Let's play the guess what's in my bag game

So, the question of the day was: What do you keep at work and what do you carry around in the bag?

What's in the bag

Hmm, let's start at 6 o'clock and kind of sweep around counter clockwise.
- generic sudafed
- spare coin batteries for my rear light
- some cord
- spare battery for my AYUP light
- hi-vis orange vest
- rain jacket
- medium weight hat
- pump
- spare 29er tube in an awesome strap
- patch kit
- cable lock
- C02 inflator
- 2 spare road tubes
- tulbag (with tools in it even)
- spare road tire (new)
- another road tube (I think this one needs to be patched)
- House/car/bike lock keys
- I Bike Boston sticker
- Oracle pen
- spare C02
- spare battery for a Blackberry I no longer have
- usb memory thingy
- bicycle accident report
- earphone / mic for the Blackberry I still no longer have
- fob for work
- pocket knife
- name tag from I have no idea where
- A one dollar bill and about 5 lbs in change

Work:

- spare road tube
- Cat's Tongue towel
- spare road tire (used)
- Mad Alchemy chamois creme
- some $$$

What have we learned? I need to go through the crap in my bag more often. Not only do I have stuff for crap I don't even own, I just have some crap for no reason whatsoever. Not to mention I have stuff for the road bike that is currently in my basement on the trainer and probably won't be ridden outside for a couple months. At least I didn't find any rotten bananas. It's happened. It's not pretty.

Why do I have a couple road tires around. I found some short sections of trail on the way to the office that I was hitting on the road bike. It was great until I cut the sidewall in a tire. Then I did it again. Now I don't hit the trail on my road bike. Anyway, one of the tires I currently have on the bike has a patched sidewall and is of questionable integrity. I'm just trying to get every last bit out of it before it goes and I want to be prepared when it does.

 

Part 3: Gear - This might actually be useful

Tonight in my multipart series of things you don't care about I taking a look at some of the gear I use. I've burned through quite a bit of crap over the years and find this stuff works well.

Lights:

If you're only going to have one light facing forward, put in on your helmet. The light on the helmet will shine where you are looking. Lights on the handlebars don't always. This is particularly noticeable turning when there are no street lights around. This light is from AY-UP. I've had it for 5 or 6 years and it's been rock solid the whole time. The run time is 3+ hours and I carry a spare battery so I've got more than enough light for a days commute (or 2 if I forget to charge the battery).

My helmet also has a rear blinking light

It clips onto a special mount that's part of the helmet. It uses coin batteries that I feel tend to not last very long so I don't use this very often. It's more for emergency situations like if my other light dies or I'm in weather conditions (fog, heavy rain) that I feel warrant the visibility. It's also nice to have if I caught out after dark when I wasn't planning on it and don't have another blinky light.

I do have two other lights. Both are from Light & Motion

The urban 550 was given to me. Then I lost it, so I bought another one. Do I need all the light provided by the 550? Not really. It has 4 settings (H, M, L and blinking) and most of the time I have it on low. The only time I have it on high is riding through the woods. Even then it's more of a luxury than a necessity. If I were just getting it for commuting I'd probably get an urban 200. Still, I love the light. It charges quickly on a USB, and is super easy to take on and off the bike. 

The other light is a vis180. It's ok. It doesn't blink so much as fade in and out sort of. It has four settings. 3 of which are not very different. The 4th setting (paceline) is useless IMHO. Don't get me wrong the light is plenty bright and I'm not worried about it's ability to make me visible. It's just after having the urban 550 first, this was a little disappointing. On top of that, the mount broke within just a couple of weeks. To their credit, all it took was one phone call to Light & Motion and they sent out a replacement light with a new and improved bracket. 

So yeah, I have two front and two rear lights. Why??? With the convenience of USB recharger comes the danger of forgetting to recharge it and not being able to just pop a new battery in if it dies mid ride. My other lights can swap batteries and I carry spares so hopefully I won't get caught out in the dark although I've come pretty close.

Helmet:

Besides the semi integrated rear light, my Uvex helmet has another feature that I absolutely love for commuting. 

