Spent Friday night through early Sunday afternoon at Whiterock Conservancy for CITA's second Ales and Trails event. Whiterock is 4300 contiguous acres of oak savannah, prairie, and farmland near Coon Rapids, Iowa. If you are a fan of the outdoors you owe it to yourself to spend some time there. We filled our weekend with camping, mountain biking, a 45 mile gravel road race, a few beers and an evening concert in the riverside barn by Des Moines' ownBrother Trucker.
The gravel road race on Saturday was a lot of fun, if a bit brutal. Squirrel managed to build a course where the B-road sections were the fastest thing we would ride on all day. Very few sections of flat, and a southerly course with a SE wind. After what I thought was a good start, hanging with Dave Lippold to the top of the climb we hit right out of the start, my legs just pretty much gave out. I couldn't get into a rhythm on the climbs and just couldn't get my legs to spin up the way I wanted. Squirrel and I stopped for a mid ride beer at Sammy's car, about 10 minutes behind Dave, and decided to just push in together and try to wrap up second and third spots. Squirrel just dieseled his way along and I yo-yo'd behind on the climbs and caught up on the downhills and on the flats. I had to finally let Squirrel go with about 5 miles or so left and just finish the race out. I ended up finishing in about 3 hours and change. I felt worse after those 45 miles than I did after the 10+ hours of the GLGA a month ago.
On Sunday, Matt McCutchen, Brian Sheesley and I took off after breakfast and spent the next couple of hours just riding around on the double track through Whiterock, taking in the scenery and just having a good time. Screaming fast downhills and some long climbs greeted us almost all of the way into Coon Rapids. On the way back, Brian and I took a different path back that involved some rough pasture land, cows, and barbed wire fence crossings. I hit something in the pasture and developed a slow leak once we were on the gravel back to Whiterock. A quick hit with the CO2 cartridge got me back to the truck and, after a change of clothes, on my way home.
I, and everyone else. had a lot of fun at this years Ales and Trails event. It would have been good to have had more people in attendance. I'm not sure if it's the location, the drive, or something else that prevented us from having more people show up. Hopefully we can increase the number of people, and the fun, for next year's event.
Showing posts with label good times. Show all posts
Showing posts with label good times. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Good Life Gravel Adventure
I took Friday off work and headed over to Lincoln, NE to take part in the second running of the Good Life Gravel Adventure. http://cornbreadblog.blogspot.com/ and the rest of the Lincoln crew hosted a great event. We signed in at the MOPAC trailhead, heard a few words from Cornbread and we were moving around 6:10 AM. We headed east on the MOPAC trail for neutral rollout. However by the time we had reached the end of neutral trail section, a healthy gap had already formed. After turning north onto the first gravel road, I was with a group of about 15 riders and moving along at a solid pace. As soon as we crossed Hwy 34, someone jumped off the front of the group and the pace went from solid to completely crazy. I attempted to stay with the group for the next three miles, but a 175 bpm heart rate was not going to allow me to finish the race. I backed the pace down for the remainder of the first leg into Valparaiso, riding a good portion of it with Joel Dyke, one of the Dirty Kanza organizers. Even so, the first 40 miles were behind us in under 3 hours.
After a short ride north, we turned south, towards the second checkpoint in the tiny town of Malcom. At this point, I started riding with Scott Bigelow. We had started chatting a bit earlier and were riding close to the same pace. We chatted on and off, both enjoying the brief bit of chipseal near Branched Oak Lake. Scott was fresh off a finish at Leadville just a couple of weeks earlier and was still riding strong. He had a bit more power on the steeper climbs we hit but seemed happy to settle in behind me on the many rollers we were still encountering. We hit Malcom in around 75 minutes and made a quick stop in the convenience store. With the next stop just 15 miles down the road, I didn't feel the need to stick around too long, so I took off. Scott joined me a short bit later and we headed towards the third stop in Denton.
