Weekend in the Oven! NUE #3 Syllamo 125k

Well a great opening weekend for me and also a great overall weekend for Team Noah Foundation at NUE #3 Syllamo 125k and Syllamo’s Revenge.  The race was held in the “oven” of Mountain View, Arkansas.

My weekend started on Thursday with the long drive from Decorah to the halfway point of Columbia,MO to visit and stay with my Aunt Colleen.  Choose to cut down the driving in hopes that I would be a little more rested going into the race and not sleeping in a tent two nights in a row. After a nice evening of catching up with Colleen and getting some awesome pizza at G & D Pizzeria. It was back in the car for the remaining 5 hours to Mountain View.  As the actual mountains began to appear I started,as I always do when going to the mountains, questioning my gearing choice coming in to the race on a 36x20.  Little did I know I would running the hardest gear on course for the Singlespeed 125k.

I arrived at the camp at the race start to the welcoming of Dwayne and Peat who had gotten there no more than 15 minutes before me.  Pretty good timing huh!!  Promptly I got the camp set up as my trusty side kick, Bailey, needed a place to hang out while we did a little pre-ride to check out the opening 5 or so miles of the course.  Only thing I knew when I got out of the car was it was hotter than I had been all year and the humidity was super HIGH!  Got kitted up and we were off after about an hour of last minutes and onto the course.  First impression was the opening climb which went straight UP the side of a mountain, fire road style.  Again questioning the gearing!! Opening singletrack was pretty easy, and then the rocks! I HATE ROCKS!! The rocks were slippery with humidity and the rock gardens were going to be the bain of my existence for the next day.  Dwayne walked me through what the course would consist of and I felt more than warmed up after about a hour of riding in the heat and humidity.  Back to the camp we went and off to Mountain View for some Pizza Hut and lots of water the rest of the evening.  Sleeping was definitely tough as it finally cooled enough for me to get to sleep about 11:30.  Early morning to come.

Woke at 5 a.m. race morning and began to get ready for the day with my morning breakfast.  Got everything set out the night before so I was definitely relaxed as I just went through the routine to get ready.  Pre-Race meeting and to the line we went!!  All the big guns were up front so I lined up second row after getting squeezed back by someone but knew I would get up there in the roll out.  And we are off.

Opening climb went fairly well as my legs were immediately with me for the climb and I was feeling really well compared to the previous day where my heart rate was out of control up the climb.  I marked Gerry as I knew and chance of winning relied on holding his wheel.  We worked our way up the climb, leading for a while and getting brought back by the gear train of leaders.  Peat came out and bridged the gap before we entered the singletrack and made a surge to go in first, Gerry second, and me on his wheel.  More than content to follow Gerry and let Peat go rabbit.  Sure is nice having a Team to work with this year!!

Flowing the singletrack, I gave Pflug about a 20-30 yard gap to try and keep him in eye sight and not get to close to loose vision of the trail as the opening 10 miles are known for their flats!! Dwayne joined me about 1 mile into the singletrack and we thought it was great to have three teammates in the top 4 singles and top 10 overall.  We worked along talking as Dwayne and I have become known for doing at these races.  After about 4 miles the flats started to show and to our sadness, Peat was on the side of the trail sealing one up.  No more rabbit to cause Gerry and frustration, it was up to Dwayne and I to stay the course.  As we entered the first rock garden, it is hard to admit that the race seemed to be pretty much over.  I watched as Gerry worked his way very flowingly through the rocks and I dismounted as would become the norm with my gearing choice and lack of rocky skills.  Quicker for me to run anyway as I usually closed on Gerry going to the rocks running.  Little did I know that Dwayne flatted in this rock garden and I was on my own to try and keep with the Pfluganator!  That didn’t last as he was to comfortable with his east coast rock skills and I was just not a match for that.

Rolling in the rocks of the blue loop!

