Mountains in May

 Mountains in the month of may.

Pre-riding with JR

To start the month off I participated in my 3rd ever mountain bike race at rocky gap state park in Maryland for the 9 hours of cranky monkey. To this point I have done a mountain bike TT in 2010 and won the beginners course at wisp last year in 2011. the 9 hours of cranky monkey was the first time I have done a relay style race. My teammates for the event were Mike Janeiro and Scott House, we race in the 105+ category with our other local team “thats what she said”. Now Scott and I voted mike to take the initial lap since he was the more experienced mountain biker and would be able to navigate the initial traffic from the lea-mans start. I took the second lap it was still dry and I work on trying to set a decent time, being a Rodie and not strong on the mountain bike I was happy to turn a 46 min lap. Now my next lap I had set up my gps to go off my first lap and try to match or even beat my time, I was doing well matching the time until I reached about a mile to go when one of the riders on the side of the trail actually replied that they could you use a hand. Since this was our first time doing a relay and we weren't expecting to do exceptionally well, so I figured I'd do the nice thing and stopped to help the guy on the side of the trail since he was unfamiliar with how to reinstall a master-link and chain, so I took me a couple of minutes to help him out, and maybe score some good karma, this lap was a 50 minute lap but if I hadn't stopped I would had matched my first lap in time. Now after I got in to the check in area the sky had opened up and started to rain which would mean a slick and muddy lap for my next one. I got the key from mike and started my third lap, from cyclocross I am used to slick conditions so I felt fairly confident but still not taking many risks. Mike managed to finish our 10th lap with just 7 minutes left until they close the course for the last lap I knew we were only a minute down from the 5th place team and about 6-7 minutes behind the 4th place team, so I had to keep looking at the category number on the people I was passing on the final lap. I had passed one 105+ but I knew it wasnt the 5th place team and wasn't sure if I was lapping a another rider but I didn't want them to over take me before the lap was over. As it turn out the guy I had passed was the team who had sat in 4th moving us from 6th to a surprising 5th place podium.

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Next to wisp, where I had won last year. Well I carpooled down with Jeff Gernert got there early and helped set up the team tent all Abra races. After snacking on some of my oatmeal cookie I went and pre-rode the pro-log since this would be the tricky part in traffic. I had signed up for the sport class after winning the beginner class last year, this only being my 4th mountain bike race and not used to doing distance on the mountain bike I was a little hesitant to race the next level up. Yet after doing 4 laps of a 8 mile course at 9 hours of cranky monkey. We lined up and soon we were off, I managed to hold my own during the pro-log and not long after we started heading down hill and I started losing places. I managed to pick a bad line through both of the crick crossings causing me to dismount at both of them. I took my time climbing the couple miles to the finish line knowing I had to do a second lap. I picked up my second bottle from our teams table and started my second lap, I made it down the descent without much trouble but was feeling sluggish. Again picked a bad line though both crick crossings and had to dismount and after I remounted the second time I just bonked and I just wanted to be finished but was only halfway done with my second lap. Now I don't remember to much from this point on just remember I had flatted and my spare tube had a small leak which I needed to pump up about every mile for the remaining 4 miles. Looking at the first lap from my garmin and the time of the beginner class, I feel I could have had a good chance of winning the beginner class but that's no fun (and is also sandbagging). The difference between first and last, at least for me that day was one lap.

Oh the Tour of Tucker Country. One race every year that pushes me to do “hilly” training rides and causes me to question my sanity in wanting to race one of the most challenging courses in the country. After a big day in my life, graduation from medical school, and a little time off to enjoy my vacation at the beach with classmates, I was back in the saddle and ready to ride.

 The family at my medical school graduation!

