WORS Subaru Cup

WORS races are always big races. You can always count on a few Pros and several Semi Pros at any given race and makes for a great way to determine how I might stack up against some of the best mountain bike racers in the nation. The 4th installment of the WORS series was held at Nordic Mountain in the heart of Wisconsin. I arrived at the venue the day before the race in hopes of getting a couple of recon laps in. It had rained all day the previous day and the race director, Don Edberg, who also happens to run the WORS series told me that they decided to cancel the pre ride in hopes of allowing the course to dry out a little and minimize damage to the trails. During our conversation he told me that he had received entries from as far away as Texas, Colorado, DC, and Arizona among many others. So I thinking to myself, ‘man, it’s gonna be a tough race tomorrow with all these peeps coming out of the woodwork’!
I made the 30 minute drive to the hotel in Waupaca that I was sharing with Tyrine and a dude named Tim, old buddies of mine from Milwaukee. I went out for a 90 minute spin to get the cobwebs out of my legs and thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful scenery that the state of Wisconsin is well known for. Shortly after my ride, Tyrene and Tim had finally made it up from Milwaukee. We sat around the room and caught up on things, then headed out for some grub at this Irish pub that had some pretty awesome food. After dinner we cruised around town scoping out potential ice cream parlors for a post race after dinner treat. We also discovered a coffee shop that was only a couple of blocks from our hotel and since I was the early riser of the group, I designated myself as the coffee biatch.


Tyrine, Tim and I scoring some grub. Good times with great friends and great food!


I made it to the venue on race day about 2 ½ hours before the start. As I walked over to registration I began to realize the magnitude of this event. They had a pretty big expo set up and there were people everywhere. I went in to register and they were categorizing Pros and Semi Pros separate from the Experts. Turns out that this event is on the AMBC (American Mountain Bike Challenge) calendar, which I think is a 2nd tier series just below the NMBS (National Mountain Bike Series), which is the national series. I registered myself in the Pro / Semi Pro category, got suited up and went out for a recon lap. What a saweet course! A lot people told me before, that this was their favorite course on the WORS calendar, and I can see why. It has a lot of everything, technical singletrack, lot’s of climbing, lot’s of fun descents and a few rock gardens to jazz things up a little.


The expo from above


As I began my way to the start line, I did my usual assessment of the field to see who would be puttin’ the hurt on me. The elite race was 80 strong, 24 of which were Pros and Semi Pros. Among the Pros, Jesse and Marko Lalonde, Tristan Schouten, Brian Matter, TJ Woodruff, Mike Phillips, Chris Peariso, Paul Hanson and Ben Moore just to name a few. Pretty much a stacked field containing the best of the best in the Midwest. All of the Pros and Semi Pros got call ups to the front and I ended up in the 2nd or 3rd row, so things were already looking up for me.


En masse



GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!


The race started and I got a pretty decent start. Within 100 yards of the start, the trail funneled down to about three wide and then down to two wide another 100 yards later, so a good start was pretty important if you wanted to do well. I don’t have the high end that I used to have, so I usually get sucked towards the middle / back of the pack at big races like this. Going into the singletrack, I was probably sitting somewhere around 20 – 30th. I felt great and was really happy that I was able to keep my nose clean throughout the start. As lap one (out of five) progressed, I started picking off others that had blown their wad at the start and by the end of lap one I had probably gained 10 or 15 positions.


Fern Gully


Throughout lap two, the passing continued and I started catching and passing people that I recognized and began to realize that I was nearing the front end of the race. During lap three, Tom Bender had caught up to me and we swapped positions for a while until we caught up to a group of three that contained Paul Hanson, Brian Matter and I think Dallas Fowler. We rode behind that trio for a couple of miles and passed them as we rolled through the start / finish area at the start of lap four. At that point, the announcer on the PA said that were all sitting around places 6, 7, 8 and 9. My best finish in a WORS race prior to this race was maybe 12th. It’s been a huge goal of mine to get a top ten finish in a WORS race, so I was sitting pretty good at the moment.


Bender and I workin' each other over



Playing in the woods


As lap four progressed, I think that Hanson and Bender held onto me for a short while. I was eventually able to gap them off and I could see Nathan Guerra up the trail. Towards the end of lap four, I finally managed to reel in and pass Nathan. At that point I thought that I heard a spectator tell me that I was in 5th. The next man in line was Chris Peariso. I could hear the PA at various points throughout the race, I could hear him say Chris’s name every once in a while and could tell that he was quite a ways ahead of me. I started to push a little harder, knowing that I had my work cut out for me. About midway through lap five I started to get that feeling in my body, the feeling that tells me I oughta think about backing it off a little, otherwise I might end up doing the tango with a tree, or maybe even a face plant into a rock. My upper body, especially my arms, were pretty wore out and I was starting to get a little sloppy. I backed off the pace a little, knowing that I had a pretty solid lock on 5th, and that’s where I ended up. By far my best result of the season and way beyond my expectations for a race of this magnitude. I would rank this one right up there with Chequamegon from last year, maybe even higher. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked!


Men's overall winner Jesse Lalonde with brother Marko in tow.



Jenna Zander crushed the women's field. I wonder if Kim Eppen can beat her?


Jesse and Marko Lalonde were the class of the field and brought home 1st and 2nd respectively, on singlespeeds, with times of 2:04:06 and 2:04:20. TJ Woodruff came in 3rd in 2:07:18, Peariso in 4th in 2:08:20. I was 5th with a time of 2:11:40 and made my first ever WORS podium.
I know that I tend to carry on about some of the products that I use, and I’m going to do it again. I rode my Orbea Carbon Oiz and I used the rear and front lockouts on a couple of the climbs. I also dropped my tire pressure down to 25 psi, front and rear. The bike was absolutely amazing on the climbs. I was able to maintain a pretty steady effort when going uphill and that was where I gained the most ground on others throughout the race. With the front and rear unlocked, I was able to float through a lot of the rock gardens at high speed and barely notice what I was riding over. This is by far the best mountain bike that I’ve ever thrown my leg over. I also wore my Oakley Flak Jackets that have persimmon lenses that change tint with varying light conditions. The race started at noon, and throughout the two hours, the light / shade conditions changed quite a bit, enough that it was noticeable towards the end of the race. The persimmon lenses made the lighting transition a lot easier to deal with, especially when I was flying through a rock garden or one of the many root infested sections. Simply put, the equipment that I used had a pretty significant impact on my result today.

Next up is the Nebraska State Mountain Biking Championships at Ponca State Park, one of my favorite courses in Nebraska. The weather forecast is finally looking really good, so it should be a great weekend!

Thanks for reading,

CK

Afton Avalanche

Photos courtesy of Skinnyski.

I usually try to make it up to Minnesota at least once a year to do one of the Minnesota State Championship Series races. The courses in that series are always among the most technical in the Midwest and if you like to climb, almost all of their races are on ski hills. My favorite course of the three that I’ve ridden in Minnesota is at Afton Alps, and as luck would have it, the race at Afton happened to be on an off weekend in Iowa and Nebraska.
I arrived at the course on Saturday and did a couple of recon laps. The trail conditions were ideal and I had a ball! It’s the type of course where you’re either going up or down and the two major climbs are long, steep and worthy of granny gear status.
I stayed the night at my uncle’s house in Chanhassen and woke up the next morning to light rain. It started raining a little after midnight and didn’t stop until around 7 or 8 the next morning. I wasn’t too worried because the races in Minnesota go rain or shine. The course at Afton is well built and drains really well. Add a little sand to the dirt and you’ve got close to ideal trail conditions when it gets damp. My uncle decided to go with me to see what this mountain bike racing thing was all about. We loaded up and headed out for the hour or so drive to Afton. On the way to the course, he got to witness firsthand just how odd we bike racers can be as I devoured my usual entire box of Kellogg’s Mueslix on the way to Afton.
We arrived at the race with about two hours to spare and I was finally able to prep for the race at a somewhat relaxed pace. I took a look at a few bikes that had already been on the course and mud accumulation was pretty minimal. As the morning wore on, the course conditions steadily improved. Rain was forecasted right around the time that we were supposed to start our race, thankfully the rain never came!
We lined up for the start and the usual suspects in the Minnesota series were there. I was pretty disappointed not to see Doug Swanson and Paul Hansen, I was looking to forward to racing against them / getting my butt kicked. No worries however as there was still plenty of competition with several semi-pro’s toein’ the line. The Moore brothers, the Oftedahl brothers a cat from Arizona, Jeff Herrera, Jesse Reints and Luke Nelson among many others.


