Confessions Of A Strava Addict

Hi. My name is Jason and I am a Strava Addict. An obsessive, compulsive, segment scouring, I’ll do anything for a fix, my life is falling apart but I can justify it, segment addict.

I once thought Strava segments were great. They were a way to measure yourself against teammates and rivals; providing some competition outside of a race. Well not anymore. I no longer want anyone else to join Strava unless I know they are slower than me. Matt and Bryan, stay the hell off. My coworker who just bought a used hybrid? Let me help you set up your account…

One second. How long is one second? Not long right? Well, one second haunted me for days. For some reason I had found myself in the top 10 on one of Cincinnati’s most popular hills. The people in front of me were all seriously faster than me but there were some big names behind me. I was starting to feel pretty good about this since my time had stood for quite a while. Then I noticed I got bumped to 11th! Oh well, I said. I am sure Mott, or Joe, or Dan, or some other super fast dude decided to go hard on the climb. Turns out two people were tied for 9th, pushing me to 11th. How much faster were they? They had me by ONE FREAKING SECOND! So naturally I reacted like every other Strava addict. I freaked the eff out!

We rode this segment on our Sunday morning team ride. I was not having a great day and we had already ridden 30 miles super hard by the time we hit the hill. I faded off the back as we climbed. I was not thinking about how climbing above threshold after 30 brutal miles in February will pay dividends at the Hilly Billy Roubaix in June. No, I was thinking how I was not going to move back into the top 10 on that ride. As soon as I knew I was not going to best my time I gave up a little. I still rode it hard, but I did not stand up on the last little kicker and sprint.

Monday my legs were shot so I noodled around on my lunch ride, avoiding all segments. Tuesday the weather was going to be nice and I had no meetings scheduled. So I planned my segment revenge. I installed a new bottom bracket Monday night rather than play Candyland with my daughter. (Don’t judge!). I packed a medium size baselayer rather than the large to save some weight. (I’m telling you Strava is worse than meth!). I ate a good breakfast at work. I skipped the coffee for water, I stretched at my desk. Then at lunch went out, pumped up the tires, removed my saddle bag and did not carry a water bottle. After a couple miles of warm up I attacked the segment. I made a note of the time on my Garmin at the start, and then rode as hard as I could without blowing up. Never looking at the garmin, just turning the cranks a little faster than I thought I should. I know this climb so well I know to be patient. There is a false “summit” near the top and the last kicker is exposed to the wind as there are no trees lining the road anymore so I knew to save some. I cleared the trees and stood up and sprinted for the segment end. I glanced down at the garmin and knew it would be close.

I was then in the unfortunate position of an addict knowing my next fix is coming but not for a few hours. What to do?!?! I don’t have an ANT stick at work!!! Damnit! The afternoon dragged on. 5:00 o’clock hit and I did my best Fred Flintstone and tore ass home. The dog can wait, I gotta upload! Come on! Come on! Done! Go to ride, YES, GO TO RIDE DAMNIT! 2 trophies! Wait, what if they are “3rd best time on that other segment no one cares about”? Scroll down…. And just like that first hit on the crack pipe, euphoria! PR on the segment. 9th overall! By how much? You guess it, one freaking second.

Alright, I gotta go. Someone beat my KOM on the segment I made out of my driveway… What? It’s uphill.

2012 - RRP at World's End

2012 training has begun. And since the world is going to end this year we decided to start our training with a party. We ate official team sushi

And cake

The ladies built pyramids

And then we made it rain up in here thanks to Mr. VIP himself
Registration opened for the Sub 9 Death March Jan 1st. I think Cox and I won the registration race (hey, a win is a win!) I have hyped this race many times as the best race I have ever ridden. The t-shirt design for 2012 only raises the bar.This year is bitter-sweet as this will be the last race for our TD racing teammate Huddle before he moves to North Carolina. We will miss riding, racing, and hanging with you but will be super jealous of the awesome riding you are moving closer to. Godspeed my friend.Speaking of moving to awesome places to ride, Jon Timmons will be flying the RRP colors in Nashville from now on. Again, sad to lose a great friend but Nash-Vegas will be a better place with the Timmons family and now we have an excuse to get down to some killer Central TN riding. Jon submitted a top 10 at the yearend party which was freaking spot on. Read it here. I couldn't get any pics of Jon to upload here but he does exist.

