Are you a Wheel man?

August has come and gone...just like that. Gone. Was a good one, did some fun stuff.

Before I start in, I saw a great episode on The World of Adventure sports show on the Versus station. Been recording them and watch when I have an extra 1/2 hr to sit and relax. The episode had to do with a surfing contest called The Waterman...or at least that was the concept of the competition. It was a week long contests where each day was as different competition, Short Board, Long Board, Sail Board, Kite Board, Paddle board and Doubles... Best performance out of each day won the overall - kind of like a stage race. I like that concept. Maybe we need a Wheelman competition over the year...Road, Crit, MTB, Cross, TT, even Gravel...Best all around Wheel man. Are you a Wheel Man or Wheel Women?

Anyway, the end of July started with a Psycowpath Mountain bike race at Branched Oak. This was the third time I've raced on the same course this year. Was pretty fun, But we raced what I consider backwards and the flow this way is not quite as fun and the course was a bit sticky from a slight overnight rain.

Mid August there was the XTERRA off road triathlon -BOLT which stands for Branched Oak Lake Triathlon...clever huh! Had a blast - thanks Jared Carlson! How often do you get to swim across a lake point to point? That's exactly what we did, swim across Branched Oak. Not particularly long, 1300 meters or so, but it is tough to sight across the lake and not zig zag across with your head down in murky water. I probably tacked on an extra 100meters for good measure. Had a good overall finish and ended up 3rd, losing to some Colorado guys, Klish and Wheatlake. Nice guys, I can't be too bummed and yeah, they were much better swimmers. The bike section was really pretty fun too a bit greasy from the rains prior but hey, how often do you get to do that? NEVER! unless it's Cross. JT pulled out the stops and got his first XTERRA under his belt. The only downside is I Twisted my ankle something fierce running basically re injuring a sore ankle from an earlier race this year. This time really hurt. As Jared says, I twist my ankles all the time just running on the sidewalk...why is that?

A week after the BOLT race was Gravel Worlds. A 153 mile Gravel road race. Always epic. This year even more so due to the rain prior to this race. It made the minimum maintenance roads (MMR) into a sticky, clay pot throwing, quagmire. The kind of Nebraska clay that wheels instantly pack up, rear ders would rip from the frame...many a wounded der and frame/der hanger from this race. Folks were reduced to porting and shouldering the bike while shoes would clog with mud making the shoes twice as big...think Bozo and the bike weighing twice their weight in extra mud poundage. We had a false sense of security as we rode through the first two sections of MMR, about a mile each at 30 miles without much problem, but third section reduced us to carrying the bike for a mile or two. My sore ankle was talking to me...wanted to run my bike, but was reduced to walking / sliding and trying to find a comfortable place to shoulder my bike. Thinking one of those frame packs with the curve that sits on the top tube and seat tube is a must find for next muddy race. My der almost suffered catastrophic failure here...but managed to get off the bike before it totally wrapped up. Cleaned the bike up enough that the chain could move without seizing up, took off and saw Wilkens repairing his der...made the first pit stop to get my power ball ticket at Valpariso. Made a quick get away and grouped with James Blake and Rafal. Thanks for the ride guys! Although...Rafal ran me over when my bike der started to rap up again as I made a quick exit off the bike to keep it from going all the way into my rear wheel. Crisis averted...this time! We road another 10 miles or so before the next MMR. The road looked safe to ride, it had some rock mixed in it...but it wasn't, there was just enough gravel mixed in that it was maybe one of the worst sections. My der totally locked up this time getting the royal twist making it irreparable.

Luckily, I had three tubes, a patch kit, a chain breaker, tire levers, a quick link, and some chain lube. Pretty much necessary on this type of a self supported ride. That's what I like about these races...reminds me of old tour stages, where you weren't allowed to receive outside assistance. You have to be resourceful and figure out your food, hydration, and mechanical issues all on your own. At least you are supposed too. Just sayin...Of course an occasional hand from a fellow contestant isn't without some appreciation and the "hey man, you got what you need" is mandatory in a race such as this. No man left behind. But mostly, it's about you being resourceful and getting the job done. You have to be a handy man. I set to breaking the chain and figuring out a single speed gear that would work with chain tension, gear size and alignment. Corey Godfrey came along at about this time and said "I rode 250 miles of trans Iowa in a 34 X15" Yep he nailed it. Although, not quite perfect because my chain tension was a little loose due to vertical dropouts. I must have still had a bad link too because grinding the gear standing up over some of those steep Nebraska hill poppers, my gear would shift up to the 16 cog in back. Maybe because of frame flex...I don't know. The chain tension was super tight when It would do this, I'd stop pull the wheel out change the gear and set to chasing again. 18-20 mph on the flats, grinding over the hills and attacking the top, getting aero on the way down. That's how single speeders do it??? I guess! This worked well as I worked my way back up to the group at the second check point in Malcolm. There were lots of folks stopped to get their lottery ticket, taking on water, grabbing some food, taking a break...I jammed in, filled the bottles bought a coke and a processed Cinnamon roll and boogied. Took off with Mr Blake...whom I had the pleasure of sharing company again on this stretch heading south...we were reminiscing about doing the same thing two years prior. As always was a pleasure to ride with you James! In deciding whether to stop at the 1st oasis, the decision turned mute because lo and behold there was the Corey group, with Paul Chapman, Rafal, Jordan Braasch, Trevor and Eric Fink....Who am I missing? basically second group on the road. Shim, Brady, Marshall, Chris Hansen (single speed), Dale Pinkelman and another single speeder Eric Brunt were up the road. The Godfrey group had just filled up at the Oasis so I jumped in with them bypassing oasis and taking a gamble that there would be fluids at the next stop 30 miles or so later. I was stoked to have someone to ride with and feeling good... But we also were hitting some of the steepest hills so my bike was doing that auto shifting thing. The 8th time or so it auto shifted, the 16 cog cut a groove in my freehub body and just spun. Only thing I can figure is the Chain tension caused the rear cog to twist, making it a cutter? I moved the chain down to the 15 and took off, up the next hill after regaining the group the chain broke. (Corey, thanks for talking me out of doing the discuss throw with my bike.) Bye bye group. Decision time, pull the plug...nah, give it the old college try, then if it doesn't work, I knew Lincoln and my home were only 15-20 miles away from this point...I set about breaking the chain again...luckily I'd saved the links I took out before and also I hadn't used my quick link yet. I checked for other gears too looking for one that might work better, even checking the big ring for a combo that might mesh correctly -no such luck. I think Lenard Zinn has done a response on this before on his letter answering section of VeloNews....anyway, I ened up in the 34 x 15 again...and put some lube on my chain, and Randy's too who had rejoined me...yep had a little vile of chain lube - Glad I did. New link and a quick link, and chain lube seemed to solve my auto shifting issues. That and the hills aren't quite so violent after you get in a 100 miles on the route. I picked up Mr Randy Gibson ( who I was yo yoing with for a bunch of the day) and Mr Blake again as I rolled on. Saw Paul C. and Trevor at the secret check point, the oldest house in Lancaster county, gonna have to take some time to check it out again, was really cool. Made from Limestone. Beautiful. I didn't waste any time because I saw Corey and Rafal leaving the check point as I arrived and set about trying to get back to them. Passed Michael Dixon on the way into Hickman...he was on autopilot and having a great ride.