Pretty much rode the next 20 miles or so on my own, working my way through the rocks, rivers (which I intimately got acquainted with by taking a swim headfirst in one), and more rocks!  I also managed in this section of the blue trail to take a wrong turn due to missing flagging and went for a ten minute detour.  Back tracked to point of departure and it was back to work. No position lost, just time and effort! After getting to Aid 3 about 35 in I was feeling pretty pleased with where I stood as I came into that Aid in 6th overall and 2nd Single.

Red loop was awesome!!! This loop was by far my favorite as I felt very at home on this gravely trail that had some good pitched climbs for my gearing. Worked my way through this section pretty much uneventfully and got back to the start of the second loop which would take up back through the opening 9 miles of singletrack and cheat our way over to the red loop again. 

Struggling again.  Not only was I having a tough time on the rocks once again on the second loop but now I was quite fatigued with the hard gear riding and also missing a nutrition intake along the way on the red loop (MENTAL NOTE!!).  Got through as quick as I could and back to Aid 3 where I was revived by two new bottles and and new spirit as I took off on the final red loop with a new sense of speed.  I know that I went faster the second time through the Red loop. Got to the top of the fire road after picking my way through 50 miler after 50 miler, which were great for keeping me motivated, and I bombed to the finish at 40 mph. plus almost forgetting about the washed out section of road that could have sent me not only over the bars, but also more than likely to the hospital. 

Singlespeed Podium ( Team Noah Foundation 2,3!!)

Rolled into the finish with a bit relieved feeling as I had just pulled off a 2nd Singlespeed  my opening NUE and a 5th PLACE OVERALL in a time of 7:25 for 75 miles!!  Top 5, I will take that for sure!  Even more exciting was seeing Peat come in 3 spots later for 3rd Singlespeed and 8th Overall and Dwayne not long after in 4th Singlespeed and 11th Overall.  Gerry rode a great race to take the Singlespeed Overall and 3rd OVERALL!  Going to be a tough year for the Single class as we are starting strong and only going to get better for the rest of the year. 

After getting cleaned up, finding only 1 tick on my leg, it was back for the podium and rock hoist.  Packed the truck up and back to Columbia and up to Iowa the next day.

Overall great weekend, look forward to the upcoming races with my Team Noah Foundation teammates and hopefully taking more steps on the NUE Podium.  That is about it.  OUT!

Peat is always happy and should be for a awesome ride of 3rd Single, and 8th Overall!!

Dwayne rocked a leaky rear tire to 4th Single, 11th Overall!!
(Still smiling at the end, we were worried in the middle of the race)

2013 BoneBender- Lawrence,KS

Finally have some time to put out the write-up to this long weekend.  Taken me almost a week to recover not from the race itself, but rather from the sleep deprivation of driving to the race and back all in a matter of two days.  Almost back to normal.

Well to the race then.  Drove down from the snowy and cold white north to the green and warm, I mean warm, Kansas countryside.  On the way down I pleasantly watched as the temperature crept up and up until finally it was in the mid 60's on Saturday when I arrived in the early evening.  Well got the camp set up quick (Single Male doesn't take much: Tent, Sleeping Bag and that is it!!!).  Thought I would go out and do some openers on the course to also get a good idea for what I was going to be up against.  WOW, what a eye opener!!!  Rocks, Rocks, Rocks, Tree Root, and some more ROCKS!!!!  This was quite the first dirt trail ride of 2013, yeah that is right, haven't been on clear trails yet this year. Overall could tell that this was going to be tougher than expected so got back to camp after pre ride and geared a tooth down in the back to run 36 x 20.  

Racetime

Bart Cox Photography
(Sorry can't afford $7 a photo,
it is my mug anyway!!)

Woke up on Sunday to clear skys and also didn't even have to put any extra clothes on to crawl out of the tent.  What a difference 400 miles south can make!!  Race day was going to be windy, 20-30mph winds and hot 70 degrees.  Yeah that is hot when the high has been in the 30's for the past month.  Got the pits all set up pretty early and then it was Breakfast and waiting.  Figured out on the way down I need to change my pre-race breakfast as I don't think it is giving me what I need to get going at these long events.  Changes to come!  Rode the parade lap a few times to get a feel for it and fueled up.  Team Noah Foundation finally showed up with Adam and Pete coming in stylishly 30 minutes before the start.  Greeted them as I saw fit (One fingered salute!!!)  Joking of course. Great to finally have a team at these things that I am proud to ride for and have some comrades on course to keep the mojo going.