Lot's of fast dudes ready to rip some legs off.



The race started and I had a pretty good start going into the singletrack sitting about mid-pack of the 36 strong field. My effort at the start was enough that I felt pretty comfortable throughout. Once we hit some of the more open areas, I started picking off a few peeps that put themselves into the red. By the end of the first lap I think that I was sitting around 10th.


The start with eventual race winner Brendan Moore leading the charge. I'm in there somewhere.


Oh yeah, there I am. I think I felt pretty good at that time.


During the 2nd lap I picked off a few more and could see Jeff Herrera, Sam and Eric Oftedahl up the trail. At that point I kinda figured out that I was pretty close to the sharp end of the field. Shortly thereafter, I passed by my uncle and he told me that I was sitting in 6th place. Sweet! My best placing in a Minnesota race prior to this one was 13th. Things were lookin’ pretty good. At the base of the 2nd major climb of the lap I caught up to Sam and Eric. At that point Sam took off up the climb and I rode with Eric until the end of the lap. Shortly thereafter, I passed Eric and began my pursuit of Sam.


Goin' uphill, I think that I felt pretty good there also.


By the end of lap two I caught and passed Sam. As I passed he offered some words of encouragement and I did the same. That’s one of the reasons this is such a great sport, lot’s of cool people! There are a few places on the course that double back on itself and I could see that Jeff was within reach. So I put my head down and began my chase. I finally caught up to Jeff about ¼ of the way through the 4th and final lap. As I passed Jeff, he also offered some words of encouragement and told me that 2nd place, Ben Moore, wasn’t that far ahead.


Riding my bike over some stones. I'm glad that I didn't fall on them. I think that I felt pretty good here also.


At the base of the last major climb of the day I could see Ben, maybe 50 yards ahead of me. I was hoping that he wouldn’t notice me, but somebody must have told him that I was closing the gap. About halfway up the climb I could see that he was starting to increase his gap on me. I tried to go a little harder and could tell that I might start throwin’ pistons and rods if I pushed it much harder.


Fast women and fast bikes. Women's winner Jenna Zander, she's legit.



Goin' downhill, real quick like. You can't really tell, but I am smiling here.


I ended up finishing in 3rd overall, by far my best result north of the Iowa border. Brendan Moore won the race with a time of 2:17:25, Ben brought home 2nd in 2:18:55, I came in 3rd in 2:19:13 and Jeff held on for 4th with a time of 2:20:40. My uncle had told me that I was about 4 minutes behind 1st at the start of the third lap. So I was extremely happy to know that I had a pretty strong finish. My average HR for the race was 169, so I can tell that the high end of my fitness is starting to come around. To have this kind of a result this early in the season is a really good indicator of things to come!

There’s nothing going on in Iowa or Nebraska next weekend so I think that I’m going to head up to Wisconsin and do the WORS race at Mt. Norris. I’ve never been there before, but I’ve heard that it’s a pretty sweet course.

Thanks for reading,

CK

Snake Alley

tPod and I made the trip to Burlington on Friday night. We hooked up with aPod, Sam I Am and his wife and scored some grub at Martini’s. Burlington is a pretty unlikely kind of town for a place like Martini’s. It’s always been a kind of pricey place, but the food is really good and the view of the Mississippi River is amazing. This time around, it was still pricy, it was still really good, however they changed the menu around a little and kind of screwed things up. To give you an example, I paid $8 for an average sized pile of mashed potatoes, their cost was probably less than a $1? They were some damn good potatoes, but not $8 / pile good! With pricing like that, we’ll see if they're still around next year…

Woke up the next morning and hit a downtown coffee shop for some black gold, then drove up to Hy-Vee for my usual pre-road race breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes, bacon and then some more bacon. Drove back down to the race course, suited up and began my warm-up. I’ve been focusing a lot more on building a bigger base this spring and a little less on sharpening my peak. I plan to focus more on my high end towards the latter part of the season. I’ve done a lot fewer LT workouts this spring than I’ve done in years past, so I had no idea what to expect from myself today. Both the 40+ and 30+ races will last about 30 minutes each, and both are nothing but zone 5+ for the entire race.


The entrance to the pain cave



Serpentine


40+
We lined up for the start at 11:30 and I did a quick scan to see who the main antagonists would be. Once I saw that Jim Cochran was there, that was all that I needed to know. He’s one of the most savvy road racers out there and if you stick to his wheel, you’ll usually finish near the front. The race started and as I typically do at the start of anything on concrete, I faded towards the back to avoid any potential altercations at the base of the Snake. I prefer to start slowly, rather than go all out to get the hole-shot. I seem to have a little more punch near the end of short races like this when I am tranquil at the start.
Throughout the first half of the race, I dangled near the back. After a couple of laps, I began to realize that I had good legs. So I upped the pace going up the Snake and gradually began to pick off racers one or two at a time. I think I finally reached the lead group at about lap 4. Cochran accelerated off the front while going up the Snake and I was about 4th or 5th wheel at the time. This was reminiscent of a couple of years ago when I was in the same scenario during the Cat 3 race. Cochran took off up the Snake, I was 4 or 5 wheels back and couldn’t respond due to the narrow, twisting nature of the Snake. He stayed away and won the race, I came in 2nd a good distance back.
We got to the top of the Snake and Cochran had a small gap on the group. We rolled through the start / finish line with Cochran still off the front. We hit the Snake again and I punched it all the way to the top and managed to reel Cochran in. We had a small gap on the remainder of the field and as we hit the bottom of the decent, I looked at Jim and asked if he wanted to make our gap stick. I don’t remember his response, but he seemed interested. We hit the Snake together and I took the lead going up. Once at the top I noticed that I had a small gap on him. We still had 6 laps to go and I wasn’t real keen on flying solo for 6 laps if I chose to give it a go. As I got to the bottom of the decent, I still had a pretty good gap, so I punched it again going up the Snake and the gap kept increasing. I ended up winning the race, not sure what the margin was and I didn’t really care. I was pretty stoked to bag a win at Snake Alley, as it’s one of the biggest bike races in Iowa!


