I bet John's not sweating his ears off

Just returned from a race in St. Louis-land, where it was about 120 degrees. As an aside, I find really sweaty jerseys smell like celery after they dry--try it out. Now to our Fargo correspondent. How are the black flies, John?

We are within 100 miles of the Canadian border, camping for 3 nights on a lake with 140 miles of shoreline. Just got back to camp before the rains arrived. Second time we have dodged the rainin two days. To confirm, the Axiom panniers are rainproof, except for the ouside zipper pocket. The kept our jackets nice and drive during a tremendous thunderssorm sevral nights ago. Mary has regained her cycling form as the ride unfolds. Found myself pushing 18 mph to catch up with her today. We added an extra 15 miles today to get to a DQ! And, Dan I had some great donuts this morning and thought of you. See everyone at the shop next week. Speaking of shops I have not seen a good one since we left Minneapolis. Still looking for a road bike mirror to replace the one on Mary's bike that I broke. Oops.

Clearly...

...we all need fenders.

Here's another update from John.

So, the details of this bike tour in Minnesota are as follows. For a number of years a group of cycling friends have planned independent bike tours around the country. They have done rides in Alaska, the Rockies, Colorado, Nova Scotia, Minnepolis to New York City, etc. The group varies each year and it becomes a reunion each year to see old friends and make some new ones.

This year we are in Minnesota with about 25 people and are riding mainly on the bikes trails. we are here for 16 days and riding 14 days. Some days we are camping, some days we are in a hotel (like today), and we also stay twice in a friend's home. We are calling this ride the Minnesota Car Caravan Tour. The driving we do is usually less than an hour, either before or after a ride.

One neat detail that I want to share is what we call "Guard Out" ride routes. We do not use route sheets and when there are lots of turns, like riding in Minneapolis St. Paul or Duluth it could be hard to not get lost. With Guard Out that has not been a problem. We have several guards and when the ride leader says guard out one of them waits at a turn and directs all the riders through the turn. The guard then sprints back to the front of the group. Even with multiple turns, using several guards keeps everyone on route and gives the guards some interval training with lots of short sprints.

Today we are on the Mesabi bike trail and will ride by the huge open pit mines up here. The entire trail is paved and it is unique in that it does not follow an old railroad bed. It is an up and down trail with several climbs with 8% grades or better. I may get to use that low gearing on the Portland today. Cheers.

Now I have to go retake my place in the basement bucket brigade.

Mr. John Goes to Minnesota

So the shop has been bouncing off the walls lately, and we've been working like hamsters to try to keep up. As such, I've been neglecting the website as well as my duties as Making Things Look Pretty in the Shop Coordinator in favor of getting my hands dirty with the mechanics. We're currently scheduling exactly 1 week out, much better than 2 weeks like last year at this time, but Dan and I are going to burn the midnight oil until we catch back up to our goal of 3 days out.

It's also been race season, so when we're not having more fun that a barrel of monkeys at the shop, we've been out training (Anona and I at least). She's been having a breakthrough season, tearing up every race she enters. I'm adjusting to the speed of the Pro/1/2 fields, and my results have been up (5th) and down (someone riding over my face). We're all excited for the upcoming heart of the season, especially the Champaign Criteriums!

John and Michael rode their bikes to Chicago a few weeks ago. I one upped them and rode to the near north suburbs, so Michael put his foot down, borrowed my rechargeable headlight (Stella 200N by Light and Motion), and did a crazy 16 hour 240-something mile ride. I won't be chasing that until I'm done racing and do 1000 miles in 3 days. Some day. Anyway, everyone at the shop (except Peter and Larry) just ordered some of the last available 200N, which is the NiMH version of the Stella 200L. It's a bit heavier, and doesn't have quite as good long term battery life, but it's a great deal. If anybody's interested in ordering light that will literally make oncoming traffic pull over and stop, the blog special price is $139 while supplies last. I really enjoy having a stupid-high-power headlight, as at night it gains me instant street cred with motorists. I also use it for longer rides into the country, usually alone, which is exciting in a somewhat scary way--I expect an ancient swamp monster to stretch its tentacles out of one of the flooded fields and gobble me up. We'll see. Last time I rode through the middle of a herd of deer crossing the road. That got the adrenaline flowing.