That's an adjustable buckle for the chin strap. Whether I've got a balaclava and heavy winter hat or a light cycling cap, the helmet's on nice and snug without having to futts around with adjusting the strap. It's a little thing, but in the spring and fall I find the head wear you need varies dramatically from day to day. Add to it the fact that you've got the added weight of a light on your helmet and having the easily adjustable fit is a big deal. 

Fenders:

I've got clip on SKS fenders for the SS. 

I told you I don't clean the commuter much

The rear fender is clips onto the seatpost. I happen to have the same dia seatpost on my road bike so it's super easy to swap over when needed. I don't bother with a front fender on the road bike. I just don't find it's needed. On the MTB, between the clearance on the fork and knobby tires, ample water get's thrown up. Not just directly into your face but also in front of you for you to ride into. 

You may notice I've put some reflective tape on the bike as well. Anything you can do to help be seen is usually worth it. I've got more reflective tape strategically placed on my helmet.

Booties:

I've got 3 winters of regular use into my pair of Endura MT500 and they're only starting to show a little wear. They were worth every cent and then some. I've also got a pair of mavic rain booties. They're ok at keeping the outside of the shoe dry. Unfortunately, they aren't tight around the ankle, so the top of my sock gets wet, which leads to my whole sock getting wet which leads to wet shoes (from the inside out). Speaking of wet shoes, I find stuffing them with paper towel the best way to sort of dry them out at work. 

Gloves:

I don't have anything special to say about gloves. I don't own a pair of lobster claws. I imagine they work pretty well. I've gotten by without them.

Backpack:

I mentioned my backpack in part 1. Here's a picture.

It's from Patagonia. I forget the model, but it doesn't matter. They don't make it anymore. Other than being dirty, it's in as good of shape as it was when I bought it 5 yrs ago. You can sort of see the 2 compartment set-up. The main compartment also has a pouch for a laptop in it. It works equally well for any sort of paperwork that you don't want to get all crumpled. 

Tires:

MTB - whatever leftovers there are that still have some tread but no longer work tubeless.

Road - Something in a 25c. I've been having really good luck with Vredestein Tri-comps. Well, except when I take it off road on an old railroad bed and cut the sidewall. 

Cold Weather Stuff:

I have a set of Bar Mitts I use when the temps drop into the teens. I have the flat bar version. It turns out they also work well on drop bars as long as the shifter cable doesn't come out the side of the shifter. These things are fantastic. You can ride comfortably in the teens with just a medium weight glove on. The only negative is you lose a little hand mobility and become less inclined to signal. 

I also have a full face mask and ski goggles for when it's really cold. It's works great. The one issue is the goggles cut down on your side vision. You really have to turn your head to see behind you.

Part 2 of stuff most of you don’t care about

Food: I eat before I leave the house, and then have a bunch of small meals throughout the day. I’d like to say I eat exclusively from the Feed Zone Portables cookbook, but I’m just not that diligent. Occasionally I’ll make some rice cakes or something but motivation has been lacking recently.  It doesn’t hurt that we have a pretty good cafeteria with a descent salad bar and soups that don’t look like they’ll congeal at room temperature. The entrees are usual good too but I find it’s more than I want to eat at once. I know, I don’t have to eat it all at once but it just seems to disappear before I can decide to save some for later. So, what does my normal day look like? I have a bowl of oatmeal before I leave. Some fruit when I get into the office. I had taken up the habit of getting an omelet or breakfast burrito but I’ve decided that was a bad idea. Well at least right now where the weather and road conditions don’t have me riding every day. Sometime around 11 I’ll have some sort of larabar type thing. I tend to eat lunch closer to 1:00. Afternoon is time for the pbj if I brought one from home. Otherwise I have a jar of peanut butter in the office along with a container of oats. I don’t actually make oatmeal. I just mix the peanut butter with the oats in a cup and have at it. Dark chocolate chips are an added bonus, but I haven’t resorted to that at work yet. Oh, and more fruit if I have it. I might go back to the jar of peanut butter around 4:00 if I’m still feeling hungry. I definitely try not to leave work on an empty stomach.

Exciting, isn’t it. I might get around to talking about gear (lights, helmets, fenders, etc.) tomorrow. 

