Dropping logs.

My boss just sent me this photo of meself, from the single speed rally last weekend. I borrowed my friends bike to see how it rode. Jack-rabbit style! I have dteremined.

Uncertainty reigns. SM100 Rules

Notes on what not to do before the "BIG RACE".

1. Not have a game plan. I orginally said i might ride a fixie or a single-speed. Instead I hemed and hawed, and decided at the last minute to race the big boys. I should have choosen one or the other. Instead I was stuck in between.
2. Invite your college friends into town to visit for the week leading up to the race. My Friend Gabe came in Monday and Drew Wendsday. It was lots of fun but not conditions for racing big. Mentally this screwed with me..as well as physically. You know we ran around wondering about the last 8 years but not the next 20, and relationship talk filled most of our time. Enough drinking, dancing and bickering carried on into the night hours to satisfy even the most insatiable Hal Hartley fan.

If I had decided before this past week how to proceed, things would have been a lot more fun. I could have relaxed more with my friends. Gone to the race and ridden at pleasure pace, with people I normally don't get to ride with. Racing is fun, doing well is nice but riding with friends is better. I missed a big opportunity to cruise a 100mile race with random people, talk more to aid station volunteers and possibly join a train to blast down Dowles Draft or Braley's. THose things are important. Instead I rode alone most of the time. If I seemed dissapointed after the race that is why, not because I got 7th.
Instead I was stuck somewhere in-betweeen. Trail Purgatory.
If I could do it again here is how it would go.
I start out in the back and don't even see who goes off the front. Instead I saddle up to Kerry Combs and we chat a little about the day and the year, and her enthusiasm. About the time we make the second left and start on the dualtrack I mosey up to Indy Fab guru Lloyd Graves. We climb together to the radio tower and the first piece of single-track on Narrow back. 400 riders are trying to squeeze into the woods is similar to someone trying to put toothpaste back into the tube. Lloyd goes in first and we let a gap form in front to minimize the amount of carnage we have to ride over.
Coming out onto the gravel Lloyd and I have seperated and I ride with a few random packs of people. We chat, and I make jokes when they ask me why I'm not up in the front. Somebody farts and we all laugh. Eventually I catch up to Chris Nystrom. He helped me with my trip to Breckenridge. I had met his wife at the 101 and was looking forward to seeing him here. A good rider, we cruise up Lynn Trail and try to keep our rear wheels stuck to the earth on the climb. At the top I lead into the decent down Wolf Ridge trail. Shenandoah Bike club has done a lot of work to this trail. When I used to live in Harrisonburg I would do night rides from town to ride Lynn and Wolf. Lots of rock gardens to gap and some very fast and sketchy sections. At the bottom I've lost Chris but gained another group of strangers. They decided to act like roadies and we do some mindblowing TTT. Our group is solid with 30sec pulls and very few are able to catch on as we fly by like a flock of seagulls.
At Hanky Mountain I find myself next to John Posner. Trek Factory team manager. "Captain BassMaster". He is in charge of all the Trek Boys and girls this weekend, but doesn't seem to be too worried about what they are doing up the road. I saw in my future a back seat to the Poz train going down Dowles. He was rocking it on that fancy Trek he likes to ride, but I eventually had to ask for a line around and showed him what off-camber speed looked like.
We rocked to the bottom and Aid Station 3 where I hung out for a while and talked and ate too many sweedish fish. As I eyed up another handfull, Cheryl Sorenson (my previous Gettysburg teammate) came in acting like she owned the forest. We took off together after she rehydrated and we made our way to Mountain House and the next piece of single-track. I seperated from her when Tommi Millar and Buck came rolling up on the Fixies and we had a good time while I pushed them on the pavement sections, with their feet on the top tubes. The climb up to Braleys is a perfect single speed section so I let them go first and watched their steady cadence and silliness. Pat Miller and Thomas Jenkins rolled up from behind and we all eventually set a pace that caught my friend and travel mate for the weekend Topher.
At the top I couldn't imagine a much better group to be blazing Braleys trail with. But I had to drop those dudes, except for Topher and we rolled on to catch Thom Parsons, Indy Fab Web master, who was having a good time riding with Les Leech, the "One-Gear Better-Beer Rally" ringmaster. Two web designers in one spot made for some not so interesting conversation about color theory and cultural identity shifts based on web structure. I cared but decided to ride on and try to catch another group. At station 5 I see Mike Carpenter lying in the grass. He rode there but in a round about way due to a blown chain in the first 30 sec of the race. He was forced to abandon and truly pleasure ride the rest of the day. We took off together to finish the climb to Chestnut ridge, where it was all down hill for a while and I was ready to follow the local knobbies of Carp. All legs arms and torso, it was like watching a preying mantis ride a deer down the mountain. Beautiful.
With only about 10 miles to go I decided to sprint the rest of the way to see what that felt like. Catching people and riding with them some completed my day.
That is what my day should have been like. In the end I still had a good time because the event is great, the people are random and interesting, and the riding is Tops!
Hats off to everyone who did it. See you next year.
Rock Star award goes to Rich Dillon for eating one of the rankest snacks in existance.