I don't think the bathtub-rollers is going to happen. I assign this project to any and all readers.

If anybody from Mahomet has been in looking for Dr. Alumbaugh, he is on vacation up nort':

We are enjoying the touring options that Minnesota has to offer. Frankly, we have been very surprised by the sheer number of people enjoying their biking options in the Minneapolis area. Lots of paved trails into and around the city.

After a brief ride on last Friday to the Coon Rapids dam we declared our bikes ready to tour through June 27th. The new Trek Portland is a lot of fun and the Axiom panniers have made my bike the "pack mule" for the three of us. If we think we might need it, we put it in the bags. Brian is riding his new Project One Trek Madone 5.2 and Mary has her Trek Pilot 5.2. My bike is the heavyweight in our group. I will send a photo of my truck with our bikes and gear loaded for the trip up here.

We filled the day on Saturday by riding into the city and back using mostly the paved trails and saw THOUSANDS of people riding. Sadly, too many were not wearing helmets. Interestingly enough, those on road bikes were much more likely to have a helmet on their head. I always knew that roadies were smarter! Sunday another day on trails with hundreds of others on the trail before heading north to an overnight in Hinckley, Minnesota in a hotel with a DQ next door!

Tomorrow we are on to Moose Lake and back in the tents.

BTW, we stopped in a Minneapolis bike shop and saw the new Trek single speed with the carbon fiber belt instead of a chain (The District--ed.). Very cool in gray paint, orange trim and wheels. $925 and I could have ridden it out the door. Champaign Cycle will love this bike. Is it there yet? (They're finally starting to ship, and we may have ours in less than 3 weeks! Ditto for the new Soho--ed.). More later on the logistics of travelling through a city without maps or cue sheets and how we are moving up to the Canadian border.

Finally, watch out for the right hook--when a car passes you and then turns right, cutting you off. I've avoided this one a couple times recently. This is also a very common type of accident when cyclists use the sidewalk or ride in the gutter, out of the normal path of auto traffic. Note that Illinois law says you must ride as far to the right as is practicable, which basically means you get to decide how far is far enough--there's a grey line between being in the way and being visible.

But don't wear lime green jerseys--a concerned motorist informed me they blend in with the grass in these parts...?

Revisited: twenty nine inches.

Saturday (May 2nd) marked my new bike's virgin race. The race was a part of Winona Lake's annual Fat and Skinny Tire Fest. As usual they put on a great event. I signed up for the Cat 1 event along with Gene, my teammate.

Before the race I get about 20 minutes of warmup in to check out the trail and re-familiarize myself with my ever-evolving setup. After weeks of watching the weather I was concerned about how muddy the course might be, but to my delight the trail was in perfect condition. The course is mostly singletrack with some rolling hills and occasionally opens up to a field section or two. The fast guys usually post laps somewhere around the 35 minute mark so I'm expecting a sub-two hour race for sure.

I'm a bit late in setting up my feeding area so I get a bad spot in line. 3rd row, yuck. Luckily I make my way into the 2nd row when we roll forward to the line. Our race is a full 31 riders strong and the first few miles of trail are pretty tight with no room to pass. The start to a race like this is crucial and a bad start can ruin a race, so I'm getting a bit nervous. The official gives us the 10 second warning and eventually the gun fires. I get a good jump and weasel my way into 3rd before the first corner. I don't know how I managed that from my position. Perhaps everyone else is a little nervous with the season's first race too?

