bikes beer boys weekend 2k9 - asheville

blue skies - all weekend!


hanging in asheville/fletcher/pisgah with evan daniel and matt (and kinsay. thanks for letting us invade your house!) - super fun

food before:


food after:


SQUIRREL - start


matt - squirrel gap


evan - crossing cantrell creek


cantrell creek (cool camera water setting):



me on fs-5018:


black mtn i think:


daniel - horse cove


matt - the smile sums up the day:


pisgah - ranger district - SQUIRREL!


gps after:


all of my pictures are HERE.

NCCX #5 - salisbury photos

so i raced in salisbury sunday. after a lackluster start (racing last place for half a lap) i managed to pass a few other super slow people (like myself). anyways... photos (by a lovely darcy):

nccx #5

nccx #2 - raleigh cx 3 recap

well. today i woke up at 5am. drove to raleigh and raced my bike in circles. for my first CX3 race i was quite satisfied with 22nd of 39 especially after starting on the last row. jesse pipes and andrew stackhouse also raced cx3 behind/with the barrage from LMC university. i can only assume their guys won since i never saw them after the whistle. rachel vandenendende and alison forkner also were there in the wmn's pro/1/2 field. i was also quite happy to hold off the 1-2 punch from two inland-BTD guys who took turns attacking. i don't understand these 'tactics' other than trying to go fast and build a big gap through the trees, sidehills, and barriers. anywho.... photos:


dropping charles kutz:






from the series i call 'passing':






stackhouse domination:

rachel v @ barriers:


p.s. photo credits go to darcy grimes. THANKS SO MUCH for loving me and going to the race and cheering for me and taking awesome pictures!!!

my new fisher roscoe

my 2010 gary fisher roscoe 1. mostly stock + conti mtn king & rubber queen (1100gr!) tires. weighs in at 30lbs 15oz. not bad for 140mm all around and 15QR front fork/wheel. i'm excited

sabatoge

So all of you don't have to sing "blah blah blah blah blah its sabatoge!!" at the bar anymore:

I Can't Stand It, I Know You Planned It
Ima Set It Straight, This Watergate
I Can't Stand Rockin' When I'm In Here
'Cause Your Crystal Ball Ain't So Crystal Clear
So, While You Sit Back And Wonder Why
I Got This Fucking Thorn In My Side
Oh My God, It's A Mirage
I'm Tellin' Y'all It's Sabotage

So,So,So, So Listen Up 'Cause You Can't Say Nothin'
You Shut Me Down With A Push Of Your Button
But yo, I'm Out And I'm Gone
I'll Tell You Now I Keep It On And On

'Cause What You See You Might Not Get
And We Can Bet, So Don't You Get Souped Yet
Scheming On A Thing That's A Mirage
I'm Tryin' To Tell You Now It's Sabotage

Why; Our Backs Are Now Against The Wall
Listen All Of Y'all This Is Sabotage
Listen All Of Y'all This Is Sabotage
Listen All Of Y'all This Is Sabotage
Listen All of Y'all This Is Sabotage

I Can't Stand It, I Know You Planned It
I'ma Set It Straight This Watergate
I Can't Stand Rockin' When I'm In This Place
Because I Feel Disgrace Because You're All In My Face
But Make No Mistakes And Switch Up My Channel
I'm Buddy Rich When I Fly Off The Handle
What Could It Be, It's A Mirage
You're Scheming On A Thing That's Sabotage

recovery drink experiment - silk

so i've seen beth frye drink slim-fast after bike races, i've read online and in runner's magazines about chocolate milk and i've also noticed that most chocolate milks contain high fructose corn syrup AND about 400% of your daily sugar requirements. this leads me to my experiment with SILK chocolate light soymilk:



i figured cyclocross training racing would be a good time to experiment with recovery drinks before the real racing begins in another month or so. i think it will work out well -OR- i'll be running to the trees to throw up.



we'll see

Shenandoah Mountain 100 & 2009 bridge to bridge

well. the SM100 happened. i took over an hour and a half off my previous time finishing 10hrs 35mins.

moving along...

after deciding to partake in the 2009 bridge to bridge incredible century bike RIDE on monday i had few days to train and even fewer to start making up excuses...

jonathan lubkeman and I worked (like top 10) the first 35-40 miles. it seemed like 6-8 people were and when we got back into the bunch speed slowed to 18-19mph. i realized this was not the smart thing to do about 2 hours in. oh well, i felt it on 181/221. this year it was 55 miles to 181 instead of 49.something.

181 went by okay. got bottles from jimmy gragg twice. the brp from 181 to BR was a second wind and i descended to price park with little braking. first cramps came at sims pond. great. 221 was super foggy at first, catching cars that had previously passed us. getting past holloway was a relief and soon i had 100 miles on my ticker. good thing we had six more to go. getting inside the gate was helpful but it seemed steeper than two years ago...



once inside, only mark smith passed me. he started at 11... one guy that i caught kept unclipping, walking, then climbing back on to sprint. confused by his ways i let him go but other than mark i think i kept it moving then. the last straight came quickly and i expected more switchbacks but every few seconds a roar of applause, etc would come from the small crowd. then turn right. done.

oh, the start was dry. it only began raining ~1 hour in. thankfully the next 5.5 hours were consistent rain, although the exposed sections of GM had tremendous winds. like get blown around on the bike going 3mph. brakes worked mostly the whole time although i had to open the rear brake qr for standing climbing because the wheel would scrub the pads. gears began to deteriorate ~75 miles in on the BRP near roseboro rd. that became annoying. my time ~6hrs 45mins or something.

thanks a bunch to jim gragg for his ticket and driving and bottle fills, trevor critcher for safety pins, ray reid for yelling something at me on 181, and darcy for standing in the rain for hours at the top of a cold foggy place.