Cyclewerks Cr4nkF3st

I love the coarse that the good boys of Cyclewerks down in Cape hae created. It is fast if flows and it does its very best as kicking you suqare in the lycra covered keester. The Dr.Js met at Wes's house and and headed out. Chris, Jim, Scott, Wes, and myself were all ready to rock seeing as we were the only people who were signed up . A close call with the Highway Patrol and passing fellow racer and resident old guy Tom Albert and were were slidding into bibs and applying chamios butt'r In no time (not to eachother 'cuz we aren't gay...not that there is anything wrong with that).

Considering how mild the weather had been it was hot on the starting line. Everyone chattered about Dwayne and Keeven runing a 12hr solo and a 6 hour solo the day before and still racing today (Dwayne 3rd and Keeven 1st). We lined up and waited for an unusually long time for the gun (by gun I mean offical yelling go) to sound. It came and the rain came with it. Rian in the form of spinning legs, whizzing chains, and giant drops of sweat. I was started in too low of a gear and peaked on the climb heading into the woods. I was looking forward to railing the berm that was a new addition this year but found out quickely that the fast line was on the inside as two cyclist past me one being Mike Teiber. It was now offically on. I reeled them back in as the pulled up on Scott and the four of us rocked though the woods like Rage Against the Machine at the democatic national convention. Somewhere along the way Scott go passed by the cyclewerks rider and Jim Krewet caught us and proved he was still in shape by gapping us before we popped out onto the sidewalk around the halfway mark. I big ringed in and set my lazers from stun to kill hitting the small grassy climb back toward the woods at warp seed and passing Teiber and Scott to suck right up on Krewets wheel through the S-turn. I was trying to lay the hammer down as was everyone else Krewet got way as Scott and I dropped Tieber.

During the second lap Tom albert (Who missed the start) caught us and politely asked for a pass I gave it to him and watch him waste me. An endurance rider caught up to us and proceeded to ride two laps at our pace giving all of us the urge to push that much harder.

Lap three the bottom dropped out. The whole body was tingleing and I couldnt hold my lines. The is where teammates make the differance because Scott told me to just keep pedaling and kept the presure from behind on forcing me to find my focus angain. Dodd had caught us earlier on in the lap and keeven caught us as we exited the Maze. I was now sitting behind The Endurance rider who was behind Scott. I was coming back aroudn thanks to the Cyto I had stashed on my frame. Lap for and I was back holding onto Scott's wheel through the single track and up the climbs then going for the pass heading into the woods. I started to apply the gas the turbos spooled and I sucked the last bit of water out of my camblebak. I ditched the dead wieght and put my head down giving lap five my all.

I kept looking back trying to see where someone was then telling myself to worry about who is in front of my and let whoever is back there worry about me. This worked I had put a nice gap on who i thought was Teiber but was really Pfood himself. I had to just ride solid for lap six and I finished in just under 2 hours and 3 minuets for a 12th place finish. The results on Cyclewerks page show that I DNF'ed but if you look I had all 20min laps and one 40min lap. Trust me on this I did all six laps and had an average of 11.6mph.

An interesting side note at WORS I raced pretty much the same pace as I did in cape. That just shows how much faster that coarse was because I did not feel any where near as good and relied on the downhills to keep my pace up.

Nice Job to all who ventured down south to race in the dust and heat that make this race one of a kind.

WORS

I am sorry for the time between post. My schedule has acted as an old flower mill by griding me down in to a fine powder. You can also thank Dave Breslin for giving me crap which is why I sit here pecking at my lap top.

WORS-Sunburst Showdown
I have heard (I don't know why this wont stop typing in bold sorry) a lot about the Wisconsin Off Road Series so when I was asked if I wanted to venture up to Milwaukee to race in the the biggest series in the states I naturally said yes. I did what training I could in the weeks prior to the Aug. 11th race.

Aug 9th we met up at the residence of Mason Storm (Team Seagal) at 6pm. It was myself, Brad Hicks (also a member of the superior single speed team), and of coarse the one and only Mason Storm (Matt Hoffmeyer). Loaded our bikes and gear on/in my Mopar gas friendly automobile and it was on like Donkey Kong. Everyone was tired and I wasn't 100% on the directions so we ended up in Chicago before realizing we had gone two hours out of our way. 2am we arrive at Matt's sisters apartment AKA Best Hotel in Milwaukee and crashed.

