Visit PA MTB Festival...

This weekend was the Visit PA MTB festival weekend. Since I had some time off earlier in the month for a family visit, I was unable to get some extra time off to suffer the 9 hr endurance race with my friends.

I did however get to spend some time at the farm on Friday night for the Night Time Trial. This event is really cool, with the Visit PA team riders starting at 9pm and everyone else going out at 1 minute intervals. I had a chance to pre-ride the course with VeganRob, DanK, Pete, Scott Alden while it was still light (or almost). We finished up at just before 9pm, without lights and it was pretty dark in some of the sections. Our pre-ride data showed 6.37 miles and a kinda easy pace of 48 minutes.

Since I had determined late I was gonna race, I had the 2nd to last start time of 10:38pm. I had heard some times of the fast guys A-ron of 34'ish minutes. I felt really good out on the course, passing about 7 or 8 people that started before me. I finished in 38:23 - 6th place in the solo field, I'm happy with my ride there.

I returned back to the farm on Saturday night to do some partying with everyone, who suffered out there all day. They had great weather for the endurance race, though not as great as the weather in my comfortable office with fast internet :)

Sunday's events were some slow downhill race, kid's race, bike toss, and short track xc. Seems a lot of people didn't stay around for the Sunday festivities. Because of the attendence, Kuhn did just 3 STXC races, with no A, B categories. We started at 12:30 for our 30 minutes on the course. The leaders did 13 laps, and I did 12 laps - ending up in 12th place. The speeds were really fast, 7.5 miles in 30:22.

After cleaning up and sticking around for some raffle drawings- I won a Feedback Sport Alpine digital scale. I hope to get out to either the Lewis Morris Challenge (where I won in Sport last year) or Long Pine Classic (michaux state forest). It might also be time to start getting ready for the W101?? I've been considering this race this year for a few weeks, we'll see how that works out. The 2-5-10 century is coming up and I'm gonna try to get that Monday off of work to do it.

Time for some sleep. Later

-matt

Vacation rides...

______________________ Friday ______________________

Friday I hit up the Rodale lunch ride - which ended up doing Sauerkraut long. After a small altercation between Bill and some angry construction worker shouting for us to single up, X2 and I split off and went of for some more miles. We took a right turn up towards tower road (ouch!) We ended up with 33 miles for the day and just over 2 hours.

Then there was some happy hour fun, followed by a 100 lap Madison at the VPCC aka velodrome. I had my family in town from SC, and they had never seen track cycling, what better race for them to attend. I chilled out with my family till around 1am. I had to crash to get up early for a Saturday morning mtn ride.

______________________ Saturday ______________________

Yozell, Boman and I met up for a Salsbury ride from Emmaus. It was nice to actually warm up before a ride. However, I wasn't really fellin' it. I was really warm, high HR and legs feeling really heavy. The trails were a combination of completely ridable and super slick. We did a 30 mph paceline back on Emmaus Ave, which also had my HR cranked. 20 miles just under 2 hours.

______________________ Sunday ______________________

Six of us headed out from Emmaus to hit the Pagoda ride. The were a few scheduled stops along the way, Oley grocery store on the way out & Oley Diner/Creamery/Petting Zoo. This is my longest road ride of the year, and 3rd day in a row on the bike - vacation is nice! 75 miles 4.5 hours and quite a few feet of climbing. We had a quick apple fritter and coke stop at the Oley shopping center followed by some climbing. After we hit the Pagoda (one hell of a view) and some really sweet decents we stopped at the Oley Creamery for some ice cream and a little zoo tour.

A great day on the bike with some lunch at Armetta's and some dinner at the Strickland's. This has probably been my biggest (8.5 hrs) few days on the bike and I feel great! A few more days of vacation before reality begins again.

Next racing stop - Neshaminy. See ya there.

-matt

Iron Hill Enduro...

I had originally planned on doing the Expert XC race at Iron Hill in Newark, DE. However, with a 2pm start time I thought it would be a better idea to do the 4hr enduro race. Weather leading up to the day was looking great, so I mounted up a new Stan's Raven (which is almost a slick with some side knobs).

As it turns out - maybe not the best choice as the only bit of rain on the east coast happened to be in Newark for about 2 hours before our race. This really caused some sloppy conditions, thankfully not nearly as bad as Granogue. The big benefit of this type of tire, is that it doesn't hold mud, but every little slimy rise was difficult.

I started the race 3 minutes late after going back to the car to remove a base layer, since the rain stopped and while riding around I figured I be hot. I had to move my way through many of the beginner racers, and caught up to Fernando about 2/3 through the first lap and we rode together for a bit. I caught up to Pete on the 2nd lap feeling pretty good I passed him up one of the climbs. I knew it wouldn't stick, because I always start too fast, and fade as time goes on. I stayed away for about a lap and half then Pete caught up to me and we rode together for the next 2 laps or so, going back and forth.

On the 5th or 6th lap I started to cramp up a bit, so I tried to just take it easy and spin a little easier. They subsided pretty quickly. Pete made a pass on one of the shorter steep climbs and got around some of the Sport traffic, I couldn't keep up with the pace so I backed off just a bit. I thought he was gone for the day, but apparently he crashed and cramped up finishing on his 6th lap.

I rolled through the clocks with about 19 minutes left, so I went out for my 7th lap. No more cramps and felt pretty good. The last two laps were about 2 - 3 minutes slower.

4:19 total race time, 35 miles and 7th place out of 28. After the race Pete, Chuck and I headed over to Iron Hill Brewery for some food and beer. That was good call, but I was definitely pretty tired by this point. Pics to follow soon.

Next up maybe the Highbridge XC race in NYC.

-matt

Slingin' mud...

