Not exactly what I was going for.

So, with a big plan for next summer, I decided to head out and test my ability to ride long on consecutive days after bike camping. New bags arrived a while ago, and the message from the guy who makes them was a sign. At least I took it as a sign. I needed to go out and do a long ride. I convinced my friend Marc to come along, although he rarely needs convincing. We packed up our gear and set out from my house around 3:30 with 2 and a half hours of daylight and charged up lights to see how far we could get. We rode a mix of trail and road towards Stowe. After taking several wrong turns (all uphill) we found where we wanted to go and made it into Stowe's downtown where we decided to set up camp. We rode trails to the high school, and then hit the bike path hoping to make it to a secluded place to camp away from the main drag. Unfortunately, it was getting late and we ended up camping across the river from the bike path behind a stand of fir trees, hoping they keep us out of sight. We set up our tarp tents and got comfy, then made dinner. I chose cous cous, while Marc went for the Ramen. We crashed pretty hard after dinner, as the 4 hours we rode tooks us about 40 miles with 4000 ft of climbing. Sleep came pretty easy, although in the middle of the night a loud "pop" startled me awake. I immediately thought Marc had let his little campfire get to big and my fuel canister exploded. Thankfully, there was no fire, and Marc was sound asleep. I thought nothing of it and went back to sleep. Waking up in the morning was a bit tough, as sleep was fitful. We packed up, made oatmeal for breakfast and started to head out. Marc took off before me to visit a port-o-let on the bike path. That was when I noticed the large tear in my rear tire. I guess it wasn't a great idea to use my 4 year old tires for this journey. To make the morning even better, it started to rain. I had to ride to Marc who was about a mile up the bikepath. It was a slow, wet ride, punctuated by the lump of the valve stem every time my wheel rotated. I actually felt pretty good, but with no cash or cards, there was no chance of repair or finding a new tire. I caught up to Marc resting under a covered bridge, where we called anyone we thought would take pity on us and pick us up. My wife was out running, Marc's parents were out, but his brother came to our rescue. Not the best way to end a bikepacking trip, but I certainly learned a few lessons.

Rationalizing the irrational

I enjoy riding my bike. Up until 2005, I didn't really think about bike riding. Getting a job at a bike shop helped increase my interest in biking. Living one mile from an outdoor center that holds weekly races, has loads of sweet singletrack, and even a bike camp for kids increased my interest even more.

Then, I learned that I live smack dab in the middle of a mountain bike paradise. I still haven't ridden all the "local" trails, and I would rather ride than do most other things. I guess my point with all this is that biking has become a huge part of my life, and I really enjoy the experiences I have had, the people I have met, and the opportunities that await me because I ride my bike.

From racing at the foot of Mount Washington for 24 hours

To seemingly endless climbs out West, that lead to even longer downhills,

Biking makes me happy.

So I guess it isn't too crazy that I want to attempt the Colorado Trail race next summer. I have read numerous blogs, articles, and even talked to people who did it this year. All of this has helped me realize that I have no idea what I am getting myself into. 500 miles? HIGH altitude? 60,000 feet of climbing? What the hell am I thinking? I know that I am going to have to train, train some more, train a little bit more, and then train a lot more, but I think I can do it. I believe that I am going to have fun, and have an unforgettable experience.

But........I feel a bit selfish. So, I think that my ride should have some positive effect that transcends testing my self, because I may fail. Okay, it is a strong possibility that I will fail, but hey, at least I will have tried.

SO, the positive affect I am going for is sending kids to bike camp. For the past few summers I have worked at Catamount Outdoor Center as a camp counselor. Catamount Mountain Bike Academy (MBA) was started in the 90s by Eric Bowker. If you have ever met him, you know that he is a great guy, and that you will never forget his laugh for as long as you live. He has taught more kids how to mountain bike than Justin Bieber had fans, and he remembers a surprising majority of them. He makes sure that every camper gets to enjoy the nature preserve that his family has created at Catamount, a non profit organization with the mission "to promote family and community well being through activity and education in a natural environment"

So I want to help raise money to send less fortunate kids to camp. I set up a fundraising page, and have a goal of $1,000, which would send about ten kids to camp, and hopefully change their outlook on life, but at very least give them the opportunity to fall in love with the bike.