Saturday was Pre-ride out at the Sunburst Ski Resort which has created a wicked fast trail network complete with a pine maze, berms you can rail on, a sadistic lung-busting-seeing-spots-do-they-make-a-smaller-ring-then-a-22? climb, and a white knuckle downhill. The actual trial is not very technical with maybe three rocks but when it went into the woods it turned on a dime. We enjoyed two laps and headed back to town for some fine eats and a solid 8 before Judgment day.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! The fruit smoothies went down easy and we set off for the race. As we suited up and made final preparations more and more compeditors showed up. The number of enterants was about 600. As I warmed up I could not shake my nerves and the bike just did not feel right under me. I was in the Elite field which was Pro, Semi-Pro, and Expert. Brad was Comp. singlespeed and Matt raced Comp. Clydesdale. It was pretty cool being on a starting line with 43 other dudes and having them call out the huge names. The horn sounded and Lightning exploded in front of me and I struggled to hold on. The dust was thick as we made the prologue lap but I was able to gain some spots back as we hit the coarse. I pulled back one or two on the first couple of switch backs that started the ascent. I bobbled on a turn and lost three places mid-climb. I was already knew I was in for a long race. Coming down the back side of the mountain my lines where sloppy and I was not trusting my brakes. At the bottom heading into the maze my front shifter started to sick and continued to pleg me for 3 laps. At the time I could not figure out why but when the clamp broke off on the 4th lap I was able to put the pieces together. I let all of this get into my head and started to stress the lines stayed sloppy and my composer disappeared faster then beer at a frat party.

Lap two found me getting my ass kicked by a chick. She was hella fast and super cool and we traded places till the climb on the third lap where I stopped to give a comp rider my spare master link and multi tool to fix his chain (I was hoping Karma would work for me). I was caught and passed by another elite female rider and passed her back gaining a little boost before the line came around again

Lap three was brutal and I just kept thinking okay I only have to go the hill two more times. The down hill was still difficult for me and I ate it on a near vertical drop in. I was fine so was the back so I hopped back on and continued on, getting passed my more comp riders.

Lap four I was digging and trying to stay focused. On the down hill I was pushing the chain into the big ring when the Avid Matchmaker Clamp I had on my shifter broke off and left my shifter to dangle down by my fork. I had to stop to pick it up and held it the rest of the way down the hill and though the maze where I was passed By Brad who was on a party cruise. I stopped again and taped the shifter to my stem. While doing so I was passes back by the second Elite female raider who gave me some encouragement which was a nice booster. As I came through the start/finish I could see most of the Elite field watching me and when I passed the gate and headed back out again I could feel them grimace of me. I rode on getting encouragement from the good folks who were heading down off of the mountain. On one of the sections I noticed Matt a little ways up ahead of me and started to chase the rabbit. However, I was still mentally doubting my ability and zigging when I should have been zagging. I gave Matt all of the encouragement I could through the maze and kept my pace as high as possible trying to real him in. He had his heart in his legs and kept the gap wide all the way to the finish.

It was a hard race to swallow but it was a huge learning experience for me which is what I will take from it. Brad snapped the wrists of the comp singlespeed class beating out the 2007 overall champion and taking 1st. Matt took a respectable second in his class. I took 7th out of 7 finishers and 9 total. Everyone up there was uber cool and I am really looking forward to next season to do more of their races.

update

Its been a little while since I posted last. for this I am sorry. Truth is nothing has really been going on. Three weeks ago I crashed while bombing down Blue Ribbon and sprained my shoulder so I have been baned from the bike...until today. I am tired of not riding so I am going to see if i can manage a road ride today. I should not have any issues. The shoulder is feeling much better and I am back to 90% range of motion. The main problem is the fitness I have lost in the last three weeks. This season has seriously been a black one for me hopefully I will start to see the light in the last quarter.

THE TOUR

Happy 4th!!!

Hello and welcome to my corner of the interwebs once again. The rumors of a group ride on July 4th finally became actual plans at 830pm July the 3rd. We were going to follow Casey Ryback though Dtown St.Louis and into Furby's playground. Don't tell him though because it was just too nice a day to "Stay the hell out of Illinois!" Five of us met at Forsyth and Skinker; Casey Ryback ("Guide"), Captain Jack Tagert, Gino, Shop Minister and myself. We cut though Forest Park, jumped on Bike St.Louis trail network, and shortly found ourselves crossing the swollen Mississippi. The weather was beautiful and despite the hammer fest in the rain the night before at Cwood (AKA the Short Track Series which you should be attending) the legs woke up and were ready to lay down some miles. Once we entered the state that's only claim to fame is Abe Lincoln and the worst Baseball team on earth we made short work of their trail system which is head an shoulders better then the previously mentioned baseball team. It even gave us warning of potentially sliding sideways.


I honestly didn't pay much attention to what we were riding on or where we were going because the legs just felt to good to focus on anything else. We stopped off at the Lewis and Clark site to break the law before heading back toward our home state. This is where our coarse and superior attitude were both put to the test. However, we recovered and found an alternate route though hell and high water back to the city that is home to the boweling hall of fame (which is fleeing). Back at our starting point we bid fond farewells and kind sentiments before heading our separate ways.

62miles with a 17+ mph average is a pretty good ride no matter which way you type it. Enjoy this video clip of Casey's Bike after the mud fest.


This is how the ride left me=> => => => +. => => =>

Still single ladies...Call me!


PE@CE~