Gravel World Championships

First a big big thanks to Cornbread and other volunteers for making the race happen. Thank you to MG for letting me crash (literally on Saturday) at your place and just being a good dude. Thanks to C.V.O. for the hospitality and saving my life and helping me salvage my race. We met on Friday night and had burritos, said hellos to a lot of regular riders, chatted it up, and prepped the bikes. As things went, the race overshadows the rest of the entire weekend so I don't have as much details of the hanging out. Although, I will say that Oso Burrito makes a dang fine burrito; kind of Pancheros style.

Woke up at 4:15 Saturday morning for the 6 am start and 5:20 sign-in time. MG and I had gotten most everything ready the previous night so thankfully it didn't take too much effort on our part to get ready. We had a 15-20 minute ride to the edge of town where the race appropriately started about 1/2 mile off gravel. Rode up, chatted in the darkness with friends, and prepared for a long day on the bike. About 100 guys and gals rode from the start into a dense fog. We neutrally rolled out with some Pirates leading the way; I tried to sit one-two wheels behind MG at all times...that was the plan at least. I am guessing that about 30 guys worked in the front group, but that number deteriorated quickly as the pace kept rising. The hills started rolling and the group kept separating but the pace stayed high. I was settling in, no one was really attacking the front or forcing the pace uncomfortably, and then in a blink of an eye I saw MG falling to his right, a guy veer left, one guy kind of run over the pile but then endo, and another guy fall. I was lucky the guy right in front of me was heads up, and we slammed our brakes and he went left and I went right to end the carnage. A few of us stopped and waited and word got up to the group so they let off the gas a bit. Everyone seemed to be ok, and more people were coming up so I continued to roll. I never quite got fully back on the group, and after seeing a couple of the guys from the wreck come up I hoped the MG would get up there as I was using him as my rabbit, but he had some mechanical problems he had to address. So I rode by myself for a little while and then I got lulled into a false sense of direction and took a wrong turn at mile 36. Mile 37 was the first checkpoint, by the way, and I really felt like if I got to the first checkpoint was a reasonable group, I would do well in the race, but this wrong turn messed up those plans. I hammered some rolling hills with a tailwind thinking that the town was just a mile or so away. After about a half mile extra I began to get worried, and at two miles the road T'ed off and ended. I cursed and turned around. Now, unfortunately, I had gradual rolling uphills and a headwind to contend with, and I foolishly decided to put in a big effort to try and get to the town and at least be able to hook up with the second group. I rolled into town and saw Kent riding away from the gas station so I knew the front groups couldn't be too far away, but unfortunately for me when I got to the gas station there were only about three guys standing around talking. I went in and got my powerball ticket and a Redbull and decided to continue on. In hindsight, I should have grabbed something to eat and made sure that all of my hydration and eating was going as planned; I knew it was going to be a hot one. The miles up until 50-55 were fairly uneventful. Then out of nowhere my right calf started cramping a little.

Ok in all honesty with starting two new jobs, and being in my actual home for a full week for the first time since May, I have been writing this report for over a week. I am losing recollection of the event, and there are other things to talk about. So here are the facts for the rest of the race:

• Miles 50-85 saw the race heat up, temperature wise. It got into the 90's.
  
• First 65 miles took 3.5 hours...18.8 mph pace.
• I walked my first hill at mile 86 due to cramps.
• The next 64 miles took me approximately 10 hours to finish... 6.4 mph pace.
• The longest stretch of road that I walked was about 4 miles.
• I cramped riding up a hill and couldn't twist either leg to unclip, so I fell over and laid there waiting to uncramp.
• C.V.O. had to save my life on, I believe, 5 separate occasions.
• I wanted to quit at mile 107, 111 (an hour apart), and 123.
• I slept in a parking lot for an hour and a half...after sitting in a gas station for 30 minutes.
• I couldn't quit at mile 123 because Suvivor's "Eye of the Tiger" randomly came on the radio, and no one can quit during "Eye of the Tiger".

That's it. I got wrecked by cramps. I haven't ever suffered to that extent for that long. Thanks Thanks Thanks to everyone who helped me. Thanks to my man Z, who played personal nutritionist, cause he's smart like that. All in all though, 152 miles done, the finishing and pushing through gives a great deposit in the pain memory bank.