Scott and I continued to roll on at a good pace. Not too far from Denton, Warren Wiebe, John Flynn and Kirk Hutson motored on by us. The five of us rode into town together about an hour after leaving Malcom and stopped at the convenience store for a break. With 85 miles behind us, I decided this was a good spot to refuel. I grabbed a bottle of tomato juice, a turkey Lunchable, and some Lemonade and proceeded to sit down for a meal. Soon, I was looking up at the grinning face of Warren Wiebe asking if I had something better than a pair of scissors that he could use to cut a couple of spokes out with. I made some comment about being a mobile toolbox for the Kansas crew. I had loaned some tools out to Joe Fox so he could repair his derailer during TransIowa. At that time, Warren was amazed that I had a chain tool and a hunk of bike chain in my camelback. After that, I handed my side cutters to Warren and returned to eating. I spent the rest of my break stretching and watching Warren and some others use an emergency kevlar spoke kit that I had inadvertantly reminded him he had with him. Since we weren't needed any more, Scott and I took off and headed towards our last checkpoint in Cortland.
Scott and I enjoyed our last section of tailwind. We had a nice 10 mile stretch that had some nice wide rolling hills, complete with a nice couple handing out fresh bananas at the top of a long downhill. More hills and 75 minutes later, Scott and I were outside of the Cenex in Cortland. I went inside, snagged my last Nebraska Powerball ticket, a Snickers ice cream bar, some gatorade and some almonds. We sat down next to Rafal Doloto from Omaha and had a brief chat. Not too long later, Rafal decided to head out on the last leg with Scott and I.
I left Cortland and headed east with Scott and Rafal. We cruised along at a good pace and then finally made the left hand turn north and started a 13 mile push north into the headwind. We all took turns bearing the brunt of the wind, taking pulls for around .5 mile or so. My flagging energy levels forced me to take a breather and eat some food with about 3 miles left in our northward push. After the break, I wasn't able to keep pace with Scott and Rafal so I waved them ahead while I waited for the food to enter my system. About 15 minutes later I was feeling better and began the final 15 mile push to the finish, crossing the finish area at the MOPAC trailhead around 10 hours and 45 minutes after I started.
I had a great time in Lincoln and plan on going back for more rides next year. There's a strong bike culture in the area and the town itself looks like it would be fun to spend some time in. I want to give a big thanks to Oliver and Katie Banta for hosting me for the weekend. Oliver finished the race in just over 13 hours, allowing his time to suffer a bit to make sure that others were ok. A big thank you to Cornbread for putting this thing together, as well as everyone else that was involved in gathering sponsors for the event. This was a great grassroots event.
A big thanks as always to Rasmussen Bike shop for ordering in the weird stuff I ask for, treating me right, and squeezing in a quick adjustment for me when needed.
GPS Track
After a short ride north, we turned south, towards the second checkpoint in the tiny town of Malcom. At this point, I started riding with Scott Bigelow. We had started chatting a bit earlier and were riding close to the same pace. We chatted on and off, both enjoying the brief bit of chipseal near Branched Oak Lake. Scott was fresh off a finish at Leadville just a couple of weeks earlier and was still riding strong. He had a bit more power on the steeper climbs we hit but seemed happy to settle in behind me on the many rollers we were still encountering. We hit Malcom in around 75 minutes and made a quick stop in the convenience store. With the next stop just 15 miles down the road, I didn't feel the need to stick around too long, so I took off. Scott joined me a short bit later and we headed towards the third stop in Denton.
Scott and I continued to roll on at a good pace. Not too far from Denton, Warren Wiebe, John Flynn and Kirk Hutson motored on by us. The five of us rode into town together about an hour after leaving Malcom and stopped at the convenience store for a break. With 85 miles behind us, I decided this was a good spot to refuel. I grabbed a bottle of tomato juice, a turkey Lunchable, and some Lemonade and proceeded to sit down for a meal. Soon, I was looking up at the grinning face of Warren Wiebe asking if I had something better than a pair of scissors that he could use to cut a couple of spokes out with. I made some comment about being a mobile toolbox for the Kansas crew. I had loaned some tools out to Joe Fox so he could repair his derailer during TransIowa. At that time, Warren was amazed that I had a chain tool and a hunk of bike chain in my camelback. After that, I handed my side cutters to Warren and returned to eating. I spent the rest of my break stretching and watching Warren and some others use an emergency kevlar spoke kit that I had inadvertantly reminded him he had with him. Since we weren't needed any more, Scott and I took off and headed towards our last checkpoint in Cortland.
