MDW

Memorial Day Weekend. Just some pics.


Researched the Quadfecta / Four Banger (Drew). Parked at Brommelsiek. Rode Brommelsiek, connected to Lost Valley and rode it, Katy to Matson rode it, Katy to Klondike rode it, met up with Jess and rode back to Defiance where she'd parked the other car. I believe a true Quadfecta / Four Banger involves riding each trail system in each direction, and returning to your start. I wound up with about 50 miles, that would put you closer to 75 I think. I live 8 easy paved miles from Bromm, could just ride there, make it 90 or so total. Anyone interested? We could have some kind of feast / beer at the house upon return.


Brommelsiek Entrance



On the Bromm-Mound Connector



Lost Valley



Matson



Klondike (I saw 3 Black Rat snakes that day, along with a LOT of mosquitoes, lizards. and squirrels)



Klondike Structures





Ewok Village in progress





Check out the background, down with the ship







Recovery



Probably sent 10 of these down the toilet this weekend


Lake St. Louis Paddling


Largest house in St. Charles County under construction. 20,000 square feet. Being built by one of the owners of the local auto warranty company you may be hearing about on the news, they're under investigation



Dave and I dorking around at Cosmo Park, pretending to be tough. Is that possible in spandex?



Absorbing Shakespeare's and Sparky's.

The Future

These guys are German

http://www.jetlev-flyer.com/ (site is not bicycle content, sorry, but still cool, wfs)

I'll bring one to the Burning at the Bluff 20 year lakehouse reunion.

Jetpacks are very real. A friend of mine filmed some of our night ride at Binder Lake the other evening, will post when its up, assuming it turned out ok.

Bass Fishin

So I was lucky enough to get the invite to fish a Bass tournament with my dad. Went down to Lake of the Ozarks Friday evening, fished all day Saturday and half of the day Sunday. As far as the fishing goes, we didn't do so well. One Drum, one Blue Catfish, one Bluegill, one Sunfish, and five or six Largemouth/Spotted Bass that were too short to keep. I had a great time. I've never really "gotten" fishing but this time I think I caught on, I really did enjoy myself. Most importantly I spent some wonderful time with my dad.










We were cruising down the lake at about 40mph when we felt a slight jolt and we lost all speed, though the rpm's stayed up. He shut the boat down and we looked around to see what had happened. We raised the motor thinking maybe we'd hit something and damaged the prop. We hit something, that log, with the lower unit. It was t-boned on the front of the lower unit perpindicular to the boat. Impaled about two inches deep. You couldn't do that if you tried.

Syllamo's Revenge

This past Saturday was Syllamo's Revenge. We all rode there once before a few years ago. This race filled up in four days so I had been registered and committed for quite a while. Racers came from all over, AR, MO, TN, GA, IL, MS, TX, CO, LA, KS, FL, OK, NC, MN.

I was able to talk the wonderful Ms. Jessica



in to coming along so we both took off work on Friday and made the journey down. We stayed at Anglers White River Resort which was decent but not close to as nice as the cabin that we stayed in last time. Noisy wall unit AC, no microwave, no coffee maker, no fridge. I'll look for a rental cabin again next time. We checked out the race start location, then went in to town for some food. Went back to Tommy's Famous for some really good pizza. Then we grabbed a fudge brownie sundae from some place on the square, watched some pickin and grinnin, and went back to the room to rest up for the following day. I had some riding to do and Jess had a bunch of studying to do for a final.

Next morning went nice and smooth and we got prepped for the 8AM start. Here are some guys milling around before the start. Eventual winner Dwayne #340, Scott Peipert behind and to the right, Doug Long (won big last year at nationals I believe) in the black 360 kit, and Chris Ploch to the right of him.



Let me see if I can get these two guys right. Nico Matt Storm Klein and Mason Eddie Toscani Hoffmeyer. Yeah that's it.



There were close to 350? registered racers I believe and I think something like 290 lined up that morning. The race starts with a short flat section and then a mile long fairly steep fire road climb. I can't climb at all so I figured I'd try to at least get to the climb early and let everyone work their way around me. So, I lined up in the front row, in front of 290 other racers. I really don't belong there but it was nice to have open road in front of me. It worked all right as I was one of the first to reach the base of the climb.



Then everyone passed me. We funnelled in to the singletrack and the trail eventually got a little bit technical I guess. The rocks were really slippery from the previous rains so once one bobbled, so did everyone behind. There was quite a bit of dismounting in the first hour, a few times I'd slow before a technical section and let the guys ahead of me get through, then ride it myself. I thought many times about just riding around or running around everyone, but I didn't know who else was waiting to do the same thing, so I felt obligated to wait my turn in line. That's the way it is in big races I think and if you don't want to get caught in the jam than you need to get there first. I like riding the technical stuff so it was fun either way.


Pics available here. I'm buying one so I hope it's OK to use here.

I slowly worked my way through some riders until about 50 minutes in I slit my sidewall. I don't recall seeing a lot of guys fixing flats which is great, I think there were a lot last year. Immediately put in a tube but not before what seems like 20 or 30 riders passed me. The Doctor and TSMS passed so it was good to see familiar faces of wrist snapping encouragement.