Back from Wisconsin

A beautiful week in Wisconsin has come to a close. Great weather, great people, great trails makes for a good week. I think I got in about 15 hours of riding singletrack, doubletrack, and xc skis. About half the miles were on the Eriksen, and the other half on the new Salsa La Cruz. I have about 100 miles on the new bike and have been really happy with how it rides. The typical ride qualities of titanium, a stiffer bottom bracket than I had anticipated, and getting used to having shifters have made the transition onto a geared cross bike as pleasurable as possible. We'll see how a 150% increase in miles on the bike will treat me at Gravel World Championships this weekend. We stopped for a few days at Kettle Moraine, Wausau, and Levis Trow. Kettle had the most mosquitoes I have ever seen. If you stopped for even five seconds they would be attacking you like crazy. Even with that I got to ride some really cool trails. Thanks to Gary among other people for working on the trails at John Muir. The coolest section of trail was some burmed downhill turns with rock "ramps" at the exit of the burm... flowed real nice and brought a smile to my face.





Some pics from Kettle area. Yes, that is approximately 12 Leinenkugel cans on the table, we were in Chippewa Falls, brewery location for "Leinies", one day during our travels. Next update will cover Wausau, rain, and seeing a great old friend. Plus, Gravel World Championship recap and maybe New Belgium Urban Assault ride on Sunday. I'll try to start updating more frequently now that I''m somewhat back in the real world.

Great first ride/ leaving on a NIGHT TRAIN

First ride on the new La Cruz= total success. I felt great all day, I am comfortable in basically all hand positions, the frame rides really well. The frame felt quite stiff initially. Nick and I rode 65 miles of good gravel and a fair amount of level b roads. There was some definite soft spots in the level b dirt and I was out of the saddle cranking up hills. I had high expectations for the first geared gravel ride and they were all met. Sub-four hours is the time that I consider a real good gravel metric. Just over 16 mph depending on if you stop and for how long. We had strong winds for sections, and rode along the edge of a storm. The temperatures at the edge mercifully dropped about ten degrees on a hot day, and we only felt about five raindrops. I was happy to feel like I had more in the legs at basically all times during the ride. Riding with Nick was really good too. I had missed the drive that riding with a friend promotes: more stop ahead sprints, aggressive hill climbs. The ride was one of the most productive rides of the year for me. I not only got in a great physical work out, but got to check out some roads that neither Nick or I had ridden. Great Night Nonsense 100 recon was done, and time on the gravel on the new bike.
I'll get some more time in on the La Cruz this week, but LOTS of time on the Eriksen. I'm headed up to Wisconsin with Mr. Zach Loew...awesome. Headed to Levis Trow, Nine Mile, maybe Kettle, and who knows what else. Camping and disappearing for a while will be really cool, and hanging out with Z is always awesome. I am excited to see Z out on the trails. He has been riding a lot lately and is really excited about it. It is cool that, although it took three extra years, I maybe rubbed off on him a bit and now he is digging riding a lot.
Unfortunately probably no updates before Gravel Worlds, but I will be riding a lot, and trying to mix up the gravel and singletrack. There are a few more things coming up: Dakota 5-0, getting teef, GF7, and then I'll really buckle down and focus 100% on Night Nonsense.

Oh Salsa I love you

Thank you everyone who did anything to help me obtain the Salsa La Cruz Ti frame that is now residing in my garage; Healthy Habits, Jason, Matt: so much appreciation. First big real test is happening tomorrow. 60 mile minimum distance and hoping to try and keep a good pace. I have to keep myself from setting the bar too high in regards to expectations, but think that tomorrow will be a very fun day.
I ended up with an Alpha Q fork thanks to Moon and Bruce. I'm running a Deda 100 mm 8 deg stem right now and will be switching that to a Salsa Promoto Ti once I dial the length and angle a little more. I really love how the bike came together; with the gray/silver shades and then the vivid pink and green. I feel like it is subtle and flashy at the same time. Other than the stem, I think the only upgrade that will even possibly need to be done will be a tubeless wheelset of some sorts. I am really liking this idea of just setting the bike up perfect form the onset. The Eriksen has switched in regards to rigid vs suspended, but essentially is the same bike since I got it and I still don't want to change anything.