2012 Flying Pig Marathon registration goes up in price Feb 1 so go here and register for this super fun marathon. The RRP 513 will have a ladies 4 person relay, at least 3 or 4 Half runners, and one full 26.2 this year. The non runners are talking about bringing Heckle Hill from Kings CX to Eden Park. I hope the Pig can handle being covered in Rainbow Unicorn vomit of Awesome. Wonder if Team Hungry could be talked into bringing the Heckle Monster?

A number of folks are registered for Cohutta and Mohican already so it looks like we will have a nice big 513 contingent in the NUE series. Jeni is committed to racing for the overall this year and doing Cohutta, Syllamo’s Revenge, Mohican, Lumberjack, and Wilderness 101! This in addition to a number of 12 and 24 hours races. Safe to say she will probably rack up the most race miles of 2012.

And last but not least: want to get some early race miles in your legs? Looking for something better than the triangular torture device in your basement? Come race the Winter MTB Series at Harbin Park. Pre-Reg here to save some $$. Don’t want to race? We need volunteers to help too.

Posted from 10 Forward while enjoying a fine Romulan ale.

J

... and that's a wrap.

That's me failing to grab a dollar handup and the CX gods punishing me by wacking me in the face with my bars. And so ended 2011.

2011. O-V-E-R. Stick a fork in it. D-U-N. I suppose I should have some profound words about the year that was, or a witty year in review write up. I apologize in advance for lack of wittiness and lack of profoundness. Wow, both of those are actual words according to MS Word. Who knew?

2011 did see the “maturing” of our little race team experiment. We capped out at about 25 riders and I think everyone is comfortable with that number. There are a few people who have standing invites to come ride with us but for the most part we are where we need to be. And I cannot say enough about the quality of the people who I call teammates. I would (and have on more than one occasion) trust my kid with any of them. As said by more than one person we are not a team, but the fastest family in the area. Well, some more fast then others but you get the idea. It’s weird, I have friends on other teams, good friends, and I am sure they share a bond with their teammates but we have truly built something special. I love each and every one of these guys and gals and look forward to sharing more races, podiums, epic rides, training rides, heckling contests, and most importantly, beers, with you in 2012 and beyond.

As for actual racing, we started the year at the Sub 9 Death March and that is still my favorite race/ride/event I have ever participated in. We actually raced pretty well too. The summer was not as “epic” as I had planned and did only the East Fork XC race and the John Bryan 6 hour race on the MTB. JB continues to be a close 2nd to the <9DM for pure fun. I did however, get talked into racing some local Wednesday night crits on the road bike. I went into it saying “these are training for CX only” and left wanting more. I am looking forward to the crit season more than is healthy for a non-roadie!

CX was a bit of a letdown for me this year, I was in the best racing shape of my life, I bought tubies and had aspirations of a solid top 15 overall in the Mens 35+ cat 3 class this year. Well, the OVCX schedule conflicted with my life a bit and I did not do enough races to qualify for the overall series. But if I had, I would have had that top 15. Yay. OK, so it was not much of an accomplishment but I felt like I was racing pretty well this year. All in all I have no regrets, and as Myerson so famously cried, “It’s just stupid bike racing, but it means everything.”