Everything you never wanted to know about bike commuting. Part 1

A friend of my asked me for my secrets of bike commuting. I’m not sure there is one secret to bike commuting. Everyone’s circumstances are different. What works for one person might not be feasible for another. However, If I had to offer up a secret it would be this. Stop making excuses for why you’re not riding the bike and just start doing it. I started out small, maybe a day a week in fair weather. Now I ride year round except when road conditions make it a truly stupid idea to be out on a bike. In all that time I’ve made plenty of regrettable decisions related to commuting, but I’ve never regretted a day I spent on the bike. With that said I'll try to offer some words of wisdom from my experience. With any luck you won't have some of the failures that I've had along the way.

Type of bike: Whatever bike you own, unless it’s a tri-bike. I’m sorry, those things are not made for riding in traffic. In my 8 yrs commuting I've seen two cyclists crash. They were both on tri bikes. Don’t do it. I’m a big fan of single speeds for foul weather. They just continue to work no matter what torture you put them through. One thing I have learned, if you’re someone inclined to put their bike away wet don’t let it go unused very long. Bad things happen when a bike sits around, especially in the winter. If you’re not going to ride a bike for a while, clean it.

Carrying Your Stuff:  I read once that it’s better to weight the bike than yourself. I really don’t know. I’ve always used a backpack. I commute on several bikes so it just makes sense. In picking out a backpack you want to make sure it has plenty of room. I’ve got one with two decent sized pockets. The general idea is keep one area nice and clean for your work clothes and use the other pocket for all the other crap. In my case the smaller one contains the stuff (rain jacket, tubes, tools, pump, etc.) that’s in the bag every day. The larger pocket is for clothes and food (if I can’t fit in the smaller pocket).  There’s an external pocket that the bike lock is in, plus a pouch I can put an extra water bottle in. Spring and fall are the toughest time to fit everything in the bag. The mornings tend to be a lot cooler than the afternoons. You might be stuffing that extra morning layer in the bag on the way home so plan accordingly.

Clothing: I assume you know how to dress for various weather conditions so we won't go into that. I think the biggest thing to remember is there are two parts of your trip. Make sure you plan for the ride home just as much as the ride in. Probably the worst scenario for this is warm and raining in the morning and below freezing in the evening. Not only will you need more layers for the ride home, but at least some of what you wore in the morning (socks and gloves) will be wet. Sometimes by the time you stuff all the gear you need for the commute in the bag there isn’t a lot of room to bring in clothes to actually wear at work. So… always have some clothes at work. You can always stuff a clean pair of underwear in the bag. You can’t always fit pants and a shirt. As for clothes for work, take every advantage of empty space in the bag to bring things in or out. That’s especially true if you happen to drive in some days.  

The Route: The shortest route is not necessarily the fastest or the safest. So what if it takes to 10 extra min to avoid that crappy intersection. You’re riding your bike so it’s 10 min well spent. Maybe you avoid a bunch of lights in the process so even though it’s 2 miles longer it takes about the same amount of time.  One thing to avoid if you can is left hand turns onto busy streets where you are not at a stop light.

Riding During Commuter Hours: If you’re commuting by bike, chances are at least one leg of your commute will be when everyone else is also trying to get where they’re going. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is longer lines of cars particularly at stop lights. While it’s very rewarding to just buzz past all of them while they’re stuck in traffic you also have to be extra careful. In particular you need to look out for any gap that has been left in the line. For the most part people are too impatient and just pull up to the car in front of them and will block driveways, side roads or the entrance to some business. Given this, if someone has bothered to leave a gap there’s a better than average chance there’s a car coming through it. If you can’t see them, they can’t see you. Just slow down and make sure you’re not about to get in an accident. The other thing to really watch out for is cars turning left across the road you’re on. It’s not just the first car. It’s the guy behind him who’s just going to follow them through the intersection because they don’t see any cars coming and the first car is blocking their view of you. 

That's all for now. I've got to post this while I still have momentum to write it. If I leave it to tomorrow this isn't making it out.