Here is the new ride that hopefully will carry me to a good Gravel World Championship finish, some good cx results, and then through upcoming Transiowa's and Dirty Kanzas.

I'm back

Oh thank God another RAGBRAI is in the books. Long, hot days do a lot to wear a person down. On the bright side I got in a lot of good miles with Larue, Lazio, Vincent, the Chazmanian Devil, D Quack, and Nate. Now time to pack up again for the trip to Wisconsin and start doing extra recon for Night Nonsense 100. I'll maybe give a better write up later, but I am tired now. Good things are on the way... good things.

Night Nonsense 100

Official announcement: The inaugural Night Nonsense 100 will take place in Iowa City on October 23rd. I am so freaking excited for this race. I had been riding and thinking about how I could try and make a mark on the rapidly expanding gravel scene while also helping it grow. DUH! I'll put on a race I thought to myself. This way I can gain exposure for Q7 (one of the main sponsors, THANK YOU Q7), promote gravel grinder type races, and make it close enough and accessible enough that friends of mine who normally wouldn't take part in an event like this maybe will. The next question for me what how to set this event apart from all of the other gravel races in the Midwest. I knew that I wanted to take aspects from races that I think are top notch: Almanzo, Dirty Kanza, Good Life Gravel Adventure, Cirrem, but I also knew that I didn't have scenery like Kanza, and won't have numbers like Almanzo so I needed something...something...someth... GOT IT: NIGHT GRAVEL. At Geoff's we usually have a weekly gravel night ride around this time of year and have 20 people some weeks. I thought to myself that people like the aspect of night gravel, and it really plays into the aspects of gravel grinding that are most challenging to me: managing terrain, and the extended periods of solitude. I think that the darkness obviously adds another level of challenge to these two aspects. On the other hand, it won't be deathly hot and we shouldn't have too terrible of weather to deal with unless the wind feels feisty that night so I think it balances out.

Now I just have to continue with the plans in motion. I need to get about 10 people to volunteer for random jobs. Mark Stevenson has already done me a huge favor by posting the race up on his Gravel Grinder site (I have a link on the right). Oakley, Connecticut Yankee Pedaller, and Q7 are all on board with sponsorship and I can't thank them enough (although I will try over the next few weeks). I have to figure out logistical things like release waivers, and the official start and stop. I'd love to get hooked up with a place that could serve as a hub for finishers. It may just be my house with some food and drinks and a place to sleep. I am hoping to pick the brains of good friends who have successfully put on races of this type, and hopefully I can call it the "inaugural" this year and the "annual" next year.

http://nightnonsense100.blogspot.com for updates. If you or anyone you know would like to volunteer it would be very much appreciated and won't be anything more than hanging out at a spot making sure people are ok, maybe standing over a table of food and drink since the gas stations won't provide the level of sanctity and relief we who spend much of our saddle time on gravel tend to rely upon.

Levis Trow Disaster

Levis Trow went very poorly relatively this post will probably end up lasting longer. First thing though is I want to thank my parents for making the trip seven hours up and back to Wisconsin and helping me out with everything.