Bringin' home the bacon



Hangin' out on the podium


30+
I had a few hours after the 40+ race, so I inhaled a recovery drink and did nothing but ride around at an active recovery pace until the 1:40 start of the 30+ race. I did a couple of spirited efforts up the Snake to get legs back into the swing of things and lined up for the start. Once again I did a quick scan of the field and noticed that about half the field consisted of Mercy – Specialized cats. The last guy to roll up to the start was Dewey Dickey… yeah baby, this one was really going to hurt!
The race started and once again, I was at the back going up the Snake. I got stuck behind a couple of slower riders and was almost immediately gapped off of the lead group. I spent to first 6 or 7 laps chasing back on and it seemed like I was getting nowhere. I could see the lead group the entire time, but I couldn’t seem to make any progress in closing down the gap.
Shortly thereafter, the size of the lead group began to decrease and as riders dropped off the back, I picked them off one by one. Diesel Dave had situated himself about midway up the Snake in such a way the he was pretty much in my field of vision for each ascent. He did a stellar job in keeping me informed of the time gap between myself and the lead group. It seemed to hover around the 20 second mark for most of the first half of the race. As I began picking of the remnants of the lead group, the gap to the leaders began to slowly decrease. At about lap 9, I had finally caught on to the tail end of the lead group about midway up the Snake. That was also about the time that Dewey launched an attack that pretty much splintered what was left of the lead group. I was still near the end of the group and was unable to respond. I did manage to work my way up to 3rd place once I crested the top of the Snake. About halfway down the descent, the course workers were yelling ‘man down’. As I began to round a screaming fast left turn. I noticed the cat that was in 2nd was lying on the ground next to the outside curb. It didn’t look good either, hope the guy is OK…
So all of a sudden I’m in 2nd place with about 2 or 3 laps to go. I had a string of 4 or 5 others firmly attached to my wheel. I was working pretty hard in an attempt to bring Dewey back and was getting no help at all from the cats on my wheel. With about two laps to go, I pretty much turned myself inside-out going up the Snake, hoping to sever whatever it was that had the group behind me attached to my wheel. Diesel continued with the splits, 10 seconds to Dewey. I had managed to gap off the small group behind me by the time I hit the top of the Snake and continued my pursuit of Dewey.
On the last lap, as I hit the bottom of the Snake, I could see that Dewey was about halfway up. I continued up at an all out effort. It’s a good thing that I was wearing some dark glasses, because I’m pretty sure that my cross-eyed, cookie monster appearance would have scared some people, especially the kids. I hit the top, shoved it into my big ring as quickly as I could and drilled it all the way to the finish line. As I approached the finish, I could see that Dewey looked pretty secure in that had a big enough gap that he could sit up. This motivated me to continue my effort until I crossed the finish line. Dewey managed to hold me off and I ended up finishing in 2nd, a couple of seconds behind.
If I had been near the front when Dewey attacked, who knows what the outcome would have been. For all that I know he most likely had enough left in his tank, that even if I had positioned myself a little better he would have still left me in his wake… He did end up winning the P/1/2 race later that day, so I’m pretty sure that he put in just enough effort during the 30+ race to get the win and get in a good warm-up for the P/1/2 race. Despite that and all of the pain, I had an absolute blast during the race. I felt like I was racing in my hometown, with all of the people yelling and cheering me on. That was a huge motivator for me and most likely helped me push myself deeper into the pain cave than I would have otherwise. I owe a huge thanks to everyone that was pulling for me, it was truly an awesome experience!

Both races ended up lasting about 30 minutes each and my average HR for the 40+ race was 178. My average for the 30+ race was 176. So, in addition to exceeding my expectations for both races, I got two great LT workouts in!
My weapon of choice was my Orbea Orca, which was simply amazing going up the Snake. I could feel the bike almost squirting out from underneath me with every pedal stroke! It is by far, the most responsive bike that I’ve ever had the privilege to ride. When descending, cornering speeds in excess of 30 mph were not uncommon and I felt 100% comfortable every time down the descent, in or out of traffic. I felt like I could place the bike anywhere that I wanted while going through each corner. Truly an amazing bike!

A couple of shouts out to:
- Loran Storts – first ever criterium + 3rd place = stud.
- Cat 4’s (soon to be 3’s) Kelli Mente, Ana Nelson, Dee Mable, Emily Schaapveld, Kristin Gallagher, Kim Hopkins, Maria Ruhtenberg, Chris Maravelas for representing DSM well. I think there were more women from DSM at Snake Alley then men!
- Jane Reissen for a good showing in a very tough, very stacked women’s 1/2/3 field.

Next up is IMBCS #3 / Psycowpath #3 this Saturday over in Council-tucky, IA at Manawa State Park. I’m looking forward to getting back on the dirt where I belong, so stay tuned, same bat time, same bat channel!

Thanks for reading,

CK

6 Hours of Platte River

Photo courtesy of John Peterson


Once again, I arrived at the race course with about 45 minutes to spare. Just enough time to get registered, dressed and to the start line with no warm-up. I gotta knock that off, running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off, trying to get ready for a race… kinda stupid eh? I thought that I left early enough, but I’d forgotten how long it took to get to Platte River. The nice thing about 6 hour races is that a good warm-up isn’t nearly as crucial as it is in a normal XC race.
The race started with a Le Mans style start and I was 3rd or 4th to my bike. As we made our way up the hill, I tucked in behind MG and JP with intent on following either of those two, or Darin Schlake for at least the first three hours of the race. All three of them live here and JP practically built the trails that we were riding on. Platte River is the type of course where course knowledge is pretty key for success due to the technical nature of the course. I’ve never won anything at Platte largely because of my lack of knowing the course.
About midway through lap one, Darin caught up to us, and for the first three hours, either Darin, MG or JP led the way. I had an absolute blast following them! It was some of the most fun that I can remember ever having on a mountain bike. The course has a lot of sections that flow like a rollercoaster, especially if you know the lines and can carry your momentum. The trail conditions were pretty close to perfect and the weather was equally as nice.
The pace for the first three hours was mostly a comfortable zone 2, with some zone 3 efforts through some of the more technical sections. About two hours into the race, MG decided to drop off the pace a little knowing that we still had four hours to go. Whenever JP would take the lead, he would drill it up the hills, XC style. I remember thinking that if he kept that up, all of those ATP demands would begin to catch up to him later.
At about the three hour mark, Darin was leading right before a pretty rough downhill section. He motioned for somebody else to lead because his hands were blistering pretty badly and didn’t want to hold us up. I took over the lead for the first time and decided that it was probably time to turn the screws a little to test JP. I kicked the effort up into zone 3 and sensed that it might create a little separation. We rolled through the rock garden and I noticed that I was starting to open a small gap. I kept the pressure on and it looked like it was going to stick.
After about 40 minutes of zone 3, I had a big enough gap that I couldn’t see anybody behind me on any portion of the course where it doubled back. I dropped the effort back down to zone 2 and put it cruise control. At about the four hour mark, I could tell that I had some pretty wicked blisters developing on my hands and my feet were starting to get hot spots with a little numbness for good measure. I think that I had my shoes on a little too tight, they were also new and not fully broken in. Throughout the last two hours, I had to constantly change the position of my hands on the grips a little to keep the pressure off of my blistering palms. I loosened my shoes a little and I also had to adjust how I applied pressure to the pedals to preserve my ailing feet. Everything else felt great! My legs felt really good, my upper body didn’t feel quite as good as my legs, but it wasn’t to the point where it was the limiter.


Ouch



I rolled through the finish chute at the end of my 12th lap and the clock read 5:59:15. I could have gone out for one more lap or I could opt to pull the plug knowing that my lead was big enough that victory was mine. I made the obvious choice and called it a day. MG’s decision to back it off early on paid off, he rolled through in 2nd place about 20+ minutes behind me. JP brought home 3rd. Darin ended up dropping out because of blisters on his hands.
My cool down consisted of riding over to my car and devouring my recovery beverage. I couldn’t get my shoes and gloves off soon enough. I did kind of take my time in pulling off my gloves as I wasn’t all that anxious to see how much skin I’d managed to strip off of my hands. I pulled them off and discovered two giant blisters on each hand. Aside from the bliters, I had a pretty awesome day!
A huge thanks goes out to the folks that made the race happen, CycleWorks did a great job with the organization. THOR (Trails Have Our Respect) are largely responsible for the awesome network of trails at Platte River State Park. Without folks like THOR (and CITA in Des Moines), we wouldn’t have sweet places to ride our mountain bikes.
My weapon of choice was the Orbea Oiz Carbon and she worked flawlessly! I’m finally starting to get the front and rear suspension dialed in to my liking. After a long enduro grind on the mtn bike, my lower back usually takes a pretty severe beating. After I finished my last lap, I dismounted and slowly stood up straight like a 120 year old man in anticipation of having to immediately bend back over due to a sore, fatigued back. Once I straightened myself out, I realized that my back actually felt pretty good! I also decided to further my testing of tubeless tires by running 30 psi in both wheels. I’ve never run anything below 40 psi before, so I was a little concerned about possibly rolling the tire off of the rim through some of the smokin’ fast tight corners that Platte River is notorious for. The tires performed flawlessly and I was able to fly through a lot of the high speed corners like I was on rails.
I also wore a pair of Oakley Flak Jackets with permisson lenses. The lens is by the coolest that I’ve worn thus far. The lens gradually changes the level of tint when I transition from shade to sunlight. I can tell that it works, however it’s a subtle enough change that it’s barely noticeable. I also wore a pair of the new Louis Garneau Carbon T-Flex mountain bike shoes. It’s a very comfortable, light weight shoe with a carbon sole. They were great over the first four hours and will only get better once I actually get them broken in.
I downloaded my heart rate data and spent about 2 minutes in zone 4, about an hour in zone 3 with the remainder of the race in zone 2. I think that’s pretty close to ideal for me in a 6 hour race because I felt great physiologically. I just need to get the hand and foot thing dialed in and I’ll be golden!

