Trip out to Nationals

Tuesday a.m. it was pouring rain. I was scheduled to ride 2 x's. One being a session of intervals a break and then a longer over distance ride in the late afternoon. Mother Nature decided to change my plans a bit and in all reality it's probably a good thing.

Motivation has been a little low lately so it was an easy decision to head West a day early. We packed up the car in between torrential rain bouts and decided NOW or NEVER! Stopped at the shop for a few last minute things and drove out of town just as the Tornado Sirens were blaring! We turned on the local radio station to learn that there were touch downs sighted in the direction we were going....hmmmm...We didn't heed the warnings and went anyway. We didn't see any funnel action and it was amazing at how quickly we drove out of the storm and into a sunny evening. Spicer, MN reported a funnel cloud had touched down and had taken out some trees and some siding off a building so we were excited to see the damage since we were heading that way down Hwy 23. It ended up being some siding missing off a building and a bunch of tree limbs on the road. We only got a glimpse of the damage from the road.

We stopped in Marshall, MN to get a ride in at Camden State Park, Home of the Camden Classic (rumor is that this race wont be happening this year...?) We were cutting it close with available light left to the day but we quickly changed and hit the trails. There is some good vertical at this park as the Redwood River Valley carved some serious bluffs out of the till. It's a true gem as one could say the surrounding area is FLAT LAND.

After pounding some nails we headed west and spent the night in the home of the Corn Palace. We didn't visit but many do. Wed a.m. I scouted out a place in Mitchell to do a little leg speed work out and then we drove West across South Dakota to Hill City where we rode some of the Centennial Trail near Mount Rushmore. We rode until we hit the Wilderness area and then headed back. Here Anderson decided to get a flat tire and he spent approximately one hour fixing this flat tire...I did hill repeats with the wonder dog while he pinched his tube 3 times while putting it in. Thankfully he had a patch kit and a pump otherwise it would have been a true nightmare. He found a comfortable rock to set up his little repair station and was diligently working away at his problem. Finally, I stopped to help him figure out the problem. When he put the tube in the tubless tire fit so snugly that the tube was getting pinched under the bead of the tire. He'd pump it up and eventually it ripped a whole in the tube. So in the end I pried the tire up with the lever in the area it was pinch flatting as he pumped. Finally we got the tube to seat in the tire and we were able to carry on our way.


Thursday a.m. we headed back to the same trail head but headed in the opposite direction. We've ridden this trail a hand full of times. It's super technical and offers up some great views of the Black Hills! We only saw five hikers out from Texas, otherwise the trail was ours. Pretty amazing because out on the roads the traffic is crazy in this area from people touristing from all around the Midwest!


The wonder dog has amazed us significantly. He seems really interested in running along. At home he hides when we get on our biking apparel. He was jumping around and not eager to sit on his leash by the car. At 9 he's going strong. The riding style is slower with the technical climbing so he can hang with us and on the descents he loves to really stride it out. We have to wait up for him a bit so we don't loose him at trail junctions but it's really awesome to have him running with us!

Max found a watering whole!

Pretty technical trails. Probably out put a lot of power to climb the rocks but it's fun to try the skills out!

We stayed the night in Laramie, WY. I'm not in too big of a hurry to get out to Sol Vista, CO as it's pretty high altitude. We will be cutting it close with registration closing at 6 p.m. tonight. I might or might not get a lap in the course. Jay explains the course so maybe I'll go with that. It's a mountain course. You climb up and you come down!

And some more exciting news taken from the Cyclingnews.com website!

Super D

This year's Super D promises to highlight Team Giant. Defending champion Adam Craig is expected to battle his teammate Carl Decker for the title. While they are very good friends off the bike, neither gives the other an inch on the race course.

Typically Super D courses include up to twenty percent uphill, giving a decided advantage to cross country racers riding full suspension bikes. However, occasionally the percentage is much lower and the course much steeper (as in Park City, Utah), which throws the advantage over to some of the stars of downhill racing. It is yet to be seen what the nature of the Sol Vista course it, but Eric Carter (GT Bicycles) has entered the event. Given the right type of terrain, Carter could pull off an upset.