SadoMasochism100

Last weekend Philly had its little 'One Gear and Good Beer' rally. Have you ever thrown your six-pack under a trolls bridge and explored fairyland? Try it next year. The act of drinking and riding around in imperfect circles with friends and strangers hits me in the gut. I took a couple of photos at the start then decided to stop watching and start going mad!
This weekend, after an extended visit from two of my oldest friends, Gabe and Drew, I'm going to Virginia for the SM100. I'm bringing a big bag of pain to pass out. Or I might just keep it for myself.
Another race rival and friend Jeremiah Bishop will be there after just getting back from an eighth place finish at the World Championship in New Zealand. THat means for at least a day he was #8 in the world. That is incredible and I feel lucky to have the chance to race him over the years. THe English Muffin will be back to hand me my lunch. By far this is looking to be the deepest competition at one of these 100milers to date. So it was a great week to have my partying friends in town to help me get ready.

Holy Crap Flies Time!

Almost two weeks since I've been on here. People ask me what this sight is for and I'm at a loss. It's a place for easily erased documentation. All this effort can quickly evaporate with the quick burst of the end of civilization.

In "The Life Of Pi", Pi expresses his disdain of the agnostic by imagining the Agnostic's last dying thoughts like this....

"the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might try to explain the warm (death) light bathing him by saying, "Possibly a f-f-failing oxygenation of the b-b-brain," and to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story.

I guess that means its more exciting to believe in the extraordinary. A better argument against agnosticism, I have yet to see.

I'm not turning religious on you. Don't take these images as an intention to turn anyone one way or the other. The first is the cross in front of a church I used to live next to. The lights from my car used to reflect off the gravestones behind this church when I would drive by at night. Always a little forbidding. The Second photo is of a fruit stand that was in the middle of a parking lot. Both equally fascinating to me at night, as I drove by.

Wedding Bells Rung

No racing this weekend, just a wedding between two of my oldest friends. I don't mean elderly. But I have noticed a strange trend amongst my friends to get married and start breeding. Michael and Rosa rented school buses to ship all their friends from the hotel downtown to the Abington Art Center. It was a Quaker wedding so the audience joined in the marrying of the two. Getting the audience to recite everything in-time with each other was comical because, unlike a song which everyone knows, or church where there is a ritual, this was a bunch of dissenters trying to work together. It turned out great and I'm pretty sure they are married now.
On the way back a certain couple of folk grabbed the left over liquor and we had the bus driver turn up the radio, so we had a bus-full of bliss. Pretty much broke every rule we could, as long as we stayed in our seats.
Weddings and funerals leave me with very similar feelings. I'm of the opinion they are opportunities to celebrate and morn. Bringing a new girlfriend to a wedding can be a little awkward, but fortunatly my lady-friend was good at making bad jokes to ease any situation.
After the wedding we went back to the grand art deco Loews hotel and visited room to room, then gathered, with much difficulty, a posse and went to dance at the Khyber. As people get older they get so reluctant to have fun and come up with a bunch of insufficient excuses. It's just laziness, cause life seems so hard in adulthood. Drew keeps the hope up and the motivation to step out when ever necessary and I had no desire to sit in some yuppie bar with $9 drinks when there was free dancing and $3 drinks to be had 10blocks away.
My friend Nunnaly and I got the best wedding present ever by for newly-wed's. A pitchfork! Three prongs and carved from one piece of wood. I should have taken a picture of it. Anyways the couple will have an American Gothic prop for their wedding photos.

