pull my bike out of the street before the pack came by all in one motion. I wish they got it on video, it was beautiful. No damage to my bike, and just a slightly crushed fingernail, so I head off to the pit. Get back in and am part of a 4 man break for a lap or 2. We get caught. I am tired. I finish in the back of the field. I felt strong, but really wish I could have stuck that solo break. I am wuss. And the 2 primes I won were kind of wimpy.

TOTV day 3

After eating my continental breakfast in columbiana; we arrived at downtown youngstown. Lovely town. And by lovely, I mean shitty. The race was 60 minutes, and I was just riding along, just enjoying the day. Didn't even go towards the front. But it was fun to just be able to go ride real hard for the past 3 days. I had a blast this weekend. A well deserved yellow jersey went to ThomDom. And props to Carbon racing for putting on an awesome innaugural event. I hope its bigger and better next year!

Next up: Troy Classic and Tour D'Burg

TOTV day 2

It was tough. 66 miles. Tried to go with the guys for the KOM. Didn't get it. I tried to bridge the gap to another rider and we got a 40 second time gap on the field. They caught us. It started to rain. I finished with the field- though they scored me lower than I did. bastards. Day 3 tomorrow.

This has been a real fun weekend so far!

TOTV day 1

TT- First TT. It wasn't that fun. I guess the point is to ride your bike as hard as you can for a specific amount of mileage and try to get the lowest time out of anyone. Everyone had these space-age looking bicycles with goofy wheels and things erecting off of the handlebars. I rode my road bike and felt dorky. I ended up dead center of the cat 3s with a 12:58 time over the 5.6 mile course which works out to somewhere around 25.9mph average. The winner had an 11:47 - that is moving.

Trying to find lunch was kind of hard. We went to downtown canfield, and tried to go to 'Barney's Deli.' It was in the basement of an office building where there were offices right across from the tables, and the door to get in was a blanket hung on the door frame. We booked it out of there just incase it turned out to be Uncle Barneys Rape Dungeon. We finally ended up at some pizza joint which made a very mediocre pizza but at the price of $5.50 for a medium 1 topping, I wasn't complaining.

Crit- Sweet course. I rode like a wussy and my results show that. I finished with the field. It was quick and fun though, so the weekend is a hit so far with me!

Tomorrow is the Road Race. 67 miles of painful fun.

Tour de Grandview

Awesome venue! I will be sure to come next year. No rain. Ton of fans. It was really cool.

I took a warmup lap and somehow ended up lining up very last in a 73 person field. Not the place I want to be if I was planning on placing well. Regardless the laps flew by, and the announcer as we were coming around mentioned how the breakaway was ahead by a bit. Sweet. I didn't know there was a breakaway. I guess that is what happens when you line up in the very back of a huge field. Well, final lap comes, and the hill finish comes. I put the afterburners on and won the field sprint. I felt so good too, i wish i found my way into the break. Regardless, I still ended up getting in a money spot for 11th place. Next up is TOTV -hopefully 'the man' lets me off for it.

im coming for you

Request to change category from Cat 4 to Cat 3: approved

Not sure which attitude to go in with.


A: Dear Cat3's- I am coming to eat you alive!

or

B: *Gulp* *pee pants* cry.

idiot

I had a customer ask me 'whats up with all those faggoty guys on bikes in the road in the parkway' 'Is that even legal for them to be there?'

I got caught offguard and didn't want to sound like a jerk to him, so i politely said yes, it is completely legal. It was tough to hold back a long verbal lashing of his stupidity.

After a few more minutes of kicking tires and in amazement of 'insane amount of money for a bike' and checking out the 'oh are those shocks n shit' on the entry level comfort bikes; he proceeded out the door, hopped onto his harley and drove off without a helmet. The theory of natural selection comes to mind here.

I've been feeling great lately! And finally some seasonable weather!
Tuesday worlds, and then 'the man' has allowed me to escape down to the tour de grandview this sunday.

why did it take me so long to discover the kaiser chiefs? I mean I've heard of them, just never gave them a listen. Pretty good stuff.

6/16 t nighter

Monday was awesome. 78 degrees and Sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. I went for a nice 50 mile ride, and then used the rest of the day to go to cedar point. Super cool, except for the part where after waiting in line, the Millenium Force broke down when we were about 2 min from getting on. Luckily I gave in and bought the Platinum Season Pass, so I will get my chance some other time this summer.