If you could, please check out my fundraising page, and help me send kids to camp!!!

What the future holds....

Yes, I do have a blog. I am sure this a surprise to many of you, and I am sure those of you who knew this already are just as surprised that I am writing. Summer is over, although there is still a lot left and it is night riding season! It was a good summer. Trips to Cali, Oregon and riding in beautiful Vermont in between.

All told, it was a great summer for riding, but not a great summer for racing. Lots of flats in Canada, no 24 hour race, and a puking fit 5 miles into the Vermont 50 made it hard to put a lot of importance on racing this year. In retrospect, not having a big race to plan for made racing an afterthought, while riding and having fun was definitely the main priority. Nevertheless, I was feeling a bit left out the weekend of Great Glen. I didn't sign up this year, and my family was having a "camping" reunion in Freedom, NH. I live approximately 155 miles (okay, not approximately) away from Freedom. I wanted to attend the reunion, but I also wanted to get in a bike ride. So, I packed up my camping gear into some dry bags, threw on my hydration pack, and set out to cross the twin states. Just to make things interesting, I wanted to take my mountain bike, and ride as much trail/dirt road as possible. To make things even more interesting, I decided to take my single speed. To make things even MORE interesting, I decide to let google maps decide my route, using the directions function and clicking the "bike" button. Great idea.

As you can see from the map above, there was no way to avoid copious amounts of pavement. However, I was able to stay mostly on dirt, class IV roads, and even some bike path through most of VT. On the way into NH it was mostly pavement and not a ton of fun. I ended up climbing over Kinsman Notch, which I had never visited before. It was breathtaking.

The descent was chilly, but it was good to be heading into civilization after 30 miles through WILDerness. Not much between Woodsville and Campton. At eight at night, light was failing and I started to look for a place to sleep. It was pretty dark, but I found a nice field with a river at the end and a great view of the wide open sky. Sleep came quickly, but the mosquitoes and made sure I didn't get too much rest. The tarp I brought kept me dry, but not bringing a sleeping bag or something bug proof was a mistake.

On the next day, I woke up to see that I had slept below a ridge with a line of houses on it. Oops. I hope they liked watching me change in the morning. I packed up and headed out to visit one of my teenage stomping grounds. I grew up in a small town, and we spent a lot of time in the National Forest to the North of town. Sandwich Notch road goes through the forest and is about 3 miles from my parents house. I rode through memory lane, taking several detours and visiting some landmarks.

I stopped at my parents for lunch and to visit with my father. I even helped him build a compost bin. Then I slept for an hour, packed up and headed out to Freedom. The ride was uneventful, mostly dirt and pavement. I met my sisters and brothers and all their kids at the campground, and hung out for the rest of the weekend. It was a great trip. It also helped me choose my race for next year.

The Colorado Trail Race.

It is going to be a long winter.

Summa time.

Yeah, so it is summer. Not much time/enthusiasm for blogging. Way back in June I went to Canada to race. Lots of fun, although not the result I was hoping for. 3 flats, 2.5 hours of walking through the Quebec forest and the VICIOUS black flies (I still have scars) and a race director the wouldn't let me drop out led to a 9 hour finish time. Two days later, off to California to watch the wife race, got to ride there, although I should have brought my skis, as most of the good trails were still under the snow.

Once we got back, did some road riding (lots of rain) and have recently ridden more on the trails and even started racing. The last two weeks were full of riding, with two races. The first was the Eastern Cup 6 hour race, which had lots of friends and locals racing and was a ton of fun. I managed to finish second overall racing the singlespeed, which helped after such a debacle in Canada.

This weekend was the Darkhorse 40. The trails here are sweet. Supah sweet. Wicked pissah sweet. My friend Marc described it perfectly;

Marc: "These trails have the best singletrack in New England."

Me: "Marc, New York isn't part of New England."

Marc: "I know, they're just that F-ing good."