It's That Time of Year

Well, it's less than 2 weeks to this year's addition of the Treasure Valley Rally. Last Sunday me and 8 other BUMS spent a few hours cutting back the brush and leaf blowing the entire 10 mile course. Our good friends at 495 Rental supplied some extra power equipment to help the job go quickly. The course is in great shape with minimal amounts of water and rocks a plenty. We've (mainly Brett) even replaced a cart road section with about a mile of new single track for your enjoyment.

For prizing we've got a couple additions as well. If you're one of those really fast guys or gals that race elite, we have upped the payouts from previous years. Top 3 in both the men's and women's field are getting $250/150/100. On the men's side we're also paying $75 & $50 for 4th and 5th place. For the rest of you we'll have our usual well stocked swag table. On top of that, Bikeman and Carver Bikes has donated two 96er frames (one for the men and one for the ladies). While the exact logistics of how these are being awarded is not finalized, I think it's safe to say if you make the podium in your race (unless you're an elite, you're getting cash), you will have a chance at winning one of these.

With any luck we'll have a nice sunny day and everyone can enjoy a post race swim in the pond. Oh, and don't forget, first 100 pre-reg get their choice of a cool t-shirt (designed by Scott Nelson and Son) or a free meal, so get on it. That link again is https://www.bikereg.com/Net/18101.

I hope to see you all there.

12 Hrs of Millstone

Wait, what about the Gnar Weasels you ask. Great course, great race, it reminded me just how much I miss the Fort Rock Revenge. We need more races like this. I think everything else has already been said. Don't believe me, check out Dirtwire.


Now where was I, oh yeah, the 12 Hrs of Millstone. Where to begin with this one? Lets try the Monday before. That's when I noticed the rear suspension seemed just a wee bit on the plush side. a quick post ride inspection revealed I had yet another broken frame. Let me see this not the one, two, yup third time I've broken an Orbea aluminum frame. all three times it was the chain stay, but this was the first time it was the non-drive side. This is also the 2nd time I've broken one just before one of Casco Bay Sports' 12 hour races. The first time I broke my frame it was just before the 12Hrs of Bradbury. I ended up racing that on my Redline single speed that I use for commuting. Unfortunately, that bike was ridden hard and put away wet a few too times this past winter and was in no condition to be ridden in the woods. I stripped everything off the bike and ran the frame down to Providence Bicycle so they could handle the warranty. I was literally walking out the door chatting with one of the guys from the shop when it came up that I had a race that weekend. He said if I needed it they probably had a demo bike I could borrow for the weekend. At first I was just thinking, nah, I'll just borrow Russ' Redline (my loner bike the last time I broke a frame), but curiosity got the better of me and I asked them what they had. While most of their demo bike were had the Warrick location, they just so happened to have a Stumpjumper Expert(carbon) in size large at the Providence store. I suppose that would work. I filled out some more paperwork and found myself driving home with one of them plastic bikes on top of the car.

Big Thanks to Providence Bicycle for the sweet loaner. It looks fast, don't it?

I put my wheels and saddle on it and got out for a ride mid week, but didn't feel comfortable on it. It wasn't until I swapped in my stem and bar which gave me a little over an inch more of reach that I started to feel good on it. I just have to remember to put all their stuff back on it before I return it.

Thursday rolls around and I got a few moans from my kids when they found out daddy was going to be away for the weekend. That is, until I told them they could come. They didn't even hesitate. Now, I've got my routine down for these things, but planning for the kids, especially their food, definitely added a little bit of angst to the trip preparations.

Sorry, Wiley, you've got to stay home and keep Traci company

We rolled out Friday afternoon and got up Millstone a little before 7:00. Time to set-up camp and pre-ride the first half of the course before taking the kids up the hill to one of the quarries.

No, you cannot climb down there.

OK, you guys can climb on the rock pile

 We got back down to the field as the sun was setting.

It seems like every year we get one of these.

We made some dinner, hung out by the camp fire for a bit, and went to bed. A relatively uneventful night.  Well... until I got woken up by our neighbor's kid (somewhere in the 1-2 year old range) who was throwing a tantrum because, well, I don't even know why. I could faintly make out the father doing his best good parenting job trying to be rational with the child explaining how crying does not get you what you want. Let me tell you. When it's 3 am on race day and you're camping with 100+ other people good parenting goes out the window and crying definitely gets you what you want. Just saying. Fortunately, unlike the Stoopid 50 I didn't have ribs that felt like they were ripping out of my chest and I was able to get back to sleep once things settled down.