For 2012 right now the plan is to race for fun. At the end of the CX season some of the fun of racing was going away, being replaced by the drudgery of training, racing, cleaning the mud off the bike AGAIN, and doing it all over next week. I have found I really like the endurance racing more than the XC stuff, and maybe more than CX (blasphemy!). The <9DM is on the schedule for sure, hopefully some kind of early season 6 hour or 50 mile type MTB race (April/May time frame), I am trying like hell to make Hillybilly Roubaix fit (June), a bunch of Wednesday night crits (June/July), John Bryan 6 hour if it happens again, Maybe the 6 hour at the 24 hours of DINO, Wayne Ultra, and the Sub 9 Gravel Grovel. CX may take a back seat next year. Who knows though? Half the fun is planning this crap just to see it never come to fruition.

If the interwebs are lucky I might blog a little more too…until then, Merry Christmas!

Having your CX cake and puking it back up

There’s been a lot of talk about the CX Hangover from STG followed one week later with the Cincy3CX weekend. That is a lot of CX in 8 days. Not to worry though, USGP Derby City Cup is this weekend. Consider that your Coughlin's Red Eye of CX.
Quick recaps: Storm the Greens. Not held at an old golf course anymore so the name is sorta dated. The venue moved to Eva Bandman park, home of the USGP and the 2012 Master’s Worlds and 2013 UCI Elite world champs. And a big ass mud puddle.So the venue is world class, and I went into it with high expectations and the Papa John’s crew did not disappoint. Jeni had the RB (Rogue Battlecruiser) set up course-side for our home base. I brought the whole fam-damily and the Farrell clan was in full force too, setting up a day of racing, drinking, and child-wrangling. I don’t think drinking a High Life while racing makes me a bad parent. I mean, I passed on the bourbon shot hand ups.

This was Halloween so we all got to play dress up. Jeni and Sparkles (the Horse, not the Mullet) stole the show.I loved the race, I felt good, loved the course, rode a great race. Still finished dead mid pack. I am nothing if not consistent.

On to UCI3. I raced Friday only as I liked the course the best last year and these races carry no OVCX points now. Plus I wanted to just cheer and heckle on Sunday. And heckle we did!

The course Friday was brutal for me. Probably my worst race ever. All power climbs and 2 inches of mud everywhere. I had nothing in the tank. I was not lapped but I was pulled a lap early. I did not mind at all. I did get to see and hang with the Van Dessel team of Tony, Julia, and Jennifer again. It's always great to see them.

Sunday we decided to bring it! And it was brought. Basecamp was set up Saturday night with the RB
and then we went to work during the races!
All this resulted in a heckle-off challenge between us at Rogue and the Shamrock team for the OVCX Finale at Kings CX in December. Buckle up boys! Buckle up!

Mid Season CX Post

Shit, half the Cyclocross season is over already. Where did the year go? Oh well, a few snippets and observations so far:

• When new teammates are fast they just make the rest of us look slow. Since joining up in mid September, most of Bryan’s race days have ended like this: (although the see-thru skin suit may be a bad look...)

• Masters aged racers are delicate, fragile little things. Seiler, Segal and Kay are done for the season, Jerry missed a few weeks, some dude I don’t know taco’ed a wheel and reportedly he spent some time in the ER, and Matt is still nursing his busted up wrist from trying to hop barriers.

• It it’s raining it’s Wednesday.

• There are at least 13,674 children racing for Lionhearts and RedZone combined.

• They are ALL faster than me.

• They all have $9,000 bikes.

• I am jealous.

• Racing at noon > racing at 8:00 am.

• Convincing one of your teammates to buy an RV is a worthwhile endeavor.

• Running into an Airedale sucks ass.

This season has been fun so far, and I am hoping I can keep some kind of form through the next month of sporadic racing and dwindling daylight. I am however already looking at next year’s race schedule. Sub 9 Death March is locked in, at least one “epic” MTB race will find its way on to the schedule, hopefully another gravel road race (or 2), some local 6 hour races, and then back at CX. I so want to do the American Ultracross Championship Series but that is probably a gravel road right to divorce. So, if anyone wants to do these races and let me live vicariously through you, that would be appreciated.

That’s it till STG. I will try to get some race reports or at least a recap or two up during the remainder of the season.
JG

Tell Me Again Why I Thought Catting Up Was A Good Idea?

