killthedarkness

the details: two nmbs xc races and two short tracks in the span of nine days. no expectations, only aspirations. a thursday arrival left two days of preriding. a couple of laps left jesse and i searching out 34t rings and the big ol 22t surly cogs on the back. adventure 212 gurus chris and michelle let us crash on the floor along w/ le bender and tj. race day came and the heat was out. after a back row callup the race was on. the start wasnt quite as quick as i expected. i followed jesse around the bottle neck, running the bikes around a few trees. we quickly found ourselves inside the top fifteen at the crest of the course on lap one. it went downhill quickly. jesse's front tyre washed out over a berm on a highspeed corner. i slammed the brakes and detoured around. it wasnt until halfway through the climb on lap two i knew his fate. i saw him walking the bike down the hill, flatted out. i hunkered down, latched onto eric batty on lap two. going past carl decker i figured i was sitting alright. batty's pace was a little too steep for me less than half way through the race. eventually he towed me to troy wells and i sat on his pace until the last lap. i decided to have a go at it again and went around troy on the last lap. there were a few chasers and i wanted to keep the top fifteen place. the steep descent was too much for my cramping arms. maybe suspension would be handy? three guys went by w/in a minute of the finish and i just couldnt hang. 17th on the day.

short track on the second day. back row callup again? yup. i lined up behind tj who lined up behind todd wells. smart move. we moved up quickly to top twenty five. then it's just go as fast as you can for as long as you can. jesse eventually came by. i hung for a bit then got lazy. he made the move as i snoozed. just five seconds up on me when i was pulled. thats the difference. 19th on the day as jesse went on to tenth.

a week of no work and riding, sounds like a deal. chris and michelle once again hooked us up w/ a place to stay for the week. for the whole week we drank coffee, explored trails, ate a lot of candy (the bender can hold his own), and prerode. i witnessed chris putting down a whole package of chips ahoy cookies in one sitting. where does all the food go? we also discovered that tj has the second most top five wors finishes w/o a win at 9. eppen has 35!

mt snow race day. maybe second from back row. i moved quickly up the steep climbs into the top 20 a few miles in. i was tired. really tired. riding carelessly and trying to get to the top of the climb. i often say i ride like im on a full suspension. that was my demise on the day. slit sidewall. strange as it wasnt that big, but the stans wouldnt seal. i go through the trouble to put the tube in to find that it either punctured through the slit or already had a hole. it was a long walk down.

short track. lookin for redemption. i picked the wrong place to start. i got cut off and shut down from the gun. i was ahead of maybe five people after lap one. chasing hard was the name of the game. i kept workin it. at 18 minutes i went hard thinking we'd get pulled. wrong. we made it through the twenty minutes but got pulled at the 3 to go. 23rd place for me. jesse rocked back to 13th.

it was an experimental trip. we performed so so. some good, some bad. thanks to fisher for making it happen. t6 for makin me look good. and the adventure 212 crew for being so accomodating. it was a great trip but next time im bringin my watergirl with, that's worth at least ten spots.

quick mt snow update...i had an unfortunate incident w/ a sharp rock and slit my sidewall. put in the tube only to find that it had a puncture. bummer. jesse dnf'd also. rough day for the ss.  tj rocked it in 22nd i believe, w/ chris and mikey in the low to mid 30's. i guess i'll go for short track redemption tomorrow.

searchin for sasquatch.

quick update from windham before heading off to mt snow. xc went decent. lots of climbing had us searching for 34t rings. we finally acquired some and threw the surly 22 on the back. smallest gear ive ever run. i managed to make it through the heat to finish 17th. bummer that i got passed on the last descent by three guys. lap one i was behind jesse when he caught a ridge on a berm and punctured. he aired it and then slit his tyre shortly after. short track yesterday. i followed tj's line and we made it into the mix quickly. jesse eventually came storming by and i tried to hang on. ended up getting pulled around 17 minutes or so, 19th place. jesse continually worked his way up to finish 10th. 45 secs off the leaders from a back row callup. not bad. tj, bender, jesse and myself turned a cooldown into nearly a 3 hr ride afterwards, riding some of the steepest hills around. the 34 x 15 was not the way to go for that. a couple recoveryish days and some course laps at mt snow and we should be ready to go. the pearisos have been great, lending us places to crash and all. super nice of them. it's been good hangin w/ the wisco crew.

2 x 9, not two by nine

it's hard. it's hard bein me. what's the hardest thing about being me? mustache. really. that and trying to stick to jesse long enough to outsprint him. after a decently subpar start at the firecracker i managed to claw my way back up to jesse and mike halfway through lap one. i sat until jesse threw down a massive sprint-like attack heading into lap three. i briefly took over the pace until jesse decided it was too slow. then i sat again until the finish were i once again couldnt hang when it came to the line. oh well.

now we find ourselves somewhere in ny, jamestown i think it is. with the majority of the drive to windham mt done, tomorrow looks like a short drive and some laps of the course. foto cred.

hillbilly in a handbasket.

i finally got a chance to race at levis again after about four years. wi ss champs had us doing two twelve plus mile laps. i donned the "power kit" which proved to be quite the opposite. of course, that could have had something to do with staying out late, drinking beer at a wedding reception as well as celebrating our engagement. from the le mans start i felt a little off. jesse kicked it into gear on the opening flat as i dangled. about halfway through lap one i popped. that makes for a long twenty miles more. after the urge to vomit subsided i managed to throw in a couple of surges. it made no difference as jesse was over five minutes up and tj was about four back, but it was a good workout nonetheless. regardless, still the best course in wisconsin, and probably the midwest.

wi ss champs today. i had a worthless race. felt terrible but at least i looked stunning. jesse put a solid five minutes into me w/ tj a bit behind me. more later. my real news for the weekend is that meghan and i are now engaged. my whole goal was a surprise and i managed to pull it off.

the ramble.

the ramble started off pretty amateur for myself, whiffing the pedal off the line not once but twice. i quickly found myself buried twenty deep. with some sketchy maneuvers in the first quarter mile i worked up through the pack before finally getting onto the train that jesse was pulling. after a couple of miles mikey took over and before ya know it the seven of us had a gap. mikey blew a tyre off on lap two, jesse did the courteous thing by not attacking. we had a small gap riding the same pace but the group quickly latched back on. it was apparent that tj and chris didnt want either jesse or i to get off the front as most of my turns at the front were quickly shut down. on the last lap i went to the front on the second section of singletrack. jesse must have been studying the play book. he came up right to block and said go. i hammered to the small opening as tj tried to squeeze in between. jesse boxed it out and i tried my best to weave the magic trail through the forest. as we hit the ski trail jesse came around and it was all out. tj was right there as i yelled at him to get on. my next look back we had a gap. jesse kept the gas on the rest of the way. neither of us realized how far out we had went. we kept the gap and it came down to the final stretch. as we came up on a sport rider i cut left and jesse cut right. i failed to realize the finish beared right, putting me on the outside. the sprint was on and my legs gave out a second from the finish. jesse with the win again, myself second. not bad for a road race. the superfly was rolling, couldnt have been a better course for it. the shades kept me seein clear, at least until the rain. argyle is the style. and it never hurts to have the most p-r-o water handups in the biz. photo cred.

fully loaded.

  with two days off, meghan and i took full advantage. sparta to onalaska via the lacrosse river trail, onalaska to perrot state park via the great river state trail. camp. same thing backwards the next day. panniers and the bob did the trick. pics.

mt morris

too legit to quit. foto cred.