Wildness 101

Okay, I forgot my camera, so I'm adding some old photos. Words without pictures is just so 18th century.
Anyways, if you go click on the title to this post it will take you to IF's site and my full race report.
Thank you Kerry for the entry help.

Oh the injustice. Breckenridge 100 is Hurly Burly

Click on the title to go the the full race report at the IF grassroots website.
It's extra long so I thought It would be best to write here about some of the other great things about the trip to CO. I got to stay with my friend Rob in Denver. He threatens to move East but I can't encourage that. There is just too much to do in CO.
Tim Dougherty and his significant other Katina grabbed Trish Stevenson at the airport then came and got me on Thursday. Trish is the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type of girl. She calls me Thur. morning from the airport with no real idea how she is going to get to Breck. So I give her the low-down on the fact that Tim and katina should be in at any moment so just wait and we'll try to hook it up. She calls me about 2hrs later and has Tim next to her. They come and get me,and we head for a shop to look for supplies and Endurolytes. I feel weird asking for endurolytes at the shops we go to, as if it's some sort of rediculous question, because all the CO. riders are so superior and don't need things like that.
Oh well, can't think about those things, but I do take Tim to see Rodney Clarks custom frame shop, which like I said before puts any operating room to shame in terms cleanliness. We kick it, have some laughs and head out of town towards Breck. Katina drives like its a rental and ultimatly is disappointed that the rented mini-van is a chump on the climbs.
We get to Breck and hit a little bikeshop looking for more performance enhancing pills. Empty handed we decide to hit the coffee shop across the street and proceed to get jacked on iced coffee drinks. I'm not sure if it's the elevation or the second cup of coffee, but I start to get that punch drunk stumble. THe kind where it's fun to drag your feet and act like your about to fall over every ten feet. We close down the coffee shop then head out looking for Trish's sleeping quarters. She's staying with Karen Masson, Harvey Minton, and Ian The roaming Brit.
Tim, K and I head to their room and check in, into the jacuzi-tub. Not really but I regret not getting into it at least once. The elevation was doing weird things to me and I found myself trying to yawn every few breaths but never being rewarded with a satisfactory lung-full.
We all met at Rasta Pasta later and for a caribian experience, Italian style.
We slept, woke up Friday morning, ate and started to prep our gear. Tim's Lefty started bleeding at the boot so he started looking for a Cannondale dealer who would have the right tools. Yeah C-dale and their proprietary tools. Him and Katina took off for Vail.
I slowly got my stuff in order, waited for my dad to get to town, went and bought a race-face big ring for my XT cranks. All my shift pins had been worn off and shifting was a bear.
After grabbing a middle ring and cassette Lloyd had sent with Skippany, I had a pretty new drivetrain. Cool! I greeted my dad, then went for about an hour ride. I rode out of town and got on the Upper Flume trail, came down Mikes trail and finished on the Lower Flume. It was a lot of fun and a good indication of what the next day would be like.
After Cleanning up, I went to the racers banquet and meeting. Food was good, promoters disappointing. Read about it in the race report if your interested.
We got up at 4:30am Sat. morn and got ready for the suffer fest. It was chilly, so I wore my arm-warmers and vest,
and dropped my glasses at the start. Other than that it was a great, long day.
I got second to last years winner.
After finishing I sat around watched the promoters hand everyone a beer at the finish, watched riders struggle in, talked to a bunch of people and lay in the grass.
Awards were disappointing, due to the cheap and sexist promoters (read the report). But Trish and a few of us agreed to meet later and have some drinks. Brad Cole and his support Joel came by and took showers in our rooms since they were camping out. We went to eat some tacos and after they left I met the peloton at the ice-cream shop/ bar. After a little puppy dog eye begging we got the bartender to open the bar back up for one drink. John Cagliano was there and Tim Faia came by from off the mountain. After getting shooed out the door we went to Eric's underground bar, had another drink and watched some Tour action on tv.
Departing we said our goodbyes. The next morning My dad and I ate a big breakfast at Tim and Katina's room, then we headed towards Lake City CO to visit my old highschool friend Lydia, her husband Gabe and their 11month old Jaden. Tucked away in the mountains about an hour below Gunnison they have this little idealic town that is almost too good to be true, unless you like big city culture. The town of 350 has a coffee shop, organic grocery, and fine dinning. Where Lydia and I grew up, the town of 6,000 didn't know what cappacino was till 7-11 got a machine. They're kid Jaden was intense. He'll probably grow up doing first runs down the rivers of Mars.
Monday morning Gabe loaded Jaden up in the buggy and we went out to spin our legs for about an hour. We were bouncing along dirt roads and Jaden just slept through it all. LIke I said, kid is on it! My dad went for a hike while we did this, afterwards we met back up said goodbye to Lydia, and headed for Denver.
I slept the first hour of the drive, partially due to the fact that Lydia's dogs snore like my dad. It was incredible. So we made it to Denver around 5pm and went to eat dinner with a long lost cousin, Rene. That was our second meeting and it is so neat to see a stranger that looks like other people in my family. Hopefully she will be less of a stranger as the years roll on.
After dinner we went back to Rob's apartment, and pretty much went to sleep. I packed up early the next morn, and took off for the airport with my dad. We had similar flight times and got to eat breakfast together in the airport while watching tour action.
So after a 6hr delay in Chicago, I got back to Philly after midnight, took a $40 taxi home since the trains were stopped and slept till 10 the next morning.
Good race, bad promoters, good times, bad weather. Great trip.