When I got back moving the jam was even worse so it took a while for things to open up. There was some kind of killer quicksand pit / log combo that destroyed three of us at one time, as I hear at least one other, probably more. I was the third of three right in a row to lose my front wheel in the pit and wound up over the bars, half on top of the second guy with my chest resting on the log. The first guy was five yards further down the trail. I thought we were all done when it was happening, but somehow we all emerged unscathed. After the first checkpoint (16-17 miles?) it seems that the crowd thinned out immensely. I wonder if a lot of folks dropped out at that point? About one third of the way done and I had felt pretty good so far. The next section / green loop was great fun with lots of rock and tech moves.

The next section of the race I was feeling pretty bad, struggling to turn over the granny it felt like. I think a lot of that was mental as it was the middle of the race, the trail had gotten less flowy, and I may have been a bit behind on fueling. There were a couple thigh deep, swift, clear, cold, creek crossings that felt really good on this section, it would have been great to play around for a while. But I got through all that and got to the last third of the race which was fast, dry, and flowy and I felt pretty good again.

Popped out on to the initial climb with two other guys and we all booked it for the finsh, there was a sprint at the end and I ended up second of us three. There was no point but it was fun and had us all laughing at the finish.



After the finish I found Jess who had strategically positioned the CR-V by the bus and the finish line. A big gang congregated there and we all ate a bit and inconspicuously drank a bunch of beers. Nico, I made off with the superstar cup you gave me. I'll get it back to you.



The promoter did a great job with this race, which included a sweet shirt and spaghetti dinner, and I will definitely be back next year.

After the awards we all went to Tres Amigos. El Guapo served us some decent Mexican fare and Gino Sandknop Felino Greg threw down his winnings to cover our dinner. He even tried to pay for his own on top of that. Keeven and The Wallet Keeper of Hoffmeyer Pictures covered the rest. Thanks again to all three of you!

The next morning we ate breakfast at Angler's in their nice dining room overlooking the White River. We dined on fresh homemade omelettes and blueberry pancakes.

It was a perfect weekend that was more that just a bike race.



Results. Looks like 244 started, I ended up 34th overall.



Other reports so far (I'll add them as I see them):

Dwayne Winner

Seagulls

Mitch Johnson

Scott Peipert

Team Red Wheel


P.S.



P.P.S.

Hypercolor

Quizzical

I'm not even sure if quizzical is a word, but I couldn't think of anything else. I've been meaning to post this for some time now, but forgot about it. At the end of last season, around November, I had a really weird flat-tire experience. After coming back from a lengthy MTB ride, I noticed prior to loading my bike up, I had a slow-leaking flat. I went about checking the tube and tire for debris, etc. After thoroughly inspecting the tube and tire, I didn't find anything. So, I decided to just switch out the old tube for a new one and patch the old one when I got home. After swapping out the tubes, I began inflating the new one when *POP* the new tube just blew. The above pic is what it looked like. Anyone have a clue as to what the deal was?

Unicyclists

I forgot to include this pick on my last post, thanks for the reminder Dave. There were three unicyclists racing this past Sunday in the Schenectady race. It was pretty crazy seeing them out on the trails, I did pass one as I was racing. I about fell over, trying to watch him in front of me attempting to clear stuff, before I passed him.

Race Report - Schenectady Central Park

After weeks of deliberation and too much internal debate, I rode my first solo race. This was the first local race of the season here. Officially titled, "Heather Rizzi's Spring MTB Race", in Schenectady's Central Park. Format was most laps completed in two hours on a four mile loop. To preface, Heather Rizzi is a pretty formidable presence in the local biking and racing culture here. She is also a total hawse and actually, at one point, rode Pro for Specialized mountain bike racing. Schenectady is a small town, not far from Albany, about a 30 minute drive from my house. These have been my 'go-to' trails- they are quick, technical and have about everything you can think of (including a small stretch of plank trails in West Coast-BC style).

I haven't really had much of a chance to ride consistently, until lately. I've been training and lifting, but wasn't sure if I was up to race potential. After a few thorough conversations with Stitz (thanks again), I signed up online so I wouldn't chicken out later on. I have to admit, it was a little intimidating racing on my own, without any of you guys to consult with on race day. But, it was truly a great experience and I am extremely glad I did it. Also, a special thanks to my cheerleader and photographer, Mindi.

Suiting up.

Walking up to the pit/sign-in.

Getting ready to line up.

This was right after the gun shot beginning. I was in second place for about 10 seconds (you can see me behind and to the left of the lead rider) and went to third and then to fourth pretty quickly.

I look pretty calm and collected, but was definitely excited and nervous inside. After heading straight into the trails, I felt pretty off with my riding. I couldn't control anything and was all over the place. The vibe was great, though and I really fed off of it. After about halfway through the first lap, everyone started to spread out. That's when I really settled in and just rode. It was a great experience for me to ride with other riders, because I normally ride by myself. After the first lap, I was somewhere still in the middle of the pack and knew if I kept up this pace it would probably stay that way. Into the third lap, (at about mile 10 or 12) I was getting pretty fatigued and started slipping back a bit. After a gu and some serious water intake, I felt better and got back after it. On lap four, I saw how close I was going to be with time and really tried to kick it up a notch.

After coming through the pit, four laps and just a little over 16 miles. Time on my cyclometer was 2:01, only a little over a minute and I would have made the cut off for another lap. After catching my breath and regrouping, I went to the pit to see the stats. In the end, I placed 6th in Sport Class out of 14 riders. Not bad, in my opinion, and now I have something that I can improve upon for future races. There are a few more races at the same location, in the same format that I'm definitely gunning for now. In the meantime, I'm looking for other races close by.