2013 Was A Bust!

2013 was a bust. What more can I say. It was a tough year.

In the end, I raced two duathlons which were a lot of fun, but that was it.

2014 is going to be different. I don't know how much I'll get to race, but I am going to ride more. My Colnago and my Vellum need more miles!

One fun thing added for this year is a GoPro Camera. I've been videoing my rides since New Years and I think they are fun!

Hesjedal!!!!!!!!

Ryder. What a name for a cylcist!!!!!

With Cadel winning Le Tour last year and Ryder winning the Giro this year, we now have two Grand Tour wins in two years by former mountain bikers!

I think this really does say something about how mountainbiking has changed, and even improved the sport of cycling. It makes for an interesting situation when a mountainbiker whoops up on the traditionally powerful roadies.

I'm a cyclist, not a MTBer or a roadie. I'm both. But all my time in cycling, I've watched as mountain bikers were looked down on by the road scene. The reality however is that all disciplines of cycling are challenging. All disciplines add to the skill set and abilities of those who practice them.

Congratulations Ryder. Buono Giro!

6 Hours of Herb Parsons 2011

This weekend, I hit my favorite MTB race of the year. I started racing MTB back in 1991 or so at Herb Parsons, so it was good to be racing there. I love the trail. I love seeing all my friends and I love the way the race is run.

So fast forward to a few days before the race, I kicked in a registration for a solo ride. I knew this would not yield me a potential placing, but that was Ok. This would not provide any chance for a place on the podium because at this race, they run age groups only. With that, I was racing against the likes of Hart Robinson and all the other fast guys in the area.

Based on my lap times from last year, I planned on running somewhere around 50 minute laps for the duration of the race. Good plan.

For pitting, I had my pit area set up with my cooler at one corner with water, gels and PB&J to eat on each lap. Turned out to be a pretty good plan as well.

After the LeMans start, it was all I could do to not latch on to the fast guy's wheels and hang with them. I know I can hang for 1 lap with some of them, but not for 6, so I stayed as patient  as possible and hung back. Eventually, I settled in on my Bill G's wheel and started rolling along well. That first lap was 47 minutes, which was a bit faster than I planned, so I slowed a bit for the second and hit a 50.

For my third, cramps started setting in so I downed some GuBrew in the pits and went back at it. Legs were feeling better pretty quickly.

Eventually, during lap 5, I must have burped a tire and ended up having to stop to pump it back up. That lap time was quite a bit slower than the previous as I had to stop for a while as I pumped up with that slow little pump.

Finally, a few miles from the finish, I heard Dennis G's cow bell ringing on his camelback and we rode in together to the finish.

6 laps
58 miles
4 PB&J's
2 flasks of Gu
Whole lotta fun!!!!!!!


Oh yeah.... I finished 11th out of 20 in my group. I also finished 1 place behind my buddy and sponsor, Chad (who I beat last year, so 2012 will have to be a matchup)

6 Hours of Herb 2010

This weekend was the 6 Hours of Herbs out at Herb Parsons Lake in Fisherville, TN. I grew up riding at Herb Parsons, and racing there from 1991 on. I love that trail, and I know it like the back of my hand.

In 2009, I missed the race because I was in Singapore. Long transit to make it to a race......

This year, I was ready. I made plans early to make sure there were no conflicts of any kind and then started practicing at Herbs. The race when finally announced was set to run clockwise around the lake. This is backwards of what most of us ride the trail, so we started practicing that way. After 2 months of clockwise riding, it was announced (the week before the race) that it would be run counter clockwise!!!! Surprise surprise!!!!

Somewhere in there, my buddy Ken mentioned he wanted a teammate. We're pretty evenly matched, and he's a great guy, so we had a team.

Race day arrived, and it was 43 degrees at the racecourse. Myself and the rest of my Journeymen Racing Team hit the site and managed to set up camp with a great pit area right by the start/finish line.

Ken and I decided to flip for the first lap and he won. That was good news for me, because I'm not a runner, and this race had a 100 yard run to a Lemans style start!

Ken rocked the first lap, and we had a great start.

I jumped hard at the start line and took off on my first lap. In that lap, I passed approx 15 people as I pushed hard around the course. Everything went perfectly for that lap. Kens 2nd and my 2nd were also great laps as we were consistently putting up fast lap times. We were also pushing the other Journeymen 2 man team of Zach/Kurt and leading them by approx 5 mins.

Ken's third lap went well, and the handoff was fast, so I sailed into my 3rd lap with a lot of confidence........ and a full bladder. I listened behind me for any other riders and there was no one near me, so I slid to a stop, unclicked one foot and watered the trail.... Phil Ligget would call that a Natural Break I guess.