I have always been a better racer in cooler weather, so I was somewhat worried about the hot temperature.  But off we went!  I was without my partner in crime, teammate Ann Foreman, but we started with the Cat 5 men, so there was a good group to ride with to the first climb Location. At this point, I just tried to spin up the hills because I knew it was a long climb to the top. After reaching the top, I rode with another woman. I like this part of the course! I tried to keep up on water and salt. I was really happy to find out how great the CamelBak lemon-lime elixir tastes!! To the last climb I rode and was ready to make it to the top. I just pushed and pushed, and when I got past the Church on the steepest part, I knew I had made it. The heat did make the race more challenging, but I love to see how far I can push myself. Although, I had wanted to get a better time, I was pleased with my 4^th place finish! Another solid ABRA road race on a beautiful WV course! Thanks to all our sponsors and my great teammates!

Kick butt picture thanks to Fred Jordan!

Racing in May

9 Hours of Cranky Monkey
May began with a return to mountain bike relay racing with the 9 Hours of Cranky Monkey at Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland.   In our third year racing at this venue, Travis O. and I recruited Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling Team p/b Pathfinder teammate Jeff Gernert to compete in the Men's 105+ category for team 'That's What She Said'.

Jeff was initiated into multi-lap mtn bike racing by being given the 1st lap LeMans style run to his bike and then a 9mile singletrack ride around the lake at Rocky Gap.  Less than 50 minutes later, he rolled into the log in to pass the timing chip and lap 2 over to me.  Familiar with this course from previous years, I was able to pick my way around the congestion of other racers that is typical in the first few miles of the second lap.  In just over 40 minutes, I finished with a new PR lap time around 40minutes.   Next, Travis, also familiar with the course from previous races, finished with a PR lap just over 41 minutes.

The race course was evidently drier and faster than it had been in 2010 and 2011 as flows around the lake for most of the 9 miles with a section of steep and rocky climbing in the middle and a loose rocky descent back to the remainder of the lake loop.    However, these conditions would not last as rain began to soften the trails into a slippery surface giving an advantage to the more technically experienced racers.

'That's What She Said'
2nd place 9hrs of Cranky Monkey

The race would prove exciting in the Men's 105+ class as we would gradually climb up to 3rd and 2nd places.   At one point we would see a 1st place position, only to find out that a 'computer glitch' had temporarily messed up the scoring but left us with a considerable lead over 3rd.  A couple of strong laps later we would finish with 11 total laps, a couple more PR's,  a 14th overall finish, and 2nd in the Men's 105+ class.


Wisp XC 
Three weeks later, I would make the short trip over to The Wisp ski resort for the 1st ABRA mountain bike race of the season.  Last year I was able to take 1st place in the Vet Sport category on a very cool windy mountain top.   This year, the weather conditions would be more favorable as we would see temperatures in the 70s to 80s.   However, the trail conditions, although drier, would be much more loose in the beginning after a rocky prologue loop that had been added.   And, I would be racing with a much younger field of riders in the Sport class since the only 35+ class would be a 3-lap distance this year instead of the 2-lap.

Wisp XC 2012
James B. in 3rd, Chris J. in 5th

Feeling good about this race at the start, I had no idea of the troubles I would encounter over the next 17 miles.  Three crashes on the fire road downhill near the start, one of which would break my left shoe, bending the toe upwards in a 90degree angle, one wrong turn to be redirected by a lady in a bikini sitting along the trail .........(pause for daydream).......why would she be in the middle of nowhere?.....in a bikini?!....or was I hallucinating from the lack of oxygen.....oh well.....and a bad case of chain suck would leave me deciding that this was not going to be my day.  You win some and you lose some.  On this day, I had given in to losing.

So, I continued to complete my second lap stuck in the large chainring.  After a few miles of grinding a long, I noticed Mike J. had flatted his rear tire which, after a failed attempt at providing a 29inch tube for his 26inch tire, would be just the break I needed to move into 5th place on the podium.

Tour of Tucker
The final race in May would be the Tour of Tucker County on Memorial Day Weekend.   This race is always a memorable one as it has two serious climbs that make me feel as if I had ridden twice the distance.  The first real climb starts steep, then becomes gradual near the end.  Whereas the last climb, Sugarland Road, starts gradual and steepens to > 18% grades.