I was happy to see some friends up at the race: Charlie, Cale, Katy, Shockey, Scott. That was about the best part of it for me. I love riding the trails... I had less of a good time racing on the trails. I got to the race and found out the the race details were significantly different than what I had thought; seven, 14 mile laps vs four, 24 mile laps. That messed with my psychy a little because a 14 mile lap meant that this was set-up more in a regular xc race format just with four times the distance. The start was a short run to the bikes and take-off down some double track. Rode at a pretty fast pace for the first five or six miles and hit some sand. Lots of sand, deep sand, rocks, roots, on the trails; more than I had remembered. I realized that I was riding much harder than I needed to ride to keep my average pace where I thought I needed it to finish, so I backed off and dropped from the leaders. I had to walk climbs the first lap. This decided my gearing for Dakota 5-0. I haven't been on my mountain bike for more than ten miles at one time on actual singletrack since the Chequamegon 100, so I am going to just drop to a 32x20 and be able to spin more. It'll be a good test to try it at Levis again at least one more time this year. Either way, walking sometimes was fine. The race started at 8am and was nice a nice temp. at the start, but you could tell it was warming up quickly. About nine miles in I tried stepping up some rocks between two trees. Fail. Endo and landed on my less-good shoulder. Broke my GPS off the bar. Took me a second to regather myself, and kinda start walking up the hill. Got passed a lot, thought I was close to last. Started riding again and was having trouble holding onto my handlebar with my left hand. I wrecked some more. Finished the first lap. Second lap was more of the same with less dramatic wrecks, and actually more on bike climbing. Ate some food and sat in a chair talking to Shockey, Mom, and Dad. Decided to roll out for a third lap and after riding for a while I got on the Yellow Jacket trail. Super rooty and rough and I had nothing left. I got passed by the Mountain bike patrol guy, and pulled the plug. I rode xc ski trails back to the start/finish area and dropped the bike at 32 miles of a proposed 100. Epic fail. Had a sandwich and a beer with Ben and Scotty. I was pretty dominated, the trails were much more ruthless than I had remembered. I think maybe the Gnomefest aura makes it easier to climb and makes the trails smoother. Rode home pretty bummed out about my first non-weather related dnf. I guess it is just part of the deal, and you can't be on every day. Mix that with not getting the normal push from friends due to proximity or injury, and lack of access to trail systems; again, whether due to weather or trail condition.
It's all good now. I have Gravel Worlds to focus for, I had decided that before this race and maybe that influenced my racing today... I dunno. Some things, however, did work out very well.
What worked:

• Mom and Dad supplying water, food, and Agent care. Agent likes bike races.

• Q7 clothes were great. My backside was probably the freshest part of my body when I quit, good chamois.

• The bike worked well. The front end began to creak like crazy after the good wreck on the first lap and was a little bit sketchy. I took it apart after the race and inspected things, which all checked out, but I am very aware of it.

• Oakley Jawbones looked good and felt good. They are my favorite glasses of all time. The new orange/bassboat blue sparkle combination looked better than I did.

• Hanging out with Shockey and Scotty, both out due to injury: a bum knee and a gash on an arm that is pretty brutal... 25 stitches or something.

Now time for Ragbrai and HOPEFULLY a Salsa frame before I go so I could at least build it there. I'd be jazzed to try and make a small gravel route each day from whatever town I'm in into the end town. I heard today that Aaron and Nate are coming up for a couple days, so that is good, and Larue is going to be around which is always good. Then three weeks to train on gravel and try to have fun doing it. I think the mountain bike may just get put away for a bit. I have even considered riding the La Cruz at the Mullet Classic... Kyle Sedore did it a couple years ago so I may give it a shot.

Here we go

Riding is done, traveling starts tomorrow and then race time. I didn't get near the amount of miles in on the weekend that I wanted so instead of tapering and really treating this as a priority event I have continued to ride this week and am going to go at the LT 100 with a little different mindset. According to WEMS rules, to the best of my understanding, a 100 mile race is equivalent to a 12 hour race. The biggest difference is that in previous six hour races I have done, it has been the number of laps STARTED in the six hours, here it is number of laps COMPLETED within the 12 hours. I assume this is done to keep people from straggling out in the woods for even more prolonged amounts of time while suffering from fatigue and whatever else is plaguing a rider. Theoretically a person could end up riding an extra lap and it not counting, or piling in an extra 24 miles right before the "bell". So this forms my intent for the race: ride four laps each one under three hours. I am actually hoping to do the first two laps closer to two or two and a half hours which should give me a bit of padding for the latter two laps. The first fifty is going to be quite telling for me; even more in this race than in others. I haven't had a lot of long rides lately so I feel like if my legs are still under me at mile 50 that the base that I've built will carry me through the next 50.

This is the race plan, previous to it I get to meet up with Oakley Rob who is graciously hooking me up with a new pair of Jawbones, my favorite glasses ever, symbolizing the beginning of me riding for Oakley on a grass-roots level. It is humbling for me to have people addressing me and wanting to have me represent them. I understand that there are better riders than me, in basically every discipline. I understand there are cooler people than me, in basically every facet. I am happy that I have just enough skills, and am just cool enough (or people feel just bad enough for me) that they are happy to have me on board with their products and goals, and I am uber-happy to oblige. I am very lucky that I have had people to push me and support me, and I have touched on this before. This is year one of my cycling life with a focus predominantly on endurance racing. The sky is the limit and I hope the success that I've had this year is only a precursor to what can be attained.

