Upcoming

Wow- September is going to be filled with a lot of miles on the bike. After a solid week of training this week I have the Faster Moustache 24 Hr race next week, the 12 hrs of Dausett the next, Beaufort Omnium the next, then cross season starts in TN with a double header in the MSG series, 12 hrs of Unicoi the following weekend, Granogue and Wissakickon UCI cross races, NC cross series opening weekend, then finally a weekend of no racing!
I'm really looking forward to the FM 24 Hr race in Atlanta. I've never heard of an urban 24 hr race. It will be really interesting to see how the city changes over a 24 hr period. This will be a good first 24 hr solo for me too. If it turns out that I'm terrible at riding my bike for more than 12 hrs ( I know I'm good for at least 12!), at least I won't be stuck out in the woods all blown to pieces. I know plenty of people in downtown ATL- I'll ride my bike to their house, knock on the door, grab a shower, and go to bed. So if you live in ATL- please leave a light on for me like Tom Bodett over at the Red Roof Inn- I may be stopping by.
All nonsense aside though- that will be a fun race and a good learning experience. I am planning on a big solo 24 hr next year and this will give me somewhat of an idea of what to expect. Looks like there will be 6 checkpoints/ aid stations on a 12 mile loop so it will be easier to break the race down into smaller segments to focus on. I'll focus on small chunks- like making it from the pulled pork checkpoint to the pizza checkpoint and so on.
I'm going to ride my road bike with double bar wrap, some 700 X 25c gatorskin tires, and possibly convert it to a single speed. I find it much better to do these long races on the single. All you need to concentrate on is pedaling ( and with one gear- the lap times are very consistent- harder to blow up). I don't know yet what saddle I will use- I suspect that will be an issue. I've never had saddle problems in 12 hr races but offroad I'm constantly changing my position on the saddle if not standing up a good bit of time. I'm kind of worried about the ammount of time seated in the saddle that I'm going to deal with being on the road. Maybe my Brooks? Never had a problem there!
Anyways- The weekend after this race I'll do 12 hrs of Dauset. I was planning on doing a 2 man team. However, my teammate Robert got hit by a car and is still feeling the effects of that. So..... I'll probably do it solo. No prob- I think that is actually easier than the 2 man format. We did that last year and won it but man it was tough to go all out for 2 laps, rest, then do it over. That was rougher on my body than doing a solo.
36 hrs of racing in 2 weekends. Not smart but I'm going to give it a go. Don't try this at home kids!
I'll let you know how it goes!
DH

Backpacking #3

Backpacking Trip #2

More CO Pics- Rocky Mtn. Natnl. Park Backpacking -Part 1

Left Bear Lake for a couple day backpacking trip. Lots of beautiful high alpine scenery, some snow, rockfields, lakes, and tons of mosquitos. The $3 bug spray Liza picked up turned out to be the best purchase of the whole western trip! Spent the night at ove 10,000 feet up at Spruce Lake. It was a beautiful, pristine lake that was tough to get to and a nice night as no one else was there.

Gonna hurt ALL winter now!

Ordered my new CX frame and some parts today. I have a sweet Salsa Scandium frame w/ an Alpha Q fork. Already have a parts kit, so I need to find some deep carbon race wheels and get some Tufos and I'm off! I haven't raced a full cross season in a few years and am excited for this one. Last year I rode a singlespeed 29er, the year before I raced on a Surly Cross Check. Not bad bikes but a bit off from the race bikes I rode in the past. This year's bike should turn out to be a rocket ship. Don't be surprised if I only run one gear at certain races though!
Planning on hitting up the NC series, NC winter cup, Mid atlantic UCI series, and maybe a race or two in the GA and TN series. If I'm not completely thrashed by mid-Dec.................maybe a trip to Portland for Nationals. A very faint maybe!
Anyways- gotta go- DH

XC National Championships Pics.