Huber’s Apple CX on Sunday, the Bob’s Red Mill Oatmeal Cup, was my first “non-beginner” Cyclocross race. What’s funny is all the sandbaggers (errr, “rookies”) from last year in the 4s lined up next to me again in the 3s… the more things change…

I was told that Huber’s Apple farm/winery/restaurant/vineyard was a great place for the family and a great cx course. So, I loaded up the wife, child, father in law, mother in law, brother in law, and 2 nephews for the 2 ½ drive to Starlight, IN. Can’t find it on a map? That’s because the only thing in Starlight, IN is a silo. Seriously.

We arrive at the venue and I must say, Joe Huber has quite a spread. I unload, register, change and pin a number. The fam heads over to the farm to take hayrides, pick apples and ride ponies while I warm up. The course is fast but challenging. A steep run up is rideable but at what cost? A double sand pit the same. Overall a great test for the new tubies (worked flawlessly) and a good reminder what CX is all about (sweet, sweet pain). Big props out to the Bob’s Red Mill team for course design and a well run event. Those guys are 100% class. And not slow on bikes either.

My race was fairly uneventful. Good start, sand pit tangled everyone up, the fast guys dropped me, I caught and passed a few riders, I held off Christian because he only had 2 gears. I was the last rider not lapped so my final lap was lonely until the elite guys warming up caught up to me. Having my father in law as a cheering/screaming lunatic on the hill climb made it hurt a little less. The shouts of “C’mon Rogue!” always push me a little, and having my daughter ringing her “jingle bell” at the sand pit always makes me go faster. Not so fast I can’t smile and wave though… and best cheer goes to my wife who channeled Ricky Bobby combined with the Trent to Mikey speech, screaming at me in the sand that I was an “Animal in the sand! A SAND ANIMAL!”

This year in the 3s is going to be a challenge. 45 minutes is a loooonnnnnng time and all the racers are fast(er). Hopefully I can “race myself into shape”. After my race we headed over to shop for overpriced pie filling, took a lap through the corn maze, and then sat down to the buffet dinner the racers got at a discount. DAMN! Mrs. Huber can make some fried chicken and apple cobbler. This was probably my first race ever where I did not leave with a calorie deficit. I am glad this place is 2.5 hours from my house because I would be racing Clydesdale.

Here are crappy cell phone pics proving I climbed the steep hill.

And here is the real reason we came down here. Dad’s race can’t compete with this.

Apple CX Weekend-Its Okay

So why did I start this off with Pearl Jam covering a Dead Moon song?(and go look up the original, solid 80's Oregon husband and wife punks). I guess between starting a new job, working like crazy and training less than I'd like to as I upgraded to Cat 3's, this is my thought....not a great plan for winning but this first race is just to jump in deep.

So whats on the menu?

We have a big weekend coming up here in the village. Friday we have Ryan Freaking Trebon doing a crossy clinic over at Eva Bandman. Thats a solid start and would be awesome even if Apple CX wasnt Saturday and Sunday.
But it is, boys and girls.
I'll be missing Saturdays race due to a conflict w KidA's CC schedule, but I'll be there to get my ass handed to me on Sunday as we haul it thru the orchards at Joe Hubers. Im thinking JoeCz and the BRM CX boys and ladies have a few fun things up their sleeves.

Time to throw it out there and see what happens.

A Tree Farm @ Apple CX?

Oh yes, cyclocross season is coming and theres already some cool shit afoot. Like what you say? Inquisitive little shit, arent you. How about a clinic with Ryan Trebon to kick off Apple Cross? You better believe I registered myself before I posted this. Im a huge fan and cant wait to see if he can teach normal sized people some of the trick that are usually reserved for the more "seiler-esque" in the group.
And then theres the main event. Apple Cross is at Huber's Apple orchard, so theres actually stuff for your family to do instead of just standing around pretending not to be embarrassed by your "racing" efforts. What? Just me?
Well, we had a blast last year. We had lunch and picked apples all after a good effort at sucking on the cross course.
I like racing thru the orchard and the setting just feels like fall.
Check out the website. Hubers AppleCross
No, seriously, do it now.
More to come on this...