Ross Schnell (Trek) is not expected to compete due a planned flight to Europe. Bryan Fawley (Park Place), Michael Broderick (Kenda-Seven-No Tubes), Sam Koerber (Gary Fisher 29er) are expected to fight for podium positions.
The women's race is likely to be a showdown between Kelli Emmett (Giant) and Willow Koerber (Gary Fisher/Subaru). Both are excellent cross country racers who love to descend. Emmett barely edged out Koerber in last week's Downieville Classic.

Pua Sawicki (Ellsworth) and Kyie Anderson (Ekho/Cannondale) are also likely podium contenders. (that's right!!!)

Rachel Lloyd has informed Cyclingnews that she will not be defending her championship. Perennial favorite Marla Streb (Luna Women's MTB) will also be absent, as will Sue Butler (MonaVie/Cannondale), and Katie Compton.

Red Wing MNSCS- Memorial Park

photos by Bruce Adelsman www.skinnyski.com

A great day for a bike race on the limestone bluffs of the Mississippi River in Red Wing this past weekend! Not too hot this year but the humidity was still a factor. I switched to using the big bottles each lap instead of the small ones and I was still out of water at the end of each lap.

Jennifer Nowlin (Peace Coffee) started the race at a pretty good clip off the line with gaping the field. I let Jenna (Specialized) close it down and I just sat on her wheel until we rounded a bend on the start loop. I went around her and pulled a little and then she took me on the inside before we hit the single track. I wanted to race a little more conservatively yesterday as I think I BLEW myself last weekend at the WORS Firecracker trying to ride faster than I could hold for an hour and a half. I wanted to have consistent lap times yesterday and feel good throughout the race so I sort of let Jenna do her thing and I settled in 2nd wheel and did my thing.
The Stairway to Heaven proved to be just as hard as I remember. It's been a few years since I've raced this race and I'm glad we headed down there yesterday because it's good to get the feel of some climbing in before Nationals next weekend.
I was able to stay consistent throughout the race and I felt good, my third lap was the fastest. The course had a lot of steep pitches and tight switch backs, fun descents and some really great single track. The course was pretty dry and hard pan, in some areas you could see the soil cracking, in other areas you could see where people had breaked and there was actually skid marks on the hard pan. I threw some riser bars on my bike a couple days ago and It's like riding a whole new bike! I'm riding a little more up right but it feels like I have more control on the down hills. I had a blast on the technical descents that the race course offered and it was really fun to have so many people standing around to watch. My brakes decided to be really squeaky and loud. I think it was due to the dryness of the course. I'll need to put some new pads in. Probably switch out the ones that came on the bike and put one metal and one resin pad in, this should help reduce the SQUEALING. I'm sure everyone heard me coming!!

Thanks to the race promoters for a well run event and great job to all the racers who were out giving it their all. It's awesome to see such a huge turnout for these local events! Also a huge props to Mr. Anderson for the astute technical support and to ALL of my awesome sponsors; Hidden Bay Sports, Revolution Cycle and Ski, Cannondale, Bell Helmets, Honey Stinger, Michelin, Diadora, Zeal Optics, Maplelag Resort, Ergon, White Lighting and Ekho Heart Rate Monitors!

Green Tomatoes

The tomatoes are coming in very nicely.

Racing this weekend should be a gas down on the bluffs of the Mississippi River near Red Wing. The summer is just flying by. National Championships next week in Sol Vista, CO!! We've decided to hang out in the Mtn's for a week afterward's so it'll be nice to get out of dodge and enjoy some Rocky Mtn Single Track! I have a pretty intense week of riding the week after Nationals so it'll be nice to train on some different terrain and trails!

Have a great weekend!

WORS Fire Cracker Explosion

A huge woman's field on Sunday!

Thomas Warner sent me these great shots that he captured yesterday, Thanks Tom!

