A Worlds Bike Got Some Nitro

Before I left Philly I took the bike by Bicycle Therapy to get some race tuning advice from Lee Rogers. He helped me with some excellent housing choices and when we were done I weighed my bike to find, to my surprise, it was at 20.5lbs!!!

The most exciting change are the R1 brakes that Formula sent me. Actually Chris and Charlie sent to me. And Formula Italy sent them to them in record time. So Italy sent the brakes to California, then Cali went them to me on Tuesday, then I flew back to Italy on Wednesday!

Well they are so nice. They dropped about half a pound off my bike it feels like. I'm really glad they returned to a wider lever design. I preferred the older style before last years, and it seems that someone in the Design department felt the same way. They feel more powerful than my older Puro Oro's, and it was proven on the nasty long downhills of the Worlds Course. I'd expect many brakes to start to fade due to the fact that you couldn't let go of the brakes it was so steep. The caliper bodies are one solid piece of forged metal, unlike most brakes that are two pieces of machined aluminum that are welded together. The new rotors help dissipate the heat, so that helps dissipate any fading potential.

Hagen with Time hooked me up with some lighter pedals!!!I've decided to go with the WTB Mutano raptors. Sure they are out of production, but they are light, knobby and fast on a course with 12,000ft of climbing and tons of high speed gravel.
Love my Brass cable ferrals
Don't forget the Chris King BB, which I pumped out the old standard grease and pumped in some fresh thinner oil to take out any extra friction.

Of Course It Isn't That Bad

Andreas met me at the train station. It was very kind of him and a huge relief to see him after I called Monday at 6ish in the PM to tell him when I'd be coming in. He seemed less than happy to hear it would be about 10:30pm since he had already been to the station 3 times that day, having not heard from me for two days and thought I might be in at any moment. Since my camera battery was dead, we re-staged the meeting the next day when we went to pick up Heather from the Airport. I felt special getting off the train and having someone waiting for me with a big sign. Size matters when it's duck taped to the end of a stick and held high, not against your chest like some mug shot picture.

In a country with a language you can't understand, the possibilities for free association are limitless. There is quite a bit of miss communication. No guide book ever factors into the budget the money spent due to language barriers. This very morning, I ended up eating two pastries because I didn't know how to tell the lady I had changed my mind and wanted to a different one, so I ended up with two. At the top of the biggest climb, Heather stopped to get some water, and when she pointed at a glass to indicate that she wanted the water in a glass she ended up with two glasses of half wine and half water. The Austrian version of Nantucket Nectar's "Half and Half"

So when traveling outside of your language comfort zone be aware of going with your intuitive understanding fueled by body language...I don't know what this sign means or why the dog seems so happy, but as they say, 'when in Austria....lick a deer's genitals'This is either a sign for car delivery or they remove cars by helicopter, crane or fishing rod.
Originally, I expressed some doubt about the course's validity as a mountain bike course. When reading the profile and description you see only about 4 miles of trail and about 88% is gravel or asphalt. Sounds like a white bread, milquetoast slice of Euro trail. I'm not saying the Euro's have taken the soul of MTBing and turned it into blandly packaged rice cakes, but it definitely looked to be going that way. Problem is I have some narrow standards for what what mountain biking is. And if you don't got much to work with there are some methods for keeping it interesting. Namely...
1: Trail is nice. The more of it the better. If you can't have a lot, then it should at least change up frequently. Take that 4 miles of trail and break it up amongst the 60 miles. That makes things go by faster and keeps the brain fresh which satisfies my ADD side.
2: Keep the terrain interesting. Soon after we go through this pathway behind houses and a tennis court, we ride through a school. Then we head out of town, past a monastery/ museum.
3: Use the local wildlife as a distraction. Here is Heather Holmes turning her derriere to the cows.
4: Throw in some people that are doing things more fun and more dangerous than you along the course and it puts the current race situation into perspective.


5: Always more cowbell!!

6: Throw in some snipers.
7: Obstacles that make the racers dismount are sure to up the chances for cramping by 18%
8: Make sure the racers are properly disposing of their needles.

I guess that last one doesn't mean much to keeping the race interesting. Point is, the course is a lot more interesting than I originally thought it might be. Still there isn't a lot of trail, but it is steep, varies regularly and has enough climbing to choke a monkey. It's going to be hard. Especially since it starts with a pavement climb that averages about 15% for a mile. That's enough to have your eye's burning with blood vessels ready to burst.