6:00 am still came pretty early. Got up, made some coffee and enough oatmeal for me and the kids. Modigity was doing the first lap again, so I wasn't in that big of a rush. I still had to make sure the kids got taken care of before I essentially left them to fend for themselves for 12 hrs. Let me say right now, the kids were fantastic the entire weekend. At no point did anyone go MIA, I don't think they were a burden to anyone else and, most importantly, no trips to the ER. Before I knew it it was 9:00. everyone lined up and the race was on.

Oh, did I mention Dan Vallaincourt (So get this, I posted a race status to facebook and spelled his name Vallencourt. I felt kind of stupid to later look up his name in the registration and see it spelled Vallancourt. I almost used that spelling here until I tried to look up some of his past results and found it spelled Vallaincourt. Go figure) was also on a 2 person team (Birthday Boys) with a buddy of his (who apparently can't spell Dan's name) from ME. We had know idea who his partner was or how fast he would be, but Dan and pretty much anybody is a competitive team. Dan quickly proved the point by gapping Jon and Chris by the midway point and building a 2 1/2 minute lead on the first lap. On top of that he was turning a double to start the race. Determined to minimize the early damage I was in full on TT mode for lap one. Unfortunately, this resulted in some early flailing from trying to hard and an over inflated rear tire. By the end of my lap Dan had put another 3 minutes into us and just like that we were 5+ minutes in the whole.

I didn't see Dan at all while I was waiting for Modig to finish lap 3 so I figured his partner, Jared Goodness, was starting out with a double. I had know idea what he looked like though so I didn't know our place when Jon came in. My second lap was much better. I'd let a little air out of the rear between laps and had settled down a bit. It was still TT pace, just a lot smoother. When I came in to pass back to Jon, Dan was there waiting, so somewhere in one of our laps, Jon and I had taken over 1st pl. I wouldn't know until a few laps later, but apparently Jared is not as fast as Dan. Jon had made the pass on his lap and I put another 7 minutes into him. Of course, Dan was now back on course devouring that time gap.

When I started our 6th lap (my 3rd) I had know idea what the lead was. I just knew he was out there stalking. The beginning of the lap was going well and I was easily getting through traffic. Then I picked up a stick and had to stop quickly to get it out of the derailleur. In the process letting a couple people I had just passed go by in some tight single track. I was quickly back on, and got by the first guy fairly easily. I made it to rider #2 just as we were coming to a spot with an 'A' line over the rock and 'B' line to the right of the rock. The rider to the 'B' line and offered me the 'A' line for the pass. I took, but the little voice in my head was telling me it was a bad idea. Although the backside of the rock is not a huge drop, maybe a foot and a half, it's not a smoother roll off either. As I was coming off it, I could feel my rib injury from the Stoopid 50 getting re-aggravated. Unlike, then, this wasn't a pre-ride and I had to deal with it on the bike. Most of the remainder of the lap consisted of half breathing as I tried to minimize the stabbing pain in my chest if I tried to take a deep breath. The only thing that took my mind off of it was a glimpse on Dan not all the far behind me as we made out way down Switchback. I managed to hold him off but we were virtually tied after 6 laps with Dan right on my heals as Jon took off.

You know that feeling after a hard XC race on a hot day? When even the thought of food makes you want to throw up and you just want to curl up in a ball and die... I mean go to sleep? That's how I felt in the mid day heat between laps. I just sat on the ground having my kids hand me ice cubes trying to cool down and get my whits about me. My one solace was that Jared would probably be out there on my next lap. I wouldn't have Dan hunting me and could maybe dial it back just a touch and get stuff under control.

I don't remember many details from my 4th lap other than it didn't suck nearly as bad as the previous one. By the time I had finished, we had built a solid 14 min lead over the Birthday Boys. Unless we had a mechanical or Dan started turning triple laps we had 1st pl in our group well in hand. Of course, this is about the time my kids informed me that the Birthday Boys weren't in 2nd anymore and that there was another team just a couple minutes behind us. Now, I had known there was a duo-single team lurking back there since my first lap, but I hadn't given them much thought given the battle within our group. Now that we seemed to have that under control, attention turned to maintaining our 1st pl overall standing and our lead was only in the 2-3 minute range.

