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10/8/2009 The best laid plans...
As the title implies, things didn't go exactly as planned coming back from Wilderness, which might be partly responsible for the slow update. That said, this is the quickest update I've done in a couple of years, so I think that's actually pretty impressive. Hudson, McKnight and I made it out to State College, PA with no serious mishaps. When we got to the hotel and I told the girl working the desk we had a reservation she looked at me like I was an idiot, so I gave her the reservation number from Travelocity. Then she looked at me like I was an idiot since the reservation was for August 27th, not July 27th. Good thing that the room was booked with no refunds... So if you'll be in State College the end of August, let me know, I have a nice room reserved at the Super 8. After getting ourselves a room, we took the scenic route to Otto's Pub and Brewery. There we enjoyed some of the finest food and drink I've enjoyed in a good while. After a good night's sleep, we awoke to a steady rain outside our window. Just the thing to get everyone's spirits high for a good long bike race... We picked up some delicious breakfast at The Original Waffle Shop, then stopped by the local bike shop for a some race course intel and pre-ride suggestions. They were happy to oblidge, calming our fears about running dry tires despite the significant precip, and giving us what turned out to be a perfect pre-ride route. Having wasted sufficient time, we cruised out to Coburn and by the time our tent was up, the rain had actually stopped and the sun was about to peek out. We got in a sweet pre-ride, checking out the first big climb before bombing back into town. We got a wee bit lost on the way back, but emerged from the woods unscathed and well short of a serious bonk. We cleaned up and headed over to the Elk Creek Cafe and Aleworks in Millheim for some chow. We had a leisurely dinner there, though there were a few miscues as we mistook appetizers for entrees. Sufficiently carbo-loaded, we headed back to camp for a nice night's sleep before the good times to come on Saturday.
Saturday morning came waaaaaay too early at like 5:15 or so. The previous day's rain had transformed into a thick fog blanketting our little corner of PA. I wolfed down some oatmeal, filled my bottles and otherwise got myself ready to race by 7:00. The nerves were in full effect, which was kind of fun since they don't really manifest themselves at most of the races I do these days. It's kind of fun to line up not really knowing what you're getting yourself into... After a short riders' meeting, we were off for a mostly neutral rollout on the flat before heading up, up, up and away. Kelly, Matt and I more or less rode together for the first couple climbs, taking things pretty steady. Having started near the back, we still moved up a good bit by the first aid station where we grabbed a bottle and headed on our merry way. The climbs were like nothing we normally experience here in the midwest, going on for miles and miles, but at a pretty moderate grade. It was kind of fun to settle into a rhthym and just cruise up the hills. About 20 miles in Kelly and I were riding together on a rocky descent with Hudson off the front. Kelly moved in front to pass a SSer, they locked bars and went down right in front of me at about 25 MPH. The whole thing went down in slow motion as I tried to figure out how I was going to avoid the crash. Somehow I snuck through the carnage. I thought about stopping for a second, but decided that there were plenty of people around, so I kept on trucking. After a couple more climbs and descents, we got our first taste of singletrack which I succeeded in dorking out in on multiple occasions. I'd like to blame it on the slick as snot rocks and roots, but the bottom line is that I just didn't get my head on straight after all of the fireroad bombing. A wee bit after that we hit the 2nd aid station and I fueled up, refilled bottles and hit the road. My stomach was feeling pretty queasy as I rolled out of the aid station and about a 1/4 mile after the aid station I lost my breakfast while riding along. I have to say that's a first in my time riding bikes. It was good that I got that business out of the way because the trailed turned upwards in short order and didn't let up for a while. This climb was kind of interesting because it started off pretty easy, and then the grade notched up as the climb continued. I actually felt pretty good on the climb and for much of the next section of the race, which included a pretty sweet singletrack descent. I was stuck behind some slower riders for a bit, but figured that maybe that was for the best. In short order, some locals showed up and asked to pass my intelligent friends. I figured I'd join the fun and managed to keep things upright while keeping up with them for the remainder of the descent. After a quick stop at aid station three, Hudson and I started up a singletrack climb that just didn't quit. Part way up the climb I really started to notice that, while it was still remarkably humid, at least it had gotten hot and muggy. I started to feel real issues with overheating, and the climb didn't offer much relief with no air movement because of the tight foliage and slow speed we were riding. By the time we reached the top, I was feeling in seriously overheated. We toyed around with some flat for a bit before heading down an absolutely ripping singletrack descent, which helped me cool of a bit. By the bottom of the descent I was feeling much better and started up the next climb in what seemed a reasonable pace. In short order I wa feeling the effects of the heat again. That was the story of most of the rest of my race. I would flirt with heat stroke as my body struggled to cool itself on the climbs, cool myself on the descents and start the process again on the next climb. The last couple of hours were kind of a blur of long steady climbs, some short steep ones, a bit of nice desending to cool things off a bit, some hike-a-bike and a trip or two through some railroad tunnels for good measure. I finally cruised across the finish line in 9:06 to see Kelly standing there with his arm in a sling with a beer in his hand. Turns out Kelly broke his scapula and had paid the ER a visit while I was out riding my bike in the hills. Hudson was in just as I regained coherent thoughts. After a quick shower, we grabbed some chow and cheered Mike across the line. Good times. The verdict on Wilderness: Super awesome! Great organization, the aid station volunteers were amazing, the course was challenging, and I got a chance to do something different that was quite challenging. I'll definitely do another one. The only real hole in our preparations was the lack of training in the heat, which just really hasn't been an option this summer with the awesome weather we've been having in Ashland.