Toe the Line and we are off!!

Bart Cox Photography

Front row start today as I could tell that it was going to be needed for this one because of the tight single track and the tight entrance into the woods after only less than 2 miles.  Slotted Pete next to me and Adam slotted a few rows back.  And we are off.  Got out good and settled in about 6 behind the leader, Ginger King Ryan.  He set a good hard effort to help thin the heard right from the gun and up the opening climb we went. I held my own up the climb and entered the single track about 6th or 7th in line.  Never bottle necked and we were clear to roll.

Bart Cox Photography

Majority of lap one was spent in the red zone, 170 bpm or higher!!  Settled in nicely for my second trail ride of the year on some of the rockiest trail I have ever ridden so far in my 10 year riding career!!  6 miles of pure hell on rocks with short steep up's and we finally got to the smooth open trail that was a blast to cruise around!  Rocks thrown in every once in a while to keep us honest.  Spent lap 1 chasing the leaders and catching up with Ryan and settling behind him as he was flowing nicely.  Came through I believe in 5th Overall  and was feeling quite well.  Quick pit and off again for lap two.  Laps were rolling around 1:15-1:20 (+ parade ) for about 13.5 miles so moving along pretty well considering.

  

Lap 2, 3, 4 was pretty much the same all 3 laps.  I was able to move around Ryan on Lap 2 and open up a gap nicely on the smooth stuff ( halfway through the lap) and got into rhythm.  I was cooking around at 11 mph and feeling really good for first race of the season on trails.  Surprised for sure!!!  Got some company on lap 3 and 4 as Brad "Superman" Auen came riding up on my wheel and we traded back and forth taking our turn at the front where we saw fit.  He was riding unbelievably smooth through the rocks at the begininning so often I sat back and just kept pedaling through this section.  Didn't know it but during these laps we were siting 2nd and 3rd Overall chasing the lone one that got away in Frank from Orbea/Tuff Shed.  We discussed it and figured at how fast he went off he would run out of gas before the end.  We were right.  Came up on Frank on Lap 4 and he was hurting with stomach issues.  So now we were fighting for the Overall!! Well not much of a fight with a mere mortal and Superman!!!

Bart Cox Photography

Lap 5 saw the move and nothing more to do!! Brad was again feeling it and there was nothing I could do but salute and ride to the line.  Lap 5 saw me riding the course enjoying the last bits of single track as I knew that I wouldn't be riding this in the near future with the snow, cold, and rain up North!!  Felt fairly well as I pulled into the finish at around 6:46:36 for 68 miles of rocky goodness (Nightmares did follow!!!) and only around 10 minutes off the pace of Brad.  Like I said he was flying on the rocks!!!  

Team Noah had a good day as well!!  Brad took the Overall with 5 laps.  I was the only other solo out there to take 5 laps which made me feel good accomplishing that goal that I set on Lap 1.  So I took 1st SingleSpeed and 2nd Overall.  2nd, 2nd of the year, still a podium though.  I was joined on the Podium by my good mate and Team Noah Teammate Pete Henry who moto'd (He was kick starting his bike at the start!!!) to a 2nd SingleSpeed and 4th Overall.   Adam was able to come in 7th SingleSpeed so a great showing by TEAM NOAH Foundation!!!  

Bart Cox Photography

Bart Cox Photography

Bart Cox Photography

After the race it was the Marathon drive back to Iowa of 7+ hours where I got home at 12:30a.m. Monday and had to teach in 4+ hours.  Lead to a long week of work with not much sleep.  Well worth it thought!!