Shhhh! I think I hear cowbells in the distance…

If you haven’t heard Cyclocross season is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Time to glue up the tubies, procure your fine embrocations, and be able to say “I put on my new skinsuit” and not have it be creepy.

Ever wonder what a CX bike would look like if Christmas threw up on it?

Only in CX racing can we get excited about ugly bikes. Sure, those swanky Iglehearts are bad ass. And the Quantonium injected, Unabtainium alloy/Carbon fibre mix frames weigh like ½ a pound and are at least 63% more vertically compliant and 72% more laterally stiff. But there is always something special about the ugly franken bike most of us race. And there is something to be said about putting $600 wheels on a $100 bike like I will this year. My wife sure had something to say about it… My current cross frame only has 2 dents and the stays only have two coats of touch up paint. That’s practically brand new for a CX rig.

Anyway, registrations are opening. All the OVCX races this year are on Bikereg.com for one stop shopping. We have Huber’s Apple Cross and the Lionheart CX as pre-season races this year. And for the first time the Ohio Valley gets a USAC Regional Masters Championship race.

This week all the practices are starting and next week the weekly CX TT series in Cincinnati starts. Since the road time trial is called the “race of truth”, I am dubbing the CX version the “race of it’s-not-a-lie-if-I-believe-it.”

Hup-hup buttercups.

Racing for Relief

The John Bryan 6 Hour Race for Relief is the fundraiser to pay for the port-a-johns at the mountain bike trail head at John Bryan State Park in Yellow Springs OH. A good cause we all benefit from when nature calls. And it is one of the most fun events of the year. Add to that Jeff Cyrus and I took home 3rd place last year and it's no wonder I was looking forward to it.

Saturday night I had trouble falling asleep. Mayhap is was the 3 lbs of pasta from Pompillio’s (of Rain Man toothpick scene fame) or the tub of ice cream I washed it down with. Dunno, but as the midnight Sportscenter came on I figured I had better get to sleep. I awoke at 5:15 am, stumbled out to make coffee, glanced out the window into the pre-dawn and wondered why my neighbors left a strobe light on all night. Turns out it was actually lightning. Uh-oh, I have a 6 hour MTB race today… oh well, maybe it won’t rain.

I eat some oatmeal, drink some coffee, handle my morning bidness, and get dressed. Pack the cooler with PB&J sandwich, a recovery drink, and a 24 oz can of Hudy Amber. Grab the 5 gallon water jug and head into the garage to wait on Cyrus to pick me up. Stierwalt was supposed to carpool with us but because of a moment of sweet-cx-barrier-bunny-hopping stupidity he now looks like this:
At about 6:15 I am huddled in my garage while thunder and lightning crash and the rain is pouring down sideways. Good omen for a mountain bike race right? Jeff and Cox get there and we head north toward Yellow Springs. About 30 mins into the drive the rain stops and the roads are dry. Reports from the Rouge Racing Project Shanty Town that J-Roo and D-Train set up are of no rain on course! Sweet.

We roll into the parking lot to see this:

That’s what I’m talking about. Our home for the day, RRP Shanty Town.

96 total racers were participating. RRP had 18 (18.75% of the field!). Including the greater Rogue Family of: QCW (Dobrozi’s, Petrov’s, and Big Air Jer), Sparky, Corey, BKing, the BWR crew (Jimmy Road Rash, TBBE, Gerry, Mama Petrov, Gers, TJ, and Scott), Marty-Mar, Bill, B-Horton Who heard a Who, the Lionhearts (Nickzilla, Kenzie, and Rachel), the Trek Store Cincy team of B-Jet & Matt and the Redzone Haley Duo, we had damn near half the field covered with people to cheer for/heckle.

Bryan Horton came bearing gifts from Team CNC: so the day started proper.


