Sunday, July 29, 2007

The 24-9 Expierience

I have just returned from my first successful completion of a 12 hour endurance MTB race. It isn't quite what I was hoping for. I did ok, 45th out of 59. I could have done a 1-2 more laps but I would have only moved up about 10 spots had I done that. Technically I might still move up some due to some people failing to finish a lap after 10pm. Gus, Expo Racing's franchise rider won Solo Freak SS having done 16 laps he finished 16th overall among all 24 hour solo racers. He beat 2nd place in SS by 2 laps, a huge victory for Expo Racing. All in all I think all Expo Racing competitors felt they gave it their all and are happy with their final result, (me, Gus, Theo, and Jeff) represented expo racing this year and I only see further improvement from our team as a whole in the future. Theo and his junior team "What was that" got 2nd out of 3 teams. I weathered the race fairly well, I had some mild monkey butt but it is all better today already. I'm looking forward to the remainder of the WEMS series and the WORS series. I only have 1 USCF Crit left this year, and then its cross season already. I will add some pictures in the next day or so from the event. See everyone next week at Crystal Ridge WORS.
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Sunday, July 22, 2007

Pictures From the VASA Trail

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Traverse City HO?

On Friday Morning I walk into the office and my dad asked me what my plans were for the weekend I was like I'm racing all day tomorrow and I have sunday off and my dad was like, "Are you set on that?". Turns out my mom was under a gigantic heap of work so I was deployed to Traverse City, MI I left Hartford @ about 2pm CST and I arrived in TC at about midnight EST. I woke up at 6am and worked from about 7am till 5:15pm solid. We got in a lot better shape by the end of the day and she was in a better mood than when I arrived and out pile was alot shorter. I actually packed for 24-9 about a week in advance. My car is packed to camp right now. I will be leaving on friday (7-27) and drive the UP to go to Wausau. I'm going to try to get in a few miles on my new MTB and a few miles of night riding in. There is a place to go MTB about 3-4 miles away that is part of the Iceman race so hopefully I will get confident with my new bike just in time for 24-9. Everything is working well on it I just hope to break in the brake pads and what not so its working well. I hope to be in Wausau by 4-5pm on friday, I want to get at least 1-lap in so I know what I'm in for come saturday.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Reforestation Rumble, Tues. Track and Wednesday MTB Races

Sorry for the late post people, anyways... This past Sunday was my second WORS race of the year, it also happened to be the second race in the WORS Marathon series. I gave Holly a ride up there and I camped out in my car which is nice and convienient. I prerode on my mountain bike around 1pm and my cross bike at about 3pm and was flat out more comfortable on the mountain bike, Saturday I did two laps which is probably more than I should have done but oh well. I knew the mountain bike had a few mechanical gremlins but nothing that would keep me from finishing. This would come back to haunt me however I don't think I would have been any faster on the cross bike, that was my problem. This course totally suited a cross bike but I did have the ability to make it go faster than anything else. I was feeling pretty good, I felt comfortable on the bike, I felt comfortable with the course I knew I would do well, or at least so I thought. I knew the lead-out would be tough and easy all at the same time. I'm no good when it comes to the single track so I need to pass when possible. My Road training has helped a ton with adjust and modulating high heart rate which I know makes me better than most citizen riders. I really do enjoy mountain biking, but only when I'm not getting run over by faster riders and my bike works. As you will find out in this blog, it was my bike that let me down, big time. I still finished, but I know I lost a signifigant amount of time. Both Aris and Theo dropped out of the race which sucked but o' well. I feel I am getting better all around as a cyclist. When it comes to the road bike, mountain bike, track racing, and other things related to cycling. They say its the rider not the bike that wins the race. This is one of the only cases I can think of that it was because of the bike I did so bad. But by bad, I mean I did ok, I could have done quite a bit better. I estimate in the 6-15 minute neighborhood over 20 miles, which was just a few ticks over two hours total. I was 11th out of 13 finishers in my age group, 15 started and 112th out of 160 total starters in Citizen Male. That isn't that great but one of my better finishes in recent memory. I'm amazed I finished with my bike acting up as much as it did.

I went to track on Tuesday night, my legs weren't feeling it so I just decided to just hang out and watch the 150lap main event.