Again overall felt great to be on some single track and looking forward to the season ahead!!  I am up next at the Decorah Time Trials in a week to try and take back my title that I vacated last year and then it is to the heart of the season!!!  Starting on May 11th I am going up to Rochester for the Sandwich 50 to keep the legs fresh for the following weekend NUE opener for me of Syllamo's Revenge 125K.  After that it is into the Dante's Inferno of Hell as June see's 5 100's in 5 weekends and then every other weekend until Cyclocross season!!  

Going to be a long one but looking forward to spreading the hope that is Team Noah Foundation.  If you would like to help spread all that is good with the foundation make sure to visit the site and donate to support the cause.  Visit Team Noah Foundation- How you can Help to find out more!!  Thanks for reading!! OUT!

BoneBender 2013 by trockwell at Garmin Connect - Details

Spring!!!!!

 Well Spring is finally here.  It was officially around 50 degrees today and I was able to hit up the gravels for over 4 hours today.  Hopefully this is the start of many happy days ahead.  The ride destroyed me physically (due to forgetting my food at home) but mentally it completely cleared my head and made me one happy person.  You can see that the photos above are actually a tail of two different days.  First photo was a week earlier when I was relegated to a single speed after everything froze up due to crappy gravel conditions and freezing temps.  Not so much in the second pic.  Team Noah was rolling the hills of NE Iowa today. Short and sweet, that is it!!

Snow, Snow, Go Away!!

Well it has been a good start to the greatest month of the year, MARCH!  Ok the month is only the greatest because the coolest of the cool are born in March.  Other than it being a great birth month, this year has been stellar and then crappy, then stellar and crappy again.

First off, stellar! My birthday for some reason came early this year, when I opened up the front door to let Bailey do her business and found a box with some Team Noah goodies.  So happy, I stripped down with the front door still open to try on the great new kit that I get to ride in this year.  It is going to be a great year sporting this kit and all that it stands for!

After the stellar point is the crappy. There has been a crap load of snow here in Decorah for the month of March.  We got around 10 inches or more of snow on March 5th.  Also there have been many days of ice after the snow.  The latest round of crap fell on us and the rest of the state of Iowa last night dumping only about 2 inches of snow around here.  The bad part was that we got around 1-2 inches of nice rain yesterday and then got the snow, so lots of sloshing and and wet heavy snow to shovel off the driveway.  I am about ready to break a shovel over my leg if we get any more this year!!  Because of all of this snow, I don't know if I am going to ever get my Spring Driver's Ed. class done as we have now missed the last 2 mondays and also I don't know when I am going to be starting my 1st summer session as Howard-Winn is going to school until June 4th now.  Should be interesting this summer!!

Enough ranting about the snow.  Ok maybe not! The snow that we had before the 10 inches was absolutely amazing.  Since the PWC 3, I have been quite busy hitting the trainer when the trails were crappy or riding the heck out of the snowy goodness as much as I can.  Logged my first 3 hr. trail ride of the year on the White Steed in the snow and preceded it by a 2 hr. ride on the same white goodness.  


After ending February and starting March with a 7 day hard "training block" the 10 inches fell and oh was it a fun ride out on the trails that day.  3 miles in 1 hour made for a unhappy, happy me.  I did have fun coming down Randy's and creating the prototype Deep V Pugsley Rims in the process.  If Surly wants to contact me I may be albe to sell the patent on these!

Since the trails were crap I took the next three days out on the ski's on what was suppose to be great trail conditions.  I failed to account for the dumbass, college snowmobiler who lives a couple blocks over from me ruining the best ski conditions that we have seen all year by taking his snowmobile down the classic ski tracks, destroying them. If I meet this guy, he will be getting a swift kick to the marbles and then a ski pole stuck up his backside.  Don't know how dumb and arrogant you could be to ruin a whole user groups conditions because he felt he had the right to the ski trails. Snowmobilers can be quite the crappy group.