A bunch of crazy soles showed up in Montchanin, DE for the Escape from Granogue MASS race. I can say I definitely wanted to escape, as the course conditions were less than ideal.

I showed up around 9:30am, with ample time to pick up my race number and timing chip (this idea I really like). I talked with a few friends while waiting for the 11am race start. I chose to sit in the car instead of a warm up, as I figured I would get warmed up on the first lap.

We showed up to the staging area with about a dozen guys in my class. I don't know any of these guys, therefore I don't really know who to pace with. Marc set us off for our 3 laps of mud, with a firm warning of the wet bridges and roots. The start went up the road pretty chill paced, and I was sitting mid to back of the pack into the turn, then moving quickly to 2nd or 3rd up the muddy climb to the tower. Around the tower and down the first descent I moved around to lead for a bit, probably almost 1/3 of the first lap.

I'm looking forward to a race where you actually ride your bike, rather than taking it for a hike around the muddy woods. Though it doesn't look good for this week weather wise for this week. Unfortunately I have to work on Saturday for French Creek, or maybe fortunately cause it's probably gonna be a repeat of Sunday.

-matt

Greenbrier...

This past Sunday was the Greenbrier XC race in Boonsboro, MD. This race is a national qualifier race, not that I was intending on going or qualifying for that matter. The temps were in the high 80's - low 90's at our 2:00 pm start, with 4 laps on the just over 5 mile course. I've come to actually know this course after racing there 3 years in a row - just about the time it takes me to remember a course.

There were about 13 guys in the Expert 35-39 field, and clearly 12 faster than me. I talked with Josh West from the Bikeman.com team a little bit before the start. Checking some stats from last year, he did some really fast lap times but DNF'd last year - not sure why. But I knew he was one to chase. I tried to keep him in site, with a decent climb off the start I felt OK around mid pack. But that changed quickly as the next climb I saw the pack pulling away up the climd, and I couldn't hang on that pace for the climbs.

I never really got into a groove in this race, I think the heat was really getting to me. I came through on my first lap at 30 minutes flat - about 3-4 minutes faster than my previous years lap. However, on the 2nd lap the climbs were making me suffer even more and I really slowed down - 36 min lap time. At that point the heat was really getting to me and I was really nauseas, so I DNF'd myself and jumped in the lake to cool down. Yup, that's right I quit! Kinda like I did at Leesburg Bakers Dozen.

______________________________________________________________

Moving on to a less sucky subject, I rode my bike twice yesterday. I got a quick hour climbing workout in at Hawk Mtn (to help with the first part of my post) and I did a fast paced ride at Salisbury with Vegan Rob. I think I broke my previous times by a few minutes, probably has something to do with having Rob following me around. But I actually felt good on the bike for the first time in a few weeks, so thats a good sign.

I'm thinking maybe I was just still a little tired from Leesburg, possibly under hydrated (causing the cramping at Leesburg) and heat issues at Greenbrier. Or it could be I just plain old suck, we'll see how things go this weekend at Granogue. GO REGISTER !! here.

-matt

Leesburg Bakers Dozen..

Friday a bunch of us headed down to Leesburg, VA for the third annual Bakers Dozen 13 hr mountain bike race. The vibe at this race is very cool, and was a great time last year. This year I did this race solo instead of the 2 person team I did last year.

My plan was to ride roughly 40 min laps and go steady all day. Well all plans change, at the start a few guys got a little too excited and were sprinting off the start like an XC race. Unfortunately they crashed into each other, then crashing into me - twisting my stem/bars and seat. I had to run over to my pit area and straighten everything out. Now I was out on my first lap behind the train of people, most of them walking the rock up. Just about now I noticed my knee is cut up and hurtin' and there was a golf ball like knot in my calf - from the crash at the start.

I pulled in on my first lap and went right back out for another lap, probably putting down a little quicker time than I should have. That wasn't really in keeping with my plan of steady. The next lap I switched over to my Jet9 full suspension, as I was already noticing some lower back issues from either effort or the rutted access road between the two loops. This was a great decision as I could immediately feel a difference, until my fork started giving me some issues. It was bottomed out on travel, so I locked it for the remainder of that lap.

Next lap I jumped on the Cannondale 29'er, and asked Josh from Saucon Valley Bikes if he could switch out the fork from my SS bike I brought for Dan K. as a back up. He worked on it, getting everything switched over, so when I came back through I switched back. Great work Josh!

So the day started with the crash, some fork mechanical issue, and then I started to cramp. My legs were cramping, and stomach was starting to feel kinda knotted. I was taking some time off the bike between laps trying to get the cramps to subside. The cramps kept on coming, so I decided to just chill for a bit and see how things would go after some more time. Dan K, Pete, and I went out for another lap - I think number 10 for Dan and I, and like 12 for Pete. At the end of the lap I was done - I figured I got 71 miles in, not quite what I wanted. But no biggie, since I got to hang with some good friends and ride my bike for quite a few hours.

Now my legs are still a bit sore, probably from the cramps I guess. I had some off site training for work today, and was able to get out for a nice hour spin after the training. It was an amazing day, until right around now (7ish) when its starting to get a bit ugly out.

We'll see what's next on the schedule, probably Michaux or Granogue. See ya soon!

-matt

Baker's Dozen...

Tomorrow a bunch of us are heading down to Leesburg, VA for the Baker's Dozen - a 13 hour lap race. I unfortunately have to work today (It's damn nice out) and still haven't ridden all week. Good thing I'll be good and rested to take Pete's $5.

The weather is looking perfect for the weekend. Fit Chick, Mr. Fit Chick, Pete, DanK, Straus, Bowman, VeganRob, Liz, and Josh are making the trip from the local area. What a crew, it's gonna be a fun weekend!

Race report to follow.

-matt