Scott and I enjoyed our last section of tailwind. We had a nice 10 mile stretch that had some nice wide rolling hills, complete with a nice couple handing out fresh bananas at the top of a long downhill. More hills and 75 minutes later, Scott and I were outside of the Cenex in Cortland. I went inside, snagged my last Nebraska Powerball ticket, a Snickers ice cream bar, some gatorade and some almonds. We sat down next to Rafal Doloto from Omaha and had a brief chat. Not too long later, Rafal decided to head out on the last leg with Scott and I.
I left Cortland and headed east with Scott and Rafal. We cruised along at a good pace and then finally made the left hand turn north and started a 13 mile push north into the headwind. We all took turns bearing the brunt of the wind, taking pulls for around .5 mile or so. My flagging energy levels forced me to take a breather and eat some food with about 3 miles left in our northward push. After the break, I wasn't able to keep pace with Scott and Rafal so I waved them ahead while I waited for the food to enter my system. About 15 minutes later I was feeling better and began the final 15 mile push to the finish, crossing the finish area at the MOPAC trailhead around 10 hours and 45 minutes after I started.
I had a great time in Lincoln and plan on going back for more rides next year. There's a strong bike culture in the area and the town itself looks like it would be fun to spend some time in. I want to give a big thanks to Oliver and Katie Banta for hosting me for the weekend. Oliver finished the race in just over 13 hours, allowing his time to suffer a bit to make sure that others were ok. A big thank you to Cornbread for putting this thing together, as well as everyone else that was involved in gathering sponsors for the event. This was a great grassroots event.
A big thanks as always to Rasmussen Bike shop for ordering in the weird stuff I ask for, treating me right, and squeezing in a quick adjustment for me when needed.
GPS Track
Saturday, July 25, 2009
I'm not dead yet
So yeah. Haven't posted anything in a while. Not that there hasn't been stuff to post about, but I've been too busy watching the tour or doing other things to post a proper write up.
Weekend of the Hy-Vee Tri, I worked one of the wheel pits for Rasmussen Bike Shop for the Pro races on Saturday. Nothing too stressful, just sit and wait for someone to get a flat. Great benefit is that we're out on the course and get to see/hear the athletes up close. Only exciting things were one wreck in the men's race and someone needing a 4mm allen wrench (which we did not have as we were only set up with wheels). 5 hours with my friend and riding partner Rick Blackford, along with some other characters that showed up.
Saturday night found me, Rick, Oakley Rob, Kurt Benson, Josh Newendorp and Kyle Sedore out for a night gravel grinder. Plan was to leave around 10 or 10:30 and just ride somewhere all night and make it back to the hill to properly cheer on friends and strangers taking part in the age group tri. We left near BWW around 10:30 and headed out through Booneville, Cumming (one pitcher shared, one Red Bull each), Martensdale (one pitcher just as last call was coming about), and back on the same route. We stopped in the middle of the ride for some food and to sit and enjoy the night sky. Pace was casual for most of us (no pedaling down the hills and nothing over 16 on the flats). Good times had by everyone. A quick breakfast at McD's, a quick realization that we should have bought and hid our beverages on Saturday night and we spent the next few hours cheering on the triathletes. I met Kathy and Conor for brunch at Gateway Market on the way home and finally pulled into the garage around 11:30 AM on Sunday. A nice 4 hour nap occurred, followed by food. Hope to do another one of those again sometime this year. I love night rides.
On July 17th I left home with camping equipment and my bike in the back of the Explorer and headed out to take part in the 2009 running of the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational. I stopped in Waterloo and picked up Guitar Ted and we made our way to West Union where were were camping for the night. GT and I stood/sat around for a while having a few drinks and discussing the finer points of life for a while. David Pals showed up around 8 PM with firewood, food and other libations. More discussions occurred, as well as eating, some make shift grilling, and more drinks. Craig from Europa Bike and Ski showed up not too long after to join in the fun. I hit the hay around 11 PM knowing that our 5:45 AM wakeup call was not too far off. GT and Craig stayed up for quite some time later.