After the ski days it was back to the dreaded trainer to pound out some more intervals and steady states and then today out into the mushy snow to try my hand at the trails.  I don't know what it is about the trails that will put a smile on my face no matter how crappy the conditions are or how many times I am unable to clip into my pedals (Much swearing out on the trails because of this). The ride today was fairly slow due to 4-5 inches of water every once in a while hiding under the 2 inches of wet, heavy snow but it was quite fun to go outside rather than sitting on the gopher wheel spinning and getting nowhere.

Well that is about all for the update.  Three weeks till the actual season opener at Feel the Burn 6 hour. Later.

      

Pugsley World Championships

Finish Line Photo Op

Well this past weekend was the Third edition of the renowned Pugsley World Championships.  This race is well known for it’s hard race conditions and it’s extravagant racers.  This year was no exception.  A little history, the race has been held the last 3 years with courses consisting of snowmobile trails, snowy paved trails, open gravel and snow covered single-track. Also the race is strictly on fat bikes with those that want the coveted prize money having to be on these rumbling machines. This year proved, in my eyes to be the hardest from a racing standpoint due to course and the fact that we were on fat bikes which are inherently “FAT”.

We started the race with a neutral rollout from the local Elk’s club heading towards the starting line.  On the way to the line, our lead-out lead us up onto a levy with about 6 inches of fresh snow and ice.  Thinking the race was on, many took off like a bat out of hell trying to put a gap in.  Low and behold, we were still on our way to the line.  Nice little warm up for sure.

Once at the line at the end of a long gravel road, we were off and at them.  Being a local, I went to the front and controlled the pace by setting a slower and pretty easy 15 mph speed. I decided to set this speed knowing very well that the opening climb was where all separation was going to take place.  If you don’t know Decorah, any road out must head upwards of 300-400 feet, this opening climb being exactly of this kind.  As we headed up the climb, the race was on and the separation was immediate.  I opted to set my pressure pretty high around 15 psi for the race as the opening 27 miles of 30 were set to be on open gravel and no need for lower pressure.  

Up the opening climb and opening 3-5 miles I was at the lead of the race.  After being passed by former local crazy singlespeed fat biker, Scotty, up the initial climb out of his own necessity to keep moving, I decided to see what people had in them and attacked to create the front group. 

After about 5 miles, Franz, from Rochester established himself as the clear leader opening a 20 sec. gap on me and my fellow sufferers, Hollywood Henderson and teammate (forgot his name).  We spent the rest of the ride out to Bluffton and back to Decorah in this position, or so we thought. 

Pain Train picking up steam!!

After battling strong 10-15 mph. headwinds dang near the whole course and the countless steep gravel pitches all the way to Bluffton and back, we were convinced to be fighting for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place.  Not so in the end!!  On the way into Decorah, I made a decision, even though suffering from cramps and exhaustion that a move need to be made.  Hollywood and myself but the gas on and opened up a gap coming down Quarry Hill into Decorah.  We knew the final 3 miles was on snowy trails with lots of ice underneath.  Well after almost blowing the turn into Van Pennen we entered the trail more or less together as I went down due to over pressure and Hollywood blowing the turn and making it back quickly. Little did I know we were in for more trail than first thought!

Checking on the competition

Heading up the climb into the park on icy snow, I decided to take off on foot and run up the hill thinking at the top it was straight down hill and pressure wouldn’t matter,thus taking the win.  Not how it was to be.  After sprinting up the hill 1/4 mile I was greeted with arrows into the curvy pines and about 2 miles of extended time on the trails.  Oh well I thought keeping pressure the same, decided to run, run, RUN!! I was able to keep the lead for about another 1/2 a mile before Hollywood came up on me, having dumped air, riding like a champ.  Thus the decisive move was made and the rest is history!  

After running the rest of the Pines, down the hill I went and into 2nd Place overall and more than happy with the place.  Mental error on my part but Hollywood was on a mission today and was an animal out there that was blood thirsty for the win.  Congrats to him!  Just another podium for TEAM NOAH though.  Keep it going. OUT!

PWC Podium w/ axes and cash!!

Bucketball for the PWC Grand Championship w/ yours truely referee