Breckenridge 100 Goodbye

Just to let you know. I survived the hardest 100miler so far and got 2nd. A complete run down of the event will follow.
In the mean time, this is a picture of my highschool friend Lydia and her son Jaden, who we visited after the race.

Darkhorse gallop

Finished the Tour on Wednesday and decided to race this Sunday. A little experiment to see what the legs had. Drove to Newberg NY with my ride car pool sponsor Elk. Much thanks to Elk.
http://www.twowheeledlocust.typepad.com/
Danny Hock and Brian (tour finishers were there also). danny had the experience of a lifetime, and Brian too. They were ready for a good time.
The Gallop was Faast. Eddie and I were off the front and as courses go this one was almost all big-ring. Manging to hold my own I built a comfortable 2nd place lead by the 4th lap and took it easy to the finish to save my legs for next week. The Steel delux was showing signs of component fatigue and I promised it some fresh parts upon return home, before heading out to Breck, CO. Things are looking up!
Thanks to those who have answered the plea for help. It Is definatly helping and everything is coming together. Shout Outs too
Karen T.
EnduroSnob
Andrew N.
Chris N.
Hope your reading this and getting some vicarious pleasure.

Last day, Dowels. Tour Win for PA!

26sec is a mere blip and any ways why rely on that. We rode to the middle of Hankey mountain, and jetted off from there. With another 15-20min climb as the start Brian Fawley attacked at the start determined to get a stage win. Over the top we rolled with Brian about 30sec up then Sam, Keefer and me chasing. On the first downhill section I came around Keefer and rolled up on Sam at the top of the next roller. I came around him, and put six miles of the best off-camber single track decent behind me. I can't say that was the fastest I ever rode it due to the rain and need to not put myself out of contention, but it was as fun as always and at the bottom I had cinched the sack on the lead. another 2min or so on Keefer. Brian got his stage win by 31sec. That 21yr old Is going to be strong.
The rain and lightening put a premature end to the ride, since it was cold and we still had about 3hrs to go. we went back to the cars that were about a mile away and Brian put together a figure8 dirt crit. Due to being cold I stayed out but in the end wished I hadn't. It looked like so much fun.
Another year and another great experience. good people and good times, plus one of the best training weeks you can imagine. Realizong what your body can (or can't) do day after day gives a rider a lot more confidence in abilities and makes lining up at a short race seem like childs play!
Condolences to the Ohio crew who had to leave early due to the loss of a friend. Hello to a new friend Chad Irie and his girlfriend Sara who was Dana's intern the whole weekend. Those ladies made this whole thing happen.
The Man with the Mohawk is the tour Director, Michael Carpenter. Much goodness from that man who let us stay at his place the whole time. His Wife Kerri and daughter Lindsy were incredible to all of us Cupcakes and tourstinkers.
Thanks to Thomas, Tim, Chris and all the volunteers. If you want some of the best riding of your life go to Harrisonburg VA, stop by Shenandoah Bicycle Co. and if you want a guided tour talk to Chris Scott at mountaintouring.com.