I would get dropped just after the steep grade of the first climb, but would make up ground by the time I reached the ridge, which consisted of several steep rollers.  By the time I reached the bottom of the long and fast descent, I had caught onto teammate Jeff. G's wheel for the climb up Sugarland road. My pedal rpm's would drop into the low 40's through the steepest grades of this climb.   The combination of the steep climb, slow speeds, and the heat made for a pretty miserable ride to the finish.

Considering the conditions and my apparent lack of physical fitness this year, I was very pleased with a 27th finish in 2hrs 9minutes, which was 2 minutes faster that my time last year.

A big thanks to all of our sponsors for supporting the team in 2012.

Roll With The Changes

On May 20th, I competed in my first ever mountain bike race, the Wisp XC Challenge, it made me rethink all my preconceived notions that XC mountain biking was riding on smooth flowing dirt paths, it was very technical riding, and it sure was a challenge.  I ended up doing pretty well, winning the Juniors category by default, but also recording the best time in the entire beginner class.

I went into the race expecting an easy flowing course, it was an XC race after all, but after ‘warming up’  (by crashing twice) on the prologue section, I was pretty sure I’d gotten in above my head.  The trails were so rocky and uneven, and given my limited scope of MTB experience, I don’t even have anything to compare them to.   As we lined up at the beginning, I was glad I was the only junior, ‘this way’, I thought, ‘I wont be able to embarrass myself too badly.’

Shortly before finishing my first mountain bike race.

I surprised myself though.  I managed to hold on to Marco’s wheel through the prologue, and thankfully, the trails got much less technical after we rode deeper into the forest.  My confidence started to grow, and I then passed Marco, and soon after another; Mike, but not long afterwards, I crashed on a creek crossing, and both Marco and Mike regained their positions in front of me.   Around this point, I realized that JR didn’t actually design the course with the sole intention of killing me, and I began to enjoy the race.

We descended on some nice flowing fire roads, and then road on some less technical single track, my confidence was beginning to build again, and when we hit the first big climb, I took off. I passed everyone who had passed me in the beginning of the race, and then I passed some of the people who left with the sport class.  My road fitness was really starting to pay off, and I was having fun.  Right before the finish, I caught up to Sean Hilty, we were both pretty exhausted, “You racing juniors, or beginners?”  he asked me, I replied that I was racing juniors, he seemed relieved that he didn’t have to chase me.

After the race, I crashed once more while trying to show off, bringing my total number of crashes to four.

Meanwhile on the road side of things...

Taking the new CAAD 10 for a spin up my driveway.

For as long as I’ve been riding, I’ve had the same road bike, a heavy, battleship gray behemoth from a major online vendor.  I’ve had kind of a love-hate relationship with this bike since I’ve been racing it, I liked certain things about it, namely the durability that comes with having a ~25 pound road bike, but I hated other things about it, namely the huge amount of weight I had to pedal up every climb.

The solution, a new bike, from our wonderful sponsor, Pathfinder of West Virginia! I am absolutely ecstatic about my new Cannondale CAAD 10.  I cannot find a single fault with this bike, I think the two biggest improvements over my old bike are the weight; a scant 17.4lbs in size 58, and the brakes have stopping power rivaling the disks on my Raleigh Furly (also available from Pathfinder).

Prior to this bike, I’d always disliked riding 700x23 tires, they simply rode too harsh, but the CAAD 10, with stock 700x23 tires rides much smoother than my old bike with 700x25‘s!  I can’t wait until I get my new Kountach tires from our wonderful sponsor Kenda, with those it will ride smoother still.

This Sunday, I’ll compete in my first road race with my new Cannondale, The Fort Classic.

 Until next time,
 Jonathan

The not so full pull...

It seemed like a great idea when JR sent out the invitation to do a full pull of the Hilly Billy Roubaix course on Memorial Day. First, I'd never ridden 90% of the course and I really stress about racing on unfamiliar roads, even if I have no chance (and no intention) of finising on the podium. Second, I haven't been out on the cross bike in a while and it might do me some good to change things up. Third, what better way to spend a holiday than to spend it with friends doing what we all love so much.