I felt great off the line, a rider from Ontario took the lead and then around the next turn I went to the front. I didn't think it was an attack, just going to the front. I did a few turns on the pedals and looked back to see at least 10 bike lengths to the group! Hmmm, not what I was expecting. What is someone to do when they have the lead, GOOOOOOOO!! So I did. I went with it. Once in the single track I caught up with the tail end of the Men's Elite field on the first rocky technical descent, out of the drainage ditch and back up onto the trail I was able to get around a few of them, they were kind to let me go by because I had to sort of wait up for them and by that time the other elite women were on me. Throughout the first lap I gained a minute on the group and was feeling good, snappy and ready to take on the next two laps. Lap two turned out to be a whole different story, I totally imploded. I was slowing down and finding myself off the trail at times and just not riding very well. And I felt really thirsty! Abigail Strigel caught up with me mid 2nd lap and she was riding really smooth and fast! I had totally lost the ability to motor and it was sort of frustrating. I was hoping for a rest and tried to stick on her wheel for a bit to take in some fluids and take a jell but adventually she crept away and dropped me. Somehow I made it around lap 2 in 2nd place and about the same place that Abigale caught me the Ontario rider caught me and passed me on lap 3. To be honest I was surprised the whole field didn't go marching around me with the technique I was using. I just felt weird.
There were a few new sections to the race course that added to an already great race course. Good work CORBA crew! This rock garden proved to be a good crowd pleaser!
Some great berms have been added throughout the course, this is the start to the switch back descent into the rock garden shown in the photo above.

So a little bummed with the result but that's racing. You have good days, bad days, great days and then really crappy days. I wouldn't mark it as a crappy day, just not a good day. I've been training a ton trying to catch up on my training and I guess if you look at the plan on paper I'm in the training block that I am usually in in April, not July. I've seen huge improvements on my set courses that I train on and I've felt really good about that all week so I was hoping for great things this past weekend. The competition is strong so any one thing can change a result. Did I go off too hard? Maybe, but I probably would have ended up with the same result due to the high volume of training and just not feeling 100% recovered, not enough rest, not enough hydration? There are so many factors that can play into the out come. Hmmmm.... to summ it up it was a great day to be on the bike at a really great race with good people all around, excellent competition, and good watermelon!

Happy 4th on the 5th

The strawberries are getting smaller and less each day but the black berries are getting underway!

A calm summer night on the Mississippi.

Anderson got fit on his new road bike Thursday. Mike has great attention to detail and helped Anderson with his new road shoes. With the new seat position and cleat position it was determined that his power has increased by 37 watts...:)

Some bike racing action today on the off road scene in WI!

State Crit Championships and baby skunk

Great shot by KT

A hard day in the saddle at the State Crit. I had a good time covering breaks and attacks, I made a lot of attempts to get away, they were never successful because the wind was gusting at 30mph on the stretch I tried to hammer and there were 6 or so Flanders riders ready to match any move I made. I was having a blast until the last lap which seemed really sketchy. I think after thinking about it the tactics to box me in is what scared me the most and I was just trying to ride a clean race. Tactics are tactics I understand that, so that's racing against the power house teams and a lot of crit specialists on your own.

The Birchwood girls were strong too! Good Job! Lake George in the back ground. A really good course and fun to have the event take place with a festival in St. Cloud. Good work Grandstay Crew!

this photo and the one above by John Broman

I rode the kid's race with my neighbor Anika! She was telling me stories about a cat she saw in her yard!

Thanks to all the locals that were cheering me on! It was a lot of fun to have so many people encouraging me and yelling my name and it was great to catch up with so many you. THANKS!

After the race I had to get in a two hour ride to finish up the week of training. We headed home to grab some lunch and the MTB's. We ran into Crash down at Plum Creek and we were doing the loops out there. On the gravel climb by the fire station I was leading and out of no where I screamed and came to a complete stop. Anderson thought I saw a snake and said "what is it now"? Then he saw what I saw. A baby skunk with it's tail up and it's bung hole ready to shoot stuff right at us. Crash was still on his bike and rode by while this was all happening and if I hadn't screamed go Jim go I think he would have been sprayed! The skunk sprayed the area pretty well as it was chasing Jim (Crash) as he was hammering up the climb....Finally the little skunk ran off into the woods and Anderson and I hammered up the climb to find Jim laughing up by the fire station! Crazy.

Roadie Wanna Be!

Hitting up the State Road Race at 11 a.m. today. I'm sure I'll have a good story once I'm done. I hope to stay upright throughout the 40 minutes around Tech High School here in St. Cloud. It's nice to be able to ride to the race. The winds are really whipping @ 16 mph, the gusts seem higher.

Here we goooo! Weeeee...