My 5th lap started out well enough but quickly turned into cramp management for the 2nd half after the climb to the quarry. At least it was starting to cool off a bit and the leg cramps were the only thing that was bothering me at this time. I also lost a little time with a nice mid lap endo when a rider unexpectedly decided to stop on a down hill corner to let me pass. I was right on their tail and had nowhere to go but OTB. Fortunately it was one of those magical endos where you eject off the front, land on your feet and catch your bike before it goes bouncing off down the hill. They were very apologetic as I politely tried to reinforce the idea that stopping in the trail is bad while I tried to get the chain back on. After 10 laps we had a modest 2 1/2 min lead over Sock & Buskin (Adin Maynard & Adrian Husemoller). I might have it backwards, but I'm pretty sure it was Adrian who was on my lap. By the end I was pretty sure I'd be having nightmares about the white shirted singlespeeder who was hounding me.

Through all of this, Jon just kept cranking out consistent laps anywhere from a 1/2 minute to 1 1/2 minutes faster than mine. It must be nice to be young. I know there was a reason I made him go first.

My 6th lap went down hill fast. Seated climbing and the hamstrings wanted to cramp. If I stood up at all the quads would cramp. It all came to a climax on the last switchback climb. I got off my line on the 2nd turn and ran into a little tree (at around 1/2 a mile per hour). Just enough to cause the legs to tense and bring on full leg lock. I did my best Frankenstein as I tried to dismount straight legged and continue making forward progress up the hill. I managed to get the legs to bend and remounted once I got to the top. By the time I finished the lap our lead over Sock and Buskin was down to just 18 seconds. I looked at the time, did the math and concluded I only had one more lap to go. If Modig can just hold him off I can rally for one more lap. My kids thought I just wasn't going hard enough and needed to go haahdah.

Modig came through in first place and it was back on me to maintain it. I had already decided I was going to preemptively dismount and run/walk the three steep hills on course. Not that this would prevent me from cramping. In fact, I knew I would cramp the instant my feet hit the ground. That idea was that I would avoid tensing up and inducing another full on leg lock. That and I've found cramps from walking work themselves out faster once you get back on the bike than the cramps you get when riding. I'd occasionally get a glimpse of the white shirted hunter on a trail I had just been on. I had know idea what the gap was, only that he was back there waiting to pounce. My strategy worked on the last hill and I avoided the complete leg lock of the previous lap. As an added bonus I had worked the cramps out by the top and was able to drill the last mile or so of the lap. I came in and sent Modig out on the last lap. The other guy in the SS duo, Adian I think, asked about is teammate. I told him I though he was maybe 30 seconds back. 2 1/2 minutes later he rolled in and sent him out to chase Modig down. I guess we still had a little something left to put some time back into the 18 second lead we had just 2 laps ago.

I had gotten word that there was a quarry just down the road with easy access for soaking/swimming. I quickly grabbed some clothes and head down to clean up.

Honestly, this would have felt so much better if the water was 20 deg colder. Don't get me wrong, it was still nice. It's just not like sitting in the river in Pittsfield, VT.

All cleaned up, I grabbed some food and waited for Modig to finish. Jon had been a horse all day long and consistently faster than his counterpart. As long as he avoided catastrophe he should be able to bring home the W. In the end Jon added almost 3 minutes to the lead and we finished with 15 laps in 11:21:54.

Official results are here. If you think Our race was close, check out the solo singlespeeders. 1st and 2nd were just 21 seconds apart. Then again, it appears neither one went out for a final lap. Probably just some weirdness in the timing and they both came in after the 11 hr cuttoff.

Guy in a kilt, must be the singlespeed podium

Oh, did I mention Chris Gagnon won the men's solo again? Yeah, that happened too.

Men's Solo 

Women's Solo

I finally got around to feeding the kids at 10:00 pm. Surprisingly, they chose going to bed over hanging out at the campfire afterwards. I stayed up 'til about 12:30 before calling it a night.