Mountain bike races always start out HARD. Everyone's intensity is capped when trying to put time into the rider(s) behind them. Luckily I get into a good group and quickly become reasonably comfortable sitting in third place. About 5-10 minutes into the race, the three of us had put about 10-12 seconds into 4th place, which is pretty good for the start of the race. Soon, however, I notice a rider bridging up to us and I want to go faster. I let the lead rider know that there was a rider incoming, but he was already pegged so I looked for a spot to pass. I found a nice little hill and attacked up the left side into first place. I hammered for about a minute and quickly got a comfortable lead. At this point I'm pretty toasted, so perhaps I went a little too hard? :P

In this situation there's only one thing you can do in a mountainbike race: settle into a rhythm and be as fast and efficient as you can. Now that I'm all alone, I can start thinking about my riding and not worry so much about other riders. As far as the bike goes, so far, so good. It's done everything I've asked of it. As with my initial ride, I definately still feel planted in corners and traction has never been a problem. I'm also getting more accustomed to the handling and don't really think about making the bike turn anymore, which is probably a good thing. However, a bad thing is the rider that was bridging is now in 2nd place and catching me fast.

At this point I'm nearing the field section, which is very similar to the kickapoo field section. It is somewhat rutted, with a smooth, main line about 6 inches wide and rough grass on either side. The surface is a mixture of dirt and pea gravel and traction is somewhat limited. The speeds are relatively high in this section so control and precision are key. I did this same race last year and distinctly remember having trouble keeping up with the leaders in it. The 2nd place rider catches me on a short uphill that I only tempoed up. I could have climbed it faster, but in a 2 hour races efficiency is key. I gambled and decided to save the energy. At the top of the hill he's obviously more gassed from bridging and climbing than I am, so I keep the heat on. We ride together for about 5 minutes and then I make a little test-acceleration. Gone. Cool.

Right after the field section is a long downhill followed by a series of the harder climbs in the lap. At the top of the hill my gap is up to about 15 seconds or so. My guess is the other guy cracked pretty hard; after all, the bottom of a hill is the last place you want to be in the red at. All alone again, I re-set the cruise control and race against the clock. Half of a lap in the books.

The next 20 minutes was mostly uneventful. I made a small mistake in a switchback downhill and had to unclip, but otherwise the lap went rather smoothly. I started seeing some Pro/Elite stragglers, so that gives me something to chase. Coming up to the finish line, I hear the announcer call my name (which is cool.) I check my time (39:23) and it's slower than I expected, but not by much. I grab a new bottle and prepare myself for (hopefully) a lonely 80 minutes of defending my position.

CHAPTER TWO: Disaster


Long story short, about halfway thorugh the lap I break my right pedal and am unable to clip in. *insert expletive assortment here.* Race Over. Last. DFL. Sitting on the side of the trail it's about 60 seconds before the next riders pass me. Double bummer.

I make the walk of shame up the officals booth and give them my number. Looking at the times I had a 53 second advantage over second place when I crossed the line. Results Here. After going back to the car I ended up being able to fix my cleat and acutally ended up riding two more laps, so at least I got my money's worth. Really, I couldn't have asked for a much of a better day. The weather was perfect, festival was fun and I got to eat some awesome food. As you can see, it doesnt take too much to keep me happy. Gene and I stayed in town and enjoyed ourselves for a few hours before making the trip home to Chambana. We even switched bikes for a full lap and I got to try the 29er vs. 26er back to back.

Conclusions:
-29'ers are still not slow
-26'ers are not dead.
-I still need to get a new saddle
-I am going back to foam grips
-Riding a hardtail requires a lot more standing
-I'm not as out of shape as I thought
-I am investing in race tires. The stock tires on the bike offer unlimited traction it seems, but I want something a little lighter and with a little less rolling resistance. I'm looking at the NoTubes Raven currently.
-The handling woes of a 29er can be overcome once you get used to it.
-My back currently misses my full suspension bike, but that will likely go away later in the season.
-My blogs entries are too long.

Hopefully I'll be back in full force in two weeks for a rematch. That's if I survive finals, though.