Saturday morning arrived and I hopped out of my tent to find DP cranking up his stove and making coffee. I started my supercat stove up and boiled some water for oatmeal, while taking advantage of DP's generous offer to boil more water for my coffee. Oatmeal made, coffee drank and with the addition of Jeremy Fry and Doug Eilderts we were off around 7 AM. We descended through and them climbed out of the park and headed east towards the Turkey River valley and Elkader. The first couple of miles had some neat rollers and then we dropped about 400' into the river valley. On the descent, figured out that I needed to adjust my disk brakes a bit since I wasn't able to bleed off a lot of speed on the downhill. GT and I both almost ended up in the ditch due to speed and the road surface. Exciting start to the ride for sure. The rest of the ride into Elkader was nothing short of beautiful. 25 miles of gently rolling, scenic river valley with plenty of trees and lots of limestone walls. We took a refuel break in Elkader and headed out into the hills. The rest of ride sat somewhere between difficult and borderline insanity. We had dirt roads descents with rocks the size of human heads, climbs well over a mile long, descents that needed to be preceded by warning signs, and after a while. we were happy to see uphill gradients in the 7 - 8 percent range. We stopped in Strawberry point for lunch, cruised through Volga, and made a final stop in Wadena for a much needed coke, ice cream and other food break. We arrived back in West Union around 8:00 PM. We cleaned up, broke camp and headed out around 9 AM. I dropped GT off at his place around 10:30 PM and made the drive home by myself, with tunes blaring out of my iPod. I got home around 12:30 AM, cleaned up a bit and dropped into bed. 118 miles and 10,000 feet of climb for the day. My Salsa La Cruz treated me well all day. Climbed well, cruised on the flats quickly. Now if the rider can match the bike, things will work out well.
Good friends, good food, and good ride = good times.
Route Link
Photos
Weekend of the Hy-Vee Tri, I worked one of the wheel pits for Rasmussen Bike Shop for the Pro races on Saturday. Nothing too stressful, just sit and wait for someone to get a flat. Great benefit is that we're out on the course and get to see/hear the athletes up close. Only exciting things were one wreck in the men's race and someone needing a 4mm allen wrench (which we did not have as we were only set up with wheels). 5 hours with my friend and riding partner Rick Blackford, along with some other characters that showed up.
Saturday night found me, Rick, Oakley Rob, Kurt Benson, Josh Newendorp and Kyle Sedore out for a night gravel grinder. Plan was to leave around 10 or 10:30 and just ride somewhere all night and make it back to the hill to properly cheer on friends and strangers taking part in the age group tri. We left near BWW around 10:30 and headed out through Booneville, Cumming (one pitcher shared, one Red Bull each), Martensdale (one pitcher just as last call was coming about), and back on the same route. We stopped in the middle of the ride for some food and to sit and enjoy the night sky. Pace was casual for most of us (no pedaling down the hills and nothing over 16 on the flats). Good times had by everyone. A quick breakfast at McD's, a quick realization that we should have bought and hid our beverages on Saturday night and we spent the next few hours cheering on the triathletes. I met Kathy and Conor for brunch at Gateway Market on the way home and finally pulled into the garage around 11:30 AM on Sunday. A nice 4 hour nap occurred, followed by food. Hope to do another one of those again sometime this year. I love night rides.
On July 17th I left home with camping equipment and my bike in the back of the Explorer and headed out to take part in the 2009 running of the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational. I stopped in Waterloo and picked up Guitar Ted and we made our way to West Union where were were camping for the night. GT and I stood/sat around for a while having a few drinks and discussing the finer points of life for a while. David Pals showed up around 8 PM with firewood, food and other libations. More discussions occurred, as well as eating, some make shift grilling, and more drinks. Craig from Europa Bike and Ski showed up not too long after to join in the fun. I hit the hay around 11 PM knowing that our 5:45 AM wakeup call was not too far off. GT and Craig stayed up for quite some time later.