Europa eh'

Alps from my bird.

Of course I couldn't make it easy. Originally I booked a hotel in Venice, but on the way I heard that getting around the streets with a bike box and my other stuff would border on boot camp training. So I tried to go to the campsite I originally looked at.
I took the bus the wrong direction, got off at the 2nd stop as I was told and spent 4hours hauling my bike box around trying to figure out what was going on.

A clarification about the Camp Site. You could bring a tent, or use a tent that is already there, or rent a prefab dorm-room by the bed, My prefab home away from home.

or bring in your RV, or get a rustica cabin. Plus they had a pool, an overpriced restaurant and internet (mostly). Really a pretty nice set up. Unfortunately the riding was not worth hanging out for, so after a visit to Venice to stare at dirty water and tourists wandering amongst the quaint, and yes beautiful, streets I hightailed it out of there.

Don't try to catch public transportation during a Catholic Holiday in Italy. Pentecost caused me a lot of headaches. Trains were full, so I decided to wing it by bus. That put me into the second most beautiful place I've to been this year. The Italian Dolomites.

That's a Whole Foods shirt, where he found his cheese passion....

Made a night of it there in Cortina, rode the WWII loop, then caught a bus out, finally on my last leg to Graz. On the Dolomite loop I rode to the top of a pass, where the ski lift stops and a restaurant was waiting for me with an espresso and the rap song, 'I don't want no short dick man' was gently playing in Muzac style while people sipped their espressos and a waitress cleaned berries.

"Awesome" is how I describe moments like that.

I rode the big climb of the Worlds course today, and I'll post some pics later..

I have to say thank you to all the people who have donated to this trip. I swear I'm not blowing it on "my european vacation." This trip is the opportunity of a lifetime and you can bet I'm going to make the most of it. Thank you for sending me here!

Here I Go: World Championship Attack! Win something!

The day I finished the Breck Epic I got an email from USA Cycling;

"Hello,

As you may know, your top ranking in the USAC Ultra Endurance Rankings has given you an automatic selection to the Marathon World Championship Team. The Marathon Worlds are in Graz, Austria on August 23^rd.

USA Cycling will not be providing any logistical or financial support at this event so if you decide to accept your spot on the team you will be responsible for all your travel, lodging and support at this race.

Please let me know if you would like to accept or decline your spot on the team or if you have any further questions."

I read the email and sort of gave a dismissive 'whatever'. It seemed like such a casual and almost reluctant message that I didn't really understand what it was saying. I guess I'd expect an invitation to the World Championships to have a positive tone to it. Maybe it would start off with "Congratulations" or maybe at least my name. Plus the encouraging message that I'd be responsible for all the financial logistics after finishing an expensive race in CO pushed the reality of the message further from my cerebral cortex.
So you'll have to forgive me if it was a couple of days before I returned to the message and realized that I was invited to wear 'Red White and Blue" and represent team USA at the Marathon World Championships! That should all be in caps!

I was invited to wear 'Red White and Blue" and represent team USA at the Marathon World Championships!

There! That is almost how I felt. The emotions surprised me since I tend to keep my patriotism in a well contained box of sarcasm most of the time. But this is different.

I'm going! With support from my parents, friends, supporters and credit cards I'll be on team USA.

It's a rare opportunity and since you never know what the next year might bring, it's important to seize the moment.

So the Patriotic pride has filled me and I think I'm going to let a tear of happiness slide down my cheek as I stand in the last row of a huge field of the worlds best cyclist wearing the only USA jersey in the field. It would have been two jerseys but unfortunately Jeremiah Bishop had a bad enough crash in Canada to fracture a vertebra. This news from last week really made my heart sink since I knew he was probably the most deserving to be there through his years of effort.

I also feel a little reluctance in going, since I can say that I feel a little unprepared for the race and don't really know if I can be at the ideal top of my game in time. But this is what I know; I can go and be the best I can be that day, and as long as I do that I'll walk away happy and sure that I represented the USA as well as I can. Besides the USA I feel the weight of all the people in the region that I race with regularly and those people in the scene that have supported me and others because they feel so passionate about the importance of cycling in this world. Thanks to all those people a hundred times over!

If anyone reading this would like to help with this "financially unsupported" endeavor please feel free to click the "World Championship Domination Button" above. Since I hate asking for help without giving back, if you donate you will be entered into a raffle for a chance to win a CycleOps Fluid 2 trainer! It's been donated by my local CycleOps rep. Or you can buy raffle tickets as a way to support the effort of myself and the entire IF MTB team. I salute you all!!