The next morning was a quick breakfast, cleanup, pack and hit the road. Last year, Jon and I had sandwiched a ride at the Green Mountain Trails in between a couple of breakfasts at the Pittsfield General Store the following day (hence this year's name 2nd Breakfast). That wasn't happening this year. I think both me and the kids, just wanted to get home. We did do a little detour over to the Quechee Gorge and grabbed another breakfast at a place right next to it (don't worry, Jon, the breakfast wasn't that good. You didn't miss anything)

For all the success of the weekend, the real highlight was on the way home as I listened to my kids trying to figure out who they could get to do a 4-person junior team for next year. Maybe I'll just pit for them next year.

I can't say thank you enough to Pat and everyone else at Casco Bay Sports for everything they do to make this race happen. What an awesome weekend. Thanks for having me.

I've got some catching up to do.

Well... I've fallen way behind in the writing of the race reports. In my defense I've been busy building a chicken coop and trying to find a job.

The coop is finished. The job??? Rumor has it I'll hear something this week

Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't been racing. About a month ago (has it really been that long?) I hopped in the MBV and took a ride down to State College, PA with Thom Parsons for the Stoopid 50. Other than multiple stops at Dunkins and one lunch stop at the Wegman's in Wilkes Barre the trip was relatively uneventful. We rolled into Atkins Cabins around 6:30, set up camp in daylight and head out for a little pre-ride to flush out the legs and see the course. Neither of had done the race before so Thom got the lowdown on a "short" loop we could do check out the start and first piece of single track.

The course starts out with a modest 3.5 mi, 500 ft climb before you take a left turn onto the Tussey Mountain Ridge trail and climb another 150 ft.  I had been told be several people that it is critical to get a good start as the trail is technical and narrow with not a lot of passing opportunities and they weren't kidding. What no one had told me was just how spectacular this trail is. In addition to the rocky, technical goodness and the mountain laurel in full bloom, there's an extended section where, courtesy of a fire a few years back, you get to really appreciate you're riding a mountain ridge that's maybe 20yds wide with steep drop offs on both sides.

Taking a picture of Thom taking a picture of mountain laurel

I made it through all the tough stuff without any incident and the legs were feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, it's not the tough stuff that gets you. It's when you have that momentary lapse of concentration through something simple that you get bit. In this case I had my front tire slide out on a rock as I was about to hop a small log. Instead of clearing it, I stuffed the wheel into the log. In the process of trying not to go OTB I strained the rib cage muscles on my left side. This is the 4th time I've done this in the last 10 years but the first time it happened the day before a race. In fact, I had just gotten over a similar injury to my right side and that had kept me off the bike for 5 days. Needless to say I was not happy. Of course, when you're in the middle of the woods late in the day, what do you do but get back on your bike, keep riding and try to tell yourself it's not that bad. After riding the length of the ridge we hit a super fast, swoopy, bench-cut downhill, some more climbing with technical sections and then another fast downhill before dropping out onto a dirt road. Here, the course turns left, but we went right to follow the dirt road back to camp. Our short loop ended up being just under 17 mi. Probably half of it was road so it wasn't that long, but more than what I've typically done the day before a race.

I don't think I was all that much fun to be around that night as I just couldn't get my mind off of wondering if I was going to be able to ride in the morning. I even skipped having a beer hoping to avoid waking up in the middle of the night to pee. That ended up being another failure as light shower rolled through and woke me up at 3:00 am. Between not being able to get comfortable with my now aching rib cage and my mind racing thinking about what I was going to do about it, I didn't fall back asleep. When 6:30 rolled around and I finally gave up on sleeping I had zero motivation to race bikes. By 7:00, though, I had convinced myself to give it a go. I didn't drive all this way to not race. I tried riding the bike and didn't have any sharp, stabbing pains. How bad could it be? Besides, if I was completely miserable I'd just bail after Tussey and do the same ride we did Sat. After another hour or so of psyching myself up, I was actually getting excited to race.