Next up is the Snake Alley Criterium and possibly the Muscatine Crit. I’m planning to do the 40+ and possibly the 30+ for the Snake. I’m not sure what I’m doing for Muscatine yet. I might opt to do a long road ride instead.

Thanks for reading,

CK

Ingawanis Pix

Some photos that Carl Buchanananananan took at Ingawanis.

WWJ - Pre-Endo





Cully Todd - Idaho bound... Don't be surprised if I show up on your doorstep, lookin' for a place to crash while you take me out and rip my legs off on some of the local tread!





My brutha Jim Logan railin' a corner. Check out the buff tread, the entire course was like that.





Check me out lookin' all cock-eyed rolling through the rock garden.





Christmas came early from my bro Oakley Rob!

Oakley Rob is once again one of my biggest supporters this season and he hooked me up with a new pair of Flak Jackets. The frame fits me like a glove. Once I put them on my head, they stay put and I never have to mess with them during a ride or race. The other huge feature is the lense technology. The pair that I have came with Permisson lenses, which gradually change tint when the lighting changes. The lense is also coated with something called 'Hydrophobic'. It's basically a coating that prevents water, sweat, snot and Gatorade from leaving streaks and sheens that can compromise vision. All important features when your flying down a trail littered with trees, rocks, lions, tigers and bears.

Oh yeah, no 6 hour race for me today. Rain was heading in that direction and I don't really feel like racing in the mud, especially when the race isn't among my top priorities. Next weekend is another marathon race over at Platte River State Park in Nebraska. Hopefully the #$^@! rain will hold off!

Thanks for reading,

CK

Ingawanis

It’s so good to be back on the dirt! The Monsoon season has made it kinda rough on planet dirt lately. The Psycowpath race at Swanson ended up getting postponed to Sunday, so I had to decide which race to do. I love doing both races, both courses are a lot of fun, but I had to choose the Camp Ingawanis race as I am the ringleader for the three ring circus that we call the IMBCS.
Lebadebadoo showed up in my driveway with his minivan at a little after 6. We threw all of my junk in his van and hit the road. Some of the newer minivans out there make for pretty sweet road trip vehicles to bike races. Lot’s of room, they’re comfortable, etc., however for me to own one would definitely lessen my marketability in the market for a lady friend. I need all of the help that I can get, so no minivan for me.
Waverly is a pretty cool little town, lot’s of character, it’s clean, the Cedar River is very picturesque with no homeless camps along its’ banks. I don’t think that I could live there as I’m used to the ‘big city’ life of Des Moines. We arrived at Camp Ingawanis a little over two hours before race time so I was able to finally relax and take my time in getting ready to rage.
The race course at Ingawanis is typically around 9 or so miles, however due to the effects of this seasons monsoons, a lot of the low lying areas had a lot standing water. This years course ended up being around 4.5 – 5 miles. Casey Dean and Jeremy Bidwell did a phenomenal job in putting together a very challenging, awesome course! I’m guessing that at least half the trail was brand spanking new singletrack and what better way to get new trail broken in, than to hold a race on it.
I had enough time to get two recon laps in, which I definitely needed. During the first lap, I could tell that it had been a few weeks since I had been on my mountain bike! After bouncing myself off of several trees, I finally got myself back into the groove during my second recon lap and I felt like I was ready to rock ‘n roll.
We lined up for the start and the competition looked pretty good, Cully Todd would be my main antagonist. He told me that he and his wife are moving to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. That really bummed me out, I really enjoy racing against him. He’s a really cool cat and he’s gonna be missed around these parts. WWJ and Ben Shockey were also going to help further the suffering.
The race started and I took off like a madman. I wanted to be the first into the singletrack and try to open a gap ASAP with the hopes of settling into a more comfortable pace by the end of the first of five laps. I made it to the top of the hill and into the singletrack first, followed by Cully. Not sure who was on Cully’s wheel. I was still in the lead and pushing hard going up the first major climb, which was a brand new section of trail with several switchbacks. I hit the third switchback with Cully firmly attached to my wheel. For whatever reason, as I was coming out of the switchback, I stalled out and fell over! As I write this, I still have no idea what had caused it. Cully just about ran me over me, I told him he should have for making such a boneheaded mistake, even though I had no idea what I did. I picked myself up off the ground and ran the rest of the way up the hill and managed to keep myself in 2nd.
Shortly thereafter, I caught back up to Cully and retook the lead. I kept the throttle as wide open as my old body would allow and slowly managed to open a gap throughout the first lap. By the end of lap one I think that I had about a 20 second lead and it gradually increased over the remainder of the race. I ran into a lot of lapped traffic throughout and as usual, never had any real issues with anybody. It never ceases to amaze me at how well all of the racers in the Iowa and Nebraska series understand and execute good racer etiquette!
I ended up winning the race by about 4 minutes, Cully came in 2nd followed by Ben Shockey another 4 minutes back. Both Cully and Ben were on singlespeeds. A lot of people think that a singlespeed is somewhat of a handicap. I don’t think it is as much of a handicap for a couple of reasons, you don’t have to mess around with gears. If you choose the right gear, then most, if not all of a course will still be rideable. There is also a significant decrease in the weight of the bike, which not only makes it easier going uphill, but the bike itself is a lot more nimble when going through tight, technical sections. It’s a lot easier to ‘throw’ the bike around while riding. Guys like Cully and Ben are among the best of bike handlers and singlespeeds suit them really well. They both rode a great race!
For all of the techy geeky mountain bikers, my average heart rate for the race was a relatively low 164. My first lap average was 171 and it dropped steadily as the race progressed. My last lap average was 159. Last season I averaged in the 170’s for most of my races and in 2006, I remember averaging 181 for one of my races! I do know that as a person ages, they can expect their heart rate to decrease, so I must be at that age. I still feel young and I still plan to behave like I’m 30 so all is still good!
Equipment… my weapon of choice for the weekend was the Orbea Oiz Carbon. My opinion of this bike keeps getting better and better. This was the first time that I had raced it on a hilly course, and she scurried up the hills like a mountain goat, especially with the front and rear ends locked out. It was also my first chance to race in my new mtb shoes from Louis Garneau, the Carbon T-Flex. The leather uppers on the shoe are very durable, definitely built to handle the rugged conditions encountered in mountain bike racing. It has a carbon sole that is constructed such the toe area has some flexibility, which worked really well on the run-up section of the course.
Next up is the 3/6 hour race up at Seven Oaks. Sea Biscuit is pretty adamant that it’s going to be a pretty low-key event, but if the weather and the trail conditions are good, I think that he’ll be surprised at the turn out. I know a few cats from Nebraska that are thinking pretty seriously about coming over. There’s nothing else going on that weekend and it’s always worth the trip for a race at Seven Oaks, so I expect the turn out to be pretty good. I’m planning to do the 6 hour race as I’m a glutton for the brutality that comes with riding a mountain bike for 6 straight hours.

Thanks for reading,

CK

Road Rage

I enjoy road racing, especially with the P/1/2’s, but racin’ on my mountain bike is so much more fun! One thing that I’ve definitely noticed in racing with the P/1/2’s is that I feel the likelihood of my body skidding across the pavement is considerably less than it was when racing with the 3’s. I’ve had a few close calls in the P/1/2’s this year, but was pleasantly surprised at how much better P/1/2’s are at handling their bikes in precarious situations.