And that course profile above is the World Champ course.
65miles
12,300ft of climbing
4% trail
96% asphalt, gravel, cinder path, grass!!

Oh and the Epic

I love driving. It astonishes me the nonchalant attitude of city kids with abundant public transportation. 16 and driving was not just a right of passage but a necessity in the rural world I lived in. Everything was 20 miles away, but it still only took 20 minutes to get there, whereas it takes 20+ minutes to get 5 miles in this city of brotherly love.

Digressing is a forte' and where I mean to be going with this is the fact that driving out to Colorado might seem like a chore to some, but it's just a natural habitat for me.

This is a big country and like the space between your ears, there is a lot going on between the coasts. I guess if you are a mountain biker you've chosen a pretty exciting time to race your bike. I think the general consensus is that the state of mountain biking in the US is on the low arch. We're waning, not waxing, I think. Or maybe we're at that phase where if you weren't paying attention you don't know if it's disappearing or about to get real full.

I think it's been a historical re occurrence that during the times when a culture, revolution or party starts to hit a lull, and people are standing around wondering what to do next, either the party dies or someone comes up with another plan that outdoes the previous party.
The post 90's MTB hangover has left the mountain world scrambling for a new spark to light the fuse of cycling joy and in the course of the search people are experimenting with race formats. Therefore we have new epic stage races...

Like the Breck Epic or the soon to be coming Pisgah Mountain Bike Challenge. I've got the Pisgah race firmly on my schedule but, I'm not sure why I went to CO for the Breck Epic. Sometimes you do things just cause. Usually they don't cost you a grand to do, but no regrets here since the the trip was a beautiful time.

The Epic was 6 days of racing at 9,600ft+ with almost every day crossing the 12,000ft mark. The first day was an uphill prologue that was supposed to be 9 miles long and basically one harder grunt after another. At registration we were given a start time and a goody bag that included dog tags with our name and the phone number of whoever we deemed would be responsible for our broken bodies if circumstances came to that. Usually I don't get all excited about the swag put in our bags, probably because it's usually just a t-shirt and some caloric injecting substance. These bags were an exception. First off the bags themselves were the reusable grocery bag types. (I use my whole foods bags for about everything except grocery getting). Inside was a cool breckepic jersey that fits and is stylish. Then there was the monogrammed Breck Epic Crank Brothers mini pump. And finally there was some lube. All very useful things. Proof that the promoter has something between his ears. More proof? The bag had an identical bag inside and both had our numbers on them because they would be our drops each day. Mike Mack is a smart man.

It's a fact that I only saw the bags and their contents because I was to proud to to tuck my tail between my legs and drive back to PA, even though that's all I wanted to do when I woke up in the morning. I had been up all night coughing, being too hot, then too cold, then having to use the bath room about 6 times. Basically when I woke up in the morning I felt like a stolen handbag left in the ditch after being emptied by rough criminal hands. The idea of turning my guts inside out to go uphill for an hour didn't seem too appealing. But as I walked up to the registration area to talk to Promoter Mike, I chickened out of backing out and asking for a refund or 2010 comp.

Whatever, it was only 6 days of racing and I'd either get better or worse. I forgot that you can languish between the two indeterminately. I had a 4:19 start time since the open mens class went last in alphabetical order. Fortunately the rain that had started about two stopped at about 3:30. Still the skies were grey and the moisture was thick, not as thick as the snot rockets I was blowing.
My plan was simply to get to the top without dieing. I managed that with my 30 second man Aaron Potts dragging me along up the trail. A lot of time when you go west the hills are long but built with a friendly gradient, to get you to the top in a leisurely manner. Breckenridge is not that way. It can lull you into the feeling that you'll be cruising contour trails, but before you know it the 'breck slap' hits and your wondering why the granny gear feels like it's cowering in the corner. Just about the time that I had started to feel like a living creature I came through a friendlier section and there was the finish. Three miles early.

I hate that. Thinking one thing then finding out the other. I don't think any one knew it was a shortened course. Well at least day one was over and I could go home and try to recover. Then come back later for the 6pm racer meeting. I had a cold can of coconut juice in the fridge that I couldn't wait to slide down my blistered throat. After some typical racer meeting stuff, I went back to Erika and Marks to have them pour more healing meds down my throat and send me to bed. Oh and I was a disappointing 13th on the day. It's stupid but I was still hoping for more.