Tonight was the weekly Wendnesday night races at Crystal Ridge Ski Area. Expo Racing was there in full force tonight. Gus, Aris, Theo, Jordan, Brandon, and me, as well as Christy and Ted. I didn't talk to the guys on the team that much tonight because I was having a mediocre day racing with lap times of 39, 39, and 45 minutes respectively. Most of the good guys were in the 20-26 minute neighborhood. I actaully had to pit and grab my headlight for the last lap. I maybe could have finished with natural light but I just wanted to be sure. I needed the oppertunity to try out my lights. I didn't crash tonight during the race, however I clipped my bars on a tree in pre-ride and went down, but not all that hard. I'm looking forward to Saturaday's race. I'm not sure what mileage I'm going to do, 30, 60, 100. I'm feeling good and my legs are feeling good the only thing that might keep me from doing the 100 is whether it might screw me up setting up and getting ready for 24-9. I'm only doing 12 hours solo there but I'm considering it my more important race of the year. I really want to do well. More than any race so far this year. I should finally fix my bike woes because my brand new Supercaliber 29er is coming in either tomorrow or friday. I'm so psyced. It getting late now and I need to get to sleep because I need to work tomorrow and I have to lead the Expedition Supply Thursday ride tomorrow @ 530. Come out and I'll lead you around. It varys in speed, last week was right around 19.5-20mph how ever it was only me and Paul Capafferri. I showed him who's boss. LOL

Once the XTR Photo Dude gets his pictures up and I might get a few pictures from Christie cause I know she was taking pictures tonight I'll post them. But until then, happy trails, correction make that happy single track.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

A little practice

last night the other Peters boy, Theo and I went to the Wednesday night races @ Crystal Ridge. He registed Juniors and I registered in my age group. He raced the 8500 for the first time and I raced crystal ridge for my first time. It's not a super difficult course. I should do well in the WEMS race and the WORS race. I'm going to try and make it a fixture of going every week. I did however take a small crash midway in my second lap and since this race means very little I cut the course and called it a night. Theo got second out of 6 or 7 in the Juniors despite "feeling terrible" as he said. The have a small informal raffle at the end of the night, I WON A TUBE! LOL. After racing we made a stop at the Solid Gold McDonald's and then we continued to drive home. We got home at about 10ish alot better than Tuesday where I didn't get home till a little after midnight. I'm going to the WORS race this weekend which I'm already preregistered for but I believe I am camping and I'm giving Holly a ride up there as well. I've been contemplating buying a Gary Fisher Supercaliber 29er. If they are in stock I will pull the trigger on one I believe. Look for my next post on Sunday or Monday from the happenings of the weekend.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Aris' First Time... racing track

So last night Aris, Holly and I went down to Kenosha to watch Aris race. Aris raced Junior 15-18 and Cat 4s. I just wanted him to get a feel for the racing and what it was like to use tactics to race. He used my Bianchi Pista. In the future he will either use his own fixie which isn't really track legal but it isn't a USCF track so they are lax, or Gus' Pista. I'd really like to See Gus and Theo race as well, they have bikes to use for free. I'm not going to go into deep detail about his races because they were nothing special but have a look at Aris in racing form.
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Monday, July 9, 2007

12 hours of Blue Mounds

Well the 12 hours of Blue Mounds turned out to be a $35 mistake for me.
I didn't even complete my first lap. I decided that pushing forward would be too risky and I'm too much of a novice and this course was more than I could handle and I would be putting myself in harms way for little gain. I'm really really looking forward to Reforestation Rumble (WORS), some Superweek races, I will do some kinds of race @ the Crystal Ridge WEMS race, some more Superweek and maybe some track racing sprinkled in. I was happy to lend a hand to Theo, Aris, Gus, and Jeff where possible. Theo and I decided that we are more than likely going to do a 24 hour duo @ 24-9 which will be a ton of fun due to the fact that course isn't nearly as hard on your body. I'm doing a bunch of little upgrades to my bike prior to 24-9 which should help its reliability and overall performance a ton. As of recently I'm contemplating leaving my current Road/Track team due to lack of assistance and freindlyness among teammates. I don't know where I will go but I don't envision being back in 08 with the Sharks.