Given Kelly's condition, the only logical decision was to cruise back to Ashland in short order so he could see a doctor. After a pretty sketchy night at the Motel 6 in flint, which I awoke from truly thankful that all the wheels were still on my car, we made it back to Ashland no-worries.
Ore to Shore this past weekend. I'll update from that in short order since this entry has gone on long enough already. Out.


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17/8/09 Chasin' Deer You can't beat being in the UP two weekends in a row! Curt and I cruised up to Copper Harbor on Thursday night, set up camp and spent some quality time hanging out with Sam, the man behind the madness in Copper Harbor. After a relaxed Friday morning we got out for a quick spin around the trails in Copper Harbor. The new trail on Brockway is out of control good. Get up there and give it a ride. After our ride in The Harbor, we ate a quick lunch back at the campsite before heading down to Calumet to pre-ride the race course for the Great Deer Chase. We got in a quick lap and the course was looking to be in great shape! After popping into Cross Country Sports to register, we walked all the way down the block to the Michigan House for dinner. I had a New York strip steak with friend onions that was out of control good. We made a pretty relaxed night of it as Sam, Nelson and Tony all joined us just as we were finishing up our dinner. We cruised back to the camp and my eyes hadn't even closed when fellow Ashlanders Levi and Brian showed up. After struggling to get to sleep, I finally got some good shut-eye before awakening bright and early on Saturday morning. I had my new favorite power breakfast of a peanut butter and jelly bagel with a glass of milk before heading down to Calumet. We got to Calumet on the late side of things and I got about the business of getting the tires inflated, jersey on, etc. Almost immediately, I ran into Tom Carpenter who was looking around for an extra fork or something as his Reba was stuck about an inch low in its travel. Too late to be of any use I did find out that Aaron Swanson had two bikes up, one of which we probably could have scavenged a fork off. We got off to a nice civil start on the controlled rollout while Chris got some sweet pictures of the action. Once the pace truck pulled off, people got down the business in short order. I held onto the frenetic pace for a bit, but was off the back by a bit before we hit the dirt. By the time we hit the singletrack in earnest, they told me I was 15 seconds off the pace... I cruised through the first lap, not feeling terribly smooth on the singletrack, but managing to pick off Bart Rodberg and Jeff Adamcik. Just before I came through to start my second lap, I noticed that one of my bottles was missing. Blast! I knew I should have taken Katie Swanson up on her offer for a bottle handup! As I started up the hill, someone told me I was about a minute down. Not great. I got to the top of the hill and asked Katie if she had any extra bottles. She didn't have much, but Mark Klein's wife gave me a mostly filled bottle that was a total lifesaver. Despite the fact that I was sweating buckets in the heat and humidity I actually felt like I got stronger on the 2nd lap and was riding the singletrack pretty smoothly. After a couple of miles I thought I started hearing some noises in the the woods that seemed to be coming from ahead of me. I kept the hammer down and about 5 miles out rolled up on the back of the lead quartet. Aaron was in the lead followed by the Sisu boys Tom Carpenter and Tyler Gauthier and then Nikolai Anikin. It became quickly apparent that they were riding a fairly pedestrian pace, certainly not anything like I'd been riding for the last bit. Knowing that we were running out of trail and the SS riders generally don't win all out drag races on the pavement, I went to the front when the first opportunity presented itself in an attempt to turn up the heat. I was pretty successful, but on the crest of the next hill Nikolai launched a blistering attack that I couldn't do much about. Aaron and I both took some shots at pulling back the gap with little effect other than getting a bit of a gap on the Sisu lads. Aaron pulled on some flatter bits before giving me the lead on the last little bits of singltrack. Clear of those, he took the lead as we headed into town on some fast four wheeler trail and finally onto the pavement. He let loose a solid push to the line that was perfect as I was able to stick to his wheel and keep a small gap on Tom. Rolling in for 3rd place on the day and 1st singlespeed was definitely a good day. Curt and Levi came across the line a few minutes later with Brian rounding things off a few minutes after them. Quite the nice day for the Bay Area. After a short cool down, we headed to Carmelitas for for some chow and thimbleberry margaritas. Suitably stuffed, we made a quick stop at Cross Country Sports before heading over to the awards ceremony hosted by the always entertaining Nelson. After the awards ceremony, Curt and I made a dash down to Houghton to check in with our homies