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.