Thursday, July 29, 2010

XXC Magazine shows us some love.



The fine folks at XXC Magazine ran a story this month recapping the 70 mile Hilly Billy Roubaix which took place last month. We were all there taking part in the great event and we did well. However one of us really shined that day. Betsy put in what she said may have been here best every race. And that girl has done some racing. She not only won the Women's Open category she finished the event 9th overall. XXC Magazine also realized this and ran a photo of her climbing one of the nasty hills of the day that was almost a full two page spread. Nice work Betsy and great job.

Oh and don't let me forget she was on a single speed!

You can purchase a copy of this months issue on line for home delivery or a digital copy at http://xxcmag.com/site/XXC.html


I see that Ergon logo on your rear!



Betsy on the podium at the Hilly Billy Roubaix


Thanks to Jason Mahokey at XXC Magazine for the great article and Ben Stephens for the great pictures. Now everyone run out and get a copy! Well I guess you could just do it right from your computer. Wow aint technology grand.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Now We're Racing


Well, it's about time for a race report since I'm halfway through the season. I'm writing this from the backseat of the Motown Velo-mobile. Those guys were nice enough to offer a ride to me when the rest of the Dynamic Physical Therapy Cycling Team decided to race elsewhere. Thanks guys!

We're on our way back from the little beaver chainring challenge wvmba race held at little beaver state park just east of Beckley WV. Those of you who pay attention will know that Beckley is about as far from Morgantown as you can be and still be in the same state.

That's why we started our drive at 6:30 a.m. That's right. Those velo boys like to show up early.

It seemed extra early since I hadn't gotten to sleep until after 1 a.m. and managed to wake up every hour on the hour for no good reason. This was all after a great night celebrating my girlfriend finishing up her Ph.D. dissertation and scheduling her defense. Go Laura!

Not to mention swapping tires, replacing a chain, a pedal bearing, and swapping cleats before going to bed. Should have done that days ago, but you work with what you have, no? I swapped from Kenda small block 8s to Nevegals. This race course is relatively flat but ridiculously tight twisty and rocky. The nevegals don't roll as fast and are a bit heavier, but are sticky like glue and have enough volume to tackle the rock gardens at speed.
I'd also like to point out how easy it is to work on crankbrothers pedals. It felt like my pedal bearing had a little play in it and it took less than 3 minutes to replace it and clean and lube the rest of the pedal. Plus a rebuild kit is less than $20 bones. Plus they have a new generation of pedals just hitting the market that look really impressive. Look for a review as soon as I get my hands on some.

After 3 hours on the road, an hour sitting around, and an hour getting ready and getting warmed up it was time to race.

It started up a quarter mile dirt road and then dumped the field into 7 miles of sweet singletrack.

Steve R. punched it from the gun and pulled his brother and newly crowned state champ, Jeremy, and Rob from North Carolina into the singletrack first. I jumped into the woods around 7th position. After a couple miles of following I saw some open space and made my move and managed to bridge up to and pass steve on a long flat rooty/rocky section. This brought me to the only real climb on the course, a 300 meter long wall covered with cross roots and loose rocks. I've won this race overall the past two years on my trusty Cannondale singlespeed, but I've never cleaned the wall. Until today! Which was really awesome because I caught Jeremy at the top and could see Rob just up the trail.

What wasn't awesome was my heartrate which was hovering somewhere near 5000 beats per minute. So my small victory over the wall meant I was spent the rest of the first lap trying to recover. With the heat and humidity it was no small task and I resigned myself to chasing the leaders down later.

Coming through the start/finish I was about 30 seconds down. My heart wasn't quite in it as I started that second lap though, more in ride fast mode rather than race mode and I wasn't making up time where I should have been.

By the third lap I was over a minute down but starting to feel better. That all fell apart the third time up the wall. I remounted at the top and promptly crashed into a tree while taking a drink. I slowly gathered myself and then slowly rode through the many many rock gardens over the next couple miles.