Day 2 was the eye opener. Because it was so beautiful, and we realized that it was going to be a serious race. Our course took us through sections of the Colorado trail, that I have been a fan of since riding the Breck 100 in 2006. Super climbs to sweeping vistas and then long downhills through the woods. It was still a day of survival, but I was feeling better and managed an 8th place, while racing with James Williams and Yuki Saito for a bit. It's great racing in new places and finding new competition, because it keeps you humble.

Day 3 was a little better, same scenario of tussling with James and Yuki, even though I really felt like crap on the 2nd climb of the day and I thought I would be throwing in the towel if I ever made it back. My competative troll kept me in the game when I was passed by a certain individual who unknowingly creates a burning desire for me to not finish behind. My fires a little turned up, I managed to take 7th on the day and was beginning to see a light where before there was only darkness. I'll say that downhills saved me a lot in the race for rolling back up on people. It gave me time to get my legs each day if I could feel confident that I could catch riders later after they left me on the first climb.

Day four was the best day of the race for me. I felt like the cold was being managed and wasn't getting worse. I still was hacking up lots of strange stuff and having a hard time sleeping, but there were no more feverish nights. I managed to stay in control of my breathing and for the first time felt like opening up the legs a little. At the finish I had 5th place and a new found optimism. We went over the 12,500 French Pass, which reguired a little hike-a-bike and a snow drift ride. I was feeling like a king.

Day five stole it all back as I fell to my knees and cursed the air with it's thin oxygen. Above me was a criss-crossing switch back with the tiniest of people at the top carrying their bikes. Hiking for 45 minutes had out of body and I couldn't hold onto my bike at one point. It reminded me of the 3am experience I had in the one and only 24hr race I'll ever do. There was no where to go but up, so I stared at my feet and willed each step as if I had ESP and was using it to move inanimate objects. Eventually it hurt so bad to walk that I had no choice but to ride the 6in piece of trail. Later people came up to me and said they were amazed that I was riding it. I guess it's like the person who lifts a car to save someone. I had no choice but to ride because walking was failing me. Seriously it was a serious moment for me. I ended up somewhere back around 13th again and my hope for a top 5 overall were slipping away.

The last day was me hoping for a Landis day, where I would somehow make up 20 minutes on everyone and redeem myself. It was noce to wish for but on the first climb I felt like the previous day had never ended. Hoping I would warm up I took it easy to the top and when we turned right onto the trail head I could feel the single track i-v trickle life back into me. Alright, this is what I wanted. I managed to get around four or five people in the luge like trail. As we exited the road and turned our sights up hill for the climb back up, James and I worked like a team to start pulling more people back in. Eventually I dropped James and had Mark Legg-Compton dangling in front. Eventually I caught him and we worked together in the headwinds to get over Boreas Pass. I managed to duck into the super fun single track finishing trails and caught three more people in the Jedi Knight trails. I finished 8th for the day but some solid finishes from others put me back in 9th overall for the Epic.

In the end I had a bad race but a good time traveling there and back, staying with my wonderful friends Mark and Erika and racing through some crummy situations. For a week I was a little burned after the race but I started to bounce back pretty good despite putting a stitch worthy hole in my knee on Wendesday at Wakefied (Go PotomacVelo). Thanks Mr. Childers for patching me up! That's a whole other story.
Now I'm suffering a Fractured Capitate bone in my wrist, and trying to get ready for the World Freaking Championships!
Didn't I tell ya?

Breck Epic: It's the journey that matters! Right?!

Sea Level to 9,600+feet. At the closing ceremony of the Breck Epic, Mike McCormick asked who came from the lowest elevation to race in the high Colorado Alpine. I thought I might have been close since I had been at the beach the day before I drove west. Then of course there was the below sea level, Death Valley ringer who stole my excuse glory. Then... there was the 62yr old, Wendy, and the other lady who rode the whole race with a cast on her hand. Both of them neutered my "I'm sick" excuse for bailing on the race like I wanted to do after having a fever the night before the start. It's okay that I was about to be pasted by singlespeeders and ladies with one arm. It had been a good trip up to this point and there is nothing like a little alone time to put things into perspective. I decided to drive out instead of flying because I wanted to bring the dog and I wasn't sure how long I wanted to stay out. So for the sake of flexibility and dog company I took the racks off the car, stuffed it all inside and managed 5 extra miles per gallon in the aero tuck.
Proof that roof racks are turning all the bike riders out there into gas guzzlers.
I decided to take 70 all the way out. Along the way I stopped at Buck's Pump track, got pulled by the state T for following too close, rode Columbus trails where I was inspired by a couple kids who jump out of their mini van and were on their bikes in less than a minute (in tennis shoes, and gym shorts), saw an Arch, called 911 on a one armed drunk driver, rode Kansas's Lake Wilson Trails +++, ate at the Hanover Pancake house in Topeka, met Garrett Steinmetz in Missouri (email me Garrett) and watched mile after mile of the American Landscape roll by.