The race started off with a 2.5 mile fire road. I hate roads. The pack stayed together through the first half mile, and then I got impatient. I was feeling pretty good, and wanted to get to the singletrack. I started to lead out, and stayed on the front until the second climb on the road. Two people went off the front, and I stayed on them thinking a group of three would work well on the extensive singletrack portion of the race. I snuck to front again and started to break away when I felt the rear end of my bike start to bounce, and then sag. Shit. another flat. I pulled off to the side and frantically pulled my wheel off. My friend Marc stopped to help me fix the flat, despite my protestations. He said he didn't want to be caught in the hectic pace and handed me a tube and was on his way. I topped off the tube with my Co2 cartridge and hopped on the tail end of the sport wave that was passing me. I felt a bit fired up and passed people frantically on the single track. I rode like a man possessed on the first lap, which after the initial road slog was composed of about 17 miles of singletrack. FAST, flowy singletrack. I didn't realize it until the second lap, but I burned quite a few matches trying to catch every rider I saw ahead of me. Midway through the second lap I fizzled out, struggling up every hill and battling to turn the pedals over. I managed to finish the lap with only two geared riders passing me, and met Marc, dressed and showered at the finish. He had ridden 10 miles and pulled the plug, opting to enjoy the barbecue and beverage sponsors rather than suffering. (He thinks that full throttle tubing for 2 hours on Friday night might have taken something out of him.)

Marc thought I finished in 4th, and I was happy with that. We filled up on the post race bbq and enjoyed the company of the other riders. Darkhorse Cycles knows how to put on a race. The events (singlespeedapalooza is also a Darkhorse production) are lots of fun to ride and hang out at. We hung out for results, and it turned out I finished in second, which was a welcome surprise. It was a great weekend of racing, and now I just have to decide on Great Glen.....

Cooked.

We haven't had much sun so far this spring/summer in VT. Last weekend while everyone else was racing, I went on a gap ride with a friend and forgot what the sun can do. I remember now.

In other super exciting news, I signed up for the VT 50, and Canada is getting closer and closer. Hopefully my arms are no longer neon red for that race.

Flower Power

Greeting from the Great Soggy North. Time here has been short as the weather lately resembles Bangladesh during monsoon season rather than Vermont in the spring. Record flooding of Lake Champlain and biblical rains kept us off the trails and made it hard to muster any motivation to do anything outside. We got a week and a half of sun and excellent trail drying weather leading right up to the first local race of the year. Lucky for us, the weather turned from sunny and 60 to 50s and steady rain for the 24 hours preceding the race.

The start was rather mellow, with a lot of people choosing to stay inside and couch surf rather than brave the rain, mud and freshly cut grass. Most of the Catamount Outdoor center trails are still drying out so the race was held on the hillside, where they hold the 'cross races in the fall. The course mixed in a good sampling of singletrack including trails like "the gullywhomper" although the majority of the race was wide open field. I felt like dog vomit the first lap, after trying to hang with the three leaders for about 30 seconds. I knew that wasn't going to happen, so I hung back and warmed up, and started to feel okay.

I kept the lead three in sight (sort of, since the course was mostly in open field it wasn't like they could hide) and just kept plugging along. Halfway through the second lap, I caught one of the leaders (the one who is 16 and blinded by the fog on his glasses) and passed him. Yup, no mercy, even for blind teens who, I found out after the race, waited for me so he would have someone to finish the last lap with. I am AWESOME! We rode the rest of the lap together, and I thought he was going to take me in the sprint finish (I am looking back to see where he is in the pic below)

I guess he really was tired though, because I finished two seconds in front of him. I think he just feels bad for me because I am fat and old. And I drive him to cool riding spots sometimes. I am sure that he will kick my ass many times this summer, so I have to enjoy this victory while I can.

Rainy Daze

The end of vacation is approaching rapidly. It has been great so far, but it has gone too quickly. Rainy weather kills any motivation to ride, but hopefully we will have good weather next week and we can do more riding.

Sh*t show.