We milled about, getting dressed, forming team “strategies” and the solo riders were trying to mentally prepare for between 50 and 90 miles of “fun” .


Last year I started for me and Cyrus so this year he got to do 4 laps and me 3. The start was LeMans style, with a pretty long run, uphill.

Huddle looking manly as he skips through the bikes Jeff at the start. Notice Darrin running the wrong direction... he was not the only one to "lose" his bike in the confusion After that it was back to camp for the teammates to wait for them to exit the woods. About 55 minutes later the leaders come out of the singletrack. Brent, Cameron, James, Joe, Marty all together. There’s one of the Haley’s, and one of the Dobrozi’s. Those kids are like freakin’ Tribbles, must be a million of them. Placke was in there, Evan takes off in the lead of the men’s duo. Darrin and Jeff exit together in a group. Looks like RRP are dominating the front of the duo race. Gary and I take off chasing Evan and the other Dobrozi. I try to hold Gary’s wheel for as long as I can but he is not interested in waiting on me. I let him go knowing I cannot afford to blow up on lap one. In the turns I see Gerry from BW up ahead. I know Joe had a great first lap and she is the leader in the co-ed duo. Slowly I start to reel her in. On the entrance to the second part of singletrack Corey had caught me. We both catch onto Gerry, we pass, and Gerry settles on my wheel. The miles tick by and we are in a smooth groove. In some of the power sections I pull away from Gerry and then catch Dobrozi right at the exit. Jeff takes over and I go try to cool down and get a status update. Looks like I gave up about 4 mins to Lunsford. Corey made up all the ground Jeff gained on Bryan on their laps and Dave and Evan are still in the lead we think.

My next lap is quite uneventful. I pass some people, some people pass me. I am pretty sure I am not racing any of them. I got to ride with Huddle for a while till he decided it was time to drop me.
From the looks of things the pointy end of the male solo race is flying! No huge gaps with time to rest in the pits. The top 4 are separated by about 1 min. James had a great write up about the pointy end of the race here.
As the laps and hours tick be the day becomes a blur. It’s hot. The “hills” on the course all feel like Everest, the recovery time is not enough. But it is a blast. Jeff gets back on his 3rd lap and we are sitting somewhere between 5th and 7th place. Corey and BKing, Darrin and Gary, Dave and Evan are well out in front of us, there is another group we don’t know, and the Dobrozi clan is out there somewhere. I need to turn a lap near to an hour to send Jeff out for a 4th and get us a 7th lap. It is much harder to hammer this lap, I have no power so I try to stay smooth and be more efficient. As the time ticks by I start to worry I will miss the cut off. I come out with about 10 minutes to spare. Mission accomplished.

As the results come in we start to realize the dominance the Cincy area showed with winners in just about every division/category. I am not gonna list them all, go here for the results.

Turns out Jeff and I beat our time from last year by 2 minutes yet came in 5th this year. That’s what we get for convincing all our fast friends to come race with us! This event gets better every year. No fancy prizes, no uptight rules, no USAC points on the line, it is just good old fun with a great group of people. The pro’s always say the course does not make the race, the racers do. That’s true everywhere. The course, the prizes, the glamour, those things don’t make a great race. The friends old and new, the competition, the feeling you cannot let your teammate down, those things make the race. And the beers afterward, those help too.

A few more pics.

Darrin, before he washed his legs off, and Gary holding some hardware.
Joe (The Best Bike Blog Ever) looking smug and showing of the newest fashion trend: Cycling-Dork Chic while Gerry holds an imaginary beach ball. Of course they were walking to the top step of the podium so they get a pass.
Sweet RRP banner and Matt's frame hanging just in case... he loaned his wheels to Corey for the race.

Fools Gold- This Is Gonna Hurt Me More Than Its going To Hurt You. Promise.