...
Ah the quiet trails baked in beautiful afternoon sunlight. Moss covered rocks, deer roaming around...*clunk clunk clunk* huh?

Rider back. Time to go! That's what I get for getting complacent.

I punched for the last half lap and managed to hold off Joey Riddle who had snuck up on me while I was lost in revelry. Felt good to race real hard for a bit.

So 3rd overall, first singlespeed. A nice confidence booster after the last few weeks. Plus my time was close to the (unofficial) course record that I set two years ago which was good given that I didn't feel that great and it was omg so hot.

We stayed for lots of food and friendly banter leading up to the awards. Another solid day of racing in the books.

Almost. We still had to get home! We packed the convoy and headed out into increasingly gloomy skies. They opened up with a torrent of rain just as we drove past our exit. 15 miles later when we got to a strange toll booth we figured out we were off course. So we got a bonus scenic detour through our states capital city. Only 45+ minutes out of the way. On top of a 3+ hour drive. Got home around 9. 15 hour day.



And loving every minute.

Keep the rubber side down.

~RoLo

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Training secrets revealed!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!


Ever wonder why the Shogren's are so fast? Training secrets revealed!

Happy Birthday Bunny!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Barbour Detour on the Tandem

Gina and I have been spending much more time lately ride our tandem so we thought we would give racing in the Barbour Detour a shot. The Detour is much flatter then most WV road races so it was the best course for us and our boat archer to make our first racing attempt on. I am pretty sure Gina was a bit nervous as the start approached cause she had never been in a bike race before. I was pretty excite and nervous for the challenge of us trying to get around the roads and not get lapped by the Cat 1/2/3 field and be dead last.

In the first 1/4 of the course you hit the only real long climb of the day. The race officials were nice/smart and had us start with the Cat 4/5 field and not the Cat 5 field which started last on the day. Had we stated with the Cat 5 field we would have been off the back in the first 1/2 mile and would have not seen anyone else the rest of the day. However starting with the 4/5's put us in the middle of the race and we got to see some of the action as we rode along. What fun!

We made it up the first hill much easier then I had imagined before the race and was really excited about the rest of the race as it was rolling the rest of the way out. As we progressed we tried pedaling hard over the top of the rollers and then taking it easy on the downhills because with the tandem's weight it goes downhill fast with out much effort. This worked pretty well for us.



As we reached mile 20 of 31 the heat day and weight of the tandem started to catch up to me. My knees really started to hurt from pushing the pedals so hard (this was a new pain for my that somehow only the tandem brings out). Gina was also getting tired but was hanging tough. Every time I asked her to pick up her pedaling, she did. We also received a huge cheer from the folks sitting on there porch on Route 38. That was really cool!

As we reached the final descent into Philippi for the finished we even passed a racer (only one of the day), and the Cat 1/2/3 field was still no where to be seen behind us. "We are going to finish with out being lapped", I told Gina WOOT! As we head towards the line I asked her over and over again to look back for the 1/2/3 because we didn't want to get in the way of their finishing sprint but that never became an issue. We crushed the other tandems out there that day. Of course there were no other ones but no one needs to know that.



At the beginning of the race Dave Burns asked me, "what time you guys hoping to finish in?" I through out 2 hours and 5 minutes thinking that it would be hard for us to make that time, but we finished in 2 hours and 4 minutes! Another WOOT! It was hard but it was also a lot of fun to do that race with my wife. We even rode the tandem two out of the next three days, guess we both had fun?! Will have to see if we get a chance to race "Big Red" anymore this year. :)

Great work Gina, love ya!



Thanks to Dynamic Physical Therapy, Cannondale, Kenda Tires, Camelbak, Pyro Apparel, Swftwik, Ergon, I9, Mike Miller DDS, Edward Jones, Performance Coaching Services, Pro Gold Lube and Pathfinder of Morgantown for letting us race on the best equipment in the business.

Till next time!