Kennan sure loves her goofy, ball headed uncle!




My plan for the weekend was to drive to Iowa City, do the road race, continue to the Quad Cities to celebrate my little niece’s first birthday. Then head back to Iowa City and do the crit. As I was cruising down the freeway, I was passed by tPod and JJ. I noticed them at the last minute as they were kind of a blur, they must have been pushin’ about 120 mph in line with a bunch of other cars. They kept right on going as I don’t think my Jeep is capable of going quite as fast as they were. About 20 miles later, I see tPod’s truck on the side of an off ramp. He and JJ are standing at the front and rear of his truck with their winkers hangin’ out taking a nature break. I kept on going and they eventually caught back up to me. We caravanned the rest of the way and arrived at the venue about 30 minutes before the start.
I got registered and dressed with about 2 minutes to spare before the start. The ref blew the whistle and the pace out of the gate was absolutely crazy. The first stretch was a cross wind, and within minutes my HR had soared into the 170’s. I started drifting towards the back of the 60+/- racers and was OTB. We hit the tailwind and I about blew myself up trying to catch the tail end of the main group. I finally caught back on just before we turned right into another short cross wind. Not exactly the best way to start a road race. I had to turn myself inside out a few times to catch up.
At the end of lap one, we turned right into the same section of cross wind that sent me OTB on the first lap. Guess what? I was near the tail end of the group and got my stupid arse OTB again! I hit the tailwind section again and started a frantic, cross-eyed chase once again. About five of us regrouped and continued to chase the main group. Once again, I put myself into to bowels of the pain cave to catch back up to the main group. Our group of five eventually caught back up to the main group about ¾ of the way through lap two… just in time to hit the cross wind and potentially go OTB once again.
Not this time, when we caught the main group I continued up near the front of the group and stayed there. We started lap three and it was much easier being near the front. About midway through the tailwind section, my crossed-eyes finally straightened themselves out and I could feel myself beginning to breathe normally again. By this time, a break away of four or five had gotten away and they were gradually increasing their gap. When we were riding into the headwind section on lap 4, one of the cats on the Bianchi – GP team asked if I wanted to help chase the break away down. I took a look around and saw Grand Master Lou and tPod. Even though my mental capacities were partially incapacitated due to the blurring effects of LT in my cranial cavity, I was able to recognize that Rassy’s had no presence in the break. So myself, tPod, two Bianchi GP guys and one other dude traded pulls at the front and we eventually reeled in the break away with one lap to go.
We started the last lap and the attrition was such that there were about 30 or so cat’s that had survived the slaughter. A couple of guys took flyers off the front that were reeled back in. We hit the headwind section and it was evident that it was going to be about a 20 man field sprint. As we approached the finish line, it seemed inevitable that some carnage was going to occur. I was perfectly content to sit back and enjoy my front row seat view of the action! The first man jumped and all hell broke loose, Grand Master Lou got boxed in by a couple of Trek – Midwest guys that decided to sit up in the middle of the pack sprint. I could see everybody around him slamming on their brakes. One dude on the Nova team rode into the ditch and did a superman over his handle bars. I’m not sure who won, don’t really care. I was just happy to finish!
The next day, I drove back over to Iowa City and during the drive I went back and forth as to whether or not I would do the crit. I decided that if I got there soon enough, I’d do the 40+ race. I arrived about ten minutes before the start… too late. I stuck around and shot the breeze with my fellow cycling brethren and over the course of two hours, managed to talk myself out of doing the P/1/2 race. I was at the end of a recovery week, so I used that as my excuse. I didn’t really feel like doing it anyway and if my head isn’t into it, experience has told me that it’s best to stay away if you’re not feeling the love.
My main objective in doing these crazy roadie events is to get some good quality training in and finish with the main group while keeping it rubber side down. If the opportunity to help Grand Master Lou get a good finish safely presents itself, I’ll gladly help out. I got an awesome workout in and managed to keep myself off the floor… mission accomplished.


A quick word about my equipment. The Orca… the more I ride it, the more I love it. Race weight is right at 16 lbs, which is a huge help in how responsive it is. The stiffness of the frame also contributes to the responsiveness. I hit the throttle and the bike almost squirts out from under me! High speed cornering is like a thrill ride. The frame is so well balanced that I get no sensations of discomfort while flying around corners. I also got hooked up with a sweet pair of Louis Garneau CFS-150 shoes. I had to bake them in the oven at 150 for fifteen minutes and then wear them for another fifteen to get the custom fit. I decided, while baking them, that I would garnish them with a couple pair of my dirty cycling socks to further the custom-ness. Not sure about you, but it’s the first time that I’ve ever had to bake a pair of my shoes in the oven! After a few break-in rides, the shoes are the bomb! No hot spots, no sleepy feet, super light weight, comfortable and Grand Master Lou, the fashion king, told me that I’m starting to look like a true roadie. If I’m starting to look like a roadie, I can assure all of you that it is purely by accident.


Next up is the first dirty double of the season. Psycowpath #2 at Swanson, always a big race, on Saturday. Followed by IMBCS #2 at Camp Ingawanis on Sunday. Stay tuned for the 411 on both.

Thanks for reading,

CK

A Sunday In Hell

Not really.... I actually had a really good day despite collecting my first DNF in years. The title seemed kind of appropriate as the Sylvan Island Stampede happened to be on the same day as The Hell Of The North (Paris Roubaix). When I did get to ride, I had a blast. The trails were very technical, the course at Sylvan Island for this season was the most technical course of any course that I’ve raced on in Iowa or Nebraska. Very tight, very twisty, lot’s of wet rocks, lot’s of wet roots, lot’s of steel and lot’s of concrete. It’s been a really long time since I’ve had a bad race, so long that I really don’t remember the last time that I did have a bad race. So I’ve probably been long overdue.
The next time you go out for dinner the night before a race, I’d recommend taking a pass on the fish stew. As soon as I finished my last bite, I could tell that something was amiss. I woke up at about 2am with a strange feeling in my gut, the kind of feeling that made you wish that you could blow some dirt, you know, the kind that makes you go ‘Aaaaaaaaah’ as it makes it’s exit. Well, that never happened. I woke the next morning and still felt off. At the time I didn’t really think much of it because I didn’t really feel that bad. There were just a few things going on that weren’t quite normal, like my stomach feeling a little off and I had no appetite.
The race wasn’t until 2, so we had a lot of time to sit around. During that time I never did get any kind of appetite, which is highly unusual for me, even the day of a race. WWJ and I packed up our stuff and headed to the course to do a little recon. During my recon, I was going through a pretty technical section of the course with a little too much heat. My front tire hit a wet root and knocked me off course enough that I was re-routed into the path of a tree. I had enough time to react that I was able to steer my front tire to hit the tree, rather than my handlebar. My front tire speared the tree, my body flew forward and my groin area slammed into my stem. If it wasn’t for the sweet Louis Garneau chamois in my shorts, the damage probably would have been pretty severe. As it was, it stunned me for about ten minutes. During that ten minutes of pain, I rode real slow like so that I could focus my energy on somehow making the pain go away. I did manage to land both feet on the ground and not fall over, so I kinda looked like I knew what I was doing. That, more or less, set the tone for the rest of the day, little did I know!
As we were lining up for the start, I saw the Lalonde brothers lining up at the start. At that point the rest of us knew that we would be racing for 3rd. Jesse and Marko Lalonde are a couple of Pro’s from Madison, WI and both race for the Gary Fisher factory 29’r team. Jesse won the 2007 Chequamegon 40, on a singlespeed no less and Marko is the 2007 Singlespeed Cyclocross National Champion and both of them pretty much dominate the WORS series up in Wisconsin. So yeah, you could say that they are pretty fast!


The brothers Lalonde, preppin' to slay all foes.