Saturday morning arrived and I hopped out of my tent to find DP cranking up his stove and making coffee. I started my supercat stove up and boiled some water for oatmeal, while taking advantage of DP's generous offer to boil more water for my coffee. Oatmeal made, coffee drank and with the addition of Jeremy Fry and Doug Eilderts we were off around 7 AM. We descended through and them climbed out of the park and headed east towards the Turkey River valley and Elkader. The first couple of miles had some neat rollers and then we dropped about 400' into the river valley. On the descent, figured out that I needed to adjust my disk brakes a bit since I wasn't able to bleed off a lot of speed on the downhill. GT and I both almost ended up in the ditch due to speed and the road surface. Exciting start to the ride for sure. The rest of the ride into Elkader was nothing short of beautiful. 25 miles of gently rolling, scenic river valley with plenty of trees and lots of limestone walls. We took a refuel break in Elkader and headed out into the hills. The rest of ride sat somewhere between difficult and borderline insanity. We had dirt roads descents with rocks the size of human heads, climbs well over a mile long, descents that needed to be preceded by warning signs, and after a while. we were happy to see uphill gradients in the 7 - 8 percent range. We stopped in Strawberry point for lunch, cruised through Volga, and made a final stop in Wadena for a much needed coke, ice cream and other food break. We arrived back in West Union around 8:00 PM. We cleaned up, broke camp and headed out around 9 AM. I dropped GT off at his place around 10:30 PM and made the drive home by myself, with tunes blaring out of my iPod. I got home around 12:30 AM, cleaned up a bit and dropped into bed. 118 miles and 10,000 feet of climb for the day. My Salsa La Cruz treated me well all day. Climbed well, cruised on the flats quickly. Now if the rider can match the bike, things will work out well.
Good friends, good food, and good ride = good times.
Route Link
Photos
Saturday, January 17, 2009
13 miles, 2.5 hours = complete bliss
Met up with nine others at Big Creek this morning to try and ride he snowmobile trails again. Brothers in crime included Sumpter, Blackford, Bach, Webb, Sedore, Resse, Bennett, Benson, and Squirrel. Squirrel, Bach and I met up with Sumpter and Blackford at 10 bells. Everyone else was running a bit behind. The trails were not as packed down as any of us had hoped, and the first sections of the trails were very difficult to ride on.
After meeting up with Rick and Sumpter the Pugsley Riding Bastard, and letting my heart rate drop down below 175, we rode back on the road and met up with everyone else. Everyone else was not all that thrilled about riding on the snow trails, but by this time I had dropped the tire pressure on my Nanoraptors down so low that the sidewalls were wrinkling when we were on the paved roads. While everyone else stood around and tried to figure out a plan, I blew through and onto the next section of snowmobile trail. THIS was now completely different. kept it in the 24x32 and just started motoring forward. With the trails not being rutted by the others I was able to keep flying along. Rick and Sumpter caught up to me, and we spent some time riding around on the lake. After meeting up with the rest of the crew, we split up, with Blackford and Sumpter heading for home, and Squirrel off riding the pavement and gravel around the lake. We spent the next hour or so riding the trails, and either pushing or riding bikes across a couple of hay fields. Oddly, riding in bottom bracket and hub deep fresh snow was easier than riding the snowmobile trails. We finished off the mornings ride with some pavement and gravel back to the parking lot. After getting home and snagging a quick shower, I quickly noticed the day's effort in my quads and hamstrings. We weren't moving fast, but it took a lot of work just to keep moving.
Track of today's ride is here.
After meeting up with Rick and Sumpter the Pugsley Riding Bastard, and letting my heart rate drop down below 175, we rode back on the road and met up with everyone else. Everyone else was not all that thrilled about riding on the snow trails, but by this time I had dropped the tire pressure on my Nanoraptors down so low that the sidewalls were wrinkling when we were on the paved roads. While everyone else stood around and tried to figure out a plan, I blew through and onto the next section of snowmobile trail. THIS was now completely different. kept it in the 24x32 and just started motoring forward. With the trails not being rutted by the others I was able to keep flying along. Rick and Sumpter caught up to me, and we spent some time riding around on the lake. After meeting up with the rest of the crew, we split up, with Blackford and Sumpter heading for home, and Squirrel off riding the pavement and gravel around the lake. We spent the next hour or so riding the trails, and either pushing or riding bikes across a couple of hay fields. Oddly, riding in bottom bracket and hub deep fresh snow was easier than riding the snowmobile trails. We finished off the mornings ride with some pavement and gravel back to the parking lot. After getting home and snagging a quick shower, I quickly noticed the day's effort in my quads and hamstrings. We weren't moving fast, but it took a lot of work just to keep moving.
Track of today's ride is here.
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