Another Tuesday nighter came and went. 48 miles. Man, are they getting long! I was ready to go home and relax after about 15 laps. I did the whole thing and got a great workout in. I even took a prime on the first lap. Dear entire 'A' group, thanks for letting me take that. It really boosted my confidence. I spent much of my time trying to close gaps. By the final 4-5 laps, after spending a lot of time upfront in the wind, I moseyed on back to the rear of the pack to slow it down a bit. Couple guys went down on the 2nd to final lap, some bikes were totalled, but luckily, everyone was okay.

Thoughts of Cross season have been entering my mind.

Worlds

I had a fun ride on Monday. I hit up harley hills as quick as i could. It then started to rain- it only lasted about 45 minutes, and then the sun came out for the rest of the ride.

Tuesday I went to westlake.

I DNFed but I am happy with my performance. I made the break with the big boys. It was cool/super hard to hang with them. It was RGF/carbon/TLE and myself. About 12 guys in total. After taking a pull, I couldn't hop back on the train, and got rode off with 5 laps to go. I joined the main group when they came around, and somehow ended up on a short breakaway with sam house. I just couldn't take it anymore and with 2 laps to go decided to watch the finish from the sideline. Hopefully next week and I can get in a break and stick with them till the finish! No racing this weekend as 'the man' has me working.

W.tf VIRGINIA

That was the hardest thing I have ever done. Reading other racers blogs that seems to be the concensus.


We get there Saturday morning around 10am after a long, foggy drive. The doors are locked so there are no facilities. Not good when I gotta go! We warm up for a bit, and then its a rider meeting. At the riders meeting we were told there would be a neutral roll to the bottom of the mountain. It ended up being about 6 miles to the start. It was super sketchy. Had a ton of riders flying down a narrow gravelly mountain road. I used about 2 months worth of brake pad; rims were hot to the touch.

We were sitting at the bottom right by a waterfall, it was wet, sunless, and chilly at the bottom as we were all waiting to take off. Finally it was time for the 4/5 field to take off. The first few miles were mostly flat with some rollers following a river. Next we take a turn and the first climb is on. People are dropping off one by one. I wanted so bad to just have the sag wagon pick me up about half way up. I didn't win the $50 KOM or even come close, I was around the 9th up. But, I couldnt latch onto the lead group.

Next is the sketchy downhill. One lane road with blind corners and some very sharp turns, some with gravel almost made me take care of my unfinished business(due to the lack of facilities in the beginning). It took out quite a few people I believe, including John Kulbis- If you see him, ask to see his helmet! Hopefully his bike is alright.

A small group - 6 of us got together and caught up to the lead group right before the final climb.

The final climb was a sick joke. It was stupid. What the fuck were we thinking? The last climb was 7 miles and averaged 10% with some parts going upwards of 20%. I hurt so bad, it was the most pain I've had on a bike. Yes, I got off of my bike and walked it on two different occasions! Despite that I still finished decently. Again, I didn't get any points...cough cat 4 forever cough. But I ended up with 15th/50.

Props to Joseph Holmes for getting a flat in the last mile and still finishing by ripping off his shoes and walking up the rest of the mountain in his socks!

Thanks to Greg Fletcher for making a 5 hour drive less boring, and finding a nice B&B.

We saw the countrys smallest church, a bike sale, we found a beer store, had the longest checkout in a gas station, a ford GT, more hillbillys than we could shake a stick at, and a cool looking area called deep creek in maryland.

a week off the bike

I hadnt had a chance to even touch my bike in a week. So Sunday I finally had the time to get in a ride after work. In preparation for my next race- http://www.iplayoutside.com/Events/?eid=2009/06/11707.html Voted one of the top 10 hardest race courses by velo news, I decided to do a few climbs on my ride.

I hit up Wallings Rd, Cady Rd, Wiltshire/Boston, Truxell, and Boston Mills. I got passed by a Gallardo on truxell. The exhaust resonating off of the trees was awesome. Got in 57 miles.

Tuesday night, I am going to try to rush over to westlake and race after work.
And then Saturday is WV.

Getting Groovy At The Knob

photo by: Robert Sroka

Not much road racing going on in the month of may. I had saturday off, so I wanted to do some kind of ride. After my bonk at the TOKV, and not wanting to get up at 3am to drive 4 hours back to michigan for the tour de frankenmuth; I figured I would try my luck at mountain bike racing.