The race started and I got off to a pretty good start going into the singletrack in 5th or 6th. Shortly after we got into the singletrack I knew that something wasn’t right with me. I was riding like a bull in a china shop, I felt really clumsy and off balance. I really struggled to hang on to the wheel in front of me, especially on the flat open sections where I can usually do some damage. I lost the wheel in front of me and shortly thereafter, the guy in front of me was out of site.
I could tell that I had a long line of others behind me because I could hear their bikes rattling over the rough terrain. Eventually, over the course of a lap, everyone of them passed me. I tried to respond every time that I got passed, but there was nothing there.


This is what I look like when I'm fixin' to pull the plug. Busted out the old steed, thought it was going to be a little muddy. I was wrong.


I think it was probably shortly after the start of lap three that I decided it was time for a staff meeting. Mr. and Mrs. Legs were telling me that I should think pretty hard about bailing out. Common sense was telling me that I should bail. General Well Being was telling me that I should minimize the damage and bail, just in case I was in the process of getting sick. However Mr. Pride was making a very strong case for gutting it out. I decided that maybe Mr. Pride was on to something and I tried once again to up the pace. It kind of reminded of the movie Star Wars, when the Millennium Falcon was being chased by Imperial Cruisers. Chewbacca hit the hyperdrive in an attempt to go into hyperspace, the hyperdrive wound up and then quickly ground to a halt… Only Star Wars geeks can really appreciate that analogy. It was at that point that common sense finally prevailed and I pulled the plug.


WWJ didn't get lost, had a great race and brought home 5th overall.



There was a positive to my racing misfortune however. My Mom, Stepfather, brother in law, sister and niece were there, so I got to spend the last hour of the race hanging with the fam, watching the Lalonde brothers show everybody else how to race a mountain bike like a pro.


My little sister Scooter and I exposing Kennan to some of the finer qualities of the lifestyle of a mountain biker.



They finished 1 / 2 to the tune of about 10 minutes over 3rd place. They’re fast.
I’ve had a couple of days to reflect now and I’ve come to the conclusion that I had a mild bout with food poisoning. The loss of appetite, the mild ache in my gut, I felt really cold throughout the race and my simple inability to ride a bike without running into something pretty much summed it all up. It’s two days later now and I feel perfectly normal surprisingly enough. I’ve had food poisoning before and remember being knocked out of commission for the better part of a week. It could have been a lot worse, so I consider myself very fortunate!
I’ve done very little high intensity training, so I’m thinking about venturing up to Seven Oaks this Saturday to do the dirty short track criterium that my buddy Sea Biscuit is hosting. I also am planning to both Iowa City races the weekend after. Until then…

Thanks for reading,

CK

Pix From Maskenthine

Release the hounds!




Kevin leading the charge, followed by yours truly sporting the latest in Rassy attire. Nate was stuck to my wheel like a fly on stink and that's JP in 4th, suffering like an animal.




I'm still wearing the same clothes, Nate is still so close that he can smell my....breath and JP is still in the hurt locker. The new Rassy kits are Louis Garneau, by far the most comfortable clothing that my nether regions have ever come into contact with.




JP looks like he might be feelin' a little better now.




Rasmussen Bike Shop, Orbea, Louis Garneau and Oakley on the top step where they should be. I'm just fortunate to be along for the ride! I'm thinkin' that if Nate were to shave that pelt off of his face, the reduction in drag would have gained him one more position on the podium. I personally think his beard rocks and would be worth sacrificing a few places in a race because it probably lands him a lot of chicks.

Maskenthine / Big Crack

Made the loooong drive to Maskanthine Park in Nebraska, and when I say long, I mean driving about 20 minutes past the course to some town called Norfolk. I turned around and hoofed it back in the opposite direction and finally made it to the course about an hour before the start. I’m not doing so hot with finding race courses this season, if I keep this up I’m not going to have any legitimacy in giving WWJ crap for getting lost all of the time. The upshot, it seems to be helping out my performances nicely!
The weather was pretty close to perfect, other than the howling wind. I don’t mind the wind so much in a mountain bike race because it kind of plays into one of my strengths. The course at Maskenthine is a pretty straight forward course, so my late arrival wasn’t really that big of a deal. I only needed to recon the first couple of miles because that’s where all of the more technical sections are.
Because it was so windy out, and because the race started uphill and into a headwind, my plan was to let somebody lead out into the singletrack and this time, today’s lucky winner of the ‘hole shot into the headwind’ award would be Kevin Limpach. The race started, Kevin took the lead from the gun followed by Nate Woodman. I passed Nate about halfway up the hill and grabbed Kevin’s wheel as we entered the trails. I followed Kevin for about 1 ½ laps with Nate firmly attached to my wheel.
We hit a section of the course that was out in the open with a tailwind. I was having a lot of fun riding with Kevin and Nate, however I decided that this would be a good place to put in a little surge to test the legs of Kevin and Nate. Nate was on a singlespeed also, so I figured that I could maybe make him overcook his gear. I hit the throttle and started to create a gap. I kept the pressure on for the remainder of lap two and the 3rd lap. At the end of lap 3, I had a pretty good sized gap, so I loosened the screws a little.
I ended up winning the race by a little under 4 minutes with a time of 2:01:15, Kevin brought home 2nd, Jesse Peterson came in 3rd and Nate brought home 4th. All three of them are pretty cool cats and I really enjoyed racing with all of them, it’s especially nice that they were kind enough to let me win!
My new ride, the Orbea Oiz Carbon is really starting to grow on me. The suspension package works quite a bit better than the 2006 Oiz that I have. The bike is also a lot more nimble than any other full suspension bike that I’ve ridden. I think that has a lot to do with the U-Flexion carbon composite pivot coming off of the bottom bracket. It provides a lot of stiffness in the lateral direction, which provides for great cornering, especially in some of the tighter turns. I can’t wait to get it on a hilly course ‘cause I know she’s gonna climb like a mountain goat!


U-Flexion Pivot



Throughout last three laps I had caught and passed a lot of lapped traffic, which is never really an issue because most of them know that they are to yield the trail when being lapped. Every once in great while you run into somebody that gets themselves so wrapped up in their own little purgatory of pain, that they don’t always have the presence of mind to move over a little. I happen to have one of those incidents this time. The dude knew that I was coming, but yet he persisted in holding his line. When this happens, I usually have to get a little creative in how I choose to pass. I’ve learned over the years how to make myself real skinny like when passing in difficult areas. So, I made myself skinny and passed the guy while we were riding in between two trees. I think that I might have bumped him a little as I had passed and he pretty much lost his mind, using the big man’s name in vain while informing me that this was the 2nd time that I ‘almost’ caused him to crash. ‘Almost’ means that he didn’t crash, and that’s largely due to my experience in mountain bike racing and knowing how to pass others with minimal interference to their race as well as mine.
I approached the guy after the race with full intentions of offering my apologies and keeping the peace, however I never really got the chance as he proceeded to inform me that I was being a jerk about it. He kept yelling while I calmly told him that I wasn’t going to talk to him until he calmed down. I thought his head was going to pop off! So rather than continue, I told him he was like talking to a wall and then I walked away. It was a very, very unfortunate situation, and I know that I shouldn’t have made the comment about talking to a wall, but really, it’s just bike racing and it’s definitely not worth getting hostile over. Some people never seem to get it…
Regardless, the Elkhorn Valley folks did a stellar job with the course and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

The next day I decided to do the Big Crack road race that the All Nine Yards folks put on. After pigging out on pancakes, bacon, eggs and some coffee, I rode up to Big Crack State Park. During my ride, I got this crazy idea to try and upgrade to a category 2, to see if I could hang on and not get dropped. The race started and the only really difficult part of the course was a two mile stretch that had a pretty stout cross wind. Tilford and his buddies from Kansas tried to gutter the field by riding the yellow line, just about everybody, myself included, crossed the line to keep our noses out of the wind. After a few laps, Tilford got PO’d and yanked his bike across the yellow line to the far left side of the road. I know that he did it because he was trying to gutter everybody on the yellow line and everybody broke the rules by crossing the yellow line. He got frustrated and decided to gutter everybody on the far left side of the road instead. Nobody could drift left (downwind) because they would have ended up in the gravel. What Tilford did was definitely against the rules, however everybody else broke the yellow line rule. As a result, the entire field was relegated one place, which was of no real consequence to anybody… funny.
I had a good day, I was able to hang onto the main group until the finish and was in danger of being dropped once in the cross wind. I had made a mistake that created a gap between myself and the dude in front of me and it took me about 2 miles to catch back onto the rear end of the field. I felt pretty good despite having done a two hour mountain bike race the day before. Tilford finally managed to get off the front with another guy in tow, Sean Walker I think? They finished 1st and 2nd followed by the main field of about 15. I wasn’t even going to try and contest the sprint as it was in a tailwind and I was under-geared. There’s way too much chaos in field sprints and I never like to get caught up in all of that. After the race, I rode back home for a nice hour long cool down and logged about 100 miles for the day. Saweet! The All Nine Yards folks did a great job in putting on a really cool event, a huge thanks goes out to the men's and women's team for all of their hard work!

