Monday, August 11, 2008

Mid Season Report Card

Hopefully all the bad luck is behind me and my favorite part of the season is right around the corner....my fitness has jumped to the next level over the last month of hard training and I'm mentally ready to start winning some races!





















Ore To Shore....with high hopes I set out to Marquette to attempt my 3rd Ore To Shore victory. Everything was going to plan as I started and led the lead group over the first climb of the race. On the following fast descent I hit a rock and was slowly losing air....I was hoping for the Stans to do its magic, but it was a no go. I rode the slow leak for a mile and told Doug my plan...I chagned the flat on the city streets and struggled removing the Stans rim strip and struggled again putting a 26" tube into the 29" tire. According to GPS it took about 3:15 to change. Back on the bike to pass close to 100 riders and make my way up to 7th place. I was consistenly closing on the leaders and even saw Doug on the long pavement climb, but ran out of gas from such a long hard solo chase. Here is the GPS data.... ps...Trek and Fisher had 7 out of 7 bikes in the top of the Mens field!!! Andrea killed it in the womens race pulling off her first ever top 10 triple crown!
























Sun Burst.....with high hopes of redemption from yesterdays flat tire I made the short drive to Kewaskum for another WORS race. With all my Gear Grinder clothing covered in iron stained mud I was forced to go incognito! The Ride Club mad its first appearance at the front of a WORS race...I sacrificed a call up, because even Don didn't recognize me.....We were off jus as fast as if we hadn't raced 48 miles the day before and after 1 lap the race was decided. It was either TJ or myself for the win. Half way through the race my headset seized ???? and I had to be very cautious on the descents. TJ opened a 10 second gap while I was trying to figure out what was going on....Stem was tight, steering was horrible...oh well keep going. I bridged back up to TJ and we battled the remainder of the race...on the last climb we changed the lead 3 or 4 times and I almost crashed both of us on the steepest part of the climb with my headset all messed up. Later in the lap my front skewer opened...bad luck continued however I wouldn't have been able to outsprint TJ with a bad headset. Oh well it was fun and the course reminded me of a cross race with a mountain bike climb. Here is the GPS info... ps Fisher Superfly 1, 2, 3!!!
















It had to be pretty funny watching TJ and I battle on rigid 29ers....we were both bouncing all over the place and the first lap we descended the singletrack like it was our first time on MTB's. By the end I think we had it figured out pretty good though!


Thanks to all the sponsors...Gear Grinder, Hyundai, Trek, Fisher, Oakley, Crank Bros





3 comments:

cjsbike said...

You get an "A" for effort this weekend!

I would of raced with you after your flat, but I was holding back!

Keep the big wheels rolling! You know deep down it is the ticket!

-Chad

Biwan said...

That is a sweet kit. Where can I get one!

Anonymous said...

biwan should be bared from this site......