That is the only way to describe it. The night before we were planning to head down to NY for the season opening "Singlespeedapalooza" my ride told me he had to work Saturday instead of driving down........Unless I wanted to hang out until 6 in the evening and then drive 5 hours down to the race with him. After being sick for three weeks and not really caring if I miss the race, or about a long drive through a storm that covered most of the East coast, I said, "Sure, that sounds like a great idea!" We had friends already in NY for the race with a hotel room we could crash at, and I didn't want Marco to miss the race, so I spent Saturday with Wifey and watched her be sick, and sleep, because that is what she does when she is sick. After doing all that exciting stuff, I decided to go for a quick ride at four, thinking Marco wouldn't be back until six. I got done with my ride and he called me to tell me he was 15 minutes from my house. I rushed home, tried to pack everything, and ending forgetting race food, my toothbrush and my knee warmers, but I remember all the essentials.

Still no bridge between VT and NY. The free ferry was fun though.

Single speeders get up early. Also, note the bending trees. It was windy.

The drive was rather uneventful (I slept for about two hours) and we met up with our friends and got a good night's sleep at the hotel. After breakfast and coffee, we got to the race venue at what we thought was a good and early hour, but we still had to park a bit away from the start. Marco and I got dressed and had heard from those that pre-rode the course that it was wet. Standing water up to your hubs wet. From people who ride 29ers. Awesome.

Why is Marco touching me? At least we are happy.

After. I look like I just snorted an ounce of baker's chocolate. Marco looks likes he's pooping.

Good times.

The race started off fast. It was easy to tell who was running a big gear on the 3 mile prolog, because they took off. I stayed towards the front for a bit, and then decided not to explode my legs before we even got to the single track. Once we did hit the single track, there were people everywhere, stop and go, people cutting through the woods to jump ahead, and people falling left and right. I managed to stay up through the prolog singletrack and had a pretty good position. I stayed with a group of four or five guys who were actually in shape through the first section of single track, but then they easily gapped me on the lengthy road section. I managed to keep them in sight through the road sections, and caught them one by one and passed them through the last single track section. One of them stayed behind me for most of the next lap, and it was nice to have someone to talk to. Until he got sick of me when we hit the road section again, and he dropped my like a diaper full of baby diarrhea. Hot, steamy, baby diarrhea. I felt a bit dejected, but kept telling myself that the faster I pedaled, the sooner I would be done. It was getting cold. The copious and deep puddles would nicely clean the bike of all the peanut butter mud that caked on through the first half of the course, but they also constantly doused water all over the riders. 3/4 through the last lap I got off to walk up one climb, and my knees didn't want to bend. I hobbled up and hopped back on the bike, forcing the legs to bend and hoping to make it in before getting caught by too many people. I tried to eat one of the clif bars I bought at a gas station, but those things are awful when you are trying to breathe and don't have access to lots of water. I spit most of it out and just limped towards the finish, getting passed by two guys towards the end. I gave it my all to stick with them through the last section of single track, and then was amused that they kept looking back at me on the long road section before the finish. They thought I might try and sneak up on them, but I was lucky just to keep them in sight. I ended up finishing 14th overall, which I was very happy with. The best part of the race was the Terrapin ale at the after race BBQ. Good stuff from Georgia. Marco and I hung out for a bit, talking to a lot of bike people we don't see during the winter, and then we convinced our friend Andrea to drive home, after she placed third in her race.

Overall, another fun trip to NY.

The plague

uuughh.......I felt pretty good until the last two weeks. I had been riding alot, getting out daily and feeling strong, then it hit me like a Micky Ward left hook (while I was sick and holding down the couch I watched a few movies) Awesome fever, plugged nose, ears and eyes (yup, even my eyes felt stuffed) Everytime I would get a little better, I would hop on the bike and try to ride, and dig myself deeper into the respiratory hell that this virus is. Finally went to the doctor last Sunday, got some pink horse pill antibiotics and I am starting feel a bit better. Just in time for the drive down to SS-apalooza. My ride got called into work today, so now we are leaving VT until 5. We should get to NY around 11, and sleep in the car. I guess it really doesn't matter, seeing as this will be a participation ride, rather than race. Hopefully I don't vomit on myself, or anyone else, but I am not going to rule it out.