I rode the Orbea Orca… man what a bike! How to compare? It’s like riding on the suspension of a Porsche while my 2003 Trek OCLV feels more like a Chevy Camaro. How do I know what a Porsche feels like? Well, I really don’t but I think you get the point. Road racing is a pretty good proving ground for a new bike. Lot’s of accelerating, lot’s of hammering, there’s always a few sketchy riders that activate the pucker mechanism and force you to take evasive action. The Orca accelerates unlike any other, the frame is incredibly stiff and very responsive. The second I apply pressure to the pedals, I can feel a lot more power being transferred to the rear wheel than any other bike I’ve ever ridden, it kind of squirts out from under you. I like taking corners at high speeds, I thought the Trek cornered really well, and it does, but after about an hour of aggressive riding my level of comfort on the Orca was equal to that of my Trek. The Orca is so well balanced, that I feel more comfortable carving through corners at high speeds than I ever have before. There really wasn’t much for hills on the Big Crack route, so a climbing review will have to wait. I’m pretty sure that the climbing prowess of the Orca is right up there with the best of the best. The Spanish Pro Tour team Euskaltel – Euskadi are notorious for their abilities in the high mountains of Europe and the entire team is outfitted with Orca’s. So I think it’s a safe bet that the Orca likes to go uphill real quick like. I cannot wait until my two weeks in Durango arrives so that I can do some real riding on it! My Orca, completely built, weighs in at 16 lbs even.

Next up is the season opener for the IMBCS, the 4th edition of the Sylvan Island Stampede. I hope Eppen shows up because I love getting my butt handed to me on a dirty silver platter.

Thanks for reading,

CK

Spoke Pony Pix

The calm before the storm.




Goin' with the flow. My new stead was all dirty, wasn't too happy about that.




Brutha MG in is element.




The 6 hour solo overall podium, forgot that I was supposed to be there... nah, I had to roll, had a long drive back to the homestead.

Spoke Pony

I didn’t really plan to start off my racing season this early, however this is the time of the year for long endurance rides and a 6 hour mountain bike race seemed like a great way to get my mountain biking legs and my new Orbea Oiz Carbon dialed in. Friday rolled around and the weather forecast looked pretty good and the word was out that the trails were in great shape, so it was game on!
It was so nice to get out and ride my mountain bike on actual dirt, rather than snow or mud! I’d never ridden at Landahl before, I’d heard that it was pretty technical and very rocky. It didn’t sound like a great course to race on without first getting a recon lap in, however with this being a 6 hour suffer fest, I figured that I could bypass the recon and use my first lap to follow the leaders and learn the lines that way.
Endurance racing is all about pacing yourself and keeping yourself hydrated and fed. My goal was to maintain a Zone 2 effort (heart rate in the 150’s) throughout the race. Whenever I go out for a long training ride of five or six hours, my effort is consistently around 150 throughout the ride. So it seemed like a pretty realistic goal. Add to that, my main objective for this race was to keep it as a training effort, rather than a race effort.
The race started with a le mans style start… I hate running, that’s why I ride a bike! The last time that I had to run was when Petey insisted on shaking my hand after he applied chamiox butter directly to his nether regions… and yes, I’m sure that I ran like a girl, screamin’ bloody murder. I did get a decent start and I had no idea where I stood amongst the other 6 hour soloists. There was also a 3 hour race and they started everybody together, so it would have been really easy for a 6 hour soloist to go out way too hard. I did my best to keep my effort under control and despite my efforts, noticed my heart rate creeping into the 160’s and sometimes even the 170’s. I think a part of that was due to adrenaline, not only from the race, but also from riding over some of the more technical stuff without having seen it before. Rocks, really big rocks… and lot’s of them. They had all kinds of skin and bike frame piercing points sticking out of them. The thought of putting a wheel wrong and hitting the deck was enough to elevate my heart rate by about 10 beats!

Lap 1 - I survived the 1st lap with a time of 45:32 and an average heart rate of 165, a little too hard. I had no idea what place I was in at the time, but I also wasn’t too worried about it either as winning wasn’t supposed to be my priority… but it was in the back of my mind, I am a bike racer afterall! After having a look at the results, the first 6 hour soloist finished his first lap in 41:36… ouch! I came through in 6th place.

Lap 2 – I backed the effort down considerably and maintained an average heart rate of 156 and rolled through with a lap time of 46:09. I felt a lot more comfortable with my effort and the course. The results indicated that I had lost a couple of places and was sitting in 8th and a little over 7 minutes behind 1st place.

Lap 3 – My average heart rate for lap 3 was again at 156 and I was feeling really good. My lap time had even dropped down to 45:30, which indicated that I was a lot more comfortable with the course and was starting to get it figured out. I had the same lap time as I did on lap 1, and my effort was about 10 heartbeats less. The first two laps of the race, I don’t think that I passed a single person, however on this lap I remember passing quite a few cats that were livin’ it up in the pain cave. I was sitting in 7th place by the end of lap 3, about 10 minutes behind 1st.

Lap 4 – My average heart rate for lap 4 was holding steady at 157 and my lap time was at a steady 45:41. I felt really good, just like I normally would have on training ride of this length. I passed a few more people and by the end of lap 4, the race results had indicated that I was in 4th place. At this point during the race, I still had no idea what place I was in. I think it was during lap four that I got a stick or something caught in my drive train. I back pedaled a little to get it out, but it was too late. My gears started jumping all over the place. I started adjusting my barrel, thinking that the stick probably loosened my rear derailleur cable. By the end of lap 4 I was a little over 11 minutes behind 1st.

Lap 5 – My average heart rate for lap 5 was 155 and my lap time was 45:37. Physically, I was still feelin’ the love, my legs felt really good! My gears however, were still jumpin’ all over the place, especially when I tried to shift up into my 30 and 32 rings. When I hit some of the hills I had to suck up my pride and drop into my granny gear to keep my gears in the rear from going haywire. By the end of lap 5 I had managed to close the gap to 1st down to just a little over 3 minutes.

Lap 6 – I think during this lap, I started to get the feeling that I might actually be close to leading the race. My average heart rate for the lap had dropped a little to 150 and my lap time also dropped to 46:58. I was still feeling pretty good and maintained my focus on staying hydrated and fed. At some point during this lap, I passed Kip Biese, who had been leading most of the race. He looked like he was in his own little purgatory of pain and paying dearly for all of those smokin’ fast lap times that he had been cutting earlier. I also passed a cat named Mark Cole, who had taken over the race lead from Kip. I didn’t know that he was leading at the time and thought that maybe I had lapped him. I was still feeling really good and started thinking that I shouldn’t have any trouble at all finishing this thing. I was still having issues with my gears despite my efforts with the barrel adjuster. At the end of the lap I stopped at the scorers table to check on what place I was in, and sure enough, I was sitting in 1st overall! This kinda put me into race mode and I began to realize that maybe Mark was actually on the same lap as myself. I stopped at my car to grab more water and Gatorade and noticed that Mark had re-passed me while I had stopped. I could see him rolling up the hill and he kept looking back at me in such a way that I knew he had taken the lead from me. I caught back up to him as we crested the hill and we rode together for a little while. He was starting to slow down, so I asked to pass and he let me by. I continued at my pace and started to gap him off.