I started mountain biking last year when I bought a cannondale f5 from BA. Went out maybe 15-20 times last year. I liked it, to switch things up every once in awhile from the road. This year I went to MSP once, and VK the day before.


MTB racing is tough! It was like a 1.5 hour long cross race. I was feeling real strong through the prologue, and half way thorough the first lap. Then after the rocky switchbacks a little after the creek crossing, I thought I was going to die of heat exhaustion. It seemed like a million people passed me. I was going to just roll in and DNF after the first lap. But, everyone was cheering, cowbells were ringing, and I decided to atleast finish, even if it was DFL.

I ended up 4th in my class- Sport U40. Way higher up than I thought. I would do it again. It was nice to get away from the road bike. Maybe I'll do a few more this summer. The post-race was awesome as well, with pasta, beer, monster energy drink, a bonfire, and a dj. Congrats to greg for taking 1st in his 2nd mtb race, with an 85% reduction in crashing this time.

Westlake tonight depends on if it rains or not. I also would need to be back in time from my hitch install, and I will soon have a rack to throw on the hitch. Either a Thule T2 or Saris CycleonPro depending on clearence issues.

Tour of Kensington Valley

It's 4:01am. I am laying in my bed not wanting to wake up. 4:02 I get up. On the road by 4:30. Get to the metroparks at 7:30.

You know you have to pay 4 bucks to just enter the metroparks up there?! what a rip.

HUGE HUGE HUGE turnout. cat 5 was filled. cat 4 had 65. I think over 260 pre-registered. It was drizzling off and on before the start. The rain started easying up by our start time.

57 miles. First lap I flex the muscles for just a bit with a little flyer. 2nd lap I went on the big hill pretty hard again. A few miles later the michigan points leader was starting to inch away from the field and was looking back for someone to join. I'm game. Another guy - the junior race leader had joined us. Freaking fast kid! So it was the 3 of us with a pretty good gap on the field. About 20 miles after our break started I completely cracked on the hill. I rode solo for a few more miles in some tough wind, and the field came and caught me. Well, I stuck with them for maybe a mile, and then I got dropped by them. Ended up just not even doing the last lap. My legs were toast.

Pretty disappointing. I was really hoping to take the W here. Looks like I'm going to be a cat 4 for a little longer.

Taking a break from the road bike this weekend. I think im going to try my mtb racing debut at the vultures knob on saturday.

First Tues. Nighter

First tues. nighter of the year. Rode to the race, raced, rode home from the race. 85 miles total. 1 gel. 1 huge killer bonk on the way back. 49 people in the A race. Huge turnout. Tomorrow is bike to work day, so I'm going to bike to work. Saturday I will be racing at the Tour of Kensington Valley up near detroit michigan. Hopefully it doesn't rain too much.

ratl #4

I suck. No points. Couldn't get away. Good job to teammate JV on taking 2nd place. Atleast I got a burrito out of it.

wow

I am smart. to the 1.75 followers i have- I realized my url had a typo. So i fixed that. I'm not sure what a cylist is.

Mohican

Had to work tuesday so I missed the first westlake race. Weds I worked and it poured so i missed the weds. night spin ride. So with Thursday off, I decided to dust off the mtb and hit up mohican state park.

It rained about 1/2" rain the night before, and the rain wasn't supposed to come today until 3-4ish. The trail was in pretty good condition a few wet spots, and the last mile was a little sloppy, but otherwise pretty nice. The rain came down about 20 minutes after i finished.

My front brake pads are worn down 95% which made for some of the fast downhills a little sketchy. One cog in the middle won't hold the chain, which was annoying for shifting over it. I forgot my gloves,and my hands hurt bad after about 15 miles. Otherwise, it was a nice day, saw nobody out on the trail, and didn't crash into a tree, or go down. Even the two big climbs seemed like nothing as compared to last year when they felt so tough. It was nice to switch it up a bit and ride on the dirt. RATL Saturday. Go Cavs!

RATL #3, CVR #3

RATL- I attacked 20 seconds into the race. Kept attacking off of the front to lose as many people as possible. Ended up being just Brent Martin and myself again. de ja vu. 2nd place. Jason Rapp took the field sprint for 3rd!