Bikers Dozen... and all smiles at this point



The plan was to meet at 11 and ride from Mylan. I followed JR into the parking lot and right be hind me was John Pillo. Then, in short order Seth Rockey, Traci and Gary Rodosta, David Cornett, Mike Janeiro, Tim Gregis, Nathanial Manchin, and Marco Piccirilli all arrived. All told, there were 11 strong riders set to take on the adventure.  It seemed there was no reason we shouldn't be back to the cars and heading for home in 6 short hours or less.

A quick photo and we were off. The first mile of the route was all downhill (we started at the main road and skipped the beastly driveway climb). We then made the right at the bottom and then made the left out John Fox Road. Thats when a sign of things to come appeared. Weren't 3 miles into the ride when PFFFTTT! Our first flat of the day. It was already over 90* so no one was complaining that we had to stop and rest in the shade since it was going to be awhile before we got to do that again... or so we thought. We found comfort in the shade of an oak tree while Gary and Traci set to working on her wheel and then we were off again. Up the first climb and down the back side. PFFFTTT! This time it was Gary's turn to have the honors of providing another enjoyable break. On we went and  PFFTTTTT! Guess what, Gary's turn AGAIN. Gary was taking it worse than the rest of us and took out a little frustration with the bike, but we all huddled togther on the shore of the puddle the size of a farm pond and enjoyed the shade of another tree.


An all too common sight (but thankfully this was not mine)


Well, if you are sensing a trend here, you are not alone.  All told, we had 12 flats amongst our 11 riders (2 bailed out early: 1 planned and 1 because the ride was going to over run another engagement). Gary and Traci each flatted twice, Marco, Seth, JR, and Tim each once, but somehow I managed 4 flats. I pinch flatted the front twice and the rear once and then just tooling down 19 south of Mt Morris, PFFFTTTT! flat #4 for me and #12 for the group.  And aside from having a bunch of angry and loud talking chains managed to avoid any other catastrophes. What I wouldn't have given to have thought ahead and brought along that bottle of Pro Gold Extreme Lube that was sitting on the corner of my workbench.

Just an interesting barn with a 3D sculpture that JR pointed out (while we were waiting for flat #5 to be repaired)


But back to the fun parts of the ride... The end.

Thanks for reading, Next Up: (OK, so I'm just kidding, with that many people and that many miles, there were tons of laughs, heckling and sights to be seen.)  One of my favorites was when word got around (hour 5) that we were going to abbreviate the course because we were almost out of tubes and and we were all dragging our tails behind us. JR plotted a course that took us through a secret little passage under I-79 from Osage to the Star City exit. I should appologize to who ever drug the log down to act as a bridge around the 15" deep mud hole because apparently it had a 200# weight limit, and even after sweating for 6 hours and 45 minutes in the blazing heat, I still exceeded that limit and ended up standing in mud up to my mid calf.  Oh well, I know how many miles that shortcut saved us so I was more than happy to be the butt of a few jokes on that one. For the rest of the details from the ride, you will just have to check out the Strava details.  Keep in mind that this is NOT the FULL PULL as we anticipated so don't use this as a cheat sheet for preparing for the race in a few weeks. the first 50 miles are, but then we started to improvise.



Fluid Refill #2 (and they have frozen slushees) and not so many smiles

 Thanks to JR, Traci, Gary, Mike, Marco, Tim, Seth, John, Nate, and Dave for making the holiday so memorable. See you all Sunday at the Fort Classic.







May we get to June, please?

The month of May has been a bit difficult, although that doesn't mean that it's been all that negative. I'll start with the bad, highlight the good, and move on to bigger and better.

A couple of days into May, I was just riding along on the mountain bike and all of a sudden my face met our native West Virginia plant, the greenbrier (Smilax rotundifolia).