I will let you know how it goes.

Let the sun shine.

Took a trip down to Massachusetts this weekend for a work related conference. Lucky for me, there is a rather substantial trail network nearby. My friend Marc called me as I was leaving work ( about 45 minutes after I wanted to leave) and he said he wanted to tag along. So, I met him on my way South and about 3 hours later we were checked into the hotel and I was off to my first meeting. After the meeting, we drove to the "alleged" trail head (I had never been to this area before, but a couple of friends told me the street to park on and where to look) We got the bikes out of the car, road down an access road, and right into a foot of snow cover. We cut the ride short and went home and watched Man v. Wild.

Next day, more meetings, then riding in the afternoon. We decided to try and get to the trails from a higher point, because we could see how dry the ridge was and it looked like good terrain for biking. About 2 minutes into the ride, my front brake felt really squishy, and I looked down and noticed my brake pads were popping out of the caliper. The little bolt/C-clip combo that holds the pads in on the Elixirs decided to disappear, and I had to ride DJ style. Not much of a hardship, as we couldn't find any good, bike friendly trails, and we ended up riding roads/bike paths and some walking trails.

The last day of the meetings, I was done at noon, and only had time for a quick ride. We decided to try the main trailhead again. We parked next to a former VT local, a current Framingham local, whose GF is an Amherst local, so we knew we were in the right spot. We found dry trails, lots of rocks, and had a good ride, but anything is better than pavement at this point of the year. check out the vid here: http://www.vimeo.com/21254441

Spring is un-sprung

Rode outside yesterday again. Lots of melting snow and temps in the 40s made for a tolerable ride outside. The forecast today is for more rain, turning to snow, with snowfall amounts in the 8-16" range. Maybe a little vaca on Monday and some more of this......

Timber likes it, you should too.

The Eternal city and the beginning of the year

Rome. It is fun to be a teacher. The kids are always entertaining and I get the opportunity to be a geek about the things that interest me. We took a trip to Rome and it was excellent. No crises, good food, good company and lots of old, old, old buildings and art. Italy is a very laid back country, people are friendly, and there are a lot of bikers. Both the moped variety and the pedal variety. I prefer the latter. I was constantly wishing that I had access to a bike so that I could ride. Rome was a bit traffic heavy, but Sorrento had lots of hills and a sweet seaside highway with hills and incredible views. I was a bit skittish (even on the bus) when I looked over the 2,000 foot cliff two feet off the road, but I think I could have handled it on a bike.

Being a classics dork, I was very excited to see Pompeii for the first time. All the pictures I have been staring at in Latin books over the years were there, right in front of me in person. I got to walk down the streets I have read about and imagine what it was like to live 2000 years ago. And then, I climbed in an oven to get a goofy picture.

On another note, only a month to go until the first bike race, singlespeed-a-palooza. It is going to hurt. Hopefully I can get out and ride a bit before then.

Take off, to the Great, white North.

Just signed up for this years Ultimate XC race. Did last year, and it was one of the best races I have ever done. The race director is the one and only Dan Desrosiers, formerly of Jay Challenge fame. This course is reminiscent of Jay but has better singletrack and a cooler finish line, the village of Tremblant.

This is the closest picture I could find of the last mile of the course. After climbing up the backside of the mountain, then descending part way, and climbing back to the top, you descend down a truly rugged downhill run. THEN, you climb back up and descend the final mile to the lake on the other side of the village.

There is lots of single track and paths and some paved road before this, and this race and the atmosphere is truly different.

And, if a enough people sign up and ride single speed, Dan will give us a category!

Any takers????

3 feet of slow.

Trying to motivate to ride rollers when there is three feet of snow on the ground is like trying to lasso kittens with dental floss. People look at you funny when you try to do it, and it isn't very gratifying. I have been skiing, and stuff. This goofy video proves it.

Single-speedapalooza is two months away. It is going to be ugly.