CVR- Almost didn't go because I felt so tired when I woke up. Went to the front a couple of times and gave a few tiny leg stretches. Tried a breakaway with a Spin rider atleast twice. Brent and I decided we'd try something on the last lap. We pulled so hard-aka I tried so hard to stay on the Brent-train; but we couldn't make a sizable gap. Coming down riverview rd. My teammate told me to stick on brent no matter what, so when he decided to take off for the line way back near the tracks, i tried to keep up. By the time I got to the intersection of ira I thought I might have a chance to do a solo TT for 2nd because the field was still a bit back. It was a little too much for me though, and I got caught at about 100m by the field. We got JV in for 4th and some money though. Brent of course held on for the win.

RATL #4 next week.

Weds night ride

Rode with Spin again. Huge group. Fast group. Fun group.

2 Great Days, 2 Great Races

Saturday
85 degrees and sunny.- with quite a bit of wind.
RATL #2
Warming up, my teammate/co-worker Steve Heim says 'when are you going to attack'.... Well, I had no set plan to attack at any certain time, but the 2nd lap felt like a better time than never. Got a fun little jump, before Brent Martin from Stark caught up. Shortly after Matt Turi of Stark and Matt Bockbrader of Spin came and joined us. Matt B. hung with us for a couple laps, but after that it was just us 3 (Martin, Turi, myself). We had 1 1/2 minutes over the field. And then they started some tactics, trying to attack and get a 1, 2. My legs answered them all and wouldn't let them go this way. On the final lap Brent takes off HARD! I tried to stick with him, I was going 32mph to keep up, but was being dropped like I was standing still. Brent took 1st, I took 2nd, and Matt took 3rd. Speaking of which, the dude rides 20 miles to the race, does our race, and gets a podium, is looking strong in the masters-until that fiasco, and then rides home. Baller. Good job to all the SBR guys as well!


Sunday
90 degrees and sunny.
New Martinsville, WV Road Race

So a 46 mile road race with some killer climbs, 10lbs of winter meat still on my bones, and the decision to combine cat 1-3s with the 4-5s; things were looking pretty bleek.

But the race must go on.

The first climb 10 miles in- which makes Boston Mills Road look like a little roller i attack. This sparks a 6 man group. It lasts for a few miles until the field catches us. I felt like being the carrot at the end of the stick.

So I attack hard. In fact I attacked so hard that I went solo 26 miles ala jeremy grimm at last years valley city race for the win. It ended up being a hilly time trial. With about 8 miles left the cop told me i had over a mile on the next guy. So I get pumped and start hammering. Ended up with 1st in 4/5. And 1st overall. Proud to rep the orange and blue down there. congrats to joe who i went down there with on his 2nd place in the 4/5s.

Had some free beer and chilli afterwards. Yum.

Next week is going to be RATL #3 and Covered Bridge #3

weds spin ride

Haven't been on the bike since sunday. I had Weds. off so I decided I would ride with Spin. Weather was looking crappy, but I decided to take my chances and go. We ended up having 4 guys including myself in our group. It was windy! My french bread stouffers pizza I had for lunch was feeling like it was coming up a couple times tonight too. Especially after spafford and

hospital hills.

Luckily, I kept all my food down. Was a real nice ride with humphrey, aussie, and jason. 35 miles

This weekend looks like RATL #2 on saturday. And either covered bridge 2 or heading down to WV for a road race on Sun.

RATL & CVR #1

RATL-

70 degrees

23 starters

2 primes

1 wimpy drag race

A couple laps in, and the bell rings for the prime. I'm at the front and pick up the pace a bit. End up picking it up a little too much and form a small gap and what do you know? I run into Greg Flecher from stark. We just looked at each other and said, lets do this. Greg and I worked and held off the pack with the help of our teammates doing a good job controlling things back in the field. We decided to go for the drag race at the end. Ive ridden with greg alot, and know he'd kick my butt. But I'm quite happy with my 2nd place. And JV held on for 4th.

CVR-

55 degrees

few more starters

1 prime

1 box of matches burnt

Felt like being aggressive. 1st lap Brett takes off and I go after him, and we get the pace going pretty good. I rode the front and tried doing a couple flyers, all of which were countered. Lots of attacks from everyone actually, with no one ever really getting away. Aussie Rob from sssmst did a nice little time trial though and held it until about 400m from the finish. Last lap I'm up front again. Brett who went down with ted pablo (hope hes not too hurt!) took the lead to help save my legs for the leadout. After Brett goes, my last match dies, and Stark flys by. And then everyone else zooms by.

