killthedarkness

a land far far away.

with the possibility of the overall win for the wors marathon series i opted to head to rhinelander for the final race of the mini series. head up saturday for a preride, call jesse to confirm gear ratio. bumpy course but i liked the mix of singletrack and hills. the doubletrack/road sections reminded me a lot of the fat tire. up early on sunday and all i could get down was a half piece of toast. to the course to warm up. front row call up that i managed to not use very well at the start. i shuffled behind cautiously with flashbacks of the wausau marathon. i found myself a bit back in the string of riders, maybe tenth. after a mile or two of singletrack i had worked my way up to sixth behind chris. jesse, mike, brian, and cole gapping up little by little. hammered past chris and eventually bridged to cole as the lead three continued to open up space. i managed a pass on cole which i managed to blow about a mile later as i caught a barend and went down hard. up quick and started to chip away. i could see the dust in the air so i figured they werent too far up. on the open sections i was catching a glimpse of them up ahead, maybe ten seconds. a few miles from the end of the lap i was gaining on a road section. jesse went to the back and started yelling at me to bridge. i did shortly before the end of the lap. my legs already felt spent and they werent letting up at all on the front. heading into lap two brian was on the front as i was just trying to hang on. the pace eventually slowed a bit, allowing me to recover. jesse and brian started opening a gap through one of the bumpy singletrack sections as i was latched onto mike's wheel. i made it around him and chased again. eventually getting brian's wheel and dropping mike. and so the rest of the race went. running into lap traffic, getting gapped a little, and bridging back. my hands/wrists were taking a beating on the bumpy course. about two miles from the end my left hand just couldnt take it anymore. i was having troubles gripping the bar and had resorted to only using my rear brake. they gapped me and i just cruised in. jesse got away for the win about ten seconds up on brian, and i rolled in about twenty seconds after. upon finishing i removed my glove to find a large blister on my palm and an area where the skin had ripped. ouch. with the result brian clinched the marathon series and i got the second. now its time to run through the bike and get it boxed up for travel. tomorrow i set flight for bigger things in scotland. the time for sswc is here. from the sounds of it the course should be fairly hilly and rocky. i will be arriving thursday afternoon in inverness, get picked up by manchester trev, and head to my lodging. build the bike up and relax. friday and saturday will be some recon as the course wont be announced until race time.  a huge thanx to b. matter, dirk rettig, mike dretzka, and bill larsen for showin me some love to help out with the trip. i also want to thank everyone that has helped make this trip happen. i wouldnt be going without all your help. time to kill some dreams.

timebomb.

the days have blurred to weeks. makes it easy to forget what happened last. a week ago meghan and i packed up a truck and moved across town to a great new apt. hectic day and more to come. i still had no passport yet the online check showed it was delivered. two days later and a lot of detective work by meghan and the passport is in my hands. scotland is definately a gogo. more work, trekworld, then off to wors cup. jesse and i followed ronsta off the line. a few miles in the front is set w/ tj leading, then jesse, t. brown, matter and myself, with chris chasing. chris caught on near the end of lap one. halfway through lap three jesse attacked going uphill. tj chased as travis was in the process of breaking his chain. i went around and chased tj. i caught him goin into lap five and kept going. jesse was long gone so i cruised the last half lap coming in 2.5 minutes back. the course was great, even getting sloppy the last two laps. im sure the rest of the classes had a much tougher time on the course. i also received word today that ive been upgraded to pro. now i just have to buy an int'l license. a big shout out is in order for craig manthe for showin some love in my trip to sswc. and rusty for some great shots. thanks.

pb w/o the j.

wors is getting a fair share of mud races this year. its amazing that weve had three of em and yet it seems it never rains. alterra is a race i normally fair well in. ronsta took the holeshot and led us through the field on lap one. i sat in fifth behind mikey, brian, jesse, and ron. i managed to get around ron before craters on lap one and latch back on the the front three. finishing up the prologue lap i caught a barend and gashed my leg. hammered the climb just as jesse gets the same idea. i spent the next 2 laps getting dropped my brian and mike, then catching back on on the climbs. brian made a break on lap 3 and i eventually got by mike to bridge up to brian. jesse was already long gone. we went back and forth for a bit. brian picked up some branches in his der but caught back on rather quickly. we had a bit of trouble getting by lapped riders. i kept looking back thinking i could see ron. i quickly realized it was ron hot on our wheels. i went by brian on craters on lap five as i had to pound the pedals w/ a 36x17. i led out the remainder of the lap. we hit the finishing hill and i did everything i could to get up quickly, thinking brian was on my wheel. i wish i wouldve looked back. as brian was minimizing the pain i was maximizing it. jesse with the win, myself second, brian third, ron fourth, and mikey fifth.

huge thanks to rusty for the pics. and to jon hirsch and patti/jim/hans for helping me get to sswc. and to meghan and amanda for handups. and to everyone who was screaming for me. and to all my sponsors. the gary fisher ferrous once again performed great w/ no issues. my bonty dry x tyres worked amazingly well in the mud. deceiving name, great tyre. my avid juicy ultimates worked flawlessly. and today, the pads are fine. the racing jackets were great for the mud and stayed unfogged. no o2s for me so it looks like a lot of riding.

sweet chariot.

striking a balance between function and fashion is not always easy. i tend to lean towards a classic taste and it is manifested in the chariot. theres nothing quite like the crisp click of an indexed downtube shifter. an all-rounder on a budget, my roadbikes and commuters have sat untouched for two weeks.

the goal on the week following nine mile was solely on recovery. a mid season break the refuel the body. it proves to be short lived as were back on the grid this weekend in mke. as sswc gets closer, im still receiving wonderful support. huge thanks to jerry and barb daanen and troy and rachel heineman (all the way from iraq) for contributing to my scotland journey.