I was a little slow getting to the starting line and most people were already staged. Fortunately, coning out the driveway for the camp put me maybe 6 rows back. Not ideal, but not terrible. The start is pretty neutral for the first couple of miles. I don't think it was until the road turned to dirt that the pace picked up and gaps started opening. I had done a good job of working my way through and closing down gaps and was still connected to the lead group (it was still a large lead group) when we made the turn into the single track. I'll guess I was maybe top 30 when I got my turn to hit the trail. There was jostling here and there as people bobbled on some of the rocks, but I was with a good group that was going at a descent pace through the first section. We got stacked up a bit when we hit the first big technical section. I managed to ride it and get by a couple people in the process. I could see the next technical section was a complete log jam and chose to preemptively dismount and run through the rock pile on the right. By the time I jumped back on I had passed another 6 or 8 people and had some clear trail ahead of me. Better yet, the legs felt good and the ribs weren't particularly bothering me. I picked off a couple more people before I latched onto a group moving at a descent clip. I took stock of the effort needed to stay with them and figured my legs were probably writing checks they wouldn't be able to cash at mile 40 but I didn't care. I was loving it as we were railing the first downhill. That is until I heard the sound of air rapidly leaving my rear tire. I quickly found the cut in the middle of the tire and went through all the gyrations of someone trying to get the Stans to seal it even though I knew it wouldn't.

There's an equally large slice at the bead. Brand new tire too

Although it only felt like a couple, the GPS says it took me 4 minutes to put the tube in and get going. Not too bad, though, I could still have a good day. The only problem is I'm now racing with a tube in the rear. A tube that lasted me all of 10 minutes before I pinch flatted on the last downhill to the dirt road. My thoughts of having a good result were quickly vanishing. They disappeared entirely when the valve broke on my other spare tube (yes I started with 2 tubes). Now I'm fishing through my tool bag for some stick on patches. I don't have high hopes given the  tube is covered in sealant but maybe it will be enough to get me to the first aid station. This stop lasted me a good 10 minutes. When I did pop out on the road there was someone there with a floor pump. I made another quick stop and filled the rear up to almost 40 psi. There was a brief moment where I considered turning right, heading back to camp and drinking all of Thom's beer, but I really wanted to see the rest of the trails. I forged onward.

It didn't take long before the tire was getting soft. Fortunately for me, someone took pity and gave me a tube. Thanks again whoever you were. I'll spare you the suspense and let you know this was the last time I had to change a tube that day. When I got going again I found my legs wanted to take out their frustration on the biggest climb of the day. My angry legs propelled me about 2/3rds of the way up the 3 mile climb until the pitch kicked up into double digits, we took a right turn, and it became clear we were still no where near the top. Reason took over and I settled into a more sustainable pace. At this point I just wanted to finish the race without flatting again.

You can tell the "race" is over for me when I'm spending the time to take pictures

Everyone was very helpful at the first aid station. They gave me a spare tube and also pumped my rear tire up to 35 psi. It made for a bit of a bumpy ride on the hard tail, but it did keep air in tire. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful consisting of semi-conservative riding through the awesome technical single track and pushing the uphills trying to just get the day over with. The finishing downhill was a bit of an adventure. It drops close to 600 ft in 0.8 miles with a relentless parade of rocks to negotiate. So much so there was really no line picking. Just try to keep the bike upright and get over what's in front of you. I made it down in one piece. I even caught up to a couple people, but no passes were made.

We cruised through the finish line right around 5:20. Not exactly the finish I was looking for, but I did finish. Which is a lot more than I thought I might be doing when I woke in the morning. Although I've been paying for it for the last couple weeks, the ribs really weren't a factor during the race. I felt them a couple times but they certainly weren't the limiter that keeping air in my tires was. I went back partook of the post race food and beer. The results got posted and said I was 66th out of everyone. There's always next year I guess.

This race is an absolute blast. I'm happy I got to see the whole course and I'm looking forward to doing it again. I was told the Chris Scott races are extremely well organised and this lived up to that reputation. Thanks again to all to all the volunteers and everyone that helped make this race happen.

I was completely useless on the ride home. I don't know how the hell Thom did Wrentham to W. Virginia to Vermont the following weekend. Thanks again for the ride.

Now let's see if I can get the Gnar Weasels report up before I head to the Millstone 12hr.