If you remember this graphic from last years Fools Gold 50, you know that the real pain was at the beginning. I prefer it that way, but looked at this link sent by @bikezen's brother in law.
Fools Gold 2011
Somehow its now 8400 ft of climbing....oy.
At the 5m mark you start the bulk of the work, cresting a 1500 ft climb at 9ish miles. It maxes out around 17%.
No. Really.
I guess skipping the hill repeats is a bad idea.
Our boy Mahokey at xxc mag always says "sometimes fun hurts pretty f**cking bad. I think Im starting to understand what those asterisks are hiding.

Like Coming Home

Long time no blog, right? I know its been a while since I've darkend this domain. Glad that Garner-Ray has been keeping things interesting. Okay he's been writing stuff. Interesting might be a push, but he's one of those "creative" types, so it's nice to pat him on the head and keep him where we can see him.
So where the helll've I been and is it worth writing about? For the most part, just around and not really.
In the last few months, or at least since February, I've been laid off, rehired and then recruited to join a former competitor. and we ran a short track mtb series that you may be familiar with.
I've been feeling like my next endurance event ought to be on one of these.





Granted I've been doing a good bit of lifting. These things get heavy after the first few.



And I've been doing my fair share of these. Thats not a filter. I really look that blurry when I ride.



And thats not even a furly! Those are still going strong. Nothing better than having that 2:30 feeling at 11:15, right?
All of the career changes gave me a lot of time to ride, but not a lot of motivation to do things blog-worthy. When Im crushed with work, family and racing , I'm happy as hell. I now know that I could not retire at this age. I would be a danger to myself and all those around me. Granted, it was nice to watch a lot of the tour in real time. I'd rather be busy. And so now the TdF is over, theres talk of Cyclocross in the air and I've signed up for a 50 mile mtb race. Back to Georgia for another crack at Fools Gold w Seiler , Collins and whoever else gets tricked into going. This is the pace I like. Busy as hell with the new job, training for a cool race and trying to fit it all in early so I dont miss time with my kids and the domestic goddess/most patient spouse ever.

Without going on for no reason(its a blog so that mightve been redundant), its good to be back and with the mtb season wrapping up and cx getting ready to pop. I guess its time to dust this bully pulpit off and start flinging invective around again.

So you've been warned.

Crit’n and Podiums and Such. Or, a mid-summer round up of Loving The Pain in multiple ways in the 513.

Unless you live under a rock or in a cave, you know the Midwest has seen an exceptionally wet spring/early summer. Actually, if your cave or rock were in the Midwest you knew it was wet. You probably drowned. So, thanks to the rain our summer mountain bike racing got off to a late start.

Northern OH was actually blessed with a decent first week of June so the folks racing the Mohican 100 lucked out this year and avoided another mud-fest. A good number of Rogues and Friends of Rogue raced both the 100K and 100 mile versions. Huge kudos to all those who raced! It is on my short list of races I want to do it just has to fit the schedule.
Late June saw the MTB Time Trial series start up at England Idlewild. This being the first year for the series at that park there were a few bugs to work out but overall it was a huge success. D-Train Roosen (nee Grosch) took home 2nd overall! End of June also saw Stephen Huddle depart on his ITT of the Tour Divide (see Prior post and comments).