Sol Vista Ski area. A place I'll hopefully never return to. They cut the trails the week of the race and they were absolute crap. The first day I rode them they were fun........2 days later- hub deep ruts with 2 foot tall braking bumps. Don't get me wrong- the Amateur XC course was good further out- nice singletrack and fairly technical. The Pro loop was junk however. As usual. That was probably the last USA Cycling National event I'll ever do. Why pay $80 for that crap when the NUE series, Gone Riding, and other promoters have much more economical events with better courses. Anyways- here's the pics.DH

Pike's Peak

Drove up Pike's Peak, ate "High Altitude 14,000 ft Special Recipe Best Ever Only Place Available Donuts". They lived up to their billing. Able to talk trash and back it up- that's why I liked these donuts. Did some bouldering and noticed it was late so we drove back down. We were forced to stop for awhile by the park service brake check station half way down. 560 degrees was the temp. on the brakes. I had the Megavan in the lowest gear possible but when it wants to go it's hard to reign in. I wasn't about to apologize or make excuses for pure unadulterated speed so we parked the Megavan and went climbing around some more. Got the green light again after 20 mins. or so and we took off again, soon to be in Boulder for the night.

DH

Colorado Springs

Cheyenne Mtn Park for some riding then up to Pikes Peak.

The Promised Colorado Pictures

These are from the way out. SERC Race in AL, then the drive across Kanasas into a pretty cool storm, then we were in CO Springs.

FG100

Here's a picture of a fool at Fool's Gold 100 last Saturday. I'll get a full race report up as soon as I figure out how to accurately describe the whole situation. My brain is still tired from the race. Condensed report: Rode fast- crashed hard 30 miles in-did $1000 worth of damage to my bike- rode 70 miles with my right pedal flopping in the crankarm- blew up 6 1/2 hrs in on Bull Mtn. and lost 2 spots to end up 5th singlespeed and I think 12th overall. I'm really sore and beat up still from the crash but I'll be OK in a couple of more days-DH OUT

Weekend prep

I'm slowly getting all my preperations done for the weekend. Finally fixed that irritating creak in my eccentric on the niner. I've been resting alot and doing shorter rides this week. I've found in the past that I do really well in endurance races when I've ridden little in the week prior to the event. After 2 weeks in the 20+ hr range w/ over 400 miles each I was ready for the rest. Did 5 1/2 hrs. last Sunday and felt like I hadn't even ridden. Of course I slept 11 1/2 hrs that night and 10 the next night. Guess I needed the rest! I've been just cruising around on the singlespeed this week mainly. I think I'll probably try to get in at least 3 hrs. tomorrow and open things up. Leaving at 6:30 friday morning with Joel for the drive up to Dahlonega. Should be there by lunch, ride some of the singletrack sections of Fool's Gold, and pick up our packets. 7:00 AM on Sat we roll out! Should be fun- tough, but fun.I'll try to get some pictures up for the weekend. Still need to get some CO pictures up!
Later-
DH

SERC # 10 race report

Alex and I drove up to Fontana Village, NC last Saturday morning for the final round of the Southeast Regional Series. I found the course technical enough for my liking and the climbing not bad at all. To make matters even better I had good legs and it rained all night.
We awoke to rain and an absolutely disgusting course. I was delighted as I love racing in the mud. The worse it is the better I ride.
Started towards the back of the group and rode a mellow pace for the first climb. I started to pick it up on the second climb and passed a couple of guys. The technical downhill went fine, and I pinned it pretty hard to pass another guy on the steep gravel climb. Rode the last downhill conservatively and had a little gap over 7th place at the end of the first lap. Rode conservatively up the first half of the climb as 7th place was burying himself to catch me. He made contact mid way up and I immediately attacked him and rode off. Soon after I caught 5th, then 4th, had 3rd place in sight and was closing fast and feeling strong while watching others suffer and have trouble with the mud. Only one lap to go.
The one inch tear in my tire sidewall put an abrupt end to all that.
I repaired the tear with a gel pack and aired it up the best I could dropping back to sixth place in the process. It was amazing how blown apart the race was by then. Repairs done I rolled out to try to make up time. Five minutes later I got my second flat and was forced to abandon. The walk back out was rough but the silver lining was that I got back before the race was over and made it to the hose first to wash off. Clean bike and body, we loaded up and drove home. I hate DNFing but am enthusiastic that my legs are good right now. Looking forward to the next event- Fool's Gold 100 in Dahlonega, GA next weekend. Good trails, good event, and I'll get to see my parents! Should be fun.
DH out.