54sec down to start, 26 up to finish. Stage 5

10miles Up Reddish. That was timed section #1. Keefer was looking to crush, and I was already down 54sec. A new group of young roadies were looking to make the pain stoopid! Oh well I hung on as long as I could and eventually lost 1.20min to the Keefer with Sam taking a 2ndplace. At the top Keefer talks about the ineveitable downhill drag race that was to be the second time section. This section rolls off the back of Redish then decends a rutted gravel/dirt forest road for about 6 miles. A section that can make or break your GC contention. I knew Keefer was going to go easy and avoid flats, so I decided to get out front, choose my lines carefully and let it hang out as much as possible. Nothing is quite as much fun as decending switchback gravel roads at 25-35mph on sissy roadbikes, dualwheel sliding the corners and questioning your sanity all the way down.
Ralph was the only one in front of me and when we hit the bottom we still had about 12miles of a slight gravel decent with a 3 mile paved section of rollers at the end. All excited about being first to the bottom and the potential of rolling one of the funnest gravel road sections together we took off, with me doing the first pull. Everything was okay till Ralph came around and got a little to excited. He sort of hit the gas and his rear wheel was bouncing all over the place. I backed off and waited, hoping the inevitable wouldn't happen. Then I saw his seat bag was open and everything was falling out. I reached for my tube for reassurance, and about that time he cased the back wheel. As I rode by I threw him my only tube and CO2 hoping karma would be on my side. Praying I could get off the gravel before a flat caught me I kept a 25-30mph pace and finally hit the pavement and knew I only had about 6 good rollers in front of me. At the tope of the second and longest one I looked at the bottom and saw 4 chasers working together.
in an effort to make myself vomit I Kept it in the big ring for the rest of the Pave' and rolled in just over a minute ahead of them and everyone else. More importantly I put almost 3min on Keefer and ended the day back in the yellow 26sec up.
Time for some Fireworks!

Day4 Delay.Sorry

OKay, the task ahead was to makeup a 7.5min deficit due to two flats yesterday. Keefer in his newly acquired yellow fever was going down. At least that was my hope. We parked by the river at the Woodstock parking lot, and headed out for prime Massenuten ridge riding. Fawley took the first sprint on the way up, and then we regrouped and started the time section. It began with a 15min gravel climb. Freshlegs Sam Koeber jumped at the start and the pack was willing to let him go, with Chinese Medicine Man Eric Williams pacing the peloton on his magic potion 96'er Giant Singlespeed. Towards the top I came around and caught Sam just as he was ducking into the singletrack. His freshness and 5" dualie definatly had an advantage over my hardtail. The crowd of rocks were large and ready to mosh. No real rythmn could be found but if you had some trails moves everything was fine.
I held on and came to the bottom about a minute behind Sam with Ralph hot on my tail. He finally had a day without a mechanical and rocked the rocks. Keefer down to about 4min. We regouped, looked at some funny graffiti, then moved on to the next section. With a power line shadow acting as the start, we took off. I got into the woods first and Sam again was hot on my tail. He bobbled on a log and then I bit the dust when I caught my bar on a tree. But up and ignoring the pain I managed to hold him off for a while longer. This proved to be the longest and most crushing of the mountain stages. Lots of crackers in the field by days in, but the last downhill was five miles of bliss. In the end I got back all but 54sec of the time I lost the day before.

Tour Day 3 disaster

two flats don't add up to tour contention. The Yellow jersey has exchanged hands, and the tug-a-war is on. Keefer attacked with leader down and set himself up with the yellow itch. But he might find out soon that the doctor can relieve him of it soon.
Todays scorcher was a 90degree, 96 miler. Pavement and gravel road. Most of the gravel was a 6 (or So) mile decent.

The days are getting hotter!! Day Two of le Tour

Out at 10am back at 6pm. 8hrs in the Shenandoah valley. SMT trail was blazing, not like the fires of Arizona, more like the luge of the winter olympics. So much fun and another 1st down the mountain. Keefer and I took the first time section in about 25 min. Rbun suffered a trashed derailleur, but was saved by Tin D's spare which he had packed, and he wasn't the only one packing spare derailleurs. Just shows what to expect on these rides.
15 miles of the SMTrail with a 5 mile single track decent at the finish. Stinging nettles and giant thorny bushes branded the riders.
tomarrow is 85miles on road bike. 2x1200' climbs, 8 miles of gravel road decents.