wahcheeta

I blow stress out of my system when I ride. Maybe that is why I break so many bike parts. 60 miles will blow out more then stress. It can eat your soul if you are not careful. The Ouachita Challenge was epic for me. My goal was to finish. I have been having trouble juggling work schedauls with races and broken bikes which has left me with little or no time to just ride. Well everything came together for me despite the whirrel wind of stress that blew in on Friday. Let me begin at the beginning...

I blew my fork out and toasted my brakes at Rim Wrecker. Monday I spent searching for a new fork. I am a little skepitcle about riding a reba after blowing one out twice. I settled on a Marzocchi Marathon Corsa world Cup and got it order on Tuesday and shipped 3 day air from UPS. I ordered in some sweet Avid Juicy 7's to replace the 5 year old Deore's I was trusting my life with.

Friday found me sitting at the shop waiting for brown with my bike completely disassembled. The UPS truck drove past. I waited...and waited...and waited...then called Marzocchi got a tracking number and located my fork in Des Moines Iowa. I called UPS and was told that if the fork was shipped on Tuesday night 3 day air meant it would not be delivered till Saturday and since they do not deliver on Saturday I wouldn't get it till Monday. Morel of the story UPS sucks because if you do the math there are 3 days between Tuesday and Friday.

I bumbed a fork (A pretty sweet Fox F100) off of Matt AKA Casey Ryback and started throwing my bike together at 5pm. I put her all together and couldn't get the rear Der dialed. Add more stress and I was starting to lose my cool in a major don't-think-I-am-going-to-go kind of way. Enter Drew AKA Sparky a former Co-worker, friend, and Mechanic extrodinare at Ghisallo. Drew ran home and brought me up a set of Sram X.9 shifters and a X.7 Derailleur. 830ish and Airin is in working order and sporting a wicked XTR/XT/X9/X7 drivetrain and running off of friendship so pure that you would have to dilute it under normal cercumstances.

Saturday I drove down with the Seagal boys and their Single Speeds of Supiority and checked in. I got a ACE bandage for my wrist which I had some how sprained and ignored hoping that it would cease to exist if I neglected it. Now it hurt too bad to keep out of my thoughts.

Sunday morning came with awesome weather. At one point I saw God smiling on all 150 riders lining up to put themselves through pain Arkansas style. I kept asking people if they were ready to get awesome as our roll out start moved down the fire road toward the womble trail. Suddenly we were in single track heaven. The womble was in pristine condition. We climbed and descended and hit the pavement. I was feeling great and after chatting some more hooked up with my new found friends for a 25mph pace line to get to the single track faster. This ended up being mistake. I blew up heading up Blowout Mountain which is pretty much pinch flat hell. I was sucking down any energy gel, power bar, fresh fruit, cytomax ect. I could get at the rest stops and was caught during a bindge by Marc and Brad from Team Seagel at the last rest area, 14miles and one mountain from the finish. I started up Big brushy and was forced to walk. I couldn't do this well either and kicked my rear derailleur, bending the hanger and limitting me from using the last cog (something I realized after jamming the chain between the hub and cassette twice). Mud was keeping my front Derailleur from shifting into the granny and I was forced to walk or grind. I did both and traded places with a few riders on the way to the top. Once there the down hill melted my face and gave me new life. I hit the road and again hooked up with another rider and we paced each other. I dropped him later. It was sweet considering how crappy I felt. I big ringed it all the way back on the roads as I drained the last of my cytomax. I crossed the finish line at 5:35 and some change good enough to land me 36th overall. I finished with my soul intact and a pretty muddy smile.

Awesome trip awesome company and one awesome race!

Fork Wrecker

The first time I ever ventured down to Council Bluffs to ride the epic 13 mile loop I met God out on the trail. At once point blasting around a corner, the sun filtering through lush green foliage, not another person in the world around, and all the concerns in the world far behind me everything seemed to make sense life just seemed right and I was certain heaven was around the next corner. Sunday I was back on the same trail this time I met the devil. I stared Lucifer in the face. He was in the form of saturated mud and driving rain. and he was intent on ripping my soul out of my legs and leaving me to die trail side. Lucifer came close but he underestimated the power of Snickers and I managed to ride up stream, over slick wheel throwing boulders, and through the icy bullets of rain. I completed 2 laps in about 2:50 min and posted up till the 3 hour cut off for the marathon class expired. Why didn't i try for the third lap that might have bumped me up onto the podium? Because the fork that Sram Corp. rebuilt and sent back to had blow out again. Oh and my brakes sized up. Such is racing.

Highlights:
Wes kicked some serial ass on his SS taking second to a fast dude by the name of Breslin
Jumping my toasted bike and muddy self in to the frigid lake from the small boat dock.

Road Trip

Flooding makes sense. I mean we have had a lot of precip this winter which has made riding extremely frustrating. So the fact that 141 sank beneath the murky watter of swollen rivers isn't out of place. What was out of place was the pure white snow that was falling in stark contrast to the grungy sewage water also known as the meramec. As sped my American made econo car across lake valley park by means of interstate 44 I swore I saw a horseman riding in from the north followed by a swarm of locusts. I pressed the accelerator harder for i was on a mission. I had a hockey ticket to a Blues Blackhawks game at the United Center. For those of you who are asking if the Scott Trade Center was renamed it was not. Easter morning for me headed to Chicago. The land of deep dish pizza, high winds, and horrible rude people who think they are New Yorkers. Well two stops for gas and 300 plus miles later I was parking my car wearing team colors. It is alwasy interesting watching a game as a visiting teams fan. I have found out that everyone thinks that they have the best venue for the sport. However, Chicago does have one of the best. It does have one major thing wrong with it. The Untied Center is in Chicago and the Hawks play there. Move it to the Lou have the blues call it home and it would undeniably be the best place to watch hockey. The game mirriored the saeson ; started out promising and ended as a let down (4-3 overtime loss). And so I made my way back home. I cut an hour off of my time and complete the up and back trip in 14 hours. Not a bad way to spend my day off. I just wish I had been able to ride.

Airin is back!

I bled the brakes today at work and they worked beautifully! I was a little uncertain of how to actually bleed them because the manager at TC always did took car of those repairs. After lost valley I know I had to delve into the would of preasurized fluid. The first attempt didnt to jack so we (Casey Ryback of Team Seagal and myself) force bled it and it worked like a hooker on Burbon street. The new XT cranks look pretty fly as well and felt uber good at the last race. However, that could very well be because averything else felt like crap.

Rim Wrecker is next weekend and I managed to work it into my schedual. I will be "racing" endurance class in order to get a long Ride in before the Ouachita Challenge. I am stoker for this event. 60 miles on a mountain bike is my definition of an awesome ride.
I plan on commuting on my mountain bike just to get used to the feel of it. Anyway this is getting boring so PE@CE~

Spring is here

I woke up late for work today. It was bound to happen and I kind of figured that i would over sleep last night when I went to bed. Oh well the bloodshot eyed, caffeine addicted zombies wielding their tumor inducing cellphones all received quality beverages with minimal wait times.

I haven't ridden a bike since Sunday. My eyes tickle like I am about to shed a tear as i pass the old school yellow squared commerce bank singe that saying the temp is 56 degrees and I am in a car. Yes producing smog, depleting oil reserves, not training, and munching on a Hersey's bar. What do I have to say for myself? nothing really I just shrug my shoulders. I'll be on the bike again soon most likely tomorrow.

Update: my fork is at Rockshox what they have accomplished I have no idea.