I met Corey and Rafal at the Hickman checkpoint...they had been cruising and Rafal said Corey was dealing with Cramps. I bought my ticket, bought a hamburger, a coke, and filled my water bottles and was off, eating on the road. The last 35 miles or so are lonely and not without another couple dreaded MMRs which required some walking. I caught up to Eric Fink on one such road. 190th to be exact. It was walking only for me. Oh I tried riding down the side of the road in the grass, even made it a ways, but really didn't have the gear for such grunt work so set to walking and trying to not pack up the wheels with clay as I rolled the bike in the grass. Finally, I jumped the pasture fence, gave myself a heck of a shock on the electric fence and rode that 1/4 mile bit. Worked OK too, except when I got back out to the white rock of the road, I was double flatted. Yep...double. I set to changing my flats and Eric stops to chat and play fetch with lonely yellow lab farm dog. Crazy dog. He was obsessed with playing fetch, carrying around a stick. Poor Eric, he just wanted to relax. I finally got the tubes changed which involved trying to clean a thick layer of mud off my tires, and trying to find the flat culprit...Think it was hawthorn trees with those big old spike thorns. I remember trying to ride the grass right under one. Anyway, Eric and I get going...only about 25 miles to go. I'm on fire and want to get done, Eric, not so much. He was ready for a nap. I rolled into the last Oasis filled up with water drank another coke and took some pretzels for the road. Chris Hansen on his single speed was up the road about 15 min and would stay that way. Rolled into the finish in 7th overall, 12:04 total time and about 10:05 ride time on my computer. Did some math after that one...lets see, Shim finished in 10:38 with a little help from his friends...just sayin...You have to be a handy man to finish these things.

End of August Jen and I took a trip to Colorado. She had business, I had time, which coincidental worked out to the same week that the Colorado Pro Cycling Challenge was going on. This is being touted as the new Coor Classic stage race. The Queen stage was a 130 miler from Gunnison to Aspen over two huge 12,000 ft passes, the second pass was Independence pass. My plan was to drive up from Denver, park at Leadville and ride up to the top of Independence pass. Pretty novel idea huh? When I parked at Leadville I could tell my idea wasn't so novel, there were cars with bike racks everywhere and groups of cyclists heading down the road. So I quick changed and got rolling...cruising along the pseudo flat to the hwy that turns and heads up the pass...as I neared the intersection a I could tell I was definatly not alone. Already 2.5 hrs tell the race was scheduled to come through, there were cars parked on both sides of the road. As I made my way up the pass, there were folks sitting and waiting for the arrival of the race. I was super cool and tingly with anticipation. The folks were nice enough to shout encouragement along the way.

As I neared the top 5 miles or so, it was a parking lot along side the road. There were literally thousands of fans that had made their way up either the night before or really early in the morning waiting for the race. Super Cool! I caught up to this guy pulling his two kids up from the intersection in a burley...Tough guy award! He was a transplant from Kansas, wish I could remember his name.

I got to the top timing it pretty close to perfect I must say...about 45 min before the race came over.

Levi Chasing the leader with Vandevelde chasing the leader over the top.


Frank








The ride down was a bit hairy. Right after the race went through, it started to rain. Descending in the rain and cold with a few thousand of my new race fans and a vehicle thrown in every now and then was crazy. I'd do it again in a heart beat. This should be on everyone's radar for next year.





The next day was the uphill TT stage in Vail. I was super psyched to ride over vail pass on the trail and check out the bikes and racers. I parked in Frisco and got a nice ride over the top. THIS was a huge spectator stage. Although it was a closed road so once the race started you were kind of trapped and required some careful finessing back up to the finish of ride and walking. There were volunteers at every section telling you to walk your bike. Vail itself was packed with spectators. Very impressive.
Couldn't even fathom a guess how many fans watched the finish of the TT. 10,000? BTW - super fun seeing my buds David Cech in Denver and Mike Beacon in Vail.



September already super busy...more later.