2 Miles later, everything started to come undone. I heard some tinking from my back wheel and felt the bike jump a couple times under me. I stopped immediately and thought a stick would be in my spokes. 3 or 4 people passed me that I had just passed and I felt like an idiot. Then I saw the trouble... One broken drive-side spoke. To make matters worse, the stub of that spoke jammed into the back of the cassette and made my bike a fixed gear!

I finished the 2nd half of that 9 mile lap in fixed gear mode. When I got done with the lap, we still held a 4-5 gap on the next two teams. I'm glad I did not give up. Once in the pits, I found that the rear wheel was taco'ed enough to make the rear brakes rub a lot. No wonder my legs were burnt up.

With the Sugar out of commission, I pulled the cyclocross bike from the truck and aired up the tires. I had thrown the bike in the back as an afterthought. Turned out to be a good thought!

Unfortunately, I was not paying attention and Ken came flying into the pits early. He turned a great lap and I was not ready. As he hit the finish line, I managed to get my helmet on and the bike out of the repair stand. As I ripped onto the course, I could hear someone say 'Is he riding a road bike?'. I got a good laugh out of that.

In my hurry to get on the course, I did not get on my jersey, nor did I get my gloves on. However, that was all negated by the ability to freewheel! I rode the course just like I did all last summer on the cross bike and enjoyed everyminute of it. Zach and Darren from the two other teams were right there ready to start when I left for this lap, so I kept looking over my shoulder continually to see if they'd appear out of no where.

All my shoulder looking was no use though, as I rode into the finish with a hard sprint. When I got back to the finish line, a bunch of the fast racers asked if I had ridden that thing in the race and I told them I had. I think they were a little surprised.

In the end, Ken and I did not win, but we had a good time and I think we were in the top half of the teams in the race, maybe even the top 5.

'Til next year!



Legened of Stanky Creek

This race has been approaching in my mind, and one I really wanted to do well at. My Journeymen Racing team has been planning to hit this race in force, and we did just that.

I missed the TT on day one, but the team hit it and podium'ed in pretty much every class. It was a hot day for all involved, especially my friends in the lower classes. Because of the volume of riders, the start times kept getting pushed back later and later, and so everyone just sat there in the heat.

Sunday arrived, and I was ready to rock. Someone forgot to turn off the heat though. The result was the hottest weekend in Memphis in a very long time.

Part of the reason I'd been thinking so much about this race was my result last year of  DFL!!!!!! I did not want to do that again. The other reason was that the race would be my 2nd ride on a mountain bike since my road wreck back in May. However, I felt pretty good, so I was hopeful.

My cat was down on numbers because several of the guys had moved to cat2. Out of that group, Brad broke a chain, Bill ate it hard in a corner and retired, and Billy kicked but and finished on the podium. Unfortunately, in the process, Billy broke a custom titanium 29'er frame at the bottom bracket!!!!

The race started and I hit the woods in 2nd place. 1st place rapidly dissappeared off the front and down the trail. By 1 mile in, I could not even see him further up the course - time to cat up bro!! 3rd place was on my wheel hard by 2 miles in, and I decided to give him the trail. I kept on, thinking I was still on the podium, but down a place.... It felt bad. Then, at mile 4, I saw 2nd place standing in the middle of the trail fussing with his bike.

I stopped and asked what was up (makin sure he was not hurt) and found his seat falling off the post. I offered him my mini-tool and watched him start to fix his bike, then all of a sudden it hit me- I did not have to stay there. So I said "Ya know what, I'm gonna ride on to the finish. C ya there!" I took off. That gave me a significant boost.

At mile 6, Ken caught me. He was in the age group above me, so I really did not want him to beat me!!!! I rode his wheel for a while until the fire road. When we hit the fire road, he stopped at the water station and I flew by. Within 10 mins, I had pulled almost a mile on him. I was burning up the trail and going as hard as possible.

At the finish, I pulled out a wild sprint and came across the line with dust flying everywhere... Of course, no one was around me...... LOL. It was fun though.

I came home with my first podium in a race in over 12 years. I even have a medal to show for my efforts.........

Let There Be Light!!!!!!

Thanks to my buddy FastBilly, I have a new lightset for my bike. Now I can hit the trails at night and have fun with my buddies that already are doing regular night rides.

Setup includes a 10w and 15w light unit paired to a 3000mah and a 4800mah Lithium Ion battery packs. I dropped almost 2lbs from the original NiMH setup with the Lithiums. Conveniently enough, I rigged the whole setup to run with my airplane battery chargers.

The 10w head unit mounts to my handlebars and the 15w to my helmet. : )