at The Bike Shop, and drop off some flyers for BayCross. After some nice breakfast on Sunday morning we got in a solid ride around some of Copper Harbor's finest before heading home. The big bummer of the day was Levi breaking his collarbone towards the beginning of the ride and thus missing out on some sweet shredding. I tried out some super secret new Bontrager tires that will definitely be making an appearance on my bike for the Copper Harbor Fat Tire Festival. For the second week in a row, there is a definite need for some shout outs. Aaron-Thanks for the pull. Chequamegon Bay represent! Curt-3rd in SS! Levi-1st in age group! Meyer-didn't ride the kids' race! Seriously 2nd SS! Sisu Lads-Tough riding! Nikolai-smart riding! Deer Chase Crew-Thanks for the great race! Copper Harbor Crew-Coolest place, best riding, ever! That's all for now folks. No racing the next couple weekends as there isn't much going on and I have to head out east for a wedding. I'll do my best to check in after Copper Harbor. Out.
12/8/2009 Ore to Shore After a short week at home in Ashland, we cruised up to Marquette on Friday afternoon. We checked in and then cruised to the Upfront for some pre-race fuel. I had some really solid cajun salmon and polished things off with a chocolate martini. Mmmm. After a good night's sleep and solid continental breakfast at the econolodge, we got organized, dropped off Margaret with about 10 minutes to spare at the start of the Soft Rock and headed up to the start of the Hard Rock. We all got kitted up and I took off for a quick warm-up. Things felt good and the rain the night before had definitely firmed up the dirt. I ran into Aaron Swanson and Matt Muraski, and we chatted a bit about the upcoming good times. I got a decent spot in the start corral about 3 rows back, which gave me a prime viewing location as the GT Gold Diggers did their thing. I botched the start horribly, missing my pedal and just generally not getting off the line real well. After losing some spots bombing downhill on pavement, I managed to more or less settle in with some folks, still in sight of the leaders heading onto the dirt. Almost immediately after we hit dirt, I was a bit behind Hudson when he got taken out. He was up, fine, but messing with his bike as I went by. Past him, I set about the task of getting myself back in the race. I'd chosen to buck upin a big way this year and I was a little concerned about the combination of the 36x16 and bobsled hill, but it turned out just fine. I ended up running the first pitch, but after that I was back on my bike and cruising up the hill. Over the first half of the race I rode with some folks, but mostly was jumping from group to group moving forward. As we hit the big powerline section, Hudson was back with me, and got a gap as I had to run a few hills. Misery hill felt fine this year. Maybe too fine, as I don't think I really passed anyone, and I'm pretty sure I lost some time on Hudson. I guess I really haven't been doing any ski walking or bounding this summer, so I shouldn't expect to be exceptional at walking uphill with my bike. At the end of the misery hill section I got a nice bottle handup from Kelly with supervision from Porter. Going into the road section I jumped in a paceline with Tim Wilkie and a couple of other fine gentlemen who were kind enough to pull me on the flat and downhill pavement sections that get the party started... Just as we hit the first big climb, we swallowed another group of four riders. I just stayed on top of my gear to the top and looked around to find myself alone. I more or less waited for the other lads to come back with plenty of fast pavement yet to come. Our original four were back together with the guys we'd caught blown right off the back. The four of us worked together pretty well for the remainder of the pavement and easy gravel sections, and I took some pulls where it was slow enough for me to be effective. Once we hit the trails again I went to the front so I could ride my pace. Tim and one of the other gents more or less stayed with me for a bit, but I think we lost one of the other guys in pretty short order. After a few miles of that I'm pretty sure I'd mostly lost both of the other guys and I caught up with TJ Woodruff and Nathan Guerra, who were both having bad luck with their bikes. TJ told me he'd just had his second flat of the day and Nathan was apparently having some issues with his bike. Even though they were taking it pretty easy, they were still moving at a pretty brisk clip in my book, so I hooked up with the train for the remainder of the race. TJ was pretty much driving the bus, though every once in a while, Guerra would take some pulls, and I would move to the front on most of the hills just to keep on top of my gear. With so much of the last 15 miles of the race being downhill, I couldn't have asked for a better ride. One of the guys I'd been riding with bridged up, but got gapped in pretty short order and dropped off the pace. We passed a few folks here and there including Jenna Zander-Rhinehart, the women's winner and Ron Sanborn, the only SS I saw in the second