Now, with Levis Trow's motivation and outlook slightly changed my focus and priority has once again returned to Gravel World Championships. Hopefully my new Salsa La Cruz Ti will be here and built and that will be the catalyst to really hammering the gravels in preparation. I wrote a while ago that one of my ultimate goals this year was to win the singlespeed class of GWC. Now the want to ride my La Cruz may outweigh my want to ride a singlespeed, so does that rule out riding the Salsa?... maybe not.

Dialing it in

If it wasn't for bad/wet weather we wouldn't have any weather at all. Rain has kept all of the local trails here shut down, or at least I would have to endure some serious nasty wet, muddy riding. I haven't been on my mountain bike since the epically failed gravel ride, and haven't been on gravel since said ride on any bike. I have however been able to get some higher intensity road rides in. Pounding hill after hill hopefully will pay off in nine days. My plan is to get two more high intensity rides and then back to the roots for some singlespeed gravel this weekend. A 140 mile weekend the week before Dirty Kanza seemed to round out my fitness and also gave me time to recover fully, so I am going to use that same plan for this race. 20 in the morning Saturday and then gravel in the afternoon, and a longer slower paced ride Sunday come rain or shine. In a sick and twisted way I am kind of hoping for some rain one of the two days. I always tell people that riding in the rain gets you double miles; physical miles and mental miles.

After Levis Trows I have RAGBRAI and get to hopefully destroy some gravel is one Mr. John Larue. I am excited for both, more for the latter. John is one of the best people I know, and a blast to ride with. I know he has been riding a lot and getting stronger so if he has mercy he might not just rip my legs off. Hopefully I'll have the new bike by then, most of the parts are already here and I just stare at them longingly. I will be interested to see how things go on a geared gravel bike. In the past I have had good times and not so good times in regards to riding geared. One thing I am looking forward to is the gravel group rides once I am back in Iowa City. The high intensity and apparent total disregard for safety as people plow through level b roads and fields brings a smile to my face from ear to ear.

I can't thank people enough for helping me get my hands on the new La Cruz frame. The excitement for the new bike is single-handedly saving the latter half of my season. This first year of dedicated endurance racing has taken a toll on me. I have loved every race though, and have had the most enjoyable season of my life so far. I owe a lot to new and old friends who have given me tips on training, racing, and all things endurance. I also owe a HUGE amount to Q7. Their support with clothing, friendship, and encouragement has made it so much easier to focus on racing and trying to spread the Q7 love. Thank you Tom and Wanda.

What... a not-really all that cycling related post?

Nothing really cycling related to talk about except maybe the Tour de France just started. I haven't been doing much riding. My legs don't feel very good, so I am hoping to get in one more long ride before the Levis Trow on the 17th. We'll see how it goes, I haven't felt super great leading up to a few races this year and they have still turned out alright, so you never know for me I guess. That's about all for bike stuff...the La Cruz thing is hopefully happening soon. It will look good with the Q7 gear, all sleak-like.

I am really excited for a UFC fight tonight. It is an interesting situation: the two guys are the champion and interim champion in the heavyweight division and they both cut weight to make the 265lb limit. So basically it means that the two baddest, toughest dudes in the world are also as big as they can possibly be. I think it is pretty cool.

Big news is that I think I may have found some direction in life... that is maybe an overstatement as I did choose to talk about not cycling, and two men punching each other, before I brought it up, but the beginning of big news at least. I sent an e-mail to Kirkwood's industrial tech department and I think that I am going to try and start in their 2 yr welding program. I like thinking about welding things. I like/appreciate the look and quality of well welded things. Obviously this is mostly in reference to bicycles, and I think welding bike frames seems really enticing to me as a future profession so here we go. I'll keep updated on the progression of that and hopefully...hopefully get motivated to hit some gravel and start really dialing it up for not only Levis Trow, but for Gravel World Championships as well. I know a lot of the competition that will be there so I know I have a lot of work cut out for myself. I have some new sweet Q7 bibs to try and break in. The chamois in those Primal shorts is really nice on long days. Total props to Wanda and Tom... hopefully I can figure out a way to sneak at least one more podium into this season.