If you've never been to the Jefferson Memorial in St. Louis, I recommend a visit. It's like the Washington monument, except it's made of metal and fell over. I love graffitti and the Arch has it's own special sort. Here is my photo expose`.





The Roller Coaster Trails of Wilson Lake are 15 miles of exposed-to-the-sun fun.

So in a about three days I made it to Longmont Colorado to stay with IF team mate John C.
We rode Halls Ranch, pretty fun but crowded, and ate some serious burritos.
It was time to head to the Tiezen race head-quarters, just north of Breckenridge. My original plans were to do the trifecta; the Firecracker, the Breck Epic and the Breck 100. Being a rational being a-la John Locke, I decided to skip the Firecracker and just watch it. As I stood there cheering on the peeps trying to finish their first oxygen deficient lap I saw a strange sight. A lady that looked like Katie Compton riding an INdependent Fabrication!

So I stalked her down the mountain and when I found her I also found it to be true. Some how she was now a member of the IF crew! If you don't know who Katie is, you might recognize her as the only American to win a World CUp cyclocross race. A national Champion and an all around bad ass.

So it turns out that IF is her new frame sponsor after a loss of her old sponsors. She's still looking for someone with money so if you can help let her know.

Mas Video: Rapha Gentlemans Race

A few weeks ago I had planned on having a weekend off from racing. It was going to be all ice cream, hammocks and sparkling water.

Rapha Gentlemen's Race - New Paltz, NY from RAPHA on Vimeo.

Then the emergency 'Brown' phone lit up and on the other end was a gaggle of riders blubbering on about how 'therewassixbutonedroppedoutandnowtheyneedanother'. Turns out it was an unofficial, uninsured and unlikely gentleman's race put on by Rapha outside of New Paltz NY. Bicycling Magazine had a crew of mostly mountain bikers put together and it was captain Cushionbury who had called me (could have been a text, email or twitter).

I had to make the tough decision of sitting at home sipping lemon spritzers or travel for a 125 mile group ride through a place called the 'Gunks'. I can't resist anything called 'Gunk' and so I packed the green machine and headed to Emmaus to meet the crew. I rolled into my favorite Bikeshop/ coffee bar South Mountain Cycles, had a shot, shot the shit and waited for the band of pirates.

Soon teammate number 1 Selene, the Fitness Chick, rode by and informed me that rider Joule (sp) had just called and was out due to a crash on the bike that day. Damn. Now we had to scramble to find a 6th person, so we lit up the hovering network of cell signals in the sky and had a last minute commitment form Aaron Synder himself, despite the fact that he was leaaving for Europe in 2 days and his girlfriend was left not happy.
Now all we had to do was kill a little time while we waited for Mr. Snyder to show. What better to do than ask to take Cush's souped up Subaru WRX for a quick spin. In the space of 30 seconds I was almost hit twice before I even pulled out of the parking spot in front of the 10 people waiting to go, all laughing at me and placing bets on the car's and my survival.

As I pulled away, Aaron pulled in, and when I got back in one piece, we scattered.

There is an ironic element to the fact that I was about to do a team time trial over 125miles. I had just written a point-counterpoint argument about the merits of Solo Mountain Bike Stage Racing for Mountain Bike Magazine, which Cushionbury had assigned to me. Now I was in a position to see what it meant to race as a team, where no one was allowed to be dropped, and all bonking would be shared.

After a day that saw one rider who had come despite a terrifing crash on the Track earlier in the week, began falling apart at about mile 40, another rider fighting through severe cramps at mile 105, a missed turn and one flat, I realized the spiritual value of riding 'with' people. It required an empathy I'm not used to calling forth and the type of team bonding experience I usually leave for the movies I don't go to see. Except maybe 'Shaun of the Dead'.

Anyways it was a great time. Beautiful place and great team mates. Thanks, Mike, Selene, Mike, Brad and Aaron.