half of the race. Ron ended up in 3rd place for the day. As we approached Kirby's hill, TJ said he wanted to see me ride it, so I figured, 36x16, let's go! With a bit of a push from TJ towards the bottom of the climb, I made it about 3/4 of the way up before stalling out and running the rest of the climb. We pulled in a few more people over the last few miles and passed Aaron who was having a total bummer day with a flat tire. Once we hit the railroad grade/pavement finish, TJ told me he'd lead me out. So I sat on his wheel and kept it cool. About 400 meters out I decided it was go time and tried to real in a couple of folks that had a bit of distance on me. Not the best plan as I had more people on my wheel than I thought and I got outsprinted in fairly dramatic fashion. I probably should have been more patient and stuck on TJ's wheel a until closer to the finish line. Lesson learned: Next time I have a pro leading me out at the finish of the race I'll be more patient... :) After some post race hangin' out, we all headed to L'Attitude with Swank and Nicolai for some lunch. Stuffed with pulled pork and guacamole, we headed back to the hotel for showers and naps before the award ceremony. At the award ceremony, I talked with Ron, who it turns out was out at Wilderness last weekend as well. Except he was really tough and rode a singlespeed. He rode a monster 38x16 this weekend at O2S. After the award ceremony, it was back to the Upfront, where Meyer was totally clutch and got us a table for 9 with no wait. I had a delicious pork chop with blue cheese on top and good times were had by all. As my old and lame companions were dragging me kicking and screaming from the pub, I did manage to stop and chat a bit with Tom Carpenter and congratulate him on his super race for the day. I'm still processing my results. My percent back time from the winners is almost identical to last year, I felt good during the ride and overall feel like I raced a better (faster) race than last year, I managed to pull of 2nd in SS, but I was really looking for a top 20 overall and ended up in 41st. I think that without a WORS race on Sunday, there were a bunch more really fast guys there this year than last, but I'm still a little bummed about my placing overall. All in all, I have to say a solid effort. It's been a while since we've done shout-outs, but I think a few are in order. Matt Muraski- Top 20, sick!, TJ and Guerra thanks for the ride, leadout, etc., Ron-seriously tough, Bay Area Crew-Nice rides by all. That's all for now. Off to the Deer Chase this weekend. Out.
10/8/2009 The best laid plans... As the title implies, things didn't go exactly as planned coming back from Wilderness, which might be partly responsible for the slow update. That said, this is the quickest update I've done in a couple of years, so I think that's actually pretty impressive. Hudson, McKnight and I made it out to State College, PA with no serious mishaps. When we got to the hotel and I told the girl working the desk we had a reservation she looked at me like I was an idiot, so I gave her the reservation number from Travelocity. Then she looked at me like I was an idiot since the reservation was for August 27th, not July 27th. Good thing that the room was booked with no refunds... So if you'll be in State College the end of August, let me know, I have a nice room reserved at the Super 8. After getting ourselves a room, we took the scenic route to Otto's Pub and Brewery. There we enjoyed some of the finest food and drink I've enjoyed in a good while. After a good night's sleep, we awoke to a steady rain outside our window. Just the thing to get everyone's spirits high for a good long bike race... We picked up some delicious breakfast at The Original Waffle Shop, then stopped by the local bike shop for a some race course intel and pre-ride suggestions. They were happy to oblidge, calming our fears about running dry tires despite the significant precip, and giving us what turned out to be a perfect pre-ride route. Having wasted sufficient time, we cruised out to Coburn and by the time our tent was up, the rain had actually stopped and the sun was about to peek out. We got in a sweet pre-ride, checking out the first big climb before bombing back into town. We got a wee bit lost on the way back, but emerged from the woods unscathed and well short of a serious bonk. We cleaned up and headed over to the Elk Creek Cafe and Aleworks in Millheim for some chow. We had a leisurely dinner there, though there were a few miscues as we mistook appetizers for entrees. Sufficiently carbo-loaded, we headed back to camp for a nice night's sleep before the good times to come on Saturday. Saturday morning came waaaaaay too early at like 5:15 or so. The previous day's rain had transformed into a thick fog blanketting our little corner of PA. I wolfed down some oatmeal, filled my bottles and otherwise got myself ready to race by 7:00. The nerves were in full effect, which was kind of fun since they don't really manifest themselves at most of the races I do these days. It's kind of fun to line up not really knowing what you're getting