Monday's Plans

On Monday I will go out riding at another of the area's great Singletrack. I hear lots of people picked up some great steals at today's Crono-metro Bike Swap. I'll take my camera and take some pictures of the trails to give you a sense of what the trails are like. I sat down last night and finally cleaned my bike by hand with glass cleaner. I should write Windex and see if they want to sponsor Expo Racing. Bill ourselves the cleanest team in Wisconsin, lol. But until next time peeps. Peace out.

12 hours of Oleta, The final Post

The 12 hours of Oleta

I'm sorry for the really late blog but excuses aside, here is my blog.

Me, my mom, and my dad arrived at Oleta river state park at 8:20 a.m. I had never until that day ridden any trails in Florida. I thought, what is the worse Florida could throw at me, it turns out, it can be really really bad.

Classically we started with a lemans start, that was a good 2-300 yards. The start was at 9:30 ET. I was warned of spider roots, coral, and rocks that would await me by the folks of Wheels of Wellington. Their words couldn't describe what I was about to meet.

Lap 1, was absolutely terrible. The course was 10.5 Miles and I clocked in at like 2:00. I never crashed, never flatted, no mechanicals, I just couldn't get acclimated. Mind you laps were around 45-55 minutes for the leaders of both solo and teams.

Lap 2, wouldn't bring a pretty knarly wreck on my part. The course is littered with short climbs and quick descents. to the people of the midwest that doesn't sound too bad, but when you add spider roots on both sides and right angled drop-offs of +18" It made me seriously tenative, I was forcing myself to be more gutsy and it was working until I hit one of these drop-offs with wayy too much weight shifted forward and I basically T-boned a tree. As I am right now on monday, my left arm is still very enflamed but usable. I trucked on for the 3/4 of lap left, stopped in a the pit took a brief break and went back out

Lap 3, the trail had my #, it was just eating my up and spitting me out. I couldn't get into a good rythem. the begging of lap 3 seemed promising but out of nowhere I start hearing a really loud rattling coming from my front end. I stopped to check it out and I found my skewer was loose. No big deal, I'll just tighten it up. I go along for a while longer, I keep hearing it, I still found my skewer to me loose, mystified, I decide to call it a day. My front wheel was basically be held in by nothing more than the lawyer tabs. My left elbow and forearm were hurting a good little bit and I was having a pretty crappy day all around.

They say in Florida "Mountains?, we don't need no stinkin' mountains" If I had to describe the course I would describe it as such, take Blue Mounds SP, make it flat, add about 200 hairpins and roughly speaking that is your course.

(I will be posting more pictures in the future)

Race Box of crap is packed

The Race box is packed and everything is a go for tomorrow, I'm excited. I doubt I will be blogging tomorrow, I will try to blog when I get home from the race tomorrow but that probably won't happen til at least midnight eastern time. It is for certain the my parents are going, and that should mean that I should have lots of pictures to document my race. I will proudly represent Expo Racing and Ergon Nation, I would bet I'm doing the first race for Ergon Nation in 2008.

Bike is in 100% functioning condition

I got home at about 9pm after eating out, I put my bike together as best as possible but found that my dearailer was like upside down or something, but besides that I had to let all the air out of my tires to fit it in the box and I didn't have my presta-shraeder valve adapter. So I walked over to the local Trek dealer, Wheels of Wellington, and I asked to borrow a few tools and they came through for me. I wanted a Frame pump so I bought one there. I'm almost all ready to go for Saturday, I just need a pick up a few things to fulfill my nutrition needs.

Sitting and Blogging in the Charlotte Airport

I'm just sitting in Charlotte waiting for my flight to West Palm Beach. Its only 35 degrees here and I hear that its only 52 degrees in WPB. 76 degrees is the Forcasted High for Saturday's 12 hours of Oleta, the low is 61 but I'm determined to stay short sleeve and shorts. There is a possibility that one or both my parents might come to the race and that would be a huge help. I'm dreading to self support myself. I will see some people in FL and hopefully my early '08 racing will be an inspiration to the people back in WI and IL to keep training in the doldrums on winter. For those of you who can ride on monday, go out there and ride I hear the high is around 50. Keep checking my blog cause tomorrow I'm going to put my bike back together and buy whatever nutrition I want to use during the race outside of fluids.

UPDATE:

I'm delayed cause the captain's seatbelt is broken

Packing for Oleta