Lap 7 – Throughout lap 7, I could start to feel a little bit of upper body fatigue starting to set in. I’m really surprised that it took that long to happen due to the rocky nature of the course. I was still feeling really good otherwise and by this time I finally had my gears working reasonably well. My average heart rate for lap 7 was holding steady at 150 and my lap time had dropped a little to 47:37. I looked back occasionally and could see Mark kind of yo-yoing about a minute or two behind me. About ¼ of the way through the lap I decided to tighten the screws a little. I upped the effort and a short while later noticed that I couldn’t see him anymore. By the end of lap 7 my lead was just under 1 minute.

Lap 8 – I rolled through lap 7 with a total time of 5 hours and 23 minutes, so I knew that lap 8 would be my last. I also knew that I had a pretty sizeable gap on 2nd place. My upper body was really starting to weaken, so much so, that as I was riding through some of the rocky sections, I wasn’t really too sure if I could make it through without eating some of the delicious rocks that were strewn about the course. I pretty much put it in cruise control and my average heart rate for the lap dropped down to 143 with a lap time of 49:11. Good enough for 1st overall, about 9 minutes ahead of the 2nd place soloist, Mark Cole and a little over 2 minutes ahead of the 1st place team. A little side note, the fastest lap time for the last lap was 46:47 cut by Dwayne Gosconski, which in my mind deserves the award for fastest lap. That's freakishly fast after having ridden a course like Landahl for 6 hours.

So, for the 6 hours and 12 minutes that I was riding, my average heart rate for the race was 154, pretty much exactly where I wanted it. I felt like I didn’t push myself too hard, as I didn’t want to cook myself this early in the season. I also have a pretty big training week coming up and I didn’t want to compromise that either.
Pre-race nutrition consisted of a couple of pancakes with three eggs before I hit the road. While I was driving I ate maybe ½ to ¾ of a box of Mueslix and washed it down with a pot of coffee. During the race, I think that I drank close to 64 ounces of Gatorade and enough water that I had to stop and take a leak twice during the race... no, I don’t pee while riding my bike. I tried it once and I ended up getting more on me than the ground… hey, I had to at least try. I had also eaten two Probars. I probably should have eaten a little more, but I didn’t really feel all that hungry until the last lap of the race. After the race, I made an absolute pig of myself and pretty much ate everything in sight that looked edible.

The folks that host all of the races for the Heartland Series do an excellent job in everything from organization to awesome courses. This race was no different, I had to leave before the awards ceremony because I had a long drive ahead of me. I think I probably missed out on a pretty sweet little schwag give away because they had a big ole’ pile of sweet looking stuff sitting behind the scorers table. The pile was so big that they couldn’t fit it all on any of the tables that they had set up! I always try to make the trip down yonder at least once a year for their races, always a great time!

Next up is the season opener for the Psycowpath series at Maskenthine State Park, this coming Saturday. I won there last season, so I’ll be looking to repeat. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading,

CK

Pre Season

Spring time is almost here… maybe it is already here, is it officially spring yet? Official or not, it doesn’t matter! March madness always means that the trainer time will start to decrease while the outside saddle time increases. Training for this season began at the beginning of the year and I’ve logged more hours in the saddle than I did last year at this time. Despite all of the trainer rides, I’ve had an excellent winter of training and only had one minor setback that resulted in exactly one less hour of saddle time… not a biggie. Did a lot of trainer rides, some rides on the snowmobile trails up at Big Crack and a few rides down at the SC when it wasn’t like a skating rink. I had a real slight aggravation in my left Achilles tendon area from lifting weights that really only affected weight training. I was able to ride through it without too much trouble. That lasted a few weeks before the irritation was completely gone. I actually consider myself very lucky in the sense that I am 42 this year, and to train as much as I do, I should be throwin’ rods and pistons all over the place. Cycling is a low impact sport and that makes it a lot easier for blue hairs (or no hairs in my case) to ride as much as I do.
I’ve made a couple of minor changes with how I train this season. I’m logging more hours in the form of endurance rides to build up my aerobic engine a little more. I’ve also modified my diet with the help of my good friend Jenny Weber-Hanken. She’s been a huge help in the way of nutritional advice and has helped me tweak my diet in such a way that my recovery after hard workouts has greatly improved. I’ve come to believe that sound nutrition is a critical component to any kind of training plan, whether you’re a competitive athlete, or simply looking to be fit. If you’re looking for another easy way to help improve your fitness, I would strongly recommend talking to Jenny.

So I have to start this blogging season off by thanking all of those that help make this all possible for me. I am very blessed to have the support that I have and I wake up everyday very thankful for all that I have while thinking very little about what I don’t have.

I need to start by thanking God, my Mom, Dad, family and friends. God has blessed me with excellent health, an awesome career (my real job) that offers me the flexibility needed to train like I do and just a great life in general! My Mom and Dad have been huge supporters of everything that I have pursued in life. I couldn’t ask for a better set of parents. My little sister, Scooter, who provides me with an amazing amount of moral support and lot’s of free coffee from Starbucks. I am one of the beneficiaries of her free coffee benefits as an employee of Starbucks. Friends… I have an amazing group of friends and they are one of the big reasons that I choose to live in Des Moines.

Rasmussen Bike Shop – words cannot describe what Greg Rasmussen, Sterling, Terry and the rest of the Rassy crew do for me. They have gone above and way beyond any expectations that anybody has a right to have. You will not find a better bike shop anywhere, period. They carry the best products and provide the absolute best customer service. Things have been crazy busy at the shop lately, yet they always seem to manage to get the job done in a very timely manner, all with a smile of course!

Orbea Bicycles – regional Orbea rep Phil Godkin, along with Greg Rasmussen, have been an enormous help in assisting me with the acquisition of a new road bike, the Orca and a new mountain bike, the Oiz Carbon.


2008 Orca


2008 Oiz Carbon


I received both bikes a little over two weeks ago, and they have been sitting in my living room ever since where I can look at them… often. Orbea has mastered the art of creating bikes that not only function like you would expect the best bikes in the world to function, they are also the Picasso of bikes. Orbea takes full advantage of the flexibility that carbon fiber has to offer with beautifully crafted frames that are truly works of art. I have yet to ride either bike, I’m not quite finished putting the mountain bike together and I am waiting for the spring rains to clean some of the winter residue off of the roads before I take the road bike out. When I do, you can expect a full report on both bikes.

Oakley – local Oakley rep Rob Versteegh has been one of my biggest supporters for a long time now. Everybody knows that Oakley is the cream of the crop when it comes to eyewear, nobody does it better. Those of you that know me know I am all about the functionality of the products that I use first and foremost. Style is great, however if a certain product doesn’t function the way that I need it to, I have no use for it. Oakley pulls off combining style with function as brilliantly as Orbea does with their bikes. You’re not going to find a better product when it comes to eyewear.

As I had mentioned earlier, I am very lucky to have the support that I do. They are all the best of the best! Rasmussen Bike Shop provides me with more support than I could ever expect. They carry the best products, they have the best support and they are also a great group of friends. I can honestly say that if I had a choice in the products and services that I use, I would choose Rasmussen Bike Shop, Orbea and Oakley. Not many people can say that and truly mean it.

Racing… I’m thinking about starting my season off with a 6 hour training race down at Landahl. If I do it, I won’t be too concerned about trying to win. I’ll be more concerned with getting a good, long workout in. I don’t want to cook myself at the beginning of the season by doing a 6 hour race at a pace much faster that I would do a long endurance training ride. My first real race will be the Psycowpath season opener over in rural Nebraska (pretty much in the middle of nowhere). It’s a really fun course, last year was the first year for this race and they did an excellent job with the race and the course.

Thanks for reading,

CK