July is when the racing really started though. July 10th was the East Fork OMBC race. Last season we brought home multiple podiums and a 2 wins so we had plenty to race for this year. The day started with us hanging one ginormous Rouge Racing Project banner on our tent near the finish. Our other ginormous banner was hung on the turn onto the new section of singletrack ON THE COURSE. Yeah, we were that team! Matt stepped up and raced in the big boy race with the experts while most of us stayed put in the sport (cat 2) category. Ted, Barry, and Dave represented in the Novice group. The sport race started with me, Butch, and a group of about 4 others taking the hole shot. With about ¼ mile to go to the singletrack I got on the front and tried to put down the hammer. No big gaps but we all hit the singletrack together with a decent gap back to the chasers. I was slowly moving backward through the field as the 40+ group was catching me. Jeff and Becher came by me about halfway through lap 1. I figured I had settled in to about 10th overall in the 30-39 group and was pretty much all alone in the woods. Oh, did I mention it was Africa hot outside? 95+ with 95% humidity. I exit the 9 miles of singletrack and begin the 2 miles of road with 2 guys on my wheel. I dispatch them on the paved climb and have a huge gap back to the closest chaser. Feeling pretty good I see Evan and one other in front of me. I close the gap to them on road and am about 200 feet back on the singletrack. Knowing I have them reeled in I settle in to a comfortable pace. Except that is when disaster strikes. Exiting a small bridge my back wheel catches a root, handlebars clip tree, I dab my foot to keep from going down and instantly cramp in my calf. DAMN! Stop, rub out the cramp, drink, and take a GU. No one passes me thanks to the gap I had from the road, but I hear ‘em coming. As I struggle to recover a few folks pass me. I settle in on a wheel for a while of a younger racer until we hit the tech trail and I hit a bump and hear a really loud crack from my saddle. Crap, now what? Fearing the worst, I stop and see my saddle is pointed nose up about 30 degrees. Not broken on the rails, only bent (squished is a better description) so I try to pound it level. No luck. I ride home with a cramp, a very uncomfortable and broken saddle, and a 17th place finish. Turns out Butch had the same cramps and wound up top 10ish or so. RRP was represented on the podium though with a win in the 50+ novice from B-Huge, 3rd in Sport 40+ for Jeff, and 5th in 40+ for Becher.

This past weekend saw the running of the first ever Hueston Woods XC Classic. I sat this one out but Jeff was 2nd in 40+ Cat 2, Darrin 2nd and Dave P. 3rd in Cat 2 30-39, J-Roo took 2nd in Expert women, and Butch came in 5th in Cat 2 30-39. We had a few more race but unsure of their final finishes. Again, it was hot, hot, hot! Also, congrats to James Billiter and “local legend” Marty Sanders for their 2nd and 3rd place finishes in expert men.

Sandwiched in between those 2 races was race #1 of the Mainstrasse Crit series. This was the first time racing on the road for each of us 4 RRP racers. We represented pretty well all things considered. Jeff was on pace to score points before an untimely flat, I was lapped with only 4 to go, Butch had a solid mid-pack finish and Ted was super pleased with his race proclaiming afterward “Not DFL! That’s a win, baby!” I figure anytime you leave a cat 5 crit with no broken body parts and no broken bike parts that is a successful race. Add in the fact we were racing on cobblestones (only in the turns, thank you very much city of Covington!) and I will take it every time! Some pics of us trying to fit in with the roadies are below.

Vaya con Dios Amigo!

You remember that movie ya'll watched last year? The one about those crazy folks riding damn near 3,000 miles on their mountain bikes? Fully self-supported? Ride the Divide.

Well, this guy
is leaving for his 3rd Tour Divide. That's right, we have a bona-fide Rogue teammate doing an ITT on the Tour Divide. Yes, he has done this ultimate test of endurance/fitness/mental (un)stability twice before, but never as an ITT. (That stands for Individual Time Trial, not the technical community college)

Huddle chose not to leave with the "Grand Depart" because most of the northern section of the route was still snow covered so he is leaving on 06/24/2011 totally solo. This presents him a very different challenge. Namely, fighting off bears all alone. Oh, and having no one to talk to for at least 21 days. Just a man alone with his thoughts. And chamois cream. Lots and lots of chamois cream.

The email we all received today was:
"packing up, last minute additions, printed the re-routes(dont' want to use them), freaking out, super nervous, etc etc.


Track me here: http://tourdivide.org/leaderboard
or here when it's up: http://trackleaders.com/tourdividei.php?name=stephen_huddle
listen to me here: http://mtbcast.com/site2/feed/ "

Hopefully he finishes up in New Mexico looking like the first pic and less like this one:

You can read about some of his prep work and recaps at www.stephenhuddle.net


Godspeed my friend!

3 Words- Read. The. Paper.

Nice article on Short Track in the local fishwrap