yourself into... After a short riders' meeting, we were off for a mostly neutral rollout on the flat before heading up, up, up and away. Kelly, Matt and I more or less rode together for the first couple climbs, taking things pretty steady. Having started near the back, we still moved up a good bit by the first aid station where we grabbed a bottle and headed on our merry way. The climbs were like nothing we normally experience here in the midwest, going on for miles and miles, but at a pretty moderate grade. It was kind of fun to settle into a rhthym and just cruise up the hills. About 20 miles in Kelly and I were riding together on a rocky descent with Hudson off the front. Kelly moved in front to pass a SSer, they locked bars and went down right in front of me at about 25 MPH. The whole thing went down in slow motion as I tried to figure out how I was going to avoid the crash. Somehow I snuck through the carnage. I thought about stopping for a second, but decided that there were plenty of people around, so I kept on trucking. After a couple more climbs and descents, we got our first taste of singletrack which I succeeded in dorking out in on multiple occasions. I'd like to blame it on the slick as snot rocks and roots, but the bottom line is that I just didn't get my head on straight after all of the fireroad bombing. A wee bit after that we hit the 2nd aid station and I fueled up, refilled bottles and hit the road. My stomach was feeling pretty queasy as I rolled out of the aid station and about a 1/4 mile after the aid station I lost my breakfast while riding along. I have to say that's a first in my time riding bikes. It was good that I got that business out of the way because the trailed turned upwards in short order and didn't let up for a while. This climb was kind of interesting because it started off pretty easy, and then the grade notched up as the climb continued. I actually felt pretty good on the climb and for much of the next section of the race, which included a pretty sweet singletrack descent. I was stuck behind some slower riders for a bit, but figured that maybe that was for the best. In short order, some locals showed up and asked to pass my intelligent friends. I figured I'd join the fun and managed to keep things upright while keeping up with them for the remainder of the descent. After a quick stop at aid station three, Hudson and I started up a singletrack climb that just didn't quit. Part way up the climb I really started to notice that, while it was still remarkably humid, at least it had gotten hot and muggy. I started to feel real issues with overheating, and the climb didn't offer much relief with no air movement because of the tight foliage and slow speed we were riding. By the time we reached the top, I was feeling in seriously overheated. We toyed around with some flat for a bit before heading down an absolutely ripping singletrack descent, which helped me cool of a bit. By the bottom of the descent I was feeling much better and started up the next climb in what seemed a reasonable pace. In short order I wa feeling the effects of the heat again. That was the story of most of the rest of my race. I would flirt with heat stroke as my body struggled to cool itself on the climbs, cool myself on the descents and start the process again on the next climb. The last couple of hours were kind of a blur of long steady climbs, some short steep ones, a bit of nice desending to cool things off a bit, some hike-a-bike and a trip or two through some railroad tunnels for good measure. I finally cruised across the finish line in 9:06 to see Kelly standing there with his arm in a sling with a beer in his hand. Turns out Kelly broke his scapula and had paid the ER a visit while I was out riding my bike in the hills. Hudson was in just as I regained coherent thoughts. After a quick shower, we grabbed some chow and cheered Mike across the line. Good times. The verdict on Wilderness: Super awesome! Great organization, the aid station volunteers were amazing, the course was challenging, and I got a chance to do something different that was quite challenging. I'll definitely do another one. The only real hole in our preparations was the lack of training in the heat, which just really hasn't been an option this summer with the awesome weather we've been having in Ashland. Given Kelly's condition, the only logical decision was to cruise back to Ashland in short order so he could see a doctor. After a pretty sketchy night at the Motel 6 in flint, which I awoke from truly thankful that all the wheels were still on my car, we made it back to Ashland no-worries. Ore to Shore this past weekend. I'll update from that in short order since this entry has gone on long enough already. Out.
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©2005 Paul Belknap All rights reserved. Why do I do this? Check out About Contact Me My disclaimer: The opinions expressed on this website are mine and mine alone and they do not reflect the position of Gonzaga University, if they did, you would be hearing as much about their nordic ski team as their men's basketball team. :)