It was strung across a well-traveled trail, and before I knew it...well - I'll spare you the details. I ended up in the ER for most of the night, and went home with 9 stitches in my eyelid. All's well that ends well, though, and I'm happy to say that everything has healed up nicely. After a few days of rest and recovery I was back out on the bike. Just riding along...

Somewhere in the month of May is my birthday, and I got a surprise visit from my Dad. He's a semi-retired enginerd, and couldn't believe how light my road bike was in full race trim (it's not that light). He was impressed with the engineering that goes into carbon bikes and components these days. I still remember the first time I got a real BMX bike. I think I was about 7 or 8 and I watched as he and a friend pieced it together in the garage, literally jumping up and down waiting for a chance to ride it. It had an Araya wheelset, Shimano freewheel, gold Sugino cranks, Powerlite "Powerbend" bars, etc. The build wasn't extravagant by any means, but more of a working-man's (boy's) competition machine that was light enough to fly and strong enough to take a beating. My Dad knew I'd ride and wreck that thing on a daily basis on the mini-BMX track I had built in the woods by our house, and he set me up proper. I owe a lot to my Dad for that bike (I remember casing the double jump and the stitches I needed post-crash...he even took me to the ER for those). Some may think that I'm accident-prone, and I even wonder sometimes myself, but I think it's more pushing my limits than anything else. I've been riding and competing on bikes ever since - BMX, MTB, observed trials, downhill and freeride, dirtjumping, fixed gear, singlespeed, cyclocross, and even road bikes. He noticed that I had a passion for two-wheels early on, and I wonder if he could have imagined at that time how important bikes would be for me during the next 25 or so years of my life. I'll have to ask him, but in the meantime - thanks Dad!

Did a bit of racing in May. I say "racing", but I mean "racing as training". I didn't sign up for a race this month with any ambitions other than to get in a good day in the saddle. The Wisp XC Challenge was first, and I rode the rigid singlespeed to last place in the category. It was great, though, because apparently there were only 4 single-speederific racers so I was in the "money" and just off the podium. Sometimes it pay$ to go $low.

I also signed up for the Tour of Tucker County, which is an interesting mountain bike race, held on the road with everyone using road bikes. I've heard all the stories. I've heard that the race is so tough that folks are blowing up tires before the race even starts. I heard that one year, a lone rider was actually eaten by Sugarlands climb...never to be seen or heard from again. Let me say that is all TRUE and the race is all that and more. If you miss it next year - well, you will have MISSED OUT on probably the best mountain bike road race in West Virginia, and possibly the entire mid-Atlantic. Be there.

I finished well off the pace in the 3/4 field, but considering the heat, my ambitions (to not finish last), and the fact that I had 2.5 bottles for the entire distance and none left for Sugarlands or to wash down any "food"...I'm gonna say that I had a good day. Plus - doing the Clay Lick descent twice on freshly mounted Kenda Super Domestique tubulars was awesome. Next...

June has some fun stuff in store for bike enthusiasts. Here's a list:

• The Fort Classic Road Race - June 3
• The Aliquippa Criterium - June 10
• The Big Bear 2 x 12 - June 16
• The HillyBilly Roubaix - June 23

Those should wear you out for the rest of the summer.

Speaking of being worn out...I just spent 7 hours today playing arborist in the Memorial Day heat. After climbing and pruning two tall sugar maples (Acer saccharum) and one boxelder (Acer negundo), and eradicating a ton of the invasive wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei) I am tired, but the place looks great! (Any time a plant's scientific name ends in "fortunei" - you can bet it takes advantage of the situation it's given...actually it's named after Robert Fortune, but the vine does grow wicked fast and will out-compete and kill 40'+ trees if you let it climb...so don't!)

sugar maple (the maple syrup tree)

Until next time - keep the rubber side down.

Some Days, You're Just Happy to Finish

Some days, we race and things go as planned. Other days, we race and the race (if you're stubborn like me and refuse to quit) turns into a mental battle for survival. If a picture is worth 1000 words, this image, shows the latter. (Full size).

2012 Tour of Tucker County (2 laps).