Despite the lack of placement. I think our team did a great job by being pretty aggressive.

Can't wait for some races with some climbs!

Deer Creek RR, the reester bunny ,& alpe d'huez

Saturday was the deer creek road race. I hitched a ride down with ted pablo and brett sudetic. We got there and saw a TON of cars. Huge turnout. It was also extremely windy. Brett and I had decided that we could go together off the front and try to make it stick.

Well... I just was either mesmorized by how large the field was or something. I raced very, very passively. In fact, I must have been in the very back of the field because I didn't even notice Brett go. I didn't attack at all. Ended up just finishing with the field. Wind slowed the field down to a pitiful pace and I did nothing about it. I Will be more aggressive next time. So, 0 points in this years first race. 13/41.

Sunday was candy day. I ate a 'reester bunny' Instead of a chocloate bunny, it was a giant reeces peanut butter cup shaped as a bunny.

Monday I got out for a good windy 63 miles. I climbed alpe d'huez-(bedford reservation), and avoided the rain. Legs got a good beating.

Next weekend I plan on doing RATL#1 & Covered bridge race #1.

Spin

Spin tonight. A little chill may have scared off a few people. We ended up combining the As & Bs. No hammerfest, just a nice little ride. After Cedar point rd the pace picked up into A pace. Then up hospital hill, and down paris roubaix again, which was yet again quite sketchy. Guiness and Dogfish Head 60min followed by Rockband and more 60min ended the night.

old man

I tweaked my back at rays tonight bunnyhopping up the drop off in the mongoose section. I feel like an old man. There hasn't been much riding as of recent- busy at work, and then it looks like some crap weather at the beginning of this week. Like snow!

I snuck in a real quick ride on my 17 mile loop Sunday morning- it was better than nothing. Threw in a few sign sprints. Looking to ride Wednesday with Spin, and then kick off the season with the Deer Creek Road Race this Saturday.

wind

Rode with the Spin group tonight. First shop ride of the season, and there was a pretty nice turnout. It was uber-windy heading out, so it made for a nice ride home. There were a few short climbs, I felt pretty strong on them, but man I really need to get serious about dropping that winter weight off. We also went paris-roubaix style. Turning off of riverside after climbing hospital hill onto a brick road.

I thought we would just ride easy on the bricks, but all of a sudden everyone just takes off like a madman, and we're cruising on the bricks at 30mph. I think my organs are still shaking.

Went over to Sullivans afterwards for some tasty Guiness. The best after ride beverage in my book.

Lots of working this weekend for the sale. So there probably won't be too much riding.

Malabar Report

The weather turned out to be pretty decent. After warming up I ripped off the baselayer, but kept the kneewarmers on. Only a few sbr guys were there. I was racing in the 3/4 field, with Craig and Paul in the 4/5s.

24 guys lined up in my field. Big representation from Stark, and Echelon from columbus. The pace wasn't that big of a difference from the 5s i thought. 2 guys went off the front on the 1st lap. John Lowry from Stark ended up going with another guy. The 3rd lap around I tried to pick the pace up a bit on the climb, and see if anyone wanted to play around; nothing really happened. On the way back on the flats with the nasty wind. I gave a half-ass attempt at bridging up to Rick Parr, and see if anyone wanted to come with. Ended up dropping back into the field pretty quickly. On to the final climb to the finish line, I was feeling pretty good, and thought I was able to get in for about 5th. Towards the final kicker my calfs started giving a litle cramping(which has never happened before), and I knew it was over. Lowry pulled off the win. I was still able to get 8th, which is fine by me. First time racing with 3s, or 4s for that matter, it was nice to ride with some new people.

It was nice to get out and freshen up on riding in the pack, and reminding my legs what a race-pace can be. I am hoping to get down to the Deer Creek Road Race April 11th if I can get off for that.

1st race of the year

Signed up for malabar. hope it doesnt rain.

up and down

Played in NoRo today.

Up valley parkway and down

Up akins and down

Up bennet down 82

Up harley hills and down

Up wallings and down

Up albion and down



It was stupid.

Everybodys doing it

Everybodys doing it. No, not streaking through the quads and into the gymnasium; but blogging. I may be blogging for the pleasure of myself only, as I'm